Thoughts on LOST

I watched the finale last night. I'll say why I was disappointed in a minute, but first, two questions loom in my mind.

1. Why was LOST so popular?

2. Now, what was that all about again?

#1

I believe LOST was popular because it told a great story and tapped into the key question that, in the end, will always wrap us in: Is there a purpose in life? It was also popular because it had a well balanced cast (Hugo, anyone?), intrigue (Smokey and world-ending-electro-magnetic-forces), and beauty (people, places, music).

LOST took a big risk in developing an immersive story line that became hard to follow. But the fact that it was hard to follow also made it an immersive story line. You had to be in it to win it, a key ingredient for any cult following, right? Don't know what I mean when I refer to Smokey? Pssh, sit down and lemme 'splain you about why it's so interesting and fifteen minutes later you'll still have a raised eyebrow.

#2

I feel like I've stood over the shoulder of archeologists on a dig. They've dug up all but the last and most important element of the discovery. Then they stand up, turn to me, and say, "We did this to remember, and to let go," and leave it sitting there not fully excavated.

I guess in the back of my mind, I was looking for the finale to go back to the beginning, not tack on a statement at the end. The past six seasons have gotten deeper and deeper into the history of the island, whereas the finale focused on... well, not much really. 

Rather than definitively answer all these questions, most have been given an interpret-this-as-you-will answer that guarantees lostpedia will have a strong userbase for quite some time.

Why was I disappointed?

I was disappointed as a writer because there was no mystery in the finale. It was all hugs and kisses and platitudes (applicable ones, of course). I believe there was no mystery because, in the end, the writers set themselves up for a poor finale with all the cast changes and story editing that had to be done to get through six seasons. They tampered with the excavation. 

There's no way this ending was planned since Season 1 (or, I'd wager, from Season 5). The writers didn't know, bless their hearts. But the weaving had to continue, so more questions were created, until the only feasible ending was one that depended on a clean wrap up that saw Christian Shephard walk into a doorway full of lot into the Great Beyond that is all our destiny's on this terrestrial ball, whereby we may remember and let go of All That is Well and Good. 

Bleck.

Oh well. Now I have an hour a week back in my pocket.

Posted via email from T.J. Cook