#the tailies had it tough

[ljones41]

Ana Lucia - the thing with Ana Lucia is she could have been a great character had she just been written a little differently and possibly played by a different actress. I understand what they were trying to do with her character, presenting her as the tough, show-no-emotion leader of the Tailies, extreme because she has to be, hard and violent because of trauma. But she just comes across as psychotic and unhinged most of the time. Even her backstory does little to endear her, as we see her execute a man in cold blood. She does improve somewhat towards the end of her run, before she is unceremoniously killed off but overall, I wish her character had been handled better.

If she had been more feminine . . . and white. Is that it?

Your opinion of the best and worst Lost characters?

Best

Juliet Burke - one of the best characters in existence, Juliet is nuanced, layered, mutlifaceted and utterly endearing. I love watching her journey from abused wife to certified badass. Her moral ambiguity over the course of Season 3 is utterly fascinating, as is her eventual joining of the Losties and then her and Sawyer’s arc in Season 5 where they finally find home and become co-leaders. She is at once guarded, open, compassionate, cold, resilient, soft, kind, hard, undecided and steadfast. She’s made up almost entirely of contradictions until you really get to know her character and the amazing person she is. I only wish she had received a better ending.

*sits back and waits for my anti-juliet anon to surface and start talking about how she’s smug and arrogant*

James “Sawyer” Ford - such an incredible character with one of the best arcs on the entire show. Watching him go from a broken, self-loathing, self-sabotaging conman to a settled, confident, self-accepting leader and partner was one of the most amazing things on the show. I’ve never seen a character hate themselves more than James Ford hated himself but he overcomes this, grows and evolves, learns that he is worth loving and just evolves into this incredible man. I love him so much and his journey is so endearing.

Ben Linus - one of the best Chessmasters I’ve ever come across, Ben is always five steps ahead of everyone, sometimes ten steps on a good day. He has a tragic backstory which is never used an excuse for his behaviour, a complex and multi-faceted personality, he is a master manipulator, an arrogant power-hungry leader, a broken, self-loathing man, all at once. He is such a great character, such an amazing villain, such an interesting and untrustworthy ally. Honestly one of my favourite characters in the entire series.

Hugo “Hurley” Reyes - Hurley is one of those characters for whom the term precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure is completely fitting. Hurley is a pure ray of sunshine on a show where characters are often morally ambiguous or just flat-out evil. He is optimistic and compassionate and he has an uncanny ability to know what people need in the moment, to read situations and give people hope, such as when he builds the golf course to help everyone relax. He was the perfect Candidate to become keeper of the Island.

Worst

Charlie Pace - Charlie is such an arrogant, annoying, useless little prick. He acts entitled to Claire’s feelings and assumes the role of father in Aaron’s life, without Claire’s consent or blessing. He’s a rude prick to pretty much everyone, in particular Hurley and Locke. He gets insanely obsessed with both Claire and Aaron, to terrifying degrees. And he’s rarely called on his bad behaviour and Claire ends up returning to him despite him putting both her and Aaron in danger. Charlie’s only shining moment is the Not Penny’s Boat message. Aside from that, he’s just useless.

Ana Lucia - the thing with Ana Lucia is she could have been a great character had she just been written a little differently and possibly played by a different actress. I understand what they were trying to do with her character, presenting her as the tough, show-no-emotion leader of the Tailies, extreme because she has to be, hard and violent because of trauma. But she just comes across as psychotic and unhinged most of the time. Even her backstory does little to endear her, as we see her execute a man in cold blood. She does improve somewhat towards the end of her run, before she is unceremoniously killed off but overall, I wish her character had been handled better.

John Locke - I understand why people like John, I even liked him initially. But with more re-watches I just found Locke more and more pathetic with every turn. His extreme over-zealousness regarding the Island comes across as cult-ish and somewhat alarming, the fact that he’s constantly taking matters into his own hands without considering the consequences to other people is horrible (such as when he blows up the sub or sabotages the distress signal), he’s never right about anything, which just make his actions come across as desperate and ridiculous and he never appreciates what he has, always reaching for what he doesn’t. I just can’t with him.

[girlinthefireplace16]

Lost Rewatch - 2x07 The Other 48 Days

“You've been waiting forty days to talk?

You waited forty days to cry”

[another-place-to-fall]

Defending the women of LOST/Sexism in LOST

People say they don’t like Kate Austen because she’s “annoying” “can’t choose between Jack and Sawyer” “always wants to join every single mission”. Kate has way bigger things to worry about than sorting out her romantic feelings. Yes, she is developing feelings for both Jack and Sawyer, but she doesn’t have time to figure them out while trying to survive on the island. And the fact that people don’t like her because of the whole “I’m coming with you” thing is a little ridiculous, because they’re hating Kate for wanting to protect her friends and do whatever she can to help. You know who else does that? Jack. But plenty of people love him for those very same reasons. Yeah, a lot of Kate’s character was centered around the love triangle, but that isn’t the character’s fault, it the writers’s.

Then there’s Claire Littleton. People always complain about her “my baby!” thing, but... she only actually says that a few times, AND, if your child was taken from you or you thought your child was going to be hurt, wouldn't you be worried out of your mind? Wouldn’t you want to do anything to help them? People also criticize Claire for her entire Season 6 arc. She was alone, on the island, thinking everyone had abandoned her, with only the MIB for company. She was also tortured by the temple Others, who she thought had taken her child. Claire was a single mother who just wanted to keep her son safe, give her a break. 

Sun-Hwa Kwon is a character who actually doesn’t receive that much hate, but there is still the fact that people don’t like her because she left Ji Yeon to go back to the island for Jin. Here’s the thing: Sun had no way of knowing what was would happen on the island. She had no way of knowing that Jin had time traveled to the past, and she had no way of knowing what would happen with the MIB/Locke. She thought that she would be able to go to the island, bring Jin and the others back, and the two of them would reunite with Ji Yeon. And then in the submarine incident, Sun didn't want Jin to stay. She wanted him to live and take care of Ji Yeon. It was Jin who made the decision to die with her, not Sun.

Shannon Rutherford is a very unlikable character. Even I don’t enjoy her character, or Boone, and that is a view shared by many other people in the fandom. Many people call her selfish, spoiled, and just plain rude. And she was all of those things, but that wasn’t her entire character. Remember, they had all just been through a plane crash, landed on an island with no chance of rescue. Also, friendly reminder that she was only 20 years old. She was scared, and her way of coping with that was to try to do something normal. Let’s not forget, in Pilot, Part 2, she volunteered to go on the mission to fix the transceiver. She was constantly feeling useless, and it didn’t help that other characters, especially Boone, were constantly putting her down and mocking her. When she started to see Walt, she genuinely made an attempt to help him, even though she wasn’t sure if he was even there. Her death was untimely, and I wished we had gotten to see her grow more as a person. Also, her death was used for shock value and to further Sayid’s character development.

And now, one of the most hated characters of LOST, Ana Lucia Cortez. Now, while the characters I mentioned above were shit on and criticized, Ana Lucia was absolutely hated by the fandom. People hated her attitude, her toughness, her dislike of most of the people around her, and the fact that she killed Shannon (who, by the way, was just as disliked by many Ana Lucia haters). You know who else has a similar attitude? Who has that same toughness and dislike of people? Who else killed someone? That would be Sawyer, a fan-favorite, white male character who is beloved by the fandom. Now, for the last point, what I am comparing here is Ana Lucia killing Shannon to Sawyer killing the man he thought was Frank Sawyer in Australia, right before flight 815. Ana Lucia killed Shannon because she was trying to protect the people she was leading (including Sawyer!) from who she thought was the Others, and killing Shannon was an accident. Sawyer killed the man completely on purpose and out of revenge. Oh, and it wasn’t even the right person. Yes, I am aware of the man Ana killed long before flight 815 out of revenge, but if we can take her very small amount of character development, in which she refused to kill Henry Gale, a known Other at that point. Whereas Sawyer was still willing to kill a bunch of people in Season 6, the end of his character arc. And yet, Sawyer is still in most people’s top five characters lists (just to be clear, I do not hate Sawyer at all, and this is not anti Sawyer but pro Ana Lucia). You may argue that people love Sawyer because of his character development, which I do agree with. However, Ana Lucia was never given the chance to have Sawyer-like character development because she was killed off in the same season that she was introduced in. She wasn’t even allowed to be in the church in the flash-sideways, and she didn’t get to “move on.” Ana Lucia deserved way better than the death for shock value that she got.

Next up on the list is Juliet Burke. She, like Sun, also isn’t the target of a lot of hate, but there are still things that need defending. The first thing is, of course, her sudden change of mind when it came to detonating the hydrogen bomb in Season 5. Yes, it was selfish of her to endanger everyone on the island just because of the way Sawyer looked at Kate. But if the plan did actually work, which she thought it would, that meant she would lose everything she had gained over the past few years, including Sawyer. Juliet is incredibly kind and feminine while also being badass at the same time, which is amazing because you don’t usually see those two traits coinciding (usually a badass character isn’t very feminine and a “traditionally feminine” character isn’t a good fighter). As for all of her motives in Season 3, Juliet was trapped on the island for three years. All she wanted to do was leave and go home to her sister. Yes, she manipulated Sun, but right after that, she made things right by helping Jack make a plan to stop the Others. Her death was heroic, and I’m glad she was finally able to be happy in the flash-sideways. (I am declining to mention her whole relationship with Goodwin and all the drama with Ben, although I might dive into that in another post). 

Now, the character Rose Nadler has almost nothing that needs to be defended. She is a constant wise voice of reason who isn’t concerned with the drama of the rest of the survivors. Her relationship with her husband Bernard is very sweet, but she doesn’t let that stop her from doing the smart thing (like stopping his SOS sign idea). Not only that, but Rose has one of the best (and most meta) lines on the show: “If you say live together, die alone to me, Jack, I’m going to punch you in the face.”

Another character who doesn't need much defending is Charlotte Lewis, but not for the same reason as Rose. Charlotte was done dirty by the writers. Of the science team, she is the least fleshed out and explored. She had a single flashback and a little bit of exposition information from Ben, but that’s pretty much it. Every significant thing she did was for the sake of other characters. She had a fake-out death so Ben would reveal that he had a spy on the boat. She was taken to the Barracks so that members of Jack’s group would have a reason to go there. Her going to the Barracks was also an excuse to get Miles and Kate there. And she only died/was dying for shock value, to up the stakes of the time flashes, to provide more questions to the characters and the audience, and to further Daniel’s character development. In the flash-sideways, all she did was go on a date with Sawyer and further his character development. She didn't get to go to the church and move on. Daniel and Miles, the other members of her team, on the other hands were given compelling backstories and centric episodes.

Penelope Widmore is similar to Charlotte in that there isn’t much to defend because she doesn’t do much that affects the plot. Nearly everything she does is about Desmond, and the writers barely even gave her a personality. I’m sure Penny was an actually interesting person, if they had bothered her to give her any storyline that didn't involve her love interest.

Danielle Rousseau is a character that kind of slides in and out of the story as needed. Now, Danielle isn’t the subject of a lot of criticism just because she isn’t very focused on, but from what I have seen, here’s what I have to say: Danielle was alone on the island for sixteen years. And for sixteen years, she had to live with the knowledge that she was forced to kill the man she loved and her team. Not to mention the fact that her daughter, Alex, was taken away from her when she was just a week old. Can you blame Danielle for being paranoid? Her death was not a fair end to the character, and it was only used to kill off Danielle quickly and provide shock value.

Her daughter, Alex Rousseau, is similar to Charlotte and Penny in that she doesn’t need to be defended because everything she does is to affect other characters. In this case, those characters are Ben and Danielle (especially Ben in the later seasons). Danielle’s entire character is centered around the fact that she lost Alex and has been searching for her, and Ben’s motivations after Season 4 are largely motivated by Alex’s death. She herself doesn’t have much of a character arc, and her death was only to provide shock value and further Ben’s character development.

Another character that falls into the category of not having much to defend because every action is for someone else is Libby Smith. Once the tailies and the main survivors joined together, she was almost immediately shoved in a relationship with Hurley. The only things we knew about her backstory were that her husband died, she was a clinical psychologist, she was in the same mental hospital as Hurley, and she gave Desmond a boat. That’s it. She didn’t have a centric episode, and she only appeared in other people’s flashbacks. Her death was only to provide shock value and further Hurley’s character development, as well to show that Michael betrayed the survivors. 

Notice how many of these women died for shock value and/or to further a man’s character development? Notice how many of these women are disliked for traits that other characters are loved for? Notice how many of them barely exist as their own character without a man? I love LOST, I really do, but their treatment of female characters needed a lot of improvement.

[ljones41]

"LOST" RETROSPECT: (2.07) "The Other 48 Days"

"LOST" RETROSPECT: (2.07) "The Other 48 Days" I cannot deny that "LOST" will always be one of my top twenty (20) favorite television series of all time. Nor can I deny that despite my feelings about it, the writing had been flawed on many occasions. If there is an episode that truly reflected my positive feelings about the series, it is the Season Two episode called (2.07) "The Other 48 Days".

This episode is probably my TOP favorite one in the entire series. Before "The Other 48 Days" aired, I had been watching"LOST" for at least a little over a month. In fact, (2.02) "Adrift" was the very first episode I had ever watch. Although I did watch most of the episodes that aired between "Adrift" and "The Other 48 Days", I found it difficult to feel the series' magic. I was about to give up on the series for good when "The Other 48 Days" aired in late November 2005. Not only did I enjoy the episode, I became a permanent fan of the series. The plot for "The Other 48 Days" proved to be very simple. It chronicled those first forty-eight days that the Tail Section survivors (the Tailies) of Oceanic Flight 815 experienced on the island. Most of the episode focused upon the minutes following the plane crash, to the Tailies' encounter with Fuselage survivors Jin Kwon, Michael Dawson and James "Sawyer" Ford (which happened at the end of "Adrift"). The remaining few minutes of the episode is basically a montage of the Tailies and the three Fuselage survivors experiences between (2.03) "Orientation" and (2.06) "Abandoned", when one of the Tailies accidentally shot and killed series regular character Shannon Rutherford. If one thought that the experiences of the Fuselage Section survivors were traumatic, what they had experienced was a piece of cake in compare to the Tail Section survivors. Unlike the Fuselage passengers, the Tailies had no medical doctor/surgeon, a wanted convict with a talent for tracking, a "Great White Hunter", a son of a South Korean fisherman, the fisherman's daughter-in-law with a talent for botany, a construction worker, or a former member with the Iraqi Republican Guard with a talent for communications. Instead, the Tail Section survivors had a former LAPD cop, a Nigerian warlord-turned-drug runner-turned-priest, a flight attendant, a dentist and clinical psychologist. Hmmmm. From my point of view, only the cop and the former warlord proved to be potential leaders for this group of survivors. Without a medical doctor, the Tailies had to witnessed the deaths of those survivors who had been seriously injured. They also lacked supplies, luggage and some foodstuffs from the plane's Fuselage section. Both groups were infiltrated by men spying on behalf of the island's long time inhabitants known as "the Others". Because the Tailies' beach camp was situated not far from the Others' complex, they were harassed and terrorized by the island inhabitants from Day One, to that Forty-Eighth day that marked Shannon's death. In fact, the Others managed to kidnap a total of twelve survivors from the Tailies' camp on Days One and Twelve. On that last 48th day, they finally snatched the flight attendant. The only Fuselage survivor that ended up kidnapped was Claire Littleton. Unlike the snatched Tailies, Claire only spent eleven days as one of the Others' captive during those 48 days. Compare to the Fuselage survivors, the Tail Section survivors came close to experiencing their own version of "Lord of the Flies". Was there anything about "The Other 48 Days" that I did not like? I did not care much for that montage that marked the last three days that the Tailies spent with Michael, Sawyer and Jin. It seemed like a waste of air time. But I suspect that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse needed some kind of filler leading to that moment from “Abandoned”, when Shannon was shot. I could complain that "LOST" never fully explained why the Others snatched some of the Tail Section survivors in the first place. But that is not the fault of this particular episode's writing, considering that the series is a serial drama. My biggest complaint about "The Other 48 Days" is that the Tail Section survivors' story was told in one episode. I truly regret this. In some ways, I found their story a lot more fascinating than the experiences of the Fuselage survivors during that first month-and-a-half. Between the deaths of the injured passengers, the kidnappings by the Others, the power struggles and paranoia between the survivors, the consequences of an Other's spy in their midst, brief contact with a Fuselage survivor via a short-wave radio and God knows what . . . the Tailies' story could have provided an interesting contrast to the Fuselage survivors during the series' first season.

The character of Ana-Lucia Cortez was first introduced to "LOST" viewers in the Season One finale, (1.23) "Exodus, Part 1", when she flirted with lead character Dr. Jack Shephard at an airport bar in Sydney. By the time the viewers saw her again, she had transformed into a hardened and brusque leader, lacking in any patience with the likes of Michael, Sawyer and Jin; and struggling to stay a step ahead of the Others' harassment. Many of the series' fans grew to hate her, complaining of her character's tough exterior. At the same time, they praised the Mr. Eko character, who proved to be the former Nigerian warlord-turned-priest, for being such a badass in their eyes. I had forgotten that despite the advent of civil rights regarding race and gender, we still live in a very prejudiced society. Apparently, it was okay for a man like Mr. Eko to be tough, but not a woman. Especially not a woman in a leader position. A woman can be tough like Kate Austen or Juliet Burke, as long as they maintain a superficial projection of femininity and find themselves stuck in a love story or mother role. I adored Ana-Lucia from the moment when she first punched Sawyer in (2.04) "Everybody Loves Hugo". And even after another four seasons, she has remained one of my favorite characters in the series. Before "LOST", I had viewed Michelle Rodriguez as a mediocre actress. I still cannot regard her as a great actress, but her portrayal of the stress-ridden Ana-Lucia had developed her into a very good one. And it took two scenes - one of Ana-Lucia's confrontation with the Others' spy and her emotional breakdown in Mr. Eko's arms - that made me realize that Rodriguez had come far as an actress in the five-to-six episodes she had appeared on "LOST" by "The Other 48 Days".  To this day, I consider Ana-Lucia Cortez to be her best role.  Another performer that truly caught my eye was Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who portrayed the fascinating Mr. Eko. To be honest, I first noticed Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the 2001 movie, "THE MUMMY RETURNS" and 2002's "THE BOURNE IDENTITY". He was memorable in both movies and very entertaining. But his portrayal of Mr. Eko proved to be more complex. Yes, he could be a frightening badass. But at the same time, Akinnuoye-Agbaje injected a great deal of pathos and compassion into his performance, allowing his Mr. Eko to become a more complex character than the ones I have seen him in past movies before his stint on “LOST”. I feel that Cynthia Watros had received a raw deal during her time on "LOST". Thanks to her performance as clinical-psychologist Elizabeth "Libby" Smith, she presented a complex woman behind a superficially likable woman. I am not saying that Libby was an unlikable woman. But considering that she had encouraged Ana-Lucia to do something about a survivor named Nathan, whom they suspected of being an Others spy; and in the next episode, dumped all of the blame surrounding Nathan's death on Ana; I found myself wondering about her true nature. I like to view "The Other 48 Days" and the following episode, (2.08) "Collision" as some of Watros' finest work on the series. Fortunately for Sam Anderson, he got a chance to stretch his stuff in more episode. He certainly did an excellent job as Bernard Nadler, the dentist who happened to be married to one of the Fuselage's survivors. Kimberly Joseph was first introduced as flight attendant Cindy Chandler in the series' early Season One episodes. Her character was eventually kidnapped by the Others just before Shannon's death in "Abandoned". As one can see, I do not have much to say about Cindy. Joseph gave a solid performance in the episode. In fact, most of her performances have solid throughout the series' run. I have been aware of Brett Cullen since I first saw him in the television Western, "THE YOUNG RIDERS". I have seen him in many television and movie roles over the years - especially during the first two seasons of "PERSONS OF INTEREST". But I feel that Goodwin Stanhope might be one of the best roles in his career. I was especially impressed by his screen chemistry with Michelle Rodriguez, making his relationship with Ana-Lucia on of the most interesting during the series' run. What else can I say about "The Other 48 Days"? It is a dark and fascinating television episode marked by an epic story line about survival, trust and paranoia, thanks to a superb script written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It also features first-rate direction from Eric Laneuville, and some excellent performances - especially from Michelle Rodriguez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Brett Cullen. After my latest viewing of the episode, I still wish the Tail Section survivors’ story had been stretched over more episodes. 

[kangaracha]

Interesting thoughts! Now we don’t know for sure that she 100% betrayed him when she left. We just know she left and he hated her for it. I hope we get to see more out of her development wise; maybe she’s playing the long game for Andre up there and didn’t tell him because he didn’t think she could do it. Either way I’m so happy to have found someone to talk to about Snowpiercer

I don’t think she’s playing any kind of long game except her own survival honestly - Zarah’s not really a mover and shaker, she doesn’t really seem to ever be thinking about how she can act for the good of the group, just for the good of herself. I went back and rewatched the scene where she leaves and it really plays out as her leaving for her own health/safety - not thinking about Andre, or the tail as the cohesive community we’ve seen them acting as, just about herself. She even takes a bag of clothes and stuff with her, which is pretty selfish for that kind of life, I mean there’s four hundred people back there, living on the scraps and waste of a society with limited resources and not much waste that they don’t reuse elsewhere, in the coldest and darkest part of the train.....if she was a part of the community, she’d have left that stuff there. i’m just sayin.

She just doesn’t think or act like a Tailie, not even back then. They’re tight-knit, they’re loyal to each other, and it’s shown even in that scene at whatever year that was (second year? can’t remember wow) that they’ve built a resentment against the rest of the train and anyone who ‘sells out’ to go up there. Zarah just doesn’t have the guts to live in the tail, I would wager that like Miles, such a ‘soft’ character only survived back there because she had Andre to make sure she wasn’t like, eaten (Miles also had Josie but that’s not what we’re talking about now). She was probably majorly depressed, she’s been shown to be firmly of the belief that it would have been a better idea for them to have gone home and died with their family than try to board the train....so Andre has dragged her along kicking and screaming this whole way, including through two years of her being bitter because she’d rather have died in the frost than lived through literal hell on this train, and when she sees a light at the end of the tunnel which isn’t ‘die a horrible death and possibly be eaten by my friends’ she fucking takes it and doesn’t look back.

I don’t think even third class satisfied her either, I think Zarah is just very bitter and world-weary, and she and Andre have grown very much apart while on the train - he’s a leader in the tail, he’s the one that dealt with the cannibals, i mean. he’s tough, he’s smart, he’s selfless and fiercly loyal to the tail and their cause, completely sold on this revolution. He’s sat back there in the dark for years and chewed on this memory of her packing up and leaving them and him, if any of their contacts uptrain that they’ve made after the year 3 revolution have reached out to her in later years, she hasn’t been brave enough to reach out in return.

 Zarah’s just hanging on to life by a thread, she’s with this guy she doesn’t really love, packed into the chains which is honestly just the tail with more stuff, hiding under the coattails of shaun and miss audrey. which is a fine and smart way to live your life on snowpiercer, if i was Zarah I can’t say i would do anything different, but it is incredibly selfish when you compare her to the way the tailies literally throw their lives down so that the rest of their people might have a shot at a better life. Maybe if she’d left after that first revolution, when they started to realise they needed contacts uptrain, she’d have served a similar role to astrid, but i don’t think she has the fortitude to have gone through it if they’d called on her even if so.

TL;DR? Zarah’s living to live. Andre’s living to die. Sorry that this is so long lmao

[ladystylestores]

Review: Snowpiercer starts slow and builds to intense cliffhanger finale

Daveed Diggs co-stars as Andre Layton, with Jennifer Connelly as Melanie Cavill.

The titular Snowpiercer is a giant train carrying the survivors of a climate apocalypse.

YouTube/TNT

Melanie is the Voice of the Train.

YouTube/TNT

Sending messages through pneumatic tubes!

YouTube/TNT

Layton is asked to investigate a murder.

YouTube/TNT

The first-class passengers live in luxury.

YouTube/TNT

Indoctrinating kids into the train’s social hierarchy starts early.

YouTube/TNT

The cold can be deadly.

YouTube/TNT

Melanie checks in with the “nightclub” car.

YouTube/TNT

Fighting for freedom.

YouTube/TNT

A shadowy figure in the snow flurries.

YouTube/TNT

The train goes on. And on.

YouTube/TNT

Snowpiercer debuted Sunday night on TNT, and Deadline reports more than 3 million viewers tuned in, making it the cable network’s best showing since its adaptation of The Alienist in 2018. Whether those viewers will stick around for all 10 episodes of this first season remains to be seen. This is one of those slow-burn shows that takes a while to build, which could try viewers’ patience. But that patience is rewarded when everything kicks into high gear for the final few episodes, ending on one last cliffhanger twist.

(Mild spoilers below, but no major reveals.)

Snowpiercer is essentially a reboot of the critically acclaimed 2013 film by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), fleshed out into a full-length series. Bong’s film itself was an adaptation of a 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, about remnants of humanity trying to survive an ice age inside a 1,001-car train. The train is run by a reclusive transportation magnate named Mr. Wilford, who has separated the passengers according to class and has a nefarious plan to ensure life on the train remains sustainable.

The film starred Chris Evans as revolutionary leader Curtis, with Tilda Swinton as second-in-command Minister Mason. Bong shot much of it on a specially constructed set: a train mounted on a giant gyroscopic gimbal, the better to mimic the movements of an actual train. Snowpiercer earned critical raves and went on to gross $86 million worldwide against a roughly $40 million production budget.

TNT’s series is set seven years after the climate catastrophe that produced the ice age. Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, Blindspotting) plays Andre Layton, a prisoner at the tail end of the train who gets caught up in a revolutionary struggle against the imposed social hierarchy abroad Snowpiercer. Jennifer Connelly (Alita: Battle Angel) co-stars as first-class passenger Melanie Cavill, who is the Voice of the Train, responsible for daily public announcements and the train’s smooth operation (both mechanically and socially). The show’s large ensemble cast also includes Alison Wright (The Americans, Castle Rock) as Lilah Anderson, who works in the train’s spa, and Mickey Sumner (The Borgias, and daughter of musician Sting) as brakeman Bess Till, whose recent move to second class to be with her romantic partner is threatened when she starts to question the train’s status quo.

Bong Joon-ho’s film is a juggernaut of almost nonstop action, as the lowest-class passengers revolt and fight their way to the head of the train, with Curtis leading the way. The TV adaptation necessarily takes a more leisurely approach, given S1’s 10 episodes, fleshing out the details of life aboard the train, along with bits of expository backstory. And it introduces an onboard mystery: Layton is tapped to investigate a brutal murder that just might be the work of a serial killer—like a dystopian version of Murder on the Orient Express.

A new day dawns abroad Snowpiercer.

Rise and shine!

YouTube/TNT

Work is one of Mr. Wilford’s three principles (along with honor and order).

YouTube/TNT

Onboard evening entertainment.

YouTube/TNT

Alison Wright plays Lilah Anderson, who has higher aspirations

YouTube/TNT

Meanwhile, rebellion is brewing.

YouTube/TNT

Preparing for an attack.

YouTube/TNT

Mickey Sumner plays Bess Till, a brakeman and part of the train’s security force.

YouTube/TNT

Layton finds his inner rebel.

A scene of carnage.

YouTube/TNT

I enjoyed how the series spent time on many of the day-to-day details of life aboard Snowpiercer in all the classes, from dealing with energy limitations and unexpected constraints on food sources to the black-market bartering and drug trade and various interpersonal conflicts among passengers. So-called “Tailies”—the unticketed refugees in the tail of the train—are punished for insubordination by having an arm stuck through a portal into the cold outside until it freezes solid and is shattered off. There’s also a prison car whose occupants are kept in suspension, although the drug used to maintain that state has some serious side effects.

It’s the cast that ultimately makes Snowpiercer work, most notably Jennifer Connelly as Melanie, whose brisk, professional, tightly controlled veneer is gradually stripped away to reveal a woman haunted by personal loss and the hard decisions she’s had to make to keep the train running for seven years. Snowpiercer presents one continuous Trolley Problem, where those in charge must regularly consider sacrificing a few—sometimes quite a few—lives to save everyone else. Needless to say, the first-class passengers rarely have to make those sacrifices.

Equally compelling is Wright’s scheming, manipulative Lilah, who has an unhealthy obsession with the mythic Mr. Wilford and a chilling ruthlessness when it comes to maintaining order. She would like nothing more than to replace Melanie as the Voice of the Train, and she isn’t above exploiting the building unrest to achieve that goal. Summer brings just the right blend of toughness and vulnerability to Bess Till. Diggs has a tougher job making Layton likeable; he’s a bit preachy and self-righteous. But his affection for a young boy named Miles (Jaylin Fletcher), and Miles’ foster mother Josie (Katie McGuinness), softens the character considerably.

The show has a few cons. The obligatory voiceovers before each episode can get annoying, and the dialogue is a bit hackneyed in places. Plus, the murder-mystery subplot isn’t particularly compelling and is mostly an excuse to get Layton out of the tail so he can do a bit of reconnaissance on behalf of the brewing rebellion.

On the whole, however, this is a solid, entertaining series that sets the stage for an even stronger second season. TNT greenlighted a second season before the pilot premiered, hence the cliffhanger finale, although it might be a while before we can continue the story. Production of S2 began last October, and principal photography was nearly complete when the production was forced to shut down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New episodes of Snowpiercer will air Sunday nights at 9pm ET on TNT.

Listing image by TNT

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[sulietsexual]

Your opinion of the best and worst Lost characters?

Best

Juliet Burke - one of the best characters in existence, Juliet is nuanced, layered, mutlifaceted and utterly endearing. I love watching her journey from abused wife to certified badass. Her moral ambiguity over the course of Season 3 is utterly fascinating, as is her eventual joining of the Losties and then her and Sawyer’s arc in Season 5 where they finally find home and become co-leaders. She is at once guarded, open, compassionate, cold, resilient, soft, kind, hard, undecided and steadfast. She’s made up almost entirely of contradictions until you really get to know her character and the amazing person she is. I only wish she had received a better ending.

*sits back and waits for my anti-juliet anon to surface and start talking about how she’s smug and arrogant*

James “Sawyer” Ford - such an incredible character with one of the best arcs on the entire show. Watching him go from a broken, self-loathing, self-sabotaging conman to a settled, confident, self-accepting leader and partner was one of the most amazing things on the show. I’ve never seen a character hate themselves more than James Ford hated himself but he overcomes this, grows and evolves, learns that he is worth loving and just evolves into this incredible man. I love him so much and his journey is so endearing.

Ben Linus - one of the best Chessmasters I’ve ever come across, Ben is always five steps ahead of everyone, sometimes ten steps on a good day. He has a tragic backstory which is never used an excuse for his behaviour, a complex and multi-faceted personality, he is a master manipulator, an arrogant power-hungry leader, a broken, self-loathing man, all at once. He is such a great character, such an amazing villain, such an interesting and untrustworthy ally. Honestly one of my favourite characters in the entire series.

Hugo “Hurley” Reyes - Hurley is one of those characters for whom the term precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure is completely fitting. Hurley is a pure ray of sunshine on a show where characters are often morally ambiguous or just flat-out evil. He is optimistic and compassionate and he has an uncanny ability to know what people need in the moment, to read situations and give people hope, such as when he builds the golf course to help everyone relax. He was the perfect Candidate to become keeper of the Island.

Worst

Charlie Pace - Charlie is such an arrogant, annoying, useless little prick. He acts entitled to Claire’s feelings and assumes the role of father in Aaron’s life, without Claire’s consent or blessing. He’s a rude prick to pretty much everyone, in particular Hurley and Locke. He gets insanely obsessed with both Claire and Aaron, to terrifying degrees. And he’s rarely called on his bad behaviour and Claire ends up returning to him despite him putting both her and Aaron in danger. Charlie’s only shining moment is the Not Penny’s Boat message. Aside from that, he’s just useless.

Ana Lucia - the thing with Ana Lucia is she could have been a great character had she just been written a little differently and possibly played by a different actress. I understand what they were trying to do with her character, presenting her as the tough, show-no-emotion leader of the Tailies, extreme because she has to be, hard and violent because of trauma. But she just comes across as psychotic and unhinged most of the time. Even her backstory does little to endear her, as we see her execute a man in cold blood. She does improve somewhat towards the end of her run, before she is unceremoniously killed off but overall, I wish her character had been handled better.

John Locke - I understand why people like John, I even liked him initially. But with more re-watches I just found Locke more and more pathetic with every turn. His extreme over-zealousness regarding the Island comes across as cult-ish and somewhat alarming, the fact that he’s constantly taking matters into his own hands without considering the consequences to other people is horrible (such as when he blows up the sub or sabotages the distress signal), he’s never right about anything, which just make his actions come across as desperate and ridiculous and he never appreciates what he has, always reaching for what he doesn’t. I just can’t with him.