We're three episodes into the new season of Lost, and it's been pretty satisfying.  Well, as satisfying as Lost ever is.

The producers are really good at making me hate The Others and keeping me curious as to what they're all about.  Of course, I'm always teetering on the verge of oh-who-gives-a-crap-ness, but the mystery gets bigger every episode.

And I don't buy the whole "we're the good guys" thing — seeing as how they're continually kidnapping and imprisoning/enslaving people.  The secrecy is one thing, but the kidnapping and the violence?  Maybe not.

One thing that I think is interesting was this discovery on Pink is the New Blog.  If you follow this link and scroll down a little, you can see Trent's recap and some pictures.  In those pictures, he does a side-by-side comparison of Mike (the male half of the pot-growing couple) and Zeke (the Other).  It would appear that they're the same person.  I am historically awful at figuring out mysteries within movies and TV shows.  It can be the most hackneyed, formulaic production ever, and I'll be guessing (wrongly) til the last minute. 

I just hope that this doesn't all culminate in some sort of mind experiment thing where you find out in the last episode that half of the series never even happened. 

One of the other new developments was that we finally met Paulo and Nikki .  Now, where did they come from?  They've been there all along, silly.  You know, one of those faceless survivors populating the island who only show up when they need extra manpower to dig a grave or launch a raft.  This is a bit disappointing, as I was expecting some sort of dramatic entrance — perhaps emerging from a cave after years of seclusion or a crashing off a wayward hang-glider.

In other news, I'm glad they clarified that The Others can communicate off the island.  At the beginning of the first episode of the season, I was raising an eyebrow when Juliette began giving Jack his life story.  Then, Ben started saying how Bush won the election (boo!) and the Red Sox won the World Series (yay!).  I really don't have anything particularly novel to say about this development, except that it makes the whole Others plot a lot more interesting.

Anyone else have any remarks about the new season to add to this unfocused, rambling post? 

Sometimes I just want to strangle Studio 60. I'm not going to stop watching, because it's an interesting show and I don't want it to be my fault that it gets canceled, but what was once just mild eye-rolling has progressed into yelling and feet-stamping. It's a good show, at least in part, I think — but something about it just rubs me the wrong way.

Plenty had been written — here and elsewhere — about how the sketches aren't funny. That isn't even my problem any more. Last night, there weren't any sketches. Though Matt and Simon were supposed to have discovered an amazing comedic talent whose jokes weren't all that hilarious, at least it was clear that he was superior to the first comic, who didn't even bother making jokes. 

And I've really grown fond of Tom and Simon and Harriet. They have a great rapport together. I even kind of love Jordan, who made a wonderful mess of herself at the wrap party. And I have a great fondness for Jack, who can be counted on to say the wrong thing (and quote musical theatre? He did it again last night, I think) and liven things up. 

Partly I think my problem is Matt: what kind of arrogance, what sort of enormous, fragile ego does this man have that he has the balls to be insulted by Simon's suggestion that he take the input of other writers? From the look on his face it was clear that there could be no other writer whose genius was as earth-shattering as Matt's. He eventually agrees to listen to Simon's advice, but the fact that he had to be persuaded to do something so sensible and reasonable and decent boggles my mind.

Partly, too, it's the stifling air of superiority shared by all the characters. They are making good TV, they constantly tell us, important, historically resonating TV for Alpha Consumers. But in order to buy into their mindset — that they are bringing a revolution to the small screen — you have to accept that TV in general sucks. People who say that TV in general sucks obviously aren't watching the same shows I am, or, for that matter, much television at all. It's small-minded and snobby to say that TV sucks.

I get the sense that the people who enjoy this show, who truly believe that the show itself, like the show-within-a-show, is bringing something revolutionary to the airwaves, these are people who turn their nose up at most TV. And that just makes me crazy.

Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, House, Lost, The Office — these shows don't go around talking about how important and meaningful and high-art they are. They just tell really interesting stories in novel ways. That's revolutionary.  

*George Clooney (not me) messing up Network in Out of Sight. 

UPDATE: Amelie at The Hater spells out more reasons this episode made us want to choke someone.