The end of Lost...?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

The full Lost set is already available over on Amazon in BR or DVD for pre-order; ship date is Aug. 24, and it costs something like $180.

Yes, but is it the "Ultimate Every-Frickin'-Bit-Of-Lost DVD Set"? I'll bet it's the "Here's the episodes, and a generic 'making of' interview with C&L and nothing else" set. Not good enough! We want more! Yeah!

Okay, seriously, I'll check it out.

[mores]

Lost started here in Austria, as do most Sitcoms and Serieses (?), a year or two after the US start. I think I actually missed a season or two, but somehow I got the feeling that everyone knew what this series was about, and feeling left out I went to watch-insertseriesnamehere-online.com or something and wanted to watch the pilot, maybe a few follow-up episodes. I was hooked right from the start and spent many a night streaming the original episodes to this german-only broadcasting country.

But it totally lost its appeal when they got back to civilization. I don't know what season this was, but I just don't want to watch it anymore.

I would like to read a book about it by one of the original writers, but I'm not interested in fanfiction.

[Over]

I wouldn't like a new Lost series or movie. It endend very well, the most important things were explained, it had an excelent emotional impact (all those tear-jerking reunions helped). There are holes, but I wouldn't say those are huge holes. We never get a full picture from life, just our point of view. The series was based on the losties (those who were on Oceanic 815), and specially Jack. There are some holes because they didn't get to know everything. Even fake Locke and Jack didn't know exactly what would happen in the end.

About Ben:

Spoiler:

I think he didn't enter the church, because he wasn't connected to those inside. He is living his "purgatory" with another set of people important to his life, like Alex, Rousseau, etc. When they "remember", then they can move on from their special place.

About the sideverse:

Spoiler:

We all can agree that the island was real and that what happened there, really mattered, just like Jack affirmed. The sideverse was some kind of purgatory. There's no "here" or "now", like Jack's father said. It's somewhere in the future when all those in that church were dead: some before Jack, other after (those who escaped in that Ajira plane) and Hugo probably centuries later).
The purgatory was a place where the characters get the opportunity to attone themselves, then finally remember who they are and then finally move on.
Sawyer was a con man, here he's ironically a cop. Jack get's the opportunity to be a good father, Ben gets to be a more selfless guy and a better father figure to Alex, and so on...
Locke has forgiven Ben before entering the church. Ben said it really mattered and we know why: he hasn't been a nice guy. This forgiveness plus his actions in the purgatory and a good job at helping Hugo protect the island will certainly allow him to "move on".
Michael didn't pas the island's test. He made very bad choices, he murdered and never got to redeem himself. That's why he wasn't allowed to go to the sideverse. And that's why he wasn't in that church and moved on with the rest of the crew. He also never did connect with them, so even if he attoned, he would never leave with them.

An excelent series, that could have skipped a couple seasons. If a movie appears, I probably wouldn't resist to watch it, but after 6 yeras, that's almost 10% of our lives. A lot of time together. Lost should RIP, allowing us to move on too.

[happy_terd]

I am getting the first season from the library today.

Interested enough to at least check it out for free.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Good point: None of us get to know everything in life, and we do many things on blind faith alone without really knowing how things work. Often, we make decisions based on our guesses of how things work, and when pitted against the actual workings of the world, those decisions can turn out horribly wrong.

Much of life has to do with how we handle those moments when reality is suddenly revealed to be nothing like what we thought it was. I can say myself that I had one of those moments, and it changed my life irreversibly. Lost used that premise constantly... it was pretty much their foundation.

[djgreedo]

I found the ending disappointing.

We got no answers to the interesting stuff that kept us watching week after week, and then a cop out ending that ignored all the science-fiction elements in favour of a wishy-washy pseudo-religious feel-good ending.

Up until the last moments it seemed like they were going to reveal a great ending based around the power of love in its various incarnations, but they kind of ignored that.

I think the ending would have made more sense if the show didn't keep going for so long. It was anti-climactic. It made the far-out elements of the story seem to be simply ploys used to keep people interested rather than actual parts of a planned story. I want those things to pay off eventually, even if they don't pay off in a way that I like. Anybody can create random events that seem interesting, but it takes a brilliant storyteller to actually make those things pay off, and the Lost writers just seem to have teased us into watching the show with the promise of answers. In Lost most of the mysteries remain mysteries even though they were dangled like a carrot in front of the audience very blatantly. They did a bait and switch. They got me watching for the interesting themes and quasi-science-fiction, then turned it around at the last minute and asked me to forget the interesting stuff in favour of an ending that could have happened three seasons ago and made a lot more sense.

That said, the 6 years of the show were fun, and I suppose I can now understand the complaints of those who didn't like the Battlestar Galactica ending even though I personally liked it for the most part.

Lost's strength was its characters and overall premise.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by djgreedo

They got me watching for the interesting themes and quasi-science-fiction, then turned it around at the last minute and asked me to forget the interesting stuff in favour of an ending that could have happened three seasons ago and made a lot more sense.

That said, the 6 years of the show were fun, and I suppose I can now understand the complaints of those who didn't like the Battlestar Galactica ending even though I personally liked it for the most part.

Lost's strength was its characters and overall premise.

That's pretty much exactly how I feel about it, having nearly a week to think about it.

I was much more invested in the mysteries than the characters and the faith angle. I've always been, and always will be, a man of science!

As such the ending stunk for me. But I'm glad those more into the characters and faith stuff enjoyed the ending!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

There's another word we've been dancing around that (I think) we now understand we must apply to Lost:

Allegory.

Like the original The Prisoner, like Star Trek, like The Twilight Zone, Lost has presented us with a mythical "mysterious deserted island" setting in order to tell us morality tales. Sure, Lost didn't look like an allegory up-close. But when you step back and examine the elements of the series, and devices like mysterious Others, smoke monsters, time-travel, pseudo-science and magic, you can see it. In fact, it's hard to imagine it as anything else.

In that light, debating the unanswered mysteries of the island makes as much sense as arguing about what The Prisoner's "Rover" was, or why aliens on Star Trek who'd never been exposed to each other before could meet for the first time and speak English.

So, maybe the point of any new sequels to Lost could only be to tell more morality tales, either of one of the characters that may have been neglected by the ending, or of another new character that we were never exposed to, but whose experiences on the island tell another important story.

[dmaul1114]

Just doesn't work for me.

It was all about the mystery for me. I'm not big on character study pieces, or morality plays, and would have never watched for 6 years if I knew that was all it boiled down to.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Just doesn't work for me.

It was all about the mystery for me. I'm not big on character study pieces, or morality plays, and would have never watched for 6 years if I knew that was all it boiled down to.

You're saying you got nothing out of the series? If so, that's a shame.

Plenty of people were upset at the end of The Prisoner, and for similar reasons as the ending of Lost: A lack of coherent answers to specific questions (like asking "what side were the Prisoner's keepers really on?"). In short, they couldn't see the forest for the trees... and like Lost, Patrick McGoohan refused to pull everyone back to see the forest of The Prisoner, he gave the audience his character resolution and let them figure out the rest for themselves. Anyone who didn't step back and realize "OMG... look at the forest we were standing next to!" was on their own.

I think people will come to see Lost in the same way as The Prisoner, and many will condemn (or at least denigrate) the show because it didn't give them what they wanted. But I don't think that takes away from the series' accomplishments, or its resolution.

[dmaul1114]

Just saying I got little out of the ending and pretty much the final season as a whole. Only pay off was a nice--but sappy--ending for the characters that was emotional I'll admit.

But once that's gone, I'm just left with all the mystery I followed so closely for 6 years being pretty much moot.

I still enjoyed following the show--especially the first 5 seasons. If I knew it was all for naught at the end (for me) I wouldn't have put the time into watching it and spending so much time discussing the mysteries and theories online etc.

But still, I did enjoy doing all that, and the disappointing (for me) final season can't take that away. Though it did take away any chance of picking up the blurays and rewatching the whole thing down the road. And I'll certainly never watch any thing Cuse and Lindeloff touch in the future.

[healbon]

Best show ever made. I couldn't even watch the last season bec I can't bear to watch it end. I will have to get it and watch all the episodes in 1 day when it comes out. Sooooo sad

[djgreedo]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Allegory.

.

In that light, debating the unanswered mysteries of the island makes as much sense as arguing about what The Prisoner's "Rover" was, or why aliens on Star Trek who'd never been exposed to each other before could meet for the first time and speak English.

The show placed so much emphasis on the mysteries, and that is why a lot of people tuned in. It was exciting to see all of those connections and weird happenings and wondering how the writers were going to finally explain everything and tie the story together. Instead they seemed to have ignored everything they set up and threw in the deus ex machina of "you don't need answers - just faith".

Like someone above said - the ending made huge amounts of the show's content totally moot.

[menevets]

A comment from a British TV watcher said American TV usually handholds it's audience and unusually, it was not the case for LOST.

I liked LOST but I'm not going to say it was the high point of TV and the greatest show ever. The Wire had better writing and just as complicated and a compelling a story and more relevant to real life themes. Six Feet Under had better character development.

What LOST had was a combination of developing mind bending mysteries and twists, character development and blending of sci fi and fantasy elements and a cast and writing the made it all work, pretty much. Throw in the amazing scoring by the composer, who also won an Oscar for Up! and the beautiful locations.

LOST was similar to watching sports, say Michael Jordan. I'm still not saying LOST was the best show ever like Jordan as a player, but one of the reasons you tuned in to a Bulls game was what was Jordan going to pull out of his hat this time? A triple double while just recovering from the flu and throwing up? Some unbelievable move to the basket past three defenders? 6 straight 3 pointers in one period?

When LOST made your jaw drop, like a previous poster said, it dropped to the floor. The pilot, where Jack sees a gorgeous serene beach and makes a turn, takes several steps and sees the wreckage, a the guy sucked into the engine, the fuselage parts landing just next to Charlie, Hurley saving Claire from the falling wing. You thought it was just a lost on an island scenario and then you hear the Smoke Monster.

The twist and turns with Locke and his handicap, the flash forward when they show the future, yet you don't really know what it is, the hatch, Doc Arzt blowing up in front of your eyes and one of the most memorable phone calls ever in The Constant.

People say there were many unanswered questions and while I agree, I think there were more incomplete answers as opposed to unanswered questions. There were answers to questions, but the answers lead to more questions.

Was the level of absurdity just too much? The smoke monster, time travel, people living to be thousands of years old, able to grant immortality. Of course you have to suspend any notion of reality, but all in all, the show was a very enjoyable ride and I'm glad I took it.

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.

Another thing I liked about LOST is that it had a big minority cast and you could say had a decent representation of the American demographic. Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Russian, fat, old, etc... Plus there was a fair amount of subtitling. I never thought the American audience would have the patience to sit through all those subtitles, but they did and in huge numbers. I think this show proved that there is a demand for more than your usually mind numbing shlock on TV.

I agree with many that the quality of season 1, 2ish just wasn't sustained for the remaining seasons, but the writers aimed high and you can't fault them for trying. Maybe the next attempt, someone can take it up a notch and keep up a high level of quality consistently throughout a series.

[menevets]

Just to add, we're seeing alot of LOST copycats, big ensemble cast, serial plot, sci fi, horror, fantasy elements. While I enjoyed LOST, I miss a show like the West Wing even more.

Dramas rooted in "real" life with great writing and dialog, but also serial. I hope the networks get off this LOST genre, let it sit for awhile and get back to good old drama without any fantasical elements.