"Outlaws" continues to grow in my estimation every single time I see it. Although "Confidence Man" will perhaps always be the more respected and admired season one Sawyer-centric episode, I find "Outlaws" an even more compelling and fascinating character study and what's more- it is one of the best scripts written to date for the series in my opinion.
The story that the main island events are based around is utterly ludicrous on paper, but turns into much more thanks to the evocative and intelligent script by Drew Goddard, an extremely talented scriptwriter known outside "Lost" for his much-praised episodes for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and his box office success "Cloverfield". Aside from a couple of rough moments (very) early in the episode I simply cannot find any serious flaws in this astonishing script. The depth and insight into Sawyer's character and the development of the mythology of the character is outstanding here. Essentially, "Outlaws" is a silly episode on paper: Sawyer hunts a boar and in flashbacks he gets tricked into killing a guy. The end result is filled with memorable dialogue and insightful character development- note especially the brilliantly-photographed, well-directed, and brilliantly-written scene where Sawyer encounters Christian Shepard in an Australian bar. When I first saw it I could not wait for it to end but I was utterly entranced this time around as I saw more of where Goddard was going with the scene.
"Outlaws" is purely a character-based episode, highly refreshing after the outrageously indulgent and silly if watchable "Homecoming". Goddard's script is great, but the episode is a landmark to me on "Lost" because John Bartley's cinematography works brilliantly with Jack Bender's work as director here, creating what is perhaps the first episode of "Lost" to feature genuinely arresting visuals.
An episode I originally regarded as shallow filler, came to see as a poor, shallow attempt at characterization, and finally came to absolutely adore on this viewing, a further viewing of "Outlaws" may cause me to regret writing this review, but as I write this I firmly believe that this is a truly great television script brought to life stunningly well by the crew and actors.
10/10
The story that the main island events are based around is utterly ludicrous on paper, but turns into much more thanks to the evocative and intelligent script by Drew Goddard, an extremely talented scriptwriter known outside "Lost" for his much-praised episodes for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and his box office success "Cloverfield". Aside from a couple of rough moments (very) early in the episode I simply cannot find any serious flaws in this astonishing script. The depth and insight into Sawyer's character and the development of the mythology of the character is outstanding here. Essentially, "Outlaws" is a silly episode on paper: Sawyer hunts a boar and in flashbacks he gets tricked into killing a guy. The end result is filled with memorable dialogue and insightful character development- note especially the brilliantly-photographed, well-directed, and brilliantly-written scene where Sawyer encounters Christian Shepard in an Australian bar. When I first saw it I could not wait for it to end but I was utterly entranced this time around as I saw more of where Goddard was going with the scene.
"Outlaws" is purely a character-based episode, highly refreshing after the outrageously indulgent and silly if watchable "Homecoming". Goddard's script is great, but the episode is a landmark to me on "Lost" because John Bartley's cinematography works brilliantly with Jack Bender's work as director here, creating what is perhaps the first episode of "Lost" to feature genuinely arresting visuals.
An episode I originally regarded as shallow filler, came to see as a poor, shallow attempt at characterization, and finally came to absolutely adore on this viewing, a further viewing of "Outlaws" may cause me to regret writing this review, but as I write this I firmly believe that this is a truly great television script brought to life stunningly well by the crew and actors.
10/10