Uhm, so what up, “Lost”? Because you wrote yourself into a corner, you fall back on the relativism of everything is possible, everything is right, whatever YOU think it means is what it all means?
Thanks a lot, Slappy.
Did anybody else watch the series finale? I need to vent but I don’t want to give away spoilers here.
I watched. I was stunned. It seemed to have created more questions than it answered. “WTF?” is my biggest question.
I won’t be a spoiler either, but seriously, did the writers just give up? I thought they had planned this from the beginning.
I know for a fact that I will be more satisfied with the ending of 24 tonight no matter what happens – unless Jack ends up in some weird church with his dad.
Brian — /unless Jack ends up in some weird church with his dad./
Hahahahahaha. Okay. I’m going to do spoilers here in the comments so watch out, pippa.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!
What was the DEAL with those last fifteen minutes? I mean, the whole 6 years ends in a climactic hugfest? Ew. Our last shot of Jack and Kate is the two of them holding hands, sitting in the pew of some nutso church that looks like one of those “COEXIST” bumper stickers?
I mean, did anyone catch that stained glass window? A Star of David. A cross. A yin-yang. An om. A crescent moon. Pretty whackadoo church. “We believe in all things. We pick no sides.” Bleah. I’m not a relativist, obviously, so that bugged me. But besides that, I didn’t think it NEEDED to be in the shot. It felt like a giant ecumenical pander. “Whatever your belief system, our finale fits right in!” Jack is Jesus. Jack is Buddha. Jack is yin to Sawyer’s yang. Or whatever. Whatever grid you view this through is CORRECT. I hate that they couldn’t really make choices. Whatever you believe is true is true. I hate that as a worldview and I hate that as storytelling. Lazy.
Beyond that — HOW did Hurley and Desmond and Ben get off the island? How come we didn’t see Michael and Walt? We saw that bitch SHANNON but we don’t see Michael and Walt in the finale? And having Vincent the dog in the finale only made me wonder more about his owners — MICHAEL AND WALT.
And, I’m sorry, but am I the only person who is completely turned off by the “bright light” as the ultimate symbol of an afterlife or heaven? I have zero zip nada interest in a bright glaring light. Sunglasses were made for a reason. If that’s all heaven is, I’m gonna be REAL disappointed.
I just couldn’t get over the fact that these people we’d seen for 6 years running around the jungle, shooting guns, beating people, being beaten, blowing up things, running from black smoke and polar bears and various nutjobs were just placidly sitting in some whacked out “church” waiting for the bright light to take them away. I felt like they’d all been lobotomized.
Yup! We are on the same page.
Were they all dead from the crash or the events on the island? I couldn’t tell. If they were dead from the crash where were all the Dharma people from and if they were dead from the events on the island why were only some of them in the church? Like you point out – where was Michael and Walt? Why was Desmond’s lady there? Uhg. too much weird unknown.
Hurley says to Linus “you were a good number 2” well I say the end of the show was a number 2.
Brian — /the end of the show was a number 2./ Hahahahahaha. We’re both so pissed about this. Like we’re junior high pissed. It’s killing me.
Okay. Jack’s dad DID say — at the freaky window church — that some of the people in the church had died before him, some had died after him (Jack). There was no time anymore. Just the constant present. It seemed a convenient way to get around telling HOW Kate died or Hurley died or Sawyer died, etc.
So no. The ISLAND was real — what happened there was real. They all died in other ways. Well, some died on the island — Sun, Jin — and others just cacked it in other undefined “we’re too lazy to tell you” ways.
I stayed up later for the cast on Jimmy Kimmel and I think Matthew Fox (Jack) did say the events on the island were real. It wasn’t like that lost season of “Dallas” or something.
Also: I thought the whole glowing “island stopper” set was ridiculous. I don’t know what to call that place. The place where Jack plugged the hole and saved the island.
I will say this: I LOVED watching Terry O’Quinn (Locke) become Good Locke again in that hospital bed after his surgery. Really the only time I teared up. He acted the SNOT outta that. I mean, damn, was that good. Just lying there in a hospital bed, he made you know beyond a doubt that Good Locke was back. I’ve always liked him on this show, but last night he had some transcendent moments. It was weird. As a viewer, I felt like I’d become numb to Bad Locke/Smokey. Resigned to him. Even though I knew Locke was dead, I started accepting HIM as Locke. So when he was resurrected as Good Locke in those few moments in the bed, I was like, “He’s back! THAT’S Locke! That’s the real deal!” It was an amazing bit of acting.
I also choked up when he forgave Ben. That was moving. The actor who played Ben was always pretty astounding too.
So those were the good bits for me.
Also: I enjoyed the kissin’. Whatevs. I’m a chick.
Terry O’Quinn was my favorite part of the show – agreed!
Why did Kate switch from a black dress to tank and skirt in the church? She deserved to enter heaven in that smokin’ hot black dress or maybe that’s the point – it was too hot for heaven. Whatevs. I’m a dude.
Brian — We noticed that too. Kate has an on-site wardrobe change? Weird. Maybe she couldn’t look that hot because, you know, there’s no sex in heaven. 😉
I was really enjoying this season. I had accepted that we weren’t going to get any real answers; I just wanted some kind of closure. Some kind of decent end cap on the show. Well, that’s a bit of a lie – the one question I really wanted answered, the one thing I think all viewers needed was to have a solid answer about what the island really was. The “light that is inside every man” crap is such a sweeping under the rug of six seaons worth of build-up.
So, yeah, a bit frustrated.
Waitaminute… so the end of Lost is that they all become Unitarians????
What a rip.
NF — Yep. Hahahahahahaha.
Cullen — I know. I still don’t know what the island was either.
Here’s the thing: I just told someone in an email that the end of “Lost” felt like the TV show as Mad Lib. Just fill in whatever meaning you want. No, it doesn’t make sense but it’s finished, isn’t it?
It was like being in a maze and being certain there’s a way out, only to discover you’re actually trapped in an Escher painting.
I wouldn’t have cared if I didn’t LIKE the answers. It’s the laziness of not supplying them that bugs me. It’s almost cowardly to me. I mean, they set up this show with philosophical overtones, right? They create all these questions in the viewers’ minds and in the end, they choose not to answer some of the most basic questions of all. They chose not to take a side, really. As this season progressed, especially, I thought we were dealing with a good/evil question, but no, somehow, they skated around that question too. No good, no evil. You know, just like life.
The ending of “Lost” is summed up by my least favorite phrase: “It’s all good!”
And another thing. (I’m really annoyed by this. I need to chill.)
I’m not one of those Christians who needs to see or even looks for “Christian” themes in everything I see or read. Please. That’s tedious. So I’m not annoyed about “Lost” in the same way some Christians in the blogosphere seemed to be annoyed with “Lost” because the ending wasn’t “Christian” enough. Bleah. Who cares? It’s a TV show. It’s not the Bible.
I’m annoyed with “Lost” from a storytelling angle, not a spiritual angle.
Oh, and those letters from viewers that they worked into the commercial breaks? Ew. “Lost” shouldn’t be cloying. That icked me out.
And, honestly, I wanted the final shot to be of the island, not a lame-o church. A church has no context in the show.
Okay at the risk of getting shot at……..I’m going to swim against the tide and say that I really, really liked it. But then I like open ended endings…….I think that’s how life really is. Sure there are some things that are just final, but often our lives take turns and switchbacks we never anticipate. I found myself really liking the characters (most of them) and hoping for a happy ending. Anyway…a little dissension for ya’ll.
I’m not a hater or anything, because heaven knows I watch my share of crappy shows (The Cleveland Show is FUNNY, y’all!), but D and I tried to watch Lost and never got past the first episode.
After the first season, they re-ran the whole season in the summer, remember? And since we had not watched it, but had heard allll about it from friends and family who did, we decided to watch it over the summer and get caught up.
An hour into the first episode, I looked over at him and went, “The H3LL?” and he said, “I was lost 20 minutes ago.” So we changed the channel and never looked back.
I can’t put that much thinking into a TV show. It makes me feel dumb. 🙂
I’m with you on storytelling, Tracey. It doesn’t have to be this overt thing, or conform to my chosen worldview, in order to make some sort of sense. It’s got to make me think and be internally consistent. It’s got to play fair with the audience, to give them a payoff after they make an investment. And if it’s brain-free entertainment, then by all means entertain.
The Rock was a fairly crappy movie, but it made sure it hit all the proper notes. In fact, I should go ahead and review it according to my Bad Movies Scale and see how it checks out.
Lisa — Hahahahahaha. Well, see? Be glad now. You don’t have this frustration. You’re smarter than the rest of us, you are.
CV — I don’t mind open-ended endings either, but I think NF just said it best:
/It’s got to make me think and be internally consistent. It’s got to play fair with the audience, to give them a payoff after they make an investment./
I don’t think Lost did that entirely. Sure, there were moments I liked and reunions I liked, but I don’t think it played fair with the audience in the end.
And, seriously, that lingering hugfest in the church was just BAD TV, pippa! Like watching someone’s tedious family reunion footage. I would not have minded a passionate, non-bloody, non-we’ve-both-been-wounded, non-near-death liplock between Jack and Kate in that moment, but nope. What did they do? They sat down in the pew and held hands. Okay. Passionately held hands.
Woo. Be still my heart.