Lost (TV Show)

[slamtheking]

I liked the finale from the standpoint it provided an overall explanation of what happens to the characters.  Not perfect by any means but for the most part, the explanation was ok.

I agree that it could have been better if the writers had covered more of the mysterious points during the past year and I think that was the intent when the final date was originally set.  The problem that occurred to screw up those plans was the writers strike which stopped writing and production after the date had been set.  The timeframe the producers set to wrap things up was shortened and, IMHO, certain elements of the island couldn't be covered to everyone's satisfaction. 

Some items I would have like to have seen covered was the concept of the island's mysterious powers, what was Dharma really up to, where did the Others come from  (besides Richard) and why were the Others allowed to come and go from the island but not the 'evil' brother?  The one thing from the last episode that seemed out of place was the fact that Juliette and Penny were in the last gathering yet they weren't on the flight.  Where was Mr. Eko, Michael, Walt, Nikki & Paulo and Ana Lucia from the flight? -- > Libby and Bernard were there from the tail section and Ana Lucia was even there as the crooked cop in a recent episode.

[Kwhit10]

I liked the finale from the standpoint it provided an overall explanation of what happens to the characters.  Not perfect by any means but for the most part, the explanation was ok.

I agree that it could have been better if the writers had covered more of the mysterious points during the past year and I think that was the intent when the final date was originally set.  The problem that occurred to screw up those plans was the writers strike which stopped writing and production after the date had been set.  The timeframe the producers set to wrap things up was shortened and, IMHO, certain elements of the island couldn't be covered to everyone's satisfaction. 

Some items I would have like to have seen covered was the concept of the island's mysterious powers, what was Dharma really up to, where did the Others come from  (besides Richard) and why were the Others allowed to come and go from the island but not the 'evil' brother?  The one thing from the last episode that seemed out of place was the fact that Juliette and Penny were in the last gathering yet they weren't on the flight.  Where was Mr. Eko, Michael, Walt, Nikki & Paulo and Ana Lucia from the flight? -- > Libby and Bernard were there from the tail section and Ana Lucia was even there as the crooked cop in a recent episode.

The finale as an episode is definitely a very well done and great final episode.  However, I was a little disappointed with how the show was ended even though I get their message.  But the overall episode was done fantastically.

As for who are the Dharma people?  They are just the next group of people trying to take advantage of the island.  Just like the group of people the MIB was with when he was trying to leave the island.

I wish a little more was answered.  But as soon as you answer one question another arises.

[MBunge]

Anyway, I enjoyed it, I'm sorry you didn't, but I think it would be silly for either one of us to claim to be objectively right in our personal opinions. 

No, the problems with LOST were objective.  When you can look back at a story and say that a good bit of it made no sense, that's an objective flaw.  Not caring about the flaw is subjective, and that's coming from a guy who liked both crappy FANTASTIC FOUR movies.

The LOST series finale may be one of the greatest in TV history.  It gave fans an emotionally satisfying conclusion while also giving critics confirmation that much of the show was simply pulled out of the creators' butts.

Mike

[FallGuy]

Anyway, I enjoyed it, I'm sorry you didn't, but I think it would be silly for either one of us to claim to be objectively right in our personal opinions. 

No, the problems with LOST were objective.  When you can look back at a story and say that a good bit of it made no sense, that's an objective flaw.  Not caring about the flaw is subjective, and that's coming from a guy who liked both crappy FANTASTIC FOUR movies.

The LOST series finale may be one of the greatest in TV history.  It gave fans an emotionally satisfying conclusion while also giving critics confirmation that much of the show was simply pulled out of the creators' butts.

Mike

It was definitely not one of the greatest finales in TV history. I can't imagine that's the place it'll occupy in public consciousness. There's a significant difference between an ending that allows for interpretation (the Sopranos) and one that simply fails to pay off viewer investment in the a huge piece of the show in any way (Lost).

[LB3533]

First and foremost this series was about the characters, their back story, their relationships with each other & their development.

The Island was just a medium, a tool to tell each of the character's story.

The more the revelation of the Island, the more the gear and focus shifted from the characters and that's where people (some) got tired or started growing weary of the questions and mysteries.

The finale really did restore the characters, so I am not upset or feel like the finale was a failure, because I didn't keep watching for the Island's reveal.

I watched till the end to see how the characters' stories would end.

It was a fitting end. Good job!

[goz421]

If you watch the end closely Jack is back to to the very first scene of the series. He walks into the woods and the dog licks him. Only, this time he let's go and moves on. They all had reconstructed collective realities until the became awakened to excepting death in their life and could move on. Notice some stayed who were not ready. Ben outside the church was representative of the others. Those in purgatory waiting at the gate. The final was great in that all found in each other what they needed to except their lives.

This was like a great book in that we didn't know for sure until the very end. Although, This was my theory from the very first show.

The light was representative of first creation. The ying and the yang creating polarity. The smoke monster was the dark moving around the light. The closer people got to it the more the dualities in their life became manifested.  Dharma is indicitive of working out karma.  This is what the island provided.  The power of the island was increased manifestation.  A second chance to work out ones problems in their life.  Some had already passed, some would stay, and the group at the end was collectively ready to move on.

This was the greatest television show ever. I feel for those who have yet to experience it.

[PosImpos]

I thought the ending was okay.  Not particularly surprising, and nowhere close to mind blowing.  When Christian walked up to Jack in the church and explained everything I found myself thinking, "Oh...really?  That's it?"

Overall I really loved Lost as a series and I don't think the finale was terrible, but it wasn't as satisfying or even as mind-bending as I had hoped.  It was just kinda...eh.  I'm disappointed primarily because it didn't blow me away, not because I'm not okay with the ending.

For the record, I actually liked the ending to Battlestar Galactica.  So maybe I'm just easy to please.

[FallGuy]

If you watch the end closely Jack is back to to the very first scene of the series. He walks into the woods and the dog licks him. Only, this time he let's go and moves on. They all had reconstructed collective realities until the became awakened to excepting death in their life and could move on. Notice some stayed who were not ready. Ben outside the church was representative of the others. Those in purgatory waiting at the gate. The final was great in that all found in each other what they needed to except their lives.

This was like a great book in that we didn't know for sure until the very end. Although, This was my theory from the very first show.

The light was representative of first creation. The ying and the yang creating polarity. The smoke monster was the dark moving around the light. The closer people got to it the more the dualities in their life became manifested.  Dharma is indicitive of working out karma.  This is what the island provided.  The power of the island was increased manifestation.  A second chance to work out ones problems in their life.  Some had already passed, some would stay, and the group at the end was collectively ready to move on.

This was the greatest television show ever. I feel for those who have yet to experience it.

Pick up the phone, The Wire is calling.

And there's a few other shows on hold in the queue.

EDIT - your reading of the show is a really nice one and I buy into it. Doesn't excuse the many, many flaws in the show, but it's a nice summation.

[LarBrd33]

If you watch the end closely Jack is back to to the very first scene of the series. He walks into the woods and the dog licks him. Only, this time he let's go and moves on. They all had reconstructed collective realities until the became awakened to excepting death in their life and could move on. Notice some stayed who were not ready. Ben outside the church was representative of the others. Those in purgatory waiting at the gate. The final was great in that all found in each other what they needed to except their lives.

This was like a great book in that we didn't know for sure until the very end. Although, This was my theory from the very first show.

The light was representative of first creation. The ying and the yang creating polarity. The smoke monster was the dark moving around the light. The closer people got to it the more the dualities in their life became manifested.  Dharma is indicitive of working out karma.  This is what the island provided.  The power of the island was increased manifestation.  A second chance to work out ones problems in their life.  Some had already passed, some would stay, and the group at the end was collectively ready to move on.

This was the greatest television show ever. I feel for those who have yet to experience it.

I'd be on board with this had I not already listened to one of the writers on Bill Simmons' podcast a couple weeks ago essentially admit that they pulled everything out of their butts and winged it.  The first 3 seasons there was no time to think things through... and in the last few seasons they were desperately trying to make up some kind of closure.  Also... he admitted that they intentionally made parts of the show ambiguous... so that people like you would come up with your ambitious theories as to what all the ambiguity represented.   You got played (we all did).  That series was horrible.  

Some of you can say you loved the characters and that made it worth it.  I sure hope so... if you invest 100+ episodes seeing the life stories of some character you oughta have some kind of "connection" to them... but that doesn't make the series or story good.   Frankly I think all the characters were a little annoying.  I loved Locke in the first couple seasons, because I thought he had a plan and knew what he was doing.  Turns out he was kinda a wuss and everything he did was irrelevant.  Hated Jin and SUn.  Never liked Sayid.  Thought Claire and Charlie were tollerable, but "Crazy Claire" and "druggy Charlie" were annoying.  Loved Eko, but they killed him off before the show jumped the shark.  Never fell in love with Sawyer nearly as much as everyone else.  Thought Kate was kinda obnoxious.   Ben ended up just being a punk who didn't know what he was doing.  Jack was aiight, but kinda a male version of a wet blanket girlfriend character.   Hurley was alright comic relief.  All the time we wasted on Walt and his dad were ultimately pointless.  Enjoyed Fariday, but his character's significance was wittled away in the last episodes.   Liked Desmond, but they completely undermined his importance in the final episode and made him pointless as well.  

[fairweatherfan]

Anyway, I enjoyed it, I'm sorry you didn't, but I think it would be silly for either one of us to claim to be objectively right in our personal opinions. 

No, the problems with LOST were objective.  When you can look back at a story and say that a good bit of it made no sense, that's an objective flaw.  Not caring about the flaw is subjective, and that's coming from a guy who liked both crappy FANTASTIC FOUR movies.

I agree that the show was flawed by any measure - I wasn't saying it was the greatest show ever or that everything made complete sense in the end. 

What I was saying was subjective was that I enjoyed it in spite of its flaws and RAcker and others didn't because of the same flaws.  It would be silly for me to say it was objectively an awesome show that everyone should love, or him to say it was objectively awful and not worth watching.

[greg_kite]

I loved the ending as I was watching it, and still thought it was great.  But as I look back on it there are plenty of holes that could have been covered(as Racker pointed out before).

To me the best part of the finale was the flash sideways when everyone remembered what happened.  But then once they all remember, the "flash sideways" is basically all a dream.  So the best part of the show didn't actually happen?

I think some of it is intrigueing though.  Is Ben the new "Jacob" now?

I would have loved to see the plane with Sawyer, Kate, Miles and Lipitus land in the flash sideways and have those people meet up with their counterparts and everyone else from the island.

[goz421]

If you watch the end closely Jack is back to to the very first scene of the series. He walks into the woods and the dog licks him. Only, this time he let's go and moves on. They all had reconstructed collective realities until the became awakened to excepting death in their life and could move on. Notice some stayed who were not ready. Ben outside the church was representative of the others. Those in purgatory waiting at the gate. The final was great in that all found in each other what they needed to except their lives.

This was like a great book in that we didn't know for sure until the very end. Although, This was my theory from the very first show.

The light was representative of first creation. The ying and the yang creating polarity. The smoke monster was the dark moving around the light. The closer people got to it the more the dualities in their life became manifested.  Dharma is indicitive of working out karma.  This is what the island provided.  The power of the island was increased manifestation.  A second chance to work out ones problems in their life.  Some had already passed, some would stay, and the group at the end was collectively ready to move on.

This was the greatest television show ever. I feel for those who have yet to experience it.

I'd be on board with this had I not already listened to one of the writers on Bill Simmons' podcast a couple weeks ago essentially admit that they pulled everything out of their butts and winged it.  The first 3 seasons there was no time to think things through... and in the last few seasons they were desperately trying to make up some kind of closure.  Also... he admitted that they intentionally made parts of the show ambiguous... so that people like you would come up with your ambitious theories as to what all the ambiguity represented.   You got played (we all did).  That series was horrible.  

Some of you can say you loved the characters and that made it worth it.  I sure hope so... if you invest 100+ episodes seeing the life stories of some character you oughta have some kind of "connection" to them... but that doesn't make the series or story good.   Frankly I think all the characters were a little annoying.  I loved Locke in the first couple seasons, because I thought he had a plan and knew what he was doing.  Turns out he was kinda a wuss and everything he did was irrelevant.  Hated Jin and SUn.  Never liked Sayid.  Thought Claire and Charlie were tollerable, but "Crazy Claire" and "druggy Charlie" were annoying.  Loved Eko, but they killed him off before the show jumped the shark.  Never fell in love with Sawyer nearly as much as everyone else.  Thought Kate was kinda obnoxious.   Ben ended up just being a punk who didn't know what he was doing.  Jack was aiight, but kinda a male version of a wet blanket girlfriend character.   Hurley was alright comic relief.  All the time we wasted on Walt and his dad were ultimately pointless.  Enjoyed Fariday, but his character's significance was wittled away in the last episodes.   Liked Desmond, but they completely undermined his importance in the final episode and made him pointless as well.  

I'm sure the writers at times were taking many directions.  This is often how great art comes into being.  It reaches the point it takes a life of it's own.  I'm sure the writers are happy with how things tied together.  I'm equally as sure at times the entirety of the show wasn't fleshed out.  This show will be talked about for awhile as good literature is.  At times it may have different interpretations then the author originally intended.  Just ask J.D. Salinger.  I'm sure this poster has never read him.

Good art is often open ended.  As impressive as the writing was it is equally so that the directors let this occur.  This is a new experiment with television I hope we see more of.

[jdpapa3]

I disagree about the ending not being that surprising. I've been on a bunch of forums and that was rarely someone's idea about the flashsideways. I don't subscribe to a religion, but the spirituality was awesome in the church scene.

And I tried a whole season of the Wire and have no real desire to pick up season 2. So that shows you it really is in the eye of the beholder.

[slamtheking]

I liked the finale from the standpoint it provided an overall explanation of what happens to the characters.  Not perfect by any means but for the most part, the explanation was ok.

I agree that it could have been better if the writers had covered more of the mysterious points during the past year and I think that was the intent when the final date was originally set.  The problem that occurred to screw up those plans was the writers strike which stopped writing and production after the date had been set.  The timeframe the producers set to wrap things up was shortened and, IMHO, certain elements of the island couldn't be covered to everyone's satisfaction. 

Some items I would have like to have seen covered was the concept of the island's mysterious powers, what was Dharma really up to, where did the Others come from  (besides Richard) and why were the Others allowed to come and go from the island but not the 'evil' brother?  The one thing from the last episode that seemed out of place was the fact that Juliette and Penny were in the last gathering yet they weren't on the flight.  Where was Mr. Eko, Michael, Walt, Nikki & Paulo and Ana Lucia from the flight? -- > Libby and Bernard were there from the tail section and Ana Lucia was even there as the crooked cop in a recent episode.

The finale as an episode is definitely a very well done and great final episode.  However, I was a little disappointed with how the show was ended even though I get their message.  But the overall episode was done fantastically.

As for who are the Dharma people?  They are just the next group of people trying to take advantage of the island.  Just like the group of people the MIB was with when he was trying to leave the island.

I wish a little more was answered.  But as soon as you answer one question another arises.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the finale at all.  it would have been nice to get a little more closure on some issues but I think the reason we didn't was the writer's strike.  What the producers should have done is pushed back the date of the finale after the strike was over so that the writers could have worked out a less-rushed timeline to get to the finale.

would have also been good to know what happened to the people from the freighter: NIles, etc....

[nickagneta]

Here's the way I interpreted the finale.

After they revealed that the alternate reality was in fact, purgatory and that they were all dead and that they way people move on out of purgatory was together they then showed the light, Jack's eye closed as he died on the island and credit's rolled. But then after they started rolling the credits they went back and showed the island where the original plane crash occurred and and it appeared as if the crash had just occurred and there were no survivors.

So, were they actually alive while experiencing what they did on the island? I think that last scene was trying to tell us that the island was a place where people go to prove there worthiness to get to purgatory or it was a place people went that didn't accept they were dead. If in fact there were no survivors of Oceanic 815, then the island is mysterious and had special powers because it is a place in the afterlife constructed to make people still believe they are alive and can stay alive even under the most bizarre explanations which to them become believable.