The end of Lost...?

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by menevets

While I'm not completely happy with the ending, the writers really wrote themselves into a muddle and I'm not sure if anyone could have written a satisfactory ending that satisfied the entire breadth of the audience.

I do agree with that. My disappointment isn't just with the final episode.

The writers negotiated having three 18 episode seasons to wrap it up after the 3rd season. So they had the rare luxury in TV of knowing exactly how many episodes they had to finish their story--and they blew it IMO.

They wasted season 4 on Widmore's mercenaries sent to capture Ben. Which ended up having little to nothing to do with the Season 6 plot.

They wasted season 5 with jumping around in time, then stuck in Dharma--which again had little or nothing to do with the season 6 plot.

Season 6 they just scrap all the past mystery for the most part, came up with a lame story for Jacob, his brother and the smoke monster, made a new mystery with the Island light, and cop out with an ending that's all about the characters and nothing about the island.

Just terribly disappointing for me as one of many who watched mainly because of all the mysteries, spent time online discussing them looking up mythos related to various things on the show (the statue etc.) as it just all feels like a huge waste of time now.

They had 3 years and they could have started explaining some of the mysteries. Why Walt was special, spent some time in Season 5 on how and why Dharma got on the Island (some was explained in the online ARG, but doesn't count IMO), more about the others, fleshed out the Ben/Widmore feud if they were going to spend so much time on it in Season 4 and 5 etc. etc. etc.

Just very, very disappointing for me. And pretty much kills the chance I'll every watch another serial TV drama. Better to stick with movies, much less wasted time if it doesn't pan out. Or at the least I'll wait and watch on DVD when the whole run is over and I hear from friends that it was great from pilot to ending.

[4-eyes]

Interesting to see how opinions are panning out here in a generally unbiased forum. In a few others I have read there are a rather large number of "OMG - THIS WAS THE BEST SHOW EVER AND THE FINALE WAS AMAZING" type posters. In real life however, everyone I know who watched it was disappointed with it.

Bottom line - I wasted six years following this show for almost zero payoff? As said elsewhere in the thread, they could have gone straight from Season 1 to Season 6 and it would have made for a better show. Essentially seasons 2,3,4 and 5 were completely irrelevant to the overall plot and even stuff from season 1 was never really answered. The writers filled the show to the brim with mysteries and hints of bigger plots yet pretty much failed to deliver, despite knowing well in advance when it would finish.

I'm extremely disappointed. I would advise anyone of thinking of watching the show not to waste their time as there is no resolution to most of what you will see - however intriguing it might be at the time.

[GeoffC]

Perhaps Lost was a more apt title than thought ....

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by 4-eyes

Interesting to see how opinions are panning out here in a generally unbiased forum. In a few others I have read there are a rather large number of "OMG - THIS WAS THE BEST SHOW EVER AND THE FINALE WAS AMAZING" type posters. In real life however, everyone I know who watched it was disappointed with it.

Bottom line - I wasted six years following this show for almost zero payoff? As said elsewhere in the thread, they could have gone straight from Season 1 to Season 6 and it would have made for a better show. Essentially seasons 2,3,4 and 5 were completely irrelevant to the overall plot and even stuff from season 1 was never really answered. The writers filled the show to the brim with mysteries and hints of bigger plots yet pretty much failed to deliver, despite knowing well in advance when it would finish.

I'm extremely disappointed. I would advise anyone of thinking of watching the show not to waste their time as there is no resolution to most of what you will see - however intriguing it might be at the time.

Well, let me jump in and disagree, then.

I have to admit, I first started watching the show because of it's religious overtones - the first ep I watched all the way through was 'The Moth', and I was hooked forever.

LOST has made me read books I never would have read, think about things I never would have thought about, but I knew it was a religious show all along, so the last season was pretty much the producers ripping off the sci-fi mask and going 'Ha!' I can understand why those who thought they were watching sci-fi were disappointed, I really do, but that you didn't realize in six years of watching what the nature of the show was I find kind of weird.

As to the 'mysteries', I will argue that they answered pretty much all of them, if you paid attention and put pi and x together. That they didn't spoon-feed us the answers is one of the reasons I loved the show, and intend a great big re-watch this summer.

YMMV.

[dmaul1114]

They certainly didn't answer all the mysteries, many they ignored entirely.

The biggest one being Walt. He had mystic powers, enough that the other's kidnapped him. He appeared to people on the island in Season 2 (couldn't be the man in black since he couldn't only take over the form of dead people) etc. etc.

But that got dropped as he naturally aged--though seems like with the 3 year jump ahead with the time travel and off island stuff they could have brought him back and explained that plot line as his real age would have matched up pretty well---after all he did pop back briefly when Locke found him.

Anyway, glad you and others like it. I hate religious mumbo jumbo, and love sci-fi/fantasy. So them "ripping off the sci-fi mask" this last season ruined the show for me and I'll never re-watch it.

[GraceKrispy]

yeah, the whole walt thing... I feel almost like they had it in for a season, and then they decided it was a dumb plotline and they let it go. It feels very unfinished and that's annoying.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

They certainly didn't answer all the mysteries, many they ignored entirely.

The biggest one being Walt. He had mystic powers, enough that the other's kidnapped him. He appeared to people on the island in Season 2 (couldn't be the man in black since he couldn't only take over the form of dead people) etc. etc.

But that got dropped as he naturally aged--though seems like with the 3 year jump ahead with the time travel and off island stuff they could have brought him back and explained that plot line as his real age would have matched up pretty well---after all he did pop back briefly when Locke found him.

Anyway, glad you and others like it. I hate religious mumbo jumbo, and love sci-fi/fantasy. So them "ripping off the sci-fi mask" this last season ruined the show for me and I'll never re-watch it.

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

yeah, the whole walt thing... I feel almost like they had it in for a season, and then they decided it was a dumb plotline and they let it go. It feels very unfinished and that's annoying.

So you're OK with Hurley and Miles having unexplained powers, but not explaining Walt bugs you?

I'm pretty sure the Others kidnapped Walt because he was a child, not because he had special powers, and I think the explanation for the child kidnappings is there within the show, you just have to piece it together.

As for the 'religious mumbo-jumbo' - it was there, all bright and glaring, all along. I don't understand why anyone was surprised.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by khalleron

As for the 'religious mumbo-jumbo' - it was there, all bright and glaring, all along. I don't understand why anyone was surprised.

Back in season 1 and 2 or so, the writers (Cuse and Lindeloff) said repeatedly in interviews, the official Lost Podcast etc. that everything would have a valid, scientific explanation....

[djgreedo]

Originally Posted by khalleron

As for the 'religious mumbo-jumbo' - it was there, all bright and glaring, all along. I don't understand why anyone was surprised.

My problem isn't with the mumbo-jumbo but with the fact that the ending essentially demoted the mystery into nothing more than gimmickry designed to hold the characters in place until the show ran out of steam.

The ending was not a natural progression from the events in the story. It seemed like a very forced ending that had nothing to do with what we had been watching for 6 years.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I wouldn't say the show "ran out of steam." They presented a conclusion that satisfied the need for the main characters to finally "find" themselves and work everything out.

That said, they clearly left plenty of loose ends, but even most of those could be successfully weaved into a workable, if fanciful, explanation of the goings-on of the island. A few possible scenarios present themselves to me right off.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

That said, they clearly left plenty of loose ends, but even most of those could be successfully weaved into a workable, if fanciful, explanation of the goings-on of the island. A few possible scenarios present themselves to me right off.

That's all fine, I just hate that kind of crap. I don't find it satisfying that I can explain away most things with a combination of little hints on the show, info from the Online Lost Experience ARG (with the Valenzetti Equation etc.). and come up with some scenarios to tie it together as fans have been doing online on forums for years.

To make so much of the mystery, the creators really needed to explain it all (meaning spell it out) to people who were hooked on the show because of the mysteries IMO.

Anyway, I've wasted too much energy following the show for 6 years, and bitching about the lame ending in the past week plus, so I'll leave the thread for those of you that enjoyed it!

[4-eyes]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Well, let me jump in and disagree, then.

I have to admit, I first started watching the show because of it's religious overtones - the first ep I watched all the way through was 'The Moth', and I was hooked forever.

LOST has made me read books I never would have read, think about things I never would have thought about, but I knew it was a religious show all along, so the last season was pretty much the producers ripping off the sci-fi mask and going 'Ha!' I can understand why those who thought they were watching sci-fi were disappointed, I really do, but that you didn't realize in six years of watching what the nature of the show was I find kind of weird.

As to the 'mysteries', I will argue that they answered pretty much all of them, if you paid attention and put pi and x together. That they didn't spoon-feed us the answers is one of the reasons I loved the show, and intend a great big re-watch this summer.

YMMV.

Sorry, but 'not wanting to spoonfeed answers' is the lamest excuse ever for failing to provide answers to the mysteries which kept the viewers hooked.

It's like Agatha Christie writing a murder mystery full of tantalising clues and then you get to the final chapter and the whole thing skips to the entire cast of characters in the afterlife magically 'resolving their issues' and there's an authors note claiming all the clues are there, she didn't want to spoonfeed you an ending, go work it out .......

It's pretty clear that most of the stuff they put up there on screen to keep our attention just plain didn't have an answer and expecting fans to creatively come up with their own solutions because the writers couldn't is a joke.


As for the whole show 'being about the characters', if it was then it was some of the worst writing ever for a supposedly character based show. There was very little real development and some of the scripting was embarrassing. The whole 'Love' angle was just about the worst implemented I've seen in any mainstream show - case in point Des and Penny. Corny and unconvincing lines from the writers and no real chemistry from the actors.

A few of the characters developed somewhat (Sawyer and Ben stand out) but given they had six seasons to progress the main cast, the overall development of the key characters came up short. Perhaps if they hadn't kept on introducing new characters and killing off people seemingly at random they could have done a better job on the character development front.

The fact that they had to pull an 'alternative universe afterlife' out of the hat at the very end where all the main characters could magically find resolution to their issues (why bother writing it - just have them have a flash of peace in the afterlife and all is suddenly well) just shows that they had no idea how to develop characters.


Even when they gave answers it seemed they couldn't bother writing them properly. The numbers and the sickness - very sketchy, they needed more detail there. The Whispers - decent answer but delivered in an awful manner (simple bit of exposition) and had no real relevance to the rest of the story. Same with the appearances of Christian being explained. The whole mythology of Smokey/Jacob in that thoroughly awful 'Beyond the Sea' episode - don't get me started.


Did these writers never hear of Chekhov's gun? Seems to be the case.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by 4-eyes

Sorry, but 'not wanting to spoonfeed answers' is the lamest excuse ever for failing to provide answers to the mysteries which kept the viewers hooked.

It's like Agatha Christie writing a murder mystery full of tantalising clues and then you get to the final chapter and the whole thing skips to the entire cast of characters in the afterlife magically 'resolving their issues' and there's an authors note claiming all the clues are there, she didn't want to spoonfeed you an ending, go work it out .......

But Lost wasn't a Christie novel, where the story depends on putting together the clues to solve a mystery... it only masqueraded as a mystery story, when it was really always about the voyage of the characters. The title really did say it all (and hinted at its religious overtones right off... I remember how much I wanted the very last words on the screen at the end to replace "Lost" with "Found." Kitschy, I know, but still.)

Much of this discussion keeps bringing me back to The Prisoner, a series which experienced very similar issues with viewers either ignoring the point of the show by obsessing with details like "What is that beachball-thing, anyway?" to not understanding the conclusion--which, if you got the point of the show, was blindingly clear and obvious.

The fact that some of the mechanics of the island weren't answered precisely is really not the point of the series at all. I can envision another series, another type of show other than character-voyage-driven, exploring and answering some or all of those mechanics. But I don't fault Lost for not having done that, as it was never supposed to be that kind of show.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turt99

JSWolf, so true. I've watched 3 seasons I think and I would say that the first 6 or so episodes had me really interested. Then it jumped of a really really high cliff and took several seasons to hit the ground.

Lost was an interesting idea who's execution was flawed. It jumped the shark from day 1 episode 1.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

There were plenty of episodes in the series that could easily have been missed without affecting the overall storyline. Pretty much the entire 3rd and 4th seasons were completely useless to the series' main story-arc, and that was evident when the 5th season started after the producers got an end-of-series date in hand and were able to concentrate on the wrap-up. The beginning of the 5th season was almost like watching a totally different show, so many of the meandering 3rd and 4th season subplots and questions they raised were just immediately dropped and never revisited. At that point, my emotional connection to the show was severed and I was just watching out of curiosity to see what they had in mind for an ending, but I stopped really caring about the characters during this extended wrap-up.

Did Bobby dream all of seasons 3 & 4 as he stepped out if the shower?