I got burned as bad as anyone with the X-files so I’m definitely wary. I think the one light of hope is that the producers have somewhat shown that they care about fan reaction. In this day and age, what with the intarweb and all, if (big if) the producers care about what fans think, they can keep relatively good tabs on it and act accordingly.
They recognized the backlash with the hatch at the end of the first season, and as a direct result solved that mystery within the first few seconds of the next season. Yeah it opened up even more (maddening) mysteries, but they didn’t drag out the “what is this thing” throughout another half season.
On several occasions, the producers have explicitly asked fan’s to trust them. I think the thing we have going for us is awareness. The producers recognize that people are frustrated with not getting answers and are sensitive to the parceling out of answers.
I can easily see the frustration from their point of view. They’re stuck between people getting impatient on one side and the need to draw the story out over 24 episodes per season. It’s not a movie, it’s a TV show. Their answer? “Trust us”. It’s basically what I’d say to someone else if I were showing them a badass video game that has some diversionary annoying bits like say, a long intro movie you can’t skip, an annoying level of platform jumping, or a section where you lose all your weapons and have to start over. But you say, just the very inclusion of these crappy parts make it a crappy game! Ever played Half-Life?
“Trust me”, I tell my friend as he’s ready to quit after smashing box after box with the crowbar. “Just keep playing…”
Wow, this thread is cool. I gave up on Lost after the first two episodes of the second season, for a lot of the reasons stated here. The characters are rock-stupid, the backstories are boring, the mysteries never get solved, and the entire plot is just one giant contrivance after another. It is so, SO totally clear that the whole thing is being made up as they go along, how anyone can hold onto the belief that the writers/producers have the tiniest clue what they’ll do next week, let alone that they have some overall master plan, just boggles my mind. I guarantee that whenever and however the show finally ends, the overwhelming majority of however many people are still watching will be hugely disappointed.
A continual series like this is doomed on America TV. Practically guaranteed to suck.
The only way they can have a satisfying show is to have it written out as a story, or at least a solid outline, before the first day of production. They have to have a hard-lined creator who won’t compromise on his vision, to tell a story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end.
Instead, they’ll just do what 99% of American shows do - keep running until they can’t anymore. You can’t tell a complete story like that.
The only show I’m aware of that ever tried this on American TV was Babylon 5, and while it has its flaws, it’s quite unlike anything else ever done.
See, this I don’t really get. I’m not picking on you in particular - as dozens of people have posted the same sentiment.
People will say “oh you people shouldn’t get so stuck on the mysteries! It’s about the characters!”
Okay - fine. What did we have yesterday, with Sawyer’s backstory? Something that told us absolutely nothing new about the character. It was practically the exact same thing as his last flashback. He cons. He sometimes isn’t the complete sociopath he might seem like. We get it. Where’s the great character drama there?
The characters on this show act stupidly, and irrationally all the time. Their motives and attitudes change to reflect the necesities of the plot. There is, at this point, very little development of any sort - even the flashbacks, the main source of development, are very uninformative. We may learn a little bit about a character, but it’s mostly the same story.
So, I don’t buy the whole “I watch it due to the characters” line of thought - I mean, I accept that you feel that way, but the characters are dumb, irrational, and serve the convenience of the plot. Learning about the characters in S1 was intriguing… now, they’re just subject to the same garbage that the main plot is.
Sorry - I meant to include this in the last post. What does it matter why Locke was in a wheelchair? They’ve never implied it’s some big mystery - maybe he got in a car accident, or fell off a roof. I don’t see why it matters.
This is why I stopped watching Desperate Housewives, but I don’t see the same inconsistencies in Lost.
I keep reminding myself that they’ve only been on the island for 2 or 3 months. They could still be hoping for rescue, and their lack of curiosity is one way of not giving up that hope. Why explore the neighborhood if you’re going to be moving soon?
Plus they’re spending a lot of time on basic survival. Finding food, replenishing the water bottles, maintaining shelter. Don’t you ever have days where time got away from you, and at bedtime you realize you didn’t accomplish anything except survival?
I can rationalize anything. But to be perfectly honest, I watch mostly for Sawyer cuz he’s the hottest guy on TV, and for Sun and Jin because their relationship is intriguing.
I think it matters because of the question of whether it’s due to an indisputable physical cause like those you mentioned or whether it might by a psychosomatic paralysis (as I’ve speculated before). If Locke broke his back falling off a roof and can now walk, it says a lot about the powers of the island.
I guess so - but in the grand scheme of questions we can have answered, that seems like #874 or so to me. I just didn’t see why people in this thread were making such a big deal of it.
Like several others, I’m going to base my extended future viewing on what happens before the extended break. I used to pass on going out and being social just to see Lost, now I’ll tape it if I go out, and whenever I watch it I’m usually on teh internets or reading a book during the show, so interest has definitely waned for myself.
Many of you are complaining that they’re drawing out the story too much and not giving out answers.
Except I don’t agree. Yes, the story is drawn out - but it’s an ongoing serial, it has to be drawn out. There’s no alternative.
But answers? You’re constantly getting answers. Not necessarily big revelations (though they do appear periodically) but you’re always seeing new things that help put together the puzzle.
What’s in the hatch? We know almost all we need to know about the whole hatch situation now.
Who are the Others? We know a lot, and will be learning a lot more, about the Others, who are certainly the key to everything.
What are the supernatural mysteries? Okay, not a lot of explanation there, but then they’re not a big part of the character story, they’re just things that flesh out the mystery of the island itself and almost certainly aren’t significant in the “Others vs Losties” story.
The truth is, if you got answers all the time, the mystery and fun of the show will be over too soon. It’s a balancing act they’re playing, but you’re all too impatient to stick that out, and have expectations that I think are unfair.
Of course there is - they could’ve had the story planned out, with a planned ending. That’s definitely an alternative to making shit up as you go along, creating nothing but buildup upon buildup.
I think that if the Losties would just give a wee, small acknowledgment that they did fall out of the sky on a crashed airplane onto a deserted island and perhaps their first and most important goal should be to be rescued instead of spending all their time trying to unravel the island’s mysteries, then I think I’d be a little happier. Just a little bit.
Start a signal fire to signal planes or boats (not The Others), finish that SOS on the beach (did they ever finish that?) and TAKE THE FREAKING SAILBOAT (if they still had the stupid thing), start sailing away from the island and while you’re at it, maybe, I don’t know, start asking The Others some questions like “What the hell is going on?”
That’s rather disingenuous, Little Nemo. Quite a few of those questions have been answered, although you’ll say that they haven’t been completely answered or given an answer that you like.
For example, it’s been set up that the plane crashed due to the system failure when Desmond didn’t enter the numbers. That is the simplest and most clearly and explicitly indicated answer. Thinking it might not be the whole story? Thinking that explanation might just be a ruse set up to trick us into thinking that’s the case? OK fine, but you could say that about any explanation and I can’t see how you’d be satisfied with any answer.
You think the writers are paying attention to your thread? They’re not giving your answers, maybe, but they are giving some answers. Like I said, they have to play it out as a serial, it’s a television show not a mini-series.
Anyway, a few of those have been answered: the plane crashed, and the radio lost contact, when Desmond didn’t enter the numbers and an electromagnetic pulse hit the plane; The Polar Bear is from the animal menagerie that Jack, Sawyer, and Kate are being kept in; Locke had knives because he fancied himself as a bit of a Hunter.
I agree with all the sentiments so far, but I think the show is actually about to take a really strange turn, so I’ll stick around for a few episodes to see what comes of that…
Spoiler about next week’s show:
I saw the preview for next week, and I could swear that they were showing a scene of someone watching a hatch monitor and a ‘grey’ alien head appeared on the screen for a second. Did anyone else see that?
We also got an answer for 14: Jack and his dad had an altercation when Jack suspected his dad of having an affair with Jack’s ex-wife. Dad went to Australia on a bender, and Jack and his mom both thought Jack was culpable. (Which to me indicates that they should have been going to Al-Anon, but whatever.)
And some of the questions may well just go unanswered. 9, for instance. Is there a deal with the white and black rocks? Maybe not; perhaps that can’t be explored in any way that’s relevant. 8 – who knows? Maybe nobody knows. That may have been more in the nature of simply showing the Losties what might happen to them if they didn’t adapt. 11 – maybe the Marshal was simply a dick. Does there have to be “more than it seems” to his relationship with any prisoner? Perhaps Kate was just his last fugitive before a hoped-for retirement. In any case, he’s long gone, so what difference does it make now?
This all makes me think of a similar discussion about unresolved questions in Harry Potter. Someone was really eager to know what the deal was with the gum wrappers that Neville’s mom gives him. They have to be part of a larger pattern, right? Maybe if he assembles them all in the right order, they form an ancient spell or something!
Only, who says? My take on the gum wrappers is that that scene was meant to be a poignant, heartbreaking moment, symbolic of how there really are worse fates than death, and seeing his parents like this should motivate Neville to bring down Voldie. Sometimes things just are what they are. And I think that’s the case with some elements of Lost. Someone in that questions thread wanted to know the source of Hurley’s nickname. Well, no offense, but what’s that got to do with the price of tea in Budokhan? You might as well ask why Sun seems to favor pink when she has a choice about what to wear. Not everything has to be EXPLAINED.
The writers are sacrificing plot elements to stretch the series, and without the plot to drive the series I can’t be bothered. It’s hard to get interested in characters who are so desperately stupid that 60 days into this they haven’t even bothered to circumnavigate the island. My son said around 10 minutes into the third show that they were all going to feel a little silly when it turned out they were on a pennisula. I guess it’s not a penninsula, but for all any of the plane crash survivors knows it could have been.
But to be perfectly honest, I watch mostly for Sawyer cuz he’s the hottest guy on TV, and for Sun and Jin because their relationship is intriguing.