Ha, I get to answer my own question !
Well Robert, your fears were partly justified. They’re still doing the sequences were we look back in time to "get to know the characters better," sadly they aren’t really telling anything that justifies leaving the main story(the people on the island(s).) They want us to get the feeling that we get to know the characters better, but we don’t -we learn nothing new, so my conclusion is that they’re either buying time, using them as fillers because they’ve got nothing better. Or even worse, that they actually think it’s good tv. Either way, it shows nothing new and is just annoying.
Parts of the episodes are quite good though, sadly the parts that gives the story momentum are too often interrupted by the already commented flashbacks. If they’d dropped the flashbacks, apart from in episode 6 -where it actually is a vital part to the story of Ecko, the episodes would’ve gotten much better -but also 10 minutes or more shorter, and I suspect this is why they’re left in there.
Also, a pacemaker that is set to malfunction at 140bpm, overriding the heart signals ? Blah !
With this in mind, sure -you’ll be mildly entertained if you watch, and there are moments when you’ll be smiling and saying yes yes yes, but sadly they are too far apart.
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