Breaking down characters on Lost

The other week, I promised to look at some of the characters on Lost. While my opinions on Jack, Locke and Ben are probably pretty clear, that still leaves, oh, about 30 or so others. Let's try to tackle some of them right now, along with pictures when appropriate. I'll try to separate characters into the good, the bad and the meh. As with the last post on Lost, MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW IMMEDIATELY!

The Good
- Juliet. Probably the second most "moral" character on the show, in a way, next to my bromance with Jack. This is odd to say, considering that she was in favor of abducting pregnant women and had no problems sleeping with a married man. However, her other actions, such as forcing Sawyer to break up with her in the fifth season finale and generally being trustworthy to the plane crash people, elevates her above these past transgressions.

It's odd to think of where her character is going in this upcoming season, though. If my earlier theory about the detonation of the hydrogen bomb core is correct, and things do revert, then I suppose she goes back to being an Other on the island, or possibly she somehow manages to meet the plane as it lands in LAX. (As Amanda Meyer pointed out in a comment on that entry, the episode's title is tantalizing just "LAX", although that seems like too much of a giveaway.)

- Daniel Farraday. Some of my admiration for Daniel probably came through in my last post, when I hinted that his method would work, because he is always correct on the show. There isn't any reason to doubt what he says, since he is primarily an embodiment of science. As such I had a sort of respect for his actions, and I think he is generally concerned with the welfare of others.

- Sayid. The toughest SOB on the show, so of course he's in this section. The only downside to Sayid is that everyone he falls in love with seemingly dies a brutal, horrible death, but hey, nobody's perfect.

- Sun. I feel like she might be as ruthless as Sayid or Ben or Locke, but you don't always realize it because of her attractive appearance and because her actions are spread out across multiple seasons. For example, before the plane crash, she pays off Jin's whore mom, has a regular affair and plots to leave Jin before having a last minute change of heart.

- Miles. I feel that he is a much better character than the person listed below him in a second, although he doesn't receive as much screen time, and thus, less time to flex how god damn clever he always is.

- Sawyer. I begrudgingly put him in this column. To make another Star Wars comparison, which Lost is somehow ripe for in my mind, Sawyer is Han Solo. Yeah, with his lines, he's really amusing, but I feel like a lot of actors could fill that role and still be amusing.

Also, I feel like the character of Sawyer has been done before, whether it be Han Solo or any other television bad boy of the past X years. Still, I feel more confident about him than the first character of the bad category...

The Bad
- Kate. First, from a casting standpoint, I don't find Evageline Lilly that attractive. Really, this shouldn't matter, except that she is involved in a competition with Juliet at points for the heart of Jack and Sawyer. Since Juliet is more dependable and interesting AND attractive, parts of the romance square they have on the show fall flat to me. It would be like if Kate Hudson and Mila Kunis were cast in the same movie, and the guys inexplicably went after Kunis instead of Hudson.

Overlooking her physical characteristics, I'm not sure why everyone else is so all-up-onz Kate. She's an ex-con who constantly waffles between two guys, which causes chaos for the leader of the camp. Imagine if Barack had to worry about Michelle steppin' out all the time! Hey Kate, make up your freakin' mind!

- Charlie and Hugo / Hurley. Both of these characters are kind of meant as comic relief at times, but I find them to be more annoying than anything else because of their hysteria. Charlie spends multiple seasons whining about how he can't be trusted and isn't in the Circle of Trust, to quote something from Meet the Parents, and I believe Hurley expresses similar sentiments.

- Michael. See above, except with the added caveat that you need to suspend your disbelief about how he got back on the boat.

The Meh
- Claire. I love how spunky she is, although after Aaron was born, this seems to have been put on the backburner a bit, which hurts her appeal to me. Also, she just abruptly vanishes into the woods at the end of season four, I believe, and she's barely seen except in flashbacks the rest of the time. I suppose she'll get her own episode in the sixth season, but as of now, she's very much meh to me.

- Boone and Shannon. They kind of flip flopped in my mind as time went on. Boone started out as a seemingly decent guy, but as more of his story got revealed, I became less enamored of his behavior. And on the flipside, I thought Shannon really matured as she spent more time on the island, only for her to die once she fell in love with Sayid.

- Nikki and Paulo and Libby and Ana Lucia and Jin and Rousseau. Interesting to me in one way or another, but ultimately spend too little time in scenes for me to really evaluate, or just make a "blah" impression. Of the group, Rousseau is the most interesting, but even my thoughts about her are tempered because her best scenes are in the time travel portion, when she is portrayed by a younger actress.

Did I miss any of your favorite characters, or want me to expand on one of them? Let me know and I'll cover them in a follow-up entry.