The Shape of Things To Come (Lost) - Reception

Reception

"The Shape of Things to Come" was viewed live or watched within five hours of broadcast by 12.075 million Americans, ranking Lost as the fourteenth most watched program of the week. A total of 14.067 million Americans watched the episode live or within seven days; this number was factored into the season's average. This was an improvement over the previous Lost episode that had aired six weeks earlier. Lost also improved its Canadian ratings with 1.443 million viewers. In Australia, "The Shape of Things to Come" was watched by only 683,000 viewers, but Lost was nominated in the same week for two Sun-Herald Bogie Awards—a parody of the Australian Logie Awards—in the categories of "Most Underrated" series and "Most Jerked Around by the Networks".

Karla Peterson of the The San Diego Union-Tribune gave "The Shape of Things to Come" an "A+." Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly called "The Shape of Things to Come" "one of those deliciously dense episodes in which the nourishment of revelation is mixed with huge chunks of sugary intrigue" and speculated that the scene in which Alex is executed will be "sitting very high on this ranking of all-time pivotal Lost moments" by the series' May 2010 end. Before the season finale aired, Jensen ranked this as the second best moment of the season and put the scene in which the monster attacks the mercenaries in ninth place. Dan Kois and Lane Brown of New York magazine thought that this "episode didn't exactly feel like the usual moderately paced, secret-revealing drama Lost usually is; it felt like an action movie … it was like watching Die Hard on an island". Chris Carabott of IGN gave the episode a 9.3/10, concluding that "if 'The Shape of Things to Come' is any indication of the level of quality that should expect from here on out then we are in for some incredible storytelling" and "Alex's death will probably be remembered as one of the more pivotal scenes in the entire series it is such a phenomenally shot, edited and acted moment … it would be incredibly hard not to feel for here." Upon grading the best episodes of the first five seasons, the episode ranked second, beating episodes like "Through the Looking Glass" and "Pilot" and losing to "The Constant." Erin Martell of AOL's TV Squad summed up "The Shape of Things to Come" as "a brilliant episode … tons of action, several big revelations, and more questions to ponder". Don Williams of BuddyTV decided that the episode was "worth waiting five weeks for" and "so jam packed that I need to give my brain time to rest". Williams's colleague Oscar Dahl ranked the scene in which Alex is killed as the fifth best moment of the season, noting that "it was perfectly paced … and provided a huge shock … and some of the best acting you'll ever see". Jay Glatfelter of The Huffington Post wrote that "'The Shape of Things to Come' was the perfect episode to get everyone back into the swing of Lost. It wasn't a mindfuck à la 'The Constant'. It was an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride, which to me matched the 'Pilot''s bombastic grandeur".

Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote that the episode "was overflowing with manna from post-strike heaven: lots of action, lots of intrigue the odd answer or three"; however, he criticized the deaths of the three 815 survivors played by extras and survival of main characters, saying that "that sequence with Sawyer dodging bullets was supposed to be tense and frightening; instead, it was funny". Kristin Dos Santos of E! agreed with Sepinwall's latter assessment. Although Jamie Poniewozik of Time worried about the show's direction in which Widmore is suddenly the antagonist and Ben travels the globe to seek revenge. He said that it "looks a little too much like Alias"; Poniewozik enjoyed the island drama. Daniel of TMZ called "The Shape of Things to Come" "another solid episode of Lost", grading it as a "B" and claiming that "I enjoyed it the whole way through, even if it never gave me that 'OH MY GOD!!!!' moment, though I loved the Alex execution scene."

Before the episode began shooting, Michael Emerson had already decided to submit his performance in this episode for consideration in the drama supporting actor category of the Primetime Emmy Awards because of the script's strength. He received his second consecutive Emmy nomination for this role; however, he lost to Željko Ivanek of the FX series Damages. Emerson would win the next year for the episode "Dead is Dead". Kevin Thompson of The Palm Beach Post wrote that "with those big ol' eyes of his, could always say more with a lengthy stare than he could with twenty pages of dialogue.…, once again, proved why he has become Lost's star as well as its heart and soul.… an Emmy should belong to ." Jennifer Godwin of E! wrote that "no one has ever done better work humanizing a supervillain." Among those who also praised Emerson's performance as Ben were Robert Bianco of USA Today, Matt Roush of TV Guide, Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy, who gave the episode a perfect rating of five stars, John Kubicek of BuddyTV and aforementioned critics from The Star-Ledger, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Time, Entertainment Weekly, IGN and TV Squad.

Read more about this topic:  The Shape Of Things To Come (Lost)

Famous quotes containing the word reception:

    Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.
    Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

    To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.
    Walter Pater (1839–1894)