Lost

[Per]

Wow, this is even worse than I thought. I had assumed that when pitching a whole series to a network, Abrams would have to have a series bible with the premise settled, and the explanations for things like the polar bears and the numbers naturally integrated in that setting. But even those things were just random shit.

 

[SharkClub]

I actually quite liked what I saw of it (Seasons 1 and 2), after those it stopped being aired on channels which I could reach it so I gave up on it. But now reading this thread and seeing all the completely stupid shit and how it turned out makes me glad I didn't pursue the thought of watching the rest of it.

 

[Ilosar]

I watched Season 1 and was quite pleased, eager to see what the weird stuff was. Season 2 was also decent, but I stopped at 3, as others have said too much random, unexplained stuff going on.

My biggest complaint was how impossibly stupid the characters acted. Anytime a character had some information that could advance the plot and give insight of exactly what the hell is going, they inexplicably and plot-conveniently dismiss the question with a vague, cryptic answer. This got old very fast for me. Also, Sawyer and that fat guy whose name I can never remember were my favorite characters, but when even they started to get the cant-answer-this-would-break-the-show-if-the-audience-knew syndrome, I quit in disgust.

I also went ahead and spoiled myself to the ending. Boy, would I had been pissed to follow 6 seasons only for them to end in it with that kind of BS.

 

[TheWesDude]

it all actually makes sense of how it all works if you understand the ending.


again, the only hint/clue i will tell you is they pulled a st elsewhere on everyone.

 

[Serifan]

[spoiler:3f0089ac10]... they will never follow up on that episode except to retroactively declare that all ghostly manifestations were actually the smoke monster even though this means its actions throughout the series are entirely random and inconsistent (now I want to arbitrarily kill you! Now I want to arbitrarily trick you into killing yourselves! Now I want to arbitrarily help you! Now I want to arbitrarily save you! Help I have smoke for a brain and it's not doing me a lot of good!) but you could have guessed that. Also they will have a cursory reference to the "Libby in the mental hospital" thing in season 6.[/spoiler:3f0089ac10]

thats the thing about evil, it doesn't have to make sense.

 

[.Pixote.]

The show was "LOST" to all that watched it - so in its own way, it worked...but I hate the way that show dragged its feet and failed to deliver.

 

[x'il]

The series was an absurd mess after a point, it was obvious the makers didn't know where to go with the story, the characters, or even most of the subplots. Prison Break was a similar mess.

Since someone mentioned sci-fi, is it just me or is tv sci-fi dying? i mean, the older succesful franchises are pretty much dead, there seems to be fewer being made, and the newer stuff just doesn't fly; Caprica and SGU were cancelled after 1 and 2 seasons... what's the reason for this? higher expectations rating-wise from the networks, too much melodrama and little adventure/sci-fi?

 

[TheWesDude]

i enjoyed caprica

sgu was a mess

never really watched lost, and after hearing how it ended with revealing the "ultimate truth" about the show and how practically everyone missed the "ultimate truth" in lost, they think it is confusing or that the writers lost their way...

the show ended exactly how it was intended from the start. the key points of each season were known from the beginning. all these "plot holes" people think lost has are actually not plot holes, but not understanding the ending for what it was.

 

[welsh]

I actually watched the entire show and thought it was worthwhile. The season before the last is kind of strange and I am not really happy about how the end turned out as the last season has a "what if the plane hadn't crashed" story line that intersects.

But part of the construction of the show was that the audience actually played a role, if in a small way, with the narrative itself. This is in part seen by the alternative story lines, the meta narrative, that was happening off-show as watchers surfed the web looking for hints to the story.

Part of this meta-narrative was marketing, but also an appeal to fans to stay involved, and as a reward they would gain insights into the show.

A friend of mine actually kept a fairly developed blog on lost and actually wrote a Lost guidebook, that sold fairly well. We'd have these debates on a regular basis. He shared WesDude's view that there was an intended beginning and end, but that the story was broadly defined over the 5 or so seasons of the show, but that a lot of the details were left out.

In my opinion, Lost was a much better series than a lot that is on television now. It demanded a lot of viewers to keep up with it. But then, a lot of the better television does.

In many ways, television drama has become far superior than a lot of films largely because you get very good production value matched with the ability to tell more complex, detailed and character driven stories. Think of some of the best television dramas- The Wire, OZ, Deadwood, Sopranos, The Shield, and many others- these complex stories that are character driven but spread over multiple episodes. Even the Walking Dead has that formula- production value story but character driven.

Lost was great in production detail, but it excelled in the mix of story/character relations. Key too good story is character. I think Lost, by virtue of the multiple season, does that.