EW on Kate

Dec. 4th, 2005 at 9:19 AM

"There's a general consensus among Lost fans that Kate is the blandest and least engrossing character on the island..."

Huh? I know there's a lot of Kate hate out there but I wouldn't call her bland. I'd have to say that would be Claire. She's about as bland as they come. Or Michael could show some serious consideration for the least engrossing character crown.

Comments

( 24 comments — Leave a comment )

_venusinfursx

Dec. 4th, 2005 05:33 pm (UTC)

I think the problem stems from that she envokes absolutly NO emotion (at least from me)

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halfdutch

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:07 pm (UTC)

Hmm. I prefer her to Claire, definitely. I like her with Jack and Sawyer, obviously, LOL. Love the triangle stuff. But anyone acting opposite Josh comes off better, I think.

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hkath

Dec. 4th, 2005 05:39 pm (UTC)

I love when articles pull unverifiable "facts" out of thin air like that. That's a reporter too chickenshit to write their own opinion down on paper :P

And yes, Claire and Michael. And possibly Charlie, at this point I'm far, far beyond caring about him. Although Claire and Michael still have some potential for hidden edge and personality, since we know so little about them. Charlie's just... *snore*

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halfdutch

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:06 pm (UTC)

I know. The people writing the Lost recaps (and they keep rotating) are seriously lame.

Charlie was fine in this last ep. Actually funny and not annoying. Same with Michael - as long as he's not just about Walt, I like him OK. Everyone has potential, they're just wasting it most of the time. If I were one of the lesser-used actors on the show, I think I'd be quite depressed!

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quiet_rebel

Dec. 4th, 2005 05:47 pm (UTC)

I'd have to go with Michael on the blandest. With Claire, you can't blame her because it's been so long since we actually saw her on the screen or had a flashback eppy with her. When we did see her episode, it was actually interesting with the baby and fortune teller.

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halfdutch

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:04 pm (UTC)

Claire's barely even on the show. If she'd been killed, it wouldn't have made much of a dent, to be honest. I did like her flashback episode. But apart from the baby and the (to me) nauseatingly sweet romance with Charlie, what else does she have going on? I'd like to see some more depth there but with all the new characters crowding out the original castaways, not likely!

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rogueapprentice

Dec. 4th, 2005 06:39 pm (UTC)

No no no, EW. You've got it all wrong. Kate is ANNOYING. Not bland. ANNOYING. She pisses us off like nobody's buisness, but she's not bland. *Shakes head* Silly people.

I agree with whoever else said it (*points to another comment*), Claire has the potential to BE interesting, if they'd give her screentime and another flashback and NOT DEFINE HER BY HER INTERACTION WITH CHARLIE. But right now...yeah, she's boring as hell.

(And even though I didn't care much for "Special", for some reason I like Michael. Maybe it's Harold, maybe it's being a parent myself, I dunno. :P)

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halfdutch

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:02 pm (UTC)

LOL. Too right. ;-D

Claire has shown a flash of depth in her annoyance at Charlie's obsessive step-parenting style. I hope they develop that. I kept hoping she'd come back possessed or something, LOL. Anything to make her more interesting. As it is, I keep forgetting she's even on the show.

I love Harold too. But I can't relate to his character, I guess. And he was so uptight for most of S1 -- just wasn't appealing. Like Claire and Charlie, Michael has been defined almost exclusively by his relationship with Walt and that's just boring. What a waste of a great actor! I hope he keeps getting different stuff to do and different characters to interact with.

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rogueapprentice

Dec. 8th, 2005 02:04 pm (UTC)

See, I do relate to Michael--and Claire too. Claire was my favorite character when I first started watching the show, because I'd JUST had a baby myself. :P

Maybe they'll do a little more with Michael, Sun and Jin this season (but I doubt it).

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isis2015

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:06 pm (UTC)

I love it when magazines reference the supposed "fans" like they know what they're talking about. Kate's fine. I just don't particularly care about her one way or another. But I wouldn't call her bland. She was just a lot more interesting last season.

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halfdutch

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:09 pm (UTC)

You could call her annoying or mercurial or inconsistent or moody or whatever. I don't find her bland, though.

*shrugs* EW's reviewers for Lost aren't very with it.

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uberaeryn

Dec. 4th, 2005 08:51 pm (UTC)

Up front - I do NOT hate Kate. And that might be part of my problem with her character.

Despite my HATE of her storyline (caveat: thus far), Kate herself strikes me as character who is intended to be written as beautiful, capable, mysterious and tough, and a woman who acts as THAT character for Jack and Sawyer to react to, at, from.

That's what I enjoy about Kate. With Jack - there's the sexual tension and the doe eyes and the angst and the repressed longing.

She's great also with Sawyer with the more overt sexual tension and the fact that he wants her so badly he'd die to have her. 'Cause Josh makes the great GRRR! faces and that voice that I so adore become ten times more sexy around her.

THAT, I enjoy.

But on her own, even after this last backstory, I am sitting on the fence with her as a character in her own right. I'd hate to think she was written just because there needed to be a reason for the sparks to fly with Jack and Sawyer, but that really seems to be her purpose, at least for now.

Kate's job? Make Sawyer growl and Jack do the mancry, or so it comes across to me.

Claire? SO with you on that one. Kick Charlie to the curb and give us a juicy backstory or kill her ass, that's what I say!

/ramble

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halfdutch

Dec. 5th, 2005 08:04 pm (UTC)

Well, they are short of female writers on staff, so less female perspective? But one of my least fave eps, "The Moth," was written by a woman (and roundly savaged by DM on the commentary. Ouch!) so that's no promise you'll get better writing.

DOES Kate exist just in terms of Jack and Sawyer? *ponders* I like to think she doesn't. I mean, they have had her interact with just about everyone else on the island at some point. We all know Jack was originally going to be killed off and Kate was going to be the leader. So her and Jack's roles have been kind of redundant (insight thanks to TWOP discussion boards). She hasn't always had a lot to DO on the island, besides shove her nose in and give her opinion and look pretty.

And the things Josh does with her around. Yeah. Yummy! ;-D And that kind of broken look on Jack's face after the kiss. KILLS me.

As far as Claire, I was really expecting her to be killed off so Aaron truly would be "raised by another" and I'm still waiting for her *actual* storyline to kick in now that she's not dead.

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demonqueen666

Dec. 4th, 2005 09:24 pm (UTC)

Um, no. She's certainly not the most interesting character on the show, but at the very least she gets to have the interesting dynamics with the other characters. "Bland" is not the word...I know a lot of people who might put in a vote for "annoying", but certainly not bland.

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halfdutch

Dec. 5th, 2005 08:22 pm (UTC)

LOL, I agree. Call her annoying, I won't fight ya. But bland really belongs to Claire, IMHO.

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kidsrlikedogs

Dec. 5th, 2005 12:16 am (UTC)

I find absolutely nothing interesting about Kate and I consider her storyline very forced and unbelievable. (The only time when I can root for her to hook up with one of the men is when it's been a long time since she had a flashback, so I can forget her convoluted storyline.)

Yet, I agree, Claire interests me even less than Kate.

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halfdutch

Dec. 5th, 2005 08:23 pm (UTC)

LOL. Yes, Claire has nothing going on but being Aaron's mommy. And that's just not very interesting.

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themoononastick

Dec. 5th, 2005 01:00 am (UTC)

Kate isn't bland, crappily written most of the time but not bland. Claire is pretty much the dullest character at the moment but then she gets next to nothing to do and her only flashback was a bit of a yawnfest. I guess the only people who think she is interesting are those that love the puke inducing fluffiness of the PB&J world. (Please god, let them do some serious damage to that idea and soon.) I think I've said before that I really like Michael and that his story mirrors that of a friend of mine in a way - I guess that's why I find him so interesting. I can see why others would find him dull if they don't have such a personal reason for engaging with his character.

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halfdutch

Dec. 5th, 2005 08:27 pm (UTC)

Claire's flashback wasn't boring to me, but that's probably because of the whole psychic "did he know what he was doing?" component. Now that that's out of the way, yeah, snooze! I like her a lot more when she's not with Charlie, although occasionally they're not inducing the nausea.

Ah. I WISH I could like Michael more, since I love Harold. It's really the same thing as Claire, though. He's only defined by his being Walt's dad (the whole Sun flirtation thing never panned out). He became briefly interesting to me during the whole raft building and the "Three Amigos" thing (also brief-lived!) but whenever his storyline is only about Walt it's like I'm suddenly watching the Hallmark channel. And that's NOT what I want out of Lost. ;-D

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allthelivesofme

Dec. 6th, 2005 01:03 am (UTC)

I do admit, I thought she and Charlie were cute at first. But that was before Charlie became incredibly, incredibly annoying to me. I think Claire could be a really great character in her own right-- I have high hopes for the episode where she finally finds out about the Hail Mary Full of Heroin.

As for Michael-- I have no idea why, but the character didn't strike me as someone I really *cared* about one way or the other, until the episode where he stood up to Ana Lucia and said, "I'm bringing him some water. You wanna shoot me? Shoot me." Then I officially loved Michael, too. :-D

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velena

Dec. 5th, 2005 06:41 am (UTC)

Helloooo. I am a new Lostie, desperate for fic and discussion, so I've friended you. Hope this is okay. :)

I've only watched s.2 thus far (I'm out of the States right now, and can't get DVDs. Sigh.), but I don't understand the Kate-hate. I really like her, actually, and I think E. Lily does a competent (if by no means brilliant) job. I also tend to find Michael yawn-inducing. Plus, he's really cranky! Which is not appreciated.

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halfdutch

Dec. 5th, 2005 08:34 pm (UTC)

Hi, sure! ;-D Nice to meet you! Welcome!

Oh no! Wow, S1 was just ... you MUST see it! I can't even imagine watching Lost without it. Have you tried

lost_eps?

Evangeline's kind of up and down. She's better at dramatic scenes than the "mopy gazing out to sea" scenes they used to write for her a lot. Whenever Michael has some storylines that aren't just about Walt, I like him much more.

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velena

Dec. 7th, 2005 07:09 pm (UTC)

I'm actually going home in ten days for a holiday break, so I'll be able to rent the first season and watch it for 20 hrs straight while I combat jet-lag. Some interesting fic ideas will result from this state of affairs, I hope. Thanks for the heads-up about the community, and I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future.

And thanks for the welcome!

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