Harold Perrineau pissed at Lost writers for having him leave the show, again
By fred | June 2, 2008
A couple of seasons back on Lost, Michael (Harold Perrineau) went crazy, killed two people and gave a few others to the Others so that he could finally get his son, WAAAAAAALT!, back. Then they both pretty much went MIA for a season before coming back this season. But while we may not have seen the last of a now much taller Walt, for Michael things are done, as the Island, or Jacob, or whoever talks through Christian told him he had no more work to do, and could finally die - and so he did.
Recently in an interview for TV Guide Perrineau admitted not to be too pleased with the way things turned out for Michael. As he puts it himself, “I came back for that!?” Perrineau is disappointed because Michael will never get to see Walt again, and then goes on to rant about how Lost wasn’t nice with him because he’s black !
Now, I can totally understand why he can be pissed, I mean they get him back on the show, he spends half a season missing, the other half getting punched in the face one way or another, only to end up being blown up and dead, for good. But while I can see why Perrineau might not like that so much, I don’t think it sounded any wrong, I mean his character went through lots of trouble, and couldn’t deal with it.
As a result he wanted to die, from the start it was told that, understandably, Michael wanted only one thing, to die, but the Island wouldn’t let him, because he still had work to do. Once that work was done, he could finally die - wish granted! I get that he can be mad a little, but it’s not like there was all this mystery concerning his character, who he really is, his past, and just got shot out of nowhere for no reason really.
We were done with Michael on the show, and with recent additions of pretty interesting new characters like Charlotte or Miles, there’s really not one reason to keep him around with nothing to do. And when he goes on to say that this is a race issue, I think clearly Perrineau has lost his mind…
Listen, if I’m being really candid, there are all these questions about how they respond to black people on the show. Sayid gets to meet Nadia again, and Desmond and Penny hook up again, but a little black boy and his father hooking up, that wasn’t interesting? Instead, Walt just winds up being another fatherless child. It plays into a really big, weird stereotype and, being a black person myself, that wasn’t so interesting.
Listen, I’m sorry but this is about the stupidest thing ever. I mean, for one the father issue thing is really laughable, because if there’s one thing all characters seem to share in Lost it is that they all have father issues. Some don’t know their father, some got a kidney stolen from their father, others killed their father, the fact that Walt has father issue is a perfect fit.
Everyone on the show has father issue, and a lot more people than just Walt are fatherless. Pretending that this wasn’t deemed interesting because they’re black, trying to pull the race card for the show makes about as much sense as to say writers hate women, and that’s why they get them all shot : Libby, Ana Lucia, Colleen Pickett, Shannon, Greta, Bonnie, Rousseau, Alex…
I think no one could disagree with what Carlton Cuse said, “We pride ourselves on having a very racially diverse cast. It’s painful when any actor’s storyline ends on the show. Harold is a fantastic actor whose presence added enormously to Lost.”
“Michael had an incredibly heroic, noble death. He sacrificed his own life to redeem himself for past mistakes and to help the Oceanic 6 get off the island” added executive producer Damon Lindelof.
Perrineau tries to argue that Michael’s death was only made for the fans, “I felt like it was sort of pandering to some fans who wanted to see Michael punished because he betrayed people“, he declared TV Guide, referring how Michael shot dead Ana Lucia and Libby back in season two. Now while I won’t deny that I’m still mad Libby got killed off like that, and I really hope we’ll somehow get to know who she was and find out about her past, I really don’t think this was “a really weird bloodlust for the fans“.
The way I see it, fans would have been pretty pissed, without a doubt, if they had never find out what had happened to Walt and Michael. And there might be a lot to learn about Walt and his abilities. As for Michael, it’s not that we wanted him dead, but his main purpose back in the days was to scream out in the night, looking for his son. Michael is now dead, and I don’t see anything wrong with that, his character has nothing to offer anymore.
Meanwhile Harold Perrineau won’t be leaving ABC for long, as he’ll play Detective Leo Banks, a cop who’s so worried about getting shot that he never takes off his Kevlar vest, in their new drama, The Unusuals.
Posted in News
Shows: Lost, The Unusuals
