Ahh, isn't that cute ...
Lost Finale
- Thread starter Mummy
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aaronspink
Veteran
Of course they mattered. How else would they drag this on for 6 seasons???
No really, i think everything had its purpose and of course there were a lot of fillers in the last 6 years, but that's true about every single TV show out there - some that dragged on for a lot longer than 6 seasons!
Well, i 'got it' and loved it.
Lost filler:
Season 1: the non-filler of season 1 could be fit into 3 maybe 2 episodes.
Season 2 is all filler.
Season 3 maybe has 1 episode of non-filler
Season 4: mostly filler, little real plot
Season 5: Hey, some actual plot
Season 6: hey actual plot and enough filler to fill out to the end and an ending which has no relation to most of the central threads of the actual show except limited ones starting in season 6 and somewhat into 5.
In effect most of season 1/2/3/4 are filler. Most of it filler which isn't internally consistent. Its sad that a 5 year show like Andromeda which had its whole creative staff changes and its story almost completely changed midway through has more internal consistency and less filler!
You have to first define what is filler and what is not filler. Since the show is really just about these characters and their journey through incomprehensible events, none of it is filler. If you mistakenly believe it's a show about an island of mysteries, you might consider everything filler. But that's your problem, not the show's.
Here's an essay I wrote about the show: Why LOST denies you the answers you crave
Fillers are episodes without plot progression.
Regardless of how character driven it supposedly is, not everything is filler, season 6 had a very definite plot ... not a great plot (no foreshadowing for 4 seasons and then BAM, ignoring the introduction of humanoid MiB 5 seasons, it's semi-good guy vs. BBEG with chosen ones in the middle and forced to take over) but still a plot.
Regardless of how character driven it supposedly is, not everything is filler, season 6 had a very definite plot ... not a great plot (no foreshadowing for 4 seasons and then BAM, ignoring the introduction of humanoid MiB 5 seasons, it's semi-good guy vs. BBEG with chosen ones in the middle and forced to take over) but still a plot.
aaronspink
Veteran
You can try to say lost was about the characters but that only focuses how one dimensional most of the characters were and how much each individual one was a complete idiot. Really, I'm not sure you could pick any random group of people and come up with a bigger collection of complete idiots. As a show about characters it fails pretty miserably in any regard except a bad soap opera full of idiots.
+1.
Opinionated or what?? Jesus.
Did anybody really expect it to end with a coherent storyline which drew the multitudinous strands together and actually made sense?
Just the typical load of quasi-mystical bullshit which leaves those willing to try and find hidden depths (which don't exist) with something to discuss. As others have mentioned, this is pretty much the same as the latter seasons of BSG.
Just the typical load of quasi-mystical bullshit which leaves those willing to try and find hidden depths (which don't exist) with something to discuss. As others have mentioned, this is pretty much the same as the latter seasons of BSG.
aaronspink
Veteran
I can't help it if the characters in lost are some of the most stupid ever put on TV outside of a comedy where they are intentionally supposed to be stupid for comedic effect. Seriously, think back to all the episodes that effectively rely on the characters lacking any understanding or knowledge of human behavior or human history of people they have been living with for a year! Or all he episode which effectively rely on, "you'd be stupid to do that", ok, lets all be stupid.
I thought the finale was pretty good, though the series as a whole had some problems. Overall, I'd say the show was very good. I've never actually watched a show until it's completion, unless you count BBC series that run two years at 12 episodes a piece. They supposedly had the story planned out when they agreed to a fixed number of seasons part way through, but I feel they didn't have it planned as well as they thought they did. There are definitely some wishy-washy parts, but I'd agree it is a character study or a moral tale more than anything, even though it was weak at times. Kate's story is absolute shit, start to finish, but I have a bit of a boner for her, so it's ok. This series is kind of like an extended Pulp Fiction or Ronin, where people get way too tied up on questions like, "What's inside the briefcase?" It isn't actually important to the story.
My biggest complaint is that they turned Jack into too much of a failure part way through the series. He just couldn't seem to get anything right, despite his best intentions. I know he was supposed to be going through an internal struggle, trying to define his life outside his father and all that, but they could have made him suck a lot less. Even in the last episode, he pretty much sucks right up until maybe the last twenty minutes.
My biggest complaint is that they turned Jack into too much of a failure part way through the series. He just couldn't seem to get anything right, despite his best intentions. I know he was supposed to be going through an internal struggle, trying to define his life outside his father and all that, but they could have made him suck a lot less. Even in the last episode, he pretty much sucks right up until maybe the last twenty minutes.
They couldn't even let him kill Loche properly. He falls for the same punk move by Loche two times, and the second time he got stabbed. Then Kate kills the guy. WTF? At least let Jack take care of him after all those seasons of confrontation.
I worked in a video store at the time Ronin came out. I got so tired of being asked what was in the briefcase or listening to peoples rants about how the movie was stupid for the same reason. Literally hundreds of people complained to me about this. Pulp fiction was another one like that.
I'd call that being obtuse. It's like reading the whole Bible and then ask what happened after the end.
It's filled with MacGuff!
I think this post on the Guardian is the closest to how i feel. Only it is written much better than i ever could...
Character driven story telling ... the eternal excuse when the plot sucks.
The mysteries are secondary, the lack of answers is just a symptom of the main problem with Lost ... it's plot. We only know what the lostees know? Well it would have been interesting to shoot the series like that, but of course they didn't ... we know much more and the only way to reconcile the lot of it is to put rose coloured glasses on. The plot there is has no overall cohesiveness. Topped off with a Deus ex Machina ending followed with a "everyone lived happily ever after, even if they are dead" (well except some random assholes, they get to stay on the island forever as whispers with their only crime being that they didn't have enough screen time).
The mysteries are secondary, the lack of answers is just a symptom of the main problem with Lost ... it's plot. We only know what the lostees know? Well it would have been interesting to shoot the series like that, but of course they didn't ... we know much more and the only way to reconcile the lot of it is to put rose coloured glasses on. The plot there is has no overall cohesiveness. Topped off with a Deus ex Machina ending followed with a "everyone lived happily ever after, even if they are dead" (well except some random assholes, they get to stay on the island forever as whispers with their only crime being that they didn't have enough screen time).
aaronspink
Veteran
Which is a great way of saying, the first 5 seasons don't matter. Which is revisionist at best.
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