Staying with yesterday's theme of Person To Be Jealous of Because They're Going to the Waikiki Beach Premiere, today we are asking our 16 questions of Ryan Ozawa who along with his wife Jen, hosts the popular blog and podcast The Transmission; some of last week's Lost fans told us it is one of their faves. Ryan has enjoyed some amazing Lost moments - including being treated to a live performance of Giacchino's score - and has the best elevator Lost pitch we've seen yet! You can follow Ryan on Twitter here and join us tomorrow when we'll be putting the same questions to Jen.
Q: How long have you been watching Lost?
A: Since the beginning. Actually, I'd run into their sets downtown before the pilot aired and my curiosity was piqued. There were three network shows filming in Hawaii that fateful year, so I decided to watch them all to see what they were like. Lost was the only survivor and deservedly so. It was well written, gorgeously shot and mysterious in a way that serialized TV rarely is.
Q: How did Lost get its polar bear claws into you? What about it got you hooked?
A: Like most people I know, the biggest and earliest lightning bolt was "Walkabout." A great twist, and it opened the door wide open to, "What's going on here?"
Q: Favorite character?
A: Ben, who stole the show since he showed up. Juliet, because I love Elizabeth Mitchell. Hurley and Jin because they're a great, human, relate-able pair, and wonderful people in real life.
Q: Favorite episode or season?
A: I liked Season 1, obviously, and Season 5 because the show went whole-hog on the sci-fi front. Loved "Walkabout," "LeFleur," "The Constant." And for its meta moments, I have an affection for "Expose," the episode most people hate.
Q: Least favorite episode or season?
A: Early Season 3 was discouraging, and the way the Tail Section folks were handled by the end of Season 2 was unfortunate. Can't think of an episode I actively disliked, though there were moments in "Fire + Water" I distinctly remember being frustrated with.
Q: Are you Team Jack or Team Locke?
A: If those are our only choices, I like Locke, though he's obviously a tragic figure. The fact that Jack was not supposed to survive the pilot makes me very curious what the ultimate arc of his character will be.
Q: If you had to be one of the following, which would it be and why: an 815 survivor, an Other or a member of the Dharma Initiative?
A: It's a toss up between a survivor and an Other. Probably an Other, as those are the people most likely to have any idea about what's going on.
Q: Which character’s demise were you most upset to see happening?
A: Being a spoiler addict, character deaths are often not a surprise, but there are definitely people I hated to see go. Mr. Eko is probably at the top of my list. Maybe Libby, for Hurley's sake. And now, Juliet. I also thought the twist at the end of JiYeon was particularly cruel.
Q: Tell us a bit about your blog.
A: I cover "LOST" quite often on my main blog, Hawaii Blog (http://www.hawaiiweblog.com), but the hub of "LOST" activity I share with my wife is our podcast and blog, The Transmission (http://www.hawaiiup.com/lost). Our "LOST" podcast was a spinoff of a general Hawaii podcast I was doing in the early days of podcasting. Of course, "LOST" took over our lives quickly. We've been blessed with so many brilliant, funny, warm, friendly listeners, a wonderful community of fellow fans that we're adventuring with together. Even when we took a break from podcasting, we had rich conversations on our blog, hundreds of comments. A cross between a masters' level college class on "LOST" and a boisterous pub.
After "LOST," we plan to take a break, but we're already plotting our next chapter. My wife is a pop-culture fiend, and devours music, movies, books, TV... so we're planning to launch a more casual, more open podcast and blog called Popspotting (http://www.popspotting.net). It's our selfish hope that some of the great people we've come to know and love over the last five years will stick around to talk and debate about pop culture and current events.
Q: What are you favorite online Lost communities, blogs, podcasts, etc.?
A: I used to be a regular at The Fuselage, and I'm a fan of Lostpedia and Lost-Media.com, but more and more the open communities of Twitter, Facebook, and of course the regulars at The Transmission are more than enough for me. Of course I listen to a lot of "LOST" podcasts: from Jay and Jack to Donald Is Lost to The Lost Community, and many that come down the feed at the Lost Podcasting Network.
Q: Tell us something interesting/scary/amusing/downright weird about how your time in the Lost fan-verse has changed your life.
A: We've been so fortunate to have met and heard from literally thousands of great people through our shared love of the show. Taking Jorge Garcia and Daniel Dae Kim to lunch during Season 3 is always a fond memory, though I was so excited I kept them late and probably messed up their day. Special local events with the cast are always a treat, from a children's play reading at Honolulu Theater for Youth to a live performance of Michael Giacchino's beautiful orchestral score at the Waikiki Shell. Last year we got up the nerve to go to Comic-Con, and it was overwhelming and incredible. We met old friends, and made countless new ones. But smaller encounters mean a lot, too. We often get to meet "LOST" fans visiting Honolulu, just chatting over lunch, and that's been special. And with the advance screening of the Season 6 premiere here this week, we're organizing some special events, and can't wait to be surrounded by our "LOST" 'ohana.
Q: You're in an elevator with someone who has never seen as much as a second of Lost. You got on in the lobby and you're both headed to the fifteenth floor. How do you convince them to buy and watch all the DVDs before the elevator gets there?
A: Lost is as about as rich, complex, challenging, deep and beautifully produced as television gets. There'll never be a show like it, for both creative and practical reasons. It hooks you with great characters, it confuses you with mysteries and it confounds you with twists and surprises. It's an Oscar-worthy movie that's over a hundred hours long. It's not easy to dive into but once you do, you'll drown happily.
Q: Has watching Lost sparked any creative inspiration in your life, i.e. writing, media, art, etc.?
A: Well, it obviously turned me from a random podcaster into a passionate one! And podcasting was the first creative project my wife and I did together, whereas before I would just be off being a geek and she'd roll her eyes and read. It's made us both avid fans and participants in a larger fan community via social networks. And it's given us the inspiration to continue on, creatively, after the show is over.
Q: How do you plan on combatting PLDS (Post Lost Distress Syndrome)?
A: We actually look forward to getting a big part of our lives back. Lost swallows you whole. I'm confident that the creators will give us a solid last chapter, one that we'll still debate and analyze, but one that essentially turns Lost into a solid story we can just appreciate having experienced. We might rewatch a season here and there, but there's a lot of other stuff out there that we've been ignoring that we can't wait to try. Our Popspotting podcast will document our return to the broader field of art and culture.
Q: What do you think will be Lost's legacy?
It brought to back to life scripted, serial television, during an age when it seemed everyone was going to end up on a reality show. It proved that a mainstream American audience was willing to be challenged to think, and enjoy it. It definitely proved that investing in quality production, shooting on film, using real locations and the like, pays off, both in the look of a show and in its genuine creative depth. It obviously kicked off a new era of sci-fi franchises or at least created a willingness for the mainstream to not pigeonhole or ignore the genre. And it definitely gave Hawaii a boost!
Thanks so much Ryan from everyone at the LOSTBlog.com!
