"Lost" The Hunting Party (2006)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Stephen Williams

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

18 January 2006 (Season 2, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Jack, Locke and Sawyer follow Michael who left to look for his son. They meet "the others". More is shown about Jack's back-story.

Plot Keywords:

Plane Crash | Flashback | Survival | South Pacific | Doctor

US TV Schedule:

Thur. July 16

4:00 PM

SYFY

The Hunting Party

#2.11

Cast

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Mr. Eko (credit only)
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Michelle Rodriguez	...	Ana-Lucia Cortez
Cynthia Watros	...	Libby (credit only)
John Terry	...	Christian Shephard

Runtime:

43 min

Language:

English | Italian | Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-14 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Bad Robot

Quotes:

Tom Friendly: [shouts] Light 'em up!

"Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can't do?"

"The Hunting Party" is actually really good, considering that it was written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Christina M. Kim, the two worst regular writers on "Lost" by some distance. Still, when not faced with the insurmountable challenge of writing something emotional and character-driven without resorting to sappy soap-opera rubbish, Sarnoff is a professional enough writer to take plot points given to her by people with superior imaginations and make a solid script out of it, even throw in a couple of good lines. The flashbacks in "The Hunting Party" never reach the potential they have to enhance the audience's understanding of Jack's character, resulting in them being tolerable medical drama scenes with some slips into the sort of mediocrity one should expect from a Sarnoff/Kim episode, including the big emotional moment, which really ends up being a Sarah Shepard Bitchfest Extravaganza.

All that said, "The Hunting Party" is so tremendously involving whenever it focuses on the island that I simply must admit to it being good. It's fast-paced, quick, funny, thrilling, and just plain fun. The episode focuses on a 'hunting party' leaving to go after Michael, who is pursuing Walt. On the way there's some really fun dialogue building up to the big encounter with 'Zeke', which is one of the best-executed thriller set-pieces on "Lost", no matter how gleefully over-the-top some of it is. My favorite scene in the episode is the hilarious scene between Charlie, Hurley, and Sayid in the hatch which interrupts the tense showdown between the 'hunting party' and the Others.

The episode benefits from excellent direction courtesy of Stephen Williams and some outstanding cinematography from Michael Bonvillain. "The Hunting Party" is, overall, a success in spite of some glaring flaws.

8/10