Regarding season 4, I guess I just reached the end of my patience with the whole thing about “OK, here are some new characters who are kind of hot, kind of surly, kind of dangerous, kind to seem to know everything about everything but aren’t about to let on what they know about anything.” I put up with it twice in season 2 because it was appropriate to the inter-tribal tension that was introduced, but in season 4 I saw it as the emergence of the same formula again for no good reason.
There was never a definite plan of when to end the show before they announced it would end after season 6. You heard wrong.
Same thing happened to me. LOVED season 1. Season 2 started off great but by the time they introduced a minor character called Mrs Clue towards the end of it, I really started to get fed up, and the first half of season 3 was TERRIBLE, and that’s where I quit. After I kept hearing that season 3 got really good again, AND I heard that the creators were set on ending the show at a set time (so that it wouldn’t get run into the ground a la Prison Break), I decided to rewatch the entire series over the writers strike (the show is MUCH better when watched in marathons rather than week to week, which is why I’m gonna wait til season 5 is nearly over to start on it), and I’m glad I did because season 4 was top notch and contained one of my all time favorite episodes of any TV series.
Which one is that?
It’s the kind of show where you have to take what they give you. If you can watch a single mid season episode and think “That was good. It was interesting, I liked the short flashback story they did, they presented another oddity about the island, if they care to explain something that’s cool, if not oh well, but I was entertained for the past hour” then watch and enjoy.
If you watch an episode or a few and think “I don’t care about these people, what’s going on here, I need answers already, can they get to the end soon, nobody’s acting logically” then save yourself the time and take a pass.
I’ve learned to take it for what it is, watch and enjoy it each episode, not wasting time between episodes trying to solve any mysteries (pointless), not becoming impatient for answers. I’ll just let it unfold at it’s own pace and enjoy the journey.
I’m guessing “the Constant.” Am I right?
That is correct. I need to watch that one again…infact maybe I better give all of season 4 another viewing before I watch 5.
Maybe it wasn’t set in stone but there was discussion by JJ Abrams among others about how long the series would go, and the answer seemed to depend on the time of day for awhile. It definitely, 100% for sure, was not originally intended to go 6 seasons. It definitely, 100% for sure, is intended to do that now. Other than that I’m not sure how you can say which rumors were “right” and “wrong.”
But that’s the thing, those were rumors. Until the 6 seasons announcement, the official word was always “We know the beginning and we know the end, but how long the middle will run is up in the air.”
Hence, “I heard.”
I watched half the first season and attrited apathetically away. Have not yet been inspired to try again.
No, it’s been six for a long time. Where did you hear that?
A month or so ago I heard Dan Savage on the radio, talking about how he used to be bothered by the unrealistic portrayal of gays on television–until he realized that straights were portrayed just as unrealistically. “I mean, do any straight people act like the straight people on Lost? … Does anyone act like the people on Lost?”
After I heard that, I could no longer take the show seriously, which was a shame, because my wife and I were halfway through season 2. Nobody acts like the people on Lost do: everyone’s primary motive is to serve the plot or, more specifically, the 41-minute run-time story arc. It’s really annoying
Daniel
So if “toilets” bothers you, you might have a hell of a time with Locke regaining the use of his legs and the whole “hatch” thing.
IMO, this is the greatest, most multi-faceted show ever. As many have pointed out, it is not a realistic depiction of plane crash survivors. It’s not Gilligan’s Island or Survivor, or a cross between them. There is much, much more going on here.
Season 1 was great, season 2, not so much. The first half of 3 was slow, but it picked up after that. Season 4 was amazing, with lots of answers, and a lot more pieces of the puzzle to work with. But you need every single episode, good or not, to have all the info needed to proceed.
Every season ends with a mind-blowing game changer. Just when you think you have a handle on things, everything changes. The season 4 finale was a total mind fuck. My head is still spinning. I LOVE it! I am absolutely miserable waiting for season 5!
Once the writers had a definite end date set for the series, they no longer had to do filler episodes to kill time. Once they knew they had the required X amount of hours left, everything fell into place for them. So about mid season 3, they picked up the pace. Season 4 will have you reeling.
This is not the kind of show you can miss a few and come back. Or worse, skip a season and come back. You will be lost for sure. Plus, you have to watch both the surface story and also what’s going on in the background. You have to watch this show on a deeper level than your average drama. If you don’t get your head totally into the game, most of it will pass right over.
This show is loaded with symbolism, mythology, psychology, paranormal, pseudo science, literary and historical references, clues and easter eggs. A lot of the Lost experience involves identifying these things and fitting them into the big picture.
If you are looking for a mindless action series, this is not it. This is a series that requires the use of your brain. Some people like that, while others just want simple entertainment.
The Sci-Fi showing of seasons 1-4 are timed to coincide with the beginning of season 5. So when the #5 premier arrives you will be all caught up… if you choose to proceed.
Lost is a silly, profoundly stupid show, but I still enjoy it.
The key is: Lost is a fantasy. It requires way more suspension of disbelief than, say, Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter. It’s more akin to Alice in Wonderland, actually. Once I started to look at it like this, I could forgive the thousands of things that don’t make any logical sense, the characters who seem to act in bizarre, inconsistent ways from episode to episode, and the ridiculously convoluted plots and contrivances.
Just enjoy the ride. They don’t exist in anything close to resembling our world; it’s Bizarro Land, a roller-coaster romp through half-baked ideas presented through characters who believe themselves to be in the Real World. The creators even seem to recognize this, with a nice reference to Lewis Carroll’s work in the episode titled “Through the Looking Glass”.
My main problem with Lost, why I stopped watching it, mostly, is it depressed me. My favorite TV shows–Buffy, NYPDBlue–have as their underlying theme the redemption of humanity; someone learning how to become a better person. Lost, on the other hand, was largely a contest to see who could out-slimeball each other; a profoundly misanthropic show, IMO. Like I said, depressed me.
At one point the survivors gain a boat. They then leave this boat guarded by the most useless member of the cast, Sun. They proceed to lose the boat.
I stopped watching at this point. I mean, they are stranded on an island. They have a boat, end of story! If they can’t get off the damn island when they are handed a boat, I have no sympathy for them and hope they all die there.
Well, there is a great payoff in the last episode of series one (spec: the convenient and ironic disposition of a disposable “red shirt” character).
Other than that, it is a profoundly stupid show, albeit with the occasional clever bit and the impossibly gorgeous Evangeline Lilly. As much as Abrams and company may claim that they have some kind of ultimate resolution, they’ve clearly written themselves into such a corner that whatever solution they present is going to be a anticlimax.
So, Gilligan’s Island* but without the laff trak?
If the writers of Lost had any real guts they’d end the series with the characters finding four abandoned huts on a previously unexplored area of the island, a small motor yacht with a hole below the waterline, and a red shirt and fisherman’s hat. Then they’d realize that they’re all just in a televison show being filmed on a sound studio in Burbank right before the crew comes in and starts dismantling the set aroudn them. Maybe they could get Cybil Sheppard to do a cameo.
Stranger
Let me say this:
I got the first season from Netflix a week ago.
I am NOW just finishing season TWO (also from Netflix) and am considering starting to watch season three online because I can’t wait for Netflix to ship out season three.
Yeah, it’s worth it. Heh.