[Movie] L O S T [possible spoilers]

Nothing to do with your crappy show really...

YouTube Video

Terry O'Quinn jams on MTV, early 1990s.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh Jessy, you'll never win my heart.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Honestly...

Spoiler:

the only way this show can end well is if someone wakes up next to Bob Newhart. Everything else is bullshit

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Randi

I'm thoroughly convinced that 90% of all "fans" of Lost are pissed at the direction this show has taken.

Spoiler:

Thats because you're all fucking suckers. And I mean that in both the literal and nicest ways possible.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

Spoiler:

Anybody who invested into this show because of the sci-fi elements and not the characters...

Spoiler:

Why in God's name would you watch a show or read a book or sit in front of a movie if you don't watch it for the characters?

"Hey, I'm going to read Watership Down, but I'm going to avoid *all the scenes with animals*."

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Ramenbetsu

You're the last GFFer I expected to defend this.

I'm not defending the show - which is something stupid people think is smart or entertaining - but I am pointing out why people are wrong for feeling put off by the finale. (Right emotion, wrong reasons)

Originally Posted by sprouticus

What I meant was, anybody who was sucked in initially because of the sci-fi elements.

Spoiler:

The "scifi" elements are hardly sf at all. It's what people who wear crystals around their necks and use homeopathic products think is even remotely close to SF. They're MacGuffins - what they are doesn't matter, they just drive the story on, like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.

The problem is that viewers like yourself were more interested in the things that didn't matter instead of what would actually matter (caring about the characters and seeing how they'd react/interact) and this is why the ending is dissatisfying. You were seeking some literally impossible expository narrative to be emotionally satisfying and instead got an emotionally expository finale and you're kicking and screaming because you all found out your show is empty of meaning. All I could think of was PT Barnum's old "This Way to the Egress" sign; you're all a bunch of goddamned suckers and you're angry for being stupid. Ha fucking ha, I called this shit half a decade ago.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Teioh

It's especially stupid because sci-fi elements like time travel and electro-magnetism

Those aren't science fiction elements, They're story-telling devices. Science fiction is a genre that Lost is not a part of.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Quote:

Maybe I'm a stupid LOST fan, but I saw something bigger in the light at the tunnel

No, you're a stupid Lost fan. The one, single difference between the finale and every other show they made is that you can't lean on the expectation that the next episode will solve everything. The show was *always* this disjointed and bad. And I hope when you go back to repeats, you'll see this.

How ya doing, buddy?

I watched the entire series through on Netflix Streaming, but missed a couple episodes this season.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Grape-Flavored Fun Dip

Maybe he knows somebody who does watch it and they just talk about it all the time and he just kept trying to convince them what a waste of time it was and now he feels righteously vindicated

That too.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

Did you change your mind?

1.) Michael Giacchino (Lost Composer) and I use to be email buddies from late 1999 to late 2001. I figured I'd give it a shot if just because of that.

2.) After hating on the show for all the reasons I knew were true, I decided to get my hands dirty on it because I'd honestly rather pick something apart from the inside instead of just hitting flyballs out into right field. I wasn't arguing in a vaccuum but people like you, people who are devoted to the show, automatically put up a barrier of "YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT" and then I can tell them when I rolled my eyes when Clancy Brown blew his head off in front of Desmond or how trite it was to introduce Mr Science Teacher and then blow him up in the same episode or any other number of things.

3.) A lot of friends I respect like the show. Unfortunately, much like Halo, this is now something I cannot see them eye to eye on because it really is as awful as I've said all along.

4.) And yes, it is a show thats below me. I've stepped over smaller piles of shit than this but in the cases of Firefly or the Terminator show or one or two others which I simply don't like, I can see why someone may like them. Lost, though, is just outright bad. The formula for every episode is the same: This is what happened last time, crazy! Heres some more exposition! Hey Hurley is still fat and loveable! Wait, something weird is going on? Smoke Monster / Ben Linus / Island Thing / Statue / Underwater Base / Someone Is Shot. JUMPCUT/RISINGSTRINGSANDPERCUSSIONHIT. It was like someone took the worst episodes of The X-Files from the last three seasons, stuck them in a blender, rearranged them and called them a show. All it is is plot twist ontop of plot twist for 6 seasons and it amounts to - nothing! Surprise! No lube!

(Paul Dini, who was a script supervisor for Season 1 and part of Season 2, said that the show had a definitive ending from the get-go but he hasn't said what it was. He was waiting to see what the final episode was before he opened that can of worms. I'll let you know if its stupider than what was used.)

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

Spoiler:

The only reasonable answer is that some technologically-advanced race from the future created the monster once they realized what the light was in order to defend it

Maybe I missed something on the show but is there absolutely anything to support this wild theory?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I agree on Breaking Bad. Its probably the only thing worth watching today.

Also, this bit of news passed my desk - Lost: The final episode drew a disappointing 13.5 million viewers according to FORBES magazine. DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, which normally airs in the same time slot, averages 14 million viewers. The first episode of LOST drew 18.6 million viewers. Other series final episode ratings are: MASH--105.9 million, SEINFELD--76 million, FRIENDS--52 million, THE SOPRANOS--12 million. The good news is the final episode's audience was the biggest in two years.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Cut and pasting this here from an IRC discussion I was having with friends about the show. Don't entirely agree with some points but the argument is sound.

Spoiler:

I hated it for a number of reasons.

"The show is *really* about characters and not a crazy mystery" is very hollow, since the crazy mystery is why anyone cared about the show in the first place. It's about characters in the same way any drama is about characters. There's nothing special about that. Also, most of the character stories were resolved in season 3 and replaced with more sci fi gimmicks which didn't matter. When the flashbacks ended the characters stories had been told and mostly resolved.

The lone reveal was also the specific thing that the creators of the show insisted it wasn't about (the characters being in purgatory). And even if it was about characters, the manner in which their destinies were fixed was idiotic. Each person has an opposite gendered pair to go to heaven with! The show even went years insisting it wasn't about characters by being completely willing to kill them off suddenly and permanently. And there wasn't some big reveal where they'd saved those character's fates for space heaven at the end, they just never showed up again. (Michael, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko and so on; everybody gets together at the end! is a hollow hollow when it's actually everybody who was already together three episodes gets together.)

Also all the actual redemption for any character that was so important happened off screen. But they said years ago that they had the specific last scenes of the show in mind and I can't imagine how they go with season 1. Except that possibly the idea was that the island was purgatory and the characters were lost and they had to find themselves but people figured it out too soon and they got all jumpy about it.

And I can't help but compare LOST to Fringe which is by JJ Abrams and the other Star Trek showrunner and it just managed to end their season by making the characters emotionally resonant and by tying together all their mystery elements into a very well explained reveals. So I don't really see why it had to be one or the other, especially when the show was specifically known for one. And it didn't even have the backbone to stand up and say that that stuff didn't matter, it just didn't mention any of it.

You could write a but we want to know what the numbers are and what the island is and what happeed to Walt and so on scene where one of your various omniscious characters points out that it doesn't matter really really easily.

(And "we're all friends! that's what matters!" isn't even true. These characters spent the entire show fighting each other ad dividing into groups that killed each other.)

And even things like the ambigious last scene shots of the beach with just the wreckage don't wory because we've been specifically told by the showrunners that the characters did survive the crash. But the criticism of Lost the whole time was that they weren't going to be able to pay off the mysteries and that turned out to be completely entirely true.

If the characters and not the supernatural stuff mattered then you could tell the same story without them. As a character story it doesn't match the stuff earlier either. Charlie went from drug addict to father to sacrificing himelf for the greater good.. what theology tells us okay, cool, but that's not *really* redemption, what he has to do is wait around in a fantasy world until his girlfriend dies too. (The sent Michael straight to glowing light when he died, even.)

And remember what a huge deal it was that they were specifically promised three seasons to get to this point three years ago? You could stick this episode anywhere after season 3 and it would have the same meaning. It didnt even explain the little changes in the alternate timeline that were specific to this setup. It was all HAHA FOOLED YOU. Why was the purgatory version different in all those slight ways? (Jack had a son, the asian guy was Sawer's partner cop, the accident was Locke's fault instead of his dad, etc.)

I will admit that it's extremely rare for a show to have a satisfying finale... some of the best shows have terrible ones... but this was a case where the finale was supposed to be the point. Also, if it's an acceptable ending then it's one that can be applied to any story. Popular religion is correct, these characters will spend a period of time in purgatory and will then go to heaven. It's not an oblique Christian allegory, it's just what Christians directly believe will happen.

I was speaking idiomatically.