There's a particular writing problem that I intensely dislike, and I've seen it in the few eps I've watched this season (I haven't seen many, because the wife only wants one show put on the Tivo list, as opposed to the ten or fifteen I have, and that one show conflicts with the new Wednesday timeslot). The problem is a writing problem -- when a writer confuses explaining the problem with solving the problem.
I had this problem with a writer in a writing group. We'd read his novel, and in the crit, we'd all say, "You said in your synopsis that Amelda was strong and confident, but all she does for the entire novel is cry and whine. She never actually does anything strong and confident." And then later we'd see his rewrite, which was exactly the same, except for a scene he added in which Amelda says to someone, "I can't understand why I'm acting like this. I'm usually so strong and confident, but lately, all I seem to do is cry," and the other character says, "No, no, you're really strong to get this far. Your confidence inspires me," and apparently that's supposed to solve the problem.
But you don't solve the problem by having the characters call attention to the fact that there's a problem and then just shrug and say, "Well, I guess we have no choice." And that's what it seems like Syd has been doing on multiple levels.
It's certainly possible that this is going to turn out to have some really cool twist, but right now, it looks lame. It looks like Abrams is trying to have all the characters say "Yeah, I can't believe we're working for Sloane again -- but gosh, there's no way around it, I guess that's what we have to do," as his handwaved attempt to fool the viewers into believing that this is something the Sydney from earlier seasons would ever have done.
