It's the meta that annoys me. Announcing things cheerily and backtracking on them bothers me. Leads me to think we're not being led, that they're ambling around and plucking stuff out of their asses at every turn, without regard for the long term.

Exactly. I want the storyteller to know how the story ends. Or at least refrain from saying, "I'm just making it up as I go along." It's even okay if, after the fact, the storyteller admits he made it up as he went along. But while the story is incomplete, I don't want to know that nobody knows the ending.

If that makes any sense.

I want the storyteller to know how the story ends. Or at least refrain from saying, "I'm just making it up as I go along."

Huh. I'd much rather they honestly say "We're making it up as we go along" than pretend to have it all worked out in advance, which I know is a lie because that's just not how television shows get written. Making it up as they go along is par for the course in the medium they're working with, and it irritates me that they feel the need to hide that.

Making it up as they go along is par for the course in the medium they're working with, and it irritates me that they feel the need to hide that.

They seem to be making it up after they go along.

"Oh, let's do this in the next ep!" "Why?" "Don't know yet!" "OK!"

so, I saw some stuff at futoncritic that people may be interested in:

"Revelation," the third "Lost" recap episode, is due to broadcast on Wednesday, January 11 at 8:00/7:00c as a lead-in to its first fresh installment of 2005 ("The 23rd Psalm") at 9:00/8:00c.

WTF are they doing all these fucking recaps?

In other news, there will also be recap eps of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" around the same week.

My stepbrother told me that the S1 recap ep they showed before S2 started got him to stick around and watch it, and he's now hooked, even though he hasn't seen any eps from S1 yet (I'm loaning him my DVDs next time I head down to Dad's).

I saw an ad for the next new L&O:SVU - Malcolm David Kelley is guesting.

WTF are they doing all these fucking recaps?

Do they bother you?

They annoy me like those flashback episodes of Friends or Family Ties, because of the repackaging of old footage to make a "new" type episode. But I understand and sympathize with their goal of catching up new viewers, so I just choose not to watch them.

Except that this isn't airing in Lost's usual timeslot, and it's not taking the place of the regular episode -- it's in addition to it. As a way to bring in new viewers who might otherwise be intimidated by the extensive backstory, I think it's a great marketing idea.

Ah that doesn't bother me then. I get annoyed when it's in place of a new shiny episode.