When 'Lost' was in its prime, it was must-watch television. Remember first watching it, found it remarkably easy to get into, was hooked from the start and was on Season 3 by the end of one week. The general consensus is that the final season is a disappointment and cannot disagree.
It, Season 6 that is, started promisingly enough with "LA X", both parts, but the season since up to this point was variable, mostly somewhere in between of being decent and great. There were disappointments like "Lighthouse", "The Package" and particularly "What Kate Does", but there were excellent episodes such "Sundown", "Dr Linus" and the season's high point "Ab Aeterno" too.
"Everybody Loves Hugo" is a very good episode. Not quite one of the season's very finest like "Ab Aeterno", "Happily Ever After", "Sundown" and "Dr Linus", but in the better half on the whole.
Occasionally, the flash-sideways story is slightly muddled and the non-Hurley centric scenes intrigued me a little bit more.
Pace is tight and none of the writing is taut and not soapy. There is more story clarity than some of the previous episodes and character motivations are not as vague as some of the previous Season 6 episodes. Although it doesn't quite link the timelines and themes in a way that is all-the-way-through as successfully as "Dr Linus" and "Ab Aeterno", it is still cohesive and harmonious rather with clashing or an episode of two or more halves.
Hurley is written very well and empathetically, it is easy to feel for him and predicament. "Everybody Loves Hugo" is a perfect example of Hurley being just as effective being more than just comic relief and working very well when written with a more dramatic approach.
The story is utterly gripping, full of suspense and has emotion, especially with the ending (with a cliffhanger that will blow the mind) and Hurley and Jack (in some of his most sympathetic writing in a long time). The story and character development feels advanced rather than going backwards, being reiterated or ground to a halt. After a while of being underused or completely neglected until his meatiest material in a long time in "Happily Ever After", Desmond's role here is very compelling and his scenes showing things moving forward. Locke's scenes also intrigue and it's with them where there is a sense of things starting to come together.
Acting can't be faulted, Jorge Garcia gives a really quite poignant performance, while Terry O'Quinn and Henry Ian Cusick bring many nuances to Locke and Desmond and Matthew Fox matches Garcia beautifully when they're together. The visuals are slick and stylish, the music chilling and understated, the writing tightly structured and the direction showing ferocity and control.
Altogether, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox