You All Everybody

I’m in the middle of watching a marathon of Lost episodes from Season 1 through 6 and I’m finding that even though I never really liked Charlie, the washed up heroin-addicted rock star, before, I particularly don’t like him now that I’ve just seen Get Him To The Greek’s character of Aldous Snow played by the hilarious Russel Brand.  Both are British, both play the same kind of character, but Aldous actually has some wisdom and intelligence behind his problems which makes him witty and hilarious with an undercurrent of deep experience.  Brand is a screaming success in England and Europe as a comedian, interviewer and musician.  All of these things require real-life talent, something Charlie’s character never actually reveals. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but what a waste of an opportunity for the show’s writers. Could you imagine being stranded on a desert island with a really talented songwriter and guitarist?  Someone who had been in front of thousands of people on stage, to the heights and depths of human existence?  Songwriters are, by profession, poets…well many of them are.  And someone who thinks poetically could really have injected something special into the series.  Overall, Lost as a show is very well done.  But I tend to see the scenes with Charlie is tiresome and annoying.  I also can’t believe how Claire is always drawn back into him, especially after Charlie steals the baby and almost drowns it in some kind of drug flashback.  He also appears to be talentless.  He finally finds his guitar and the moment when he would reveal an inner artist to the group is covered over by non-diegetic music and slow motion walking as the camera floats to other people on the beach.  Maybe that’s a good thing because if I hear him “sing” his one pop song, “You All Everybody,” I will stab myself in the ears.  That one song is supposed to convince the audience that it was enough to thrust Driveshaft, Charlie’s band, into gold record stardom?  Poorly done, writers.  For not wanting to underestimate the intelligence of the audience, they certainly underestimated our taste. That song is so bad that I can’t imagine anyone liking it, let alone having anyone employ Driveshaft to play at an expensive dinner for dignitaries like they did for the Series Finale.  At one point during the series, John Locke recognizes Charlie as the bass player for Driveshaft and confesses that he loved their first album.  This doesn’t make Locke cool in my mind, which I believe is the intention of the writers.  It makes him annoyingly inconsistent to me.  People and characters aren’t single-dimensional, I realize.  But come on.