Lost: the Spinoffs

4.12 "There's No Place Like Home (Part 1)"

This was one of those episodes where the alternate genre spinoff possibilities of this show became entertainingly apparent. Here are a few of the options I'm seeing so far:

1) Sawyer & Hurley: This would basically be The Odd Couple. Before Charlie died it could have been a little different, with Sawyer as the kind of charming shiftless cad ("the Matthew McConaughey") who decides he's going to straighten up do something with his life to impress "dream woman", but has to fend off the bad influences of his goofy friends, Charlie and Hurley, who are always coming up with crackpot ways to "help" him and getting themselves in trouble in the process. They'd also play peanut gallery to his romantic attempts. (Sawyer, Hurley & Charlie could also do a great Three Men and a Baby.) Anyway, with Charlie dead, the Sawyer & Hurley show would be a little bit more sitcom-y, with a lot of hilarious mishaps and near-constant bickering with the occasional heartfelt declaration of friendship, kind of Chandler & Joey-ish. (Also, keep the baby and they could do My Two Dads.)

2) Locke & Ben: Also The Odd Couple, but instead of just getting on each other's nerves, each day they would spend their time creating elaborate, Wile E. Coyote-style, plots to kill each other and then hilariously and coincidentally thwarting each other's plots, then sharing a laugh over dinner. Hurley could be their goofy next door neighbor who would occasionally stop by and who they would both attempt to use as bait in their death plots.

3) Jack & Sawyer: This would be kind of an FBI dramedy, where they would be old rivals who become partners and snark at each other while developing a relationship of trust and mutual respect. Their strikingly different attitudes, but shared hero complex, would be perfect complements and would always lead to them begrudgingly working together to save the day. Juliet would be the psychologist assessing their partnership, Hurley would be their go-to informant who runs a corner hot dog stand, Ben would be the bad guy they're after in the first season arc, and Kate would obviously be the shared love interest who started the rivalry in the first place and shows up every once in a while to cause angsty tension. (I feel like this plot could be done with a number of different pairs: Sayid & Miles, Michael & Jin, Desmond & Daniel. All kinds of possibilities.)

4) Locke, Sawyer, Daniel & Hurley: Remake of The A-Team.

Anyway, as far as this episode went: Michelle Forbes! She's just the picture of evil and nefarious and I hope she gets to do awesome crazy stuff in the future. Sun is kicking ass and taking names and it's awesome! Jack's reaction to finding out about Claire was appropriately pained. Hurley's new "numbers" freak out was cool, as was Sayid's "interesting theme" comment about his birthday party.

The best bit, though, that made me laugh out loud was Jack's "Son of a bitch!" after Sawyer told him that Hurley was with Ben. That "I'm getting too old for this shit" look on his face was a good one, and there are definitely some traits between Jack and Sawyer that have osmosized between them that always remind me of the part in season two where Sawyer is telling Jack that he slept with Ana Lucia, Jack asks why Sawyer is telling him, and Sawyer says Jack is the closest thing he has to a friend. Aww.