The first episode of season three has the show's trademark attention-grabbing, well-staged 'what the hell is going on?' season-opening scene, but it's really more an introduction to the experimental and not so well-received six episode long mini-season which aired in fall 2006. The bulk of season three certainly has a different feel and focus than the 'mini-season' (which is what even the producers/writers referred to it as), and is of a much higher quality in general. I'd consider "Not in Portland" the first episode of the 'real' season 3.
The opening scene is certainly quite nifty. It's certainly well-filmed and suspenseful, and although it was more predictable than the immense season two opener with Desmond in the hatch, it was still a great scene. The rest of the episode is significantly weaker, though, centered on pretty standard follow-up stuff showing us that Sawyer, Jack, and Kate are in cages. Ah, the start of one of the worst multi-episode story lines on the show (the worst?). It's all quite rubbish, the atmosphere they're clearly going for on the Hydra island just isn't working, even Giacchino's score sounds off somehow. Juliet is interesting and is introduced well, however, and is basically the saving grace of the majority of the episode.
The flashbacks aren't much better, focusing on a jealous Jack. There's barely any real character development here, very little of interest. I suppose seeing Christian is always a plus, but that's about it really. More 'drama' with Sarah Shepard... It's all quite boring and tired. This was J.J. Abrams' first script for the show (co-written with Damon Lindelof) since the pilot, and it's just not cohesive and interesting enough. I suppose that seeing Ben become Ben is fun, but there's not much of interest in this episode otherwise, mainly because it's introducing a storyline which is incredibly tiresome. It's watchable, but very far from great.
6/10
The opening scene is certainly quite nifty. It's certainly well-filmed and suspenseful, and although it was more predictable than the immense season two opener with Desmond in the hatch, it was still a great scene. The rest of the episode is significantly weaker, though, centered on pretty standard follow-up stuff showing us that Sawyer, Jack, and Kate are in cages. Ah, the start of one of the worst multi-episode story lines on the show (the worst?). It's all quite rubbish, the atmosphere they're clearly going for on the Hydra island just isn't working, even Giacchino's score sounds off somehow. Juliet is interesting and is introduced well, however, and is basically the saving grace of the majority of the episode.
The flashbacks aren't much better, focusing on a jealous Jack. There's barely any real character development here, very little of interest. I suppose seeing Christian is always a plus, but that's about it really. More 'drama' with Sarah Shepard... It's all quite boring and tired. This was J.J. Abrams' first script for the show (co-written with Damon Lindelof) since the pilot, and it's just not cohesive and interesting enough. I suppose that seeing Ben become Ben is fun, but there's not much of interest in this episode otherwise, mainly because it's introducing a storyline which is incredibly tiresome. It's watchable, but very far from great.
6/10