Is Lost over for you?

Cafe Society
1

I’m just done with the show.

They had an opportunity to run this show for two seasons, get some explanations out of the way, a big conclusion, and we’d be talking forever about how it was one of the greatest shows ever.

But, as you know. . .network TV is just not set up for that model. It got ratings, and that was it’s death knell. The second season was filler after filler, with some good tidbits thrown in. But increasingly, the tidbits came to be not things that might lead towards the bigger mystery, but just cliffhangers for the next episode.

The last three weeks have all been action to set up what happened the next week. And same with last night. So, Jack sees an X-ray and notices a tumor. Big fucking whoop. All that is is something to create a continuing dynamic with Henry, something tossed in at the last 2 minutes to give the watchers the chances to think it over for the next week. It’s not explaining why there’s a sentient black cloud, a tree eating machine, why the paralyzed can walk, why there are lucky numbers, who put the button there, why there’s a polar bear.

Instead, what do we get. . .30 minutes last night of further characterization of Sawyer?? Yeah, we got it. . .he’s a con man at heart who sometimes reveals a heart of gold. We got it the first 50 times you showed it. The entire jail sequence added SQUAT. It would have been nice to see what followed with Jun and Sun. It might be nice to hear from Walt, who appears to be magical. But 30 more minutes of Sawyer back story when ALL the action is on the island?

Just SOMETHING. Stop introducing new things. The problem is, the show is just plainly manipulating the audience now, and that gives me feelings of revulsion. The commercials are non-stop, and the show now looks designed to just be strung out to keep selling commercials for year.

I have a heard time believing this was Abram’s vision.

Lost was the only one-hour drama I watched that wasn’t on HBO, and the only one since I quit NYPD Blue in about 2000. Now, I feel like I just wasted a lot of Wednesday nights for the last couple years, because I’m done. And, I don’t think I’ll be picking one up ever again. Shame they’ve completely squandered excellent characters, and a great setup.

2

Of course, it was over for me after the first series ended.

It started out interesting, but I knew that if they didn’t say straight away that they had a definate ending, then they’d string it out for season after season to keep the ratings going with those idiotic tit-bits that shows of this kind hand out :rolleyes:

3

It’s getting there. I’ll give it some more time, but it’s getting out of hand.
I’m mainly pissed off about the ‘homework’ we’re expected to do to keep up with the damn thing. I hate the little teasers near the end of each episode - something about people with AmEx cards being able to log on and access secret scenes, and buying the DVDs to see extra scenes, and logging onto ABC-dot-com for deleted scenes and watching ABC’s morning show for even more deleted and secret scenes and behind the scenes secrets - it’s just too much.

4

I just find it hilarious that three Lostaways get blown up in the hatch (which, incidentally, contained most of their food), three other Lostaways get kidnapped at gunpoint by the vaunted Others, three other Lostaways embark on a daring rescue mission, the sky turns purple, and all of this happened, like, two days ago…and the people on the beach play golf and eat fruit salad and act generally unconcerned and incurious.

There’s no semblance of urgency from one episode to the next. None of them seem to care about their fates; why should I?

5

Yes, Lost is over for me. WTF, there is a huge island right off the coast and it hasn’t been spotted in the last 71 days? I call bullshit.

6

Yeah – that’s more of the manipulation, a matter of “what we don’t show you, you don’t know”.

What’s the first thing anyone would do on that Island? Find a high point and scout the territory, just like Tom Hanks did. Inconceivable they wouldn’t know there’s another island right there.

7

See, this is why I didn’t even start watching the show – or any of those continued series. I’ve complained about this on the Board before – American network TV doesn’t really believe in short-lived series with a definite end unless they’re adaptations of books or something. Otherwise, like Twin Peaks, they eventually tail off and die a drawn-out death.

8

I’m not yet, but I’m getting there. My wife still likes it though.

Yep, haven’t seen anything new or exciting. Ok so there’s plenty of new crap, but it’s not that exciting.

This is the worst part. I didn’t see all of the first season, my wife watched it on DVD with the baby. I caught half of it and it was good, we got the second season and I thought it wasn’t too bad. But now they just keep putting out new crap and ignoring the old stuff they told us about.

The whole backstory last night was crap, complete and utter crap.

I hate all the new stuff they have to add, they must just want the show to go on forever. At which point I’ll be pissed because they will not show anything at all.

The wife and I are spoiled, we watched both seasons on DVD. I like watching in HD, but it’s getting to the point where I can’t stand the commercials. I know last night we had them at 9:05-9:09, 9:15-9:19, 9:26-9:29, 9:37-9:40, the last two I was too mad to keep track of. And a lot of the commercials are for other shows, I don’t need to be reminded of the other damn shows. I’m getting to the point where I will record it and fast forward through them.

I remember watching the first few when it came out and kind of liked it. Watched more with the baby around. They need to answer something at least, but they haven’t answered a thing. The hatch goes boom, nothing. Food from the sky, nothing. Penelope comes on at the end of last season, not a word about her now. The Island heals some people but not others, even gun shoot wounds. All the other “hatches” yet no one goes to explore them.

I’m tired of getting jerked around like this, and I hope they pick it back up or I might just start not watching the show every week. I’m sure I can get by on missing them here and there. I also think the second Island was stupid, you can’t tell me no one saw it or knows anything about it. Plus it’s a lot bigger then when Ben says it is.

9

As of last night, I’m officially watching it just as an intro for Top Chef. Tonight, on Lost: somebody gets physically assaulted, and we get 30 minutes of backstory that tells us what we already knew.

Booooooring. This show sucks now. Tell me why the statue has four toes already.

10

I’m with the rest of you, but I feel kind of trapped into watching at least a while longer. I’ve invested so much time in this, and it was so promising at the beginning. I need some answers, and all I’m getting is more questions. They’ve forgotten how to tell a good story. They don’t need to stick to the original formula of including someone’s back story in every episode.

Something has to happen.

11

This week’s TV Guide has nominated “Lost” for the Jump-The-Shark Award.

12

Add me to the list. I’m done. Too bad, cause I was sooooo into this show and it was being done so well. They’ve completely lost it though. I’d be interested to see what the ratings are doing.

13

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,272|||weekly,00.html

nothing you’d call “in the tank” but worse than last year.

14

While I’m not done with the show I’ll only invest the minimal to get by. That is I’ll record it on the DVR so I can skip the commercials and give it my 40 minutes of attention each week.
-I will not buy the DVDs.
-I will not “log in” or “tune in” for deleted missing scenes.
-I will not read “revealing” articles in magazines.
-I will not look at websites for clues, theories, or insights.

40 minutes once a week, when I want to watch it I can handle and not complain too much about.
That being said I do have to agree with everyone about how stupid the characters seem to be and how they have no common sense.
Biggest Example:
Nobody thought to walk the perimeter of the island to see if it was an island and maybe find other settlements? If they did they might find 1) A boat dock 2) A 4-toe statue 3) The second crash site 4) Another island 5) Desmond’s boat 6) Cable leading to French ladies place. But no, for some odd reason they stay put and travel inland where they know tree crushing monster and polar bears live??

And how many people missed seeing the second island? Desmond sailing around for days. Sayid, Sun, & Jun sailing. The raft excursion from season 1. Sayid attempting to walk the perimeter. Numerous other people wandering all over the island. Nobody noticed a second island??

.

15

Yep. I’m done. The wife will still watch it, but not with any enthusiasm. It will still be Tivoed, but that’s just in case they pull their heads out and start making a real show of it again. But I’d rather surf the net or play with the cats than watch that bilgewater any longer.

16

I agree Trunk. I have similar issues with that fox show about breaking out of jail. If we new it would end, I might have watched but it will go on and on until no one watches and then there will be satisfactory ending (for either show.) 24 handles it nicely - by ending the plot each season. (OK, I don’t watch it either, but I like the idea of endings.)

17

I agree with you Trunk. Towards the end of the first season, I thought to myself, “Wait a minute, the plot didn’t advance in this episode. What the hell!?!?” After that realization, I noticed that nothing moved forward for months on end. Anyone remember The X-Files? I was hooked for years and tried to collect any clue into the larger conspiracy. Then, it turned out Chris Carter had no plan and just made a mess of the whole conspiracy. This is what is happening with Lost. No Babylon 5-esque map of where the series is going.

18

My infallible rule bailed me out in series one. Almost universally, if I miss an episode of a series and then realise I don’t really care, that’s the end of it for me. I think I saw about 4 episodes.

19

I’m Tivoing the second season, but haven’t gotten inspired to watch it. I think I’ll download the HD version, that will give me incentive to watch it.

20

To me, it’s the extra stuff, the “homework” as someone here called it.

Lost is a mystery, which the entire point for the audience is to gather clues and see if they can figure it out. To be told that in watching a mystery I will be missing clues if I don’t get a new credit card, watch the ABC morning show, go to ABC.com, read all the Hanzo Foundation crap websites, etc… fuck it. It’s just too much effort, with no obvious payoff.

Hell, I’d totally forgotten about the sentient cloud. Which reminds the machine-sounding monster-thing, plus whatever took the pilot from the plane in episode one, and the death of Libby (Hurley’s gotten over her pretty quick, ya think?), and all that shit…

Ugh.