Exactly. Or, if not rational, exactly, in the general realm of science-fiction.
I suppose, since I originally signed up to this board in April of 2010 after years of lurking specifically in order to join the ‘Lost’ final season discussion, and my user handle is based on the show, I should add my $.02…
In the Summer break after season 1 or 2 there was a ‘Lost’ web presence that was created in an effort to keep interest in the show active during the Summer hiatus. It was supposedly canon, and (I thought) had the blessing and support of the show runners. It was sort of a puzzle site where you look for clues and hints as to the direction of the plot arc of the show. It’s where concepts were introduced such as the ‘Valenzetti Equation’, loosely based on the real-life ‘Drake Equation’, which was the supposed explanation for the mysterious ‘numbers’ 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. They were part of a calculation that showed the end of civilization or the human race was imminent. The whole island Dharma Initiative thing, including the polar bears and other weirdness, was part of a series of experiments that were conducted to try to change any one of the numbers in the equation, which might result in saving the human race.
That all sounded like a reasonable plan to tie together all the plot elements that they were juggling like plates on sticks, and a plot arc I could get behind, but in later seasons they threw all of that out the window like the enemy of a Russian dictator. The final explanation for the ‘numbers’, for example, turned out to be some dumb squishy woo-woo nonsense. Even part way through the final season, when my wife was saying ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think the writers have a ghost of a clue where they’re going with all this" I was saying “just wait, I still believe they’re going to tie it all together in a good way”. Then they started getting into BS like the island’s golden creamy center, and the mythical conflict between Jacob and his smoke monster brother. The smoke monster should have turned out to be a nanobot swarm, dammit! And I regretfully admitted to my wife “yeah, you called it”. I was bitterly disappointed by that show. But, I like to think I came away with a greater sense of BS detection for when people or organizations pretend to know what they’re doing but in reality are faking it all along and have no freakin’ clue. At least, I hope I don’t get fooled again.
So, TroutMan, I hope you enjoy your rewatch, but I won’t be joining-- I don’t think I can even bring myself to hate-watch it, even after all this time. Hard to believe it’s really been 20 years… 