I almost cannot believe it. 6 years of our lives have passed and our Lost adventure is almost over. It's been a long, hard, strenuous but ultimately enjoyable experience and one that i am very excited to see how it ends. However, did you notice one word that i didn't use to describe my lost experience? That was fulfilling.
As much as Lost has captivated and excited me, it has disappointed in equal measures. I distinctly remember thinking during Season 2, that if it didn't stop putting out filler episodes that go no where i would stop watching. Luckily the week after was the return of Michael where he shot not only Libby and Ana Lucia, but also himself. BANG! I was back.
Each season seemed to follow this trend of a huge opening followed by several slower (some would argue filler) episodes then a race towards an exciting finale. I had hoped that the final season would have changed this format slightly and packed every single episode with great reveals or exciting plot twists. I expected each flash to relate to on island actions or to tell us more about each character. Instead, we got sequences of Sayid fixing vases, or Jack watching his son playing the piano. With the power of hindsight, how has that helped the show? I wanted more episodes akin to Ben or Locke's flashes, where each scene was a reference to seasons past and had some kind of new reveal or corralation to another character.
In typical Lost fashion, i felt the pacing of the final season was off. There was too much of a void in the middle, but then a sprint towards the end and in doing getting some quick reveals to some extremely important questions. We found out what they whispers were in passing. We know why the island is so special - It is life itself and has to be protected. Wow. Great. Though i would have like more than a few passing lines in the last episode (which, in my opinion, was diabolical!) and explored these further.
We have two episodes left and i can't for the life of me see where they are going with it. I initially thought that the flash sideways were the creation of Fake Locke. I thought that they were his impressions of what he imagined the Losties' perfect lives to be. I thought as the season continued, both timelines would clash, forcing them to choose which timeline they want to stay in. But seeing as Locke definitely wants them dead and no such offer has been made, i have no idea how it will end. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please put them up. We could possibly have a sweep stake where each person makes five or so predictions about how Lost will end and the person who gets the most right wins the stash!
I could go on for hours about what i have like/disliked about the final season (or the show in general for that matter) but this is just the start and i'll open the forum up to the rest of you. No matter what you might think, this is a huge event in television and i wish i could make it to Vics for the showing, but internet chatter will have to suffice. There might only be two episodes left, but the finale will only be the beginning. For every person that is happy with the finale, another will be outraged. I just hope i'm not one of them!
**UPDATED**
The finale has been extended by 30 minutes...!!
ReplyDeletehttp://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/abc-expands-lost-finale-by-extra-halfhour.html
agreed, the last episode was diabolical. Well maybe just disappointing, 1. that the main characters weren't in it and 2. that it indicates a very unsatisfactory ending, and lame explanations of some of the key questions.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I feel still on offer here is the discussion of what(or who)is good and what is bad? This could perhaps be a nice philosophical debate fought out to the end. What is best - someone that questions the world and strives to find answers and their own path, or someone that has faith and does not break the rules? Each of the characters could fall into these categories, but we are still not sure who to root for.
hmmmmmmmmmm
As soon as I set eyes on the glowing grotto thing my heart sunk. I still think they can pull it out of the fire but I'm definitely not as excited about the finale as I should be right now.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of Lost discussion boards are filled with inaccurate observations but I'm fairly certain at one point during the 'across the sea' episode the MIB called Jacob 'Abel'. It's during a scene when they are adults and walking through the jungle to somewhere or another. Even if I did hear that correctly it's hardly a revelation.
Fingers crossed they turn it around in time, certainly this 30 minute overrun has me intrigued...
I hope they can turn it around too, Adam. With only 2 episodes left, i just can't see how. I expect the finale will be a huge affair though, so i'm sure some good will come out of it. I think all this pessimism will actually add to our enjoyment of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd Vics, after the last two episodes i think they have rammed down our throats that Jacob/Free will is good and his brother is evil. We might see a glimmer of light in him seeing as he was supposed to be the one to protect the light, but i think this whole light dark thing is a bit too obvious now.
I also think that is a great debate waiting to happen, but i'm off to watch last nights episode before i comment further....
im about to watch it now.... sssshhhhh.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/20/lost-finale-5am-uk-simulcast
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting resource to get some different opinions on making sense of it all - http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/24/instant-dharma-lost-finale-season-6-episode-17-the-end/
ReplyDeleteSeems like the island was real and the flash side ways was the afterlife... maybe.
That's what i got from it. Just finished and trying to make sense of it all. Not sure if i liked it or not. It definitely did something to me, i'm just not sure what yet.
ReplyDeleteI haven't looked at that site yet, but at the moment i am struggling o see the point of the flash sideways. Was the whole thing to try and help jack accept that he is in limbo and get him to move onto heaven? Or was it so all of them could move on. Christian said that they all died either before him, or way after him, so why were they still hanging around?
Gonna have to sleep on this one as i'm still not sure how i feel. I'll admit, i did get a little bit sad towards the end...
yes, yes, it's all about friendship, see. The plot was never meant to make any sense, you fools.
ReplyDeleteNow go away while we count our money.
i think i am still grieving a little - it ending has left me somewhat emotional and not just by means of the storyline.
ReplyDeleteI feel the finale explained the flash sideways (though it took me reading up about it to fully understand) but didn't really tackle any of the island issues, and that magic was something we just have to accept. If you took away the final season's main plot, the conclusion didn't really give us anything.
there was also a huge amount of cheese going on, the use of music that they never used before(I am sure i heard black beauty)and the recalls by the characters (though i think i secretly liked this).
So the love stories were bigger than the science or religion or mystique, that just seems a little to typical.
I am still gathering my thoughts though.
I feel exactly the same, Vics. It was such a strange feeling after it finished. I just had to sit for a while and gather my thoughts, and i'm still doing so.
ReplyDeleteI actually felt quite satisfied with the finale. I expected it to end with a huge sense of ambiguity and not once did i think everything would be sewn up so nicely (albeit in a very, very cheesy way!) It did give me a huge sense of closure and i can't think of one particular thing i wished they did differently or touched upon in the finale. I thought the final scenes were particularly well done and Matthew Fox was pretty good as i'd never been a Jack fan, but i really believed in him and felt for him and had a huge sense of euphoria/sadness when he finally "let go". Whether we thought it was cheese filled drama or not, i'm still left with quite an empty, somewhat uncomfortable feeling from them so they must have done something right.
That being said, i think you're right in saying the conclusion left us with very little. It seems that there are two types of people that watch Lost: People who like the mysteries, and people who love the characters. I put myself in the former category so to think that the flashes for the whole season were nothing more than a Bobby Ewing-type dream is rather frustrating. For me, the pacing was off for the whole season and i think they left it far too late to start creating new questions. I want to know why the island is the life force of every person in the world. I want to know how the first person came to be the protector. I want to know how the first set of people found the island and starting fighting, corrupting and what not. I want to know why Jacob and Samuel (fake Locke) couldn't kill each other.
All these things seemed to be glazed over in one or two-line throw away comments. However, the producers will say that the show has always been about the characters and not the mysteries. So in this respect, it was a perfect ending.