palace of winds

Television Without Pity totally feels me re: the whole Charlie thing on Lost. And I don’t know, maybe people are totally over this because the show suddenly unexpectedly completely-without-precedent got wonderful, but I wouldn’t know, because true to my word I haven’t watched since the Charlie debacle.

Anyway, I was reading the American Idol recaps (because they’re freaking hilarious — way better than the actual show, though best when you’ve seen the show first) and decided I wanted to check out what they thought of my particular vote for worst-tv-moment-of-the-year (i.e. the Charlie thing):

“Jack and Kate coming across Charlie’s body, dangling from a noose, is a pretty freaky scene. Jack tries to support the body’s weight; Kate climbs a nearby tree and frantically cuts Charlie down. I must admit, when I saw this, I had that weird, self-contradictory set of emotions one has while watching a really great TV moment. I mean, I like Charlie, and have no desire to see Dominic Monaghan forced back to his life as a gigolo, but all the same, I was impressed by the balls of the Lost people to kill Charlie off, and that made the show kind of thrilling. . . .

[long bit about how Charlie is WAY WAY DEAD then freakishly saved by Jack]

. . . Look, you can make all the arguments you want about how Craphole Island itself saved Charlie or whatever, but the fact is, what could’ve been a totally shocking, awesome TV moment turned into a cop-out. Why does Charlie’s near-death need to turn into a redeeming moment for Jack, who has behaved like a moron throughout this entire episode? I certainly don’t want Charlie off the show — especially because my attractive lawyer wife spent this whole scene saying “Not Merry! You can’t kill Merry!” — but dude, Lost people: how much more interesting would the scene have been if, instead of using it as a chance for Jack to feel good about himself, you simply had Jack and Kate give up and leave Charlie for dead, only to have him gasp and sit up on his own? Spooky! Awesome! Not so hero-worshipping! Barring that, just kill the bastard. Fucking eagles will fly down from the sky and rescue him anyways.”

Now, admittedly, I hadn’t thought of that suggestion (for having him live — I thought of the ‘kill the bastard’ all on my own). I still would’ve been kind of ticked, but I’d also probably still be a viewer. This, this whole Jack-thing. Never going to get over it. Not even for Naveen Andrews. I’m sorry, Naveen. I adore you to pieces, but I just can’t.