# Should I watch Lost?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-watch-lost/540556
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 24, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-watch-lost/540556 "2010-05-24T12:24:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-watch-lost/540556/41 "2010-05-26T17:38:10Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Ah, yes, “hater”. It changes the tone of a discussion when you throw out that word, it has so much baggage. It’s easy to label people who disagree with you as “haters” because it’s easier to dismiss their criticisms. After all, they’re just looking for reasons to hate it!
This is why I hesitate to get into these arguments. I did not mean to change any tone or throw around a loaded word. It was simple shorthand. If it bothers you, I retract it - I do not mean to cast aspersions on you. I tried to say it before, but I’ll say it again: you are completely entitled to your opinions, as are we all.
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> You are misinterpreting my words, possibly deliberately, since I cleared this up. You seem to be saying that I think they let the show get to a certain level of good and then said “ok, but not any better than this! Even though we could do better, let’s do the exact level of good that’ll hook people but be unsatisfying!”.
I am not deliberately misinterpreting you. Can we drop this antagonism, please? You said, and I quote: “That’s essentially all the show is - a long treadmill designed to hook you just enough to keep going so you don’t have to admit that you’ve been fooled up to this point and wasted your time.” I’m sorry, but the plain reading of that is ludicrous. Then you amended/clarified that after I questioned you about it. Your _clarification_ makes a lot more sense and may well be true, but that doesn’t change the fact of what you originally said and what I originally responded to, which I believed was hyperbole.
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> I said that they were too incompetant to weave a coherent story together from all the plot threads they created. This seems obviously true. And I said that the show was designed to keep upping the ante on the mystery - if they couldn’t resolve an earlier mystery, just double down and get even more mysterious as a way to constantly keep people in that mystery building anticipation mode. This works for a while, but eventually you end up writing yourself into a corner and there’s just no way you can resolve all the stuff you were just making up on the spot with no future plans towards consistency or resolution. And that’s exactly what this show was - no answers, upping the mysteries constantly for years, things start to shake apart from inconsistencies and silly plot contrivances like characters never asking reasonable questions to characters who know something, and eventually you just have to end the thing with an unsatisfying mystical ending.
Again, this makes more sense than your original statement, and I think it’s a valid opinion to hold, and to advise potential viewers about.
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Again, your need to misrepresent my attitude indicates the weakness of your position. I don’t “need to take a deep breath” - I’m calm and rational. I don’t feel particularly angry since I was pretty sure this was coming for years now. I was a little dissapointed that the writers didn’t even try to do a half-decent job of wrapping it up, but for the most part my expectations were so low that I’m not devastated or naything.
>
> As for “suffering”, obviously I’m not implying I’m actually sitting here through enormous pain. But you can “suffer” through tedious stuff, right? If a book had a few chapters in the middle which were irrelevant to the plot and uninteresting, you might talk about suffering through those for no reason - I don’t see why that’s hyperbolic. I don’t mean to say that watching the show was torture for me - there were still elements that were worthwhile like some of the actingthe acting, and occasionally good episodic stories that actually got resolved, Sawyer’s nicknames, etc. But a ton of the stuff was tedious and boring and ultimately never had any meaning anyway, hence, I think the audience suffered through a lot of it.
Sorry, I can see that I made it a bit personal with the “take a breath” line, which again was not my intention. The reason I said that is because I believe that your original statement, which was to warn people not to watch the show because they would get sucked into the great first season, then suffer through the remaining 5 years, was way over the top. I mean, if you really were suffering, why did you bother watching 5 whole seasons of bad TV? It makes no sense - that’s why it’s hyperbolic. It obviously wasn’t _that_ bad or you would have stopped. You’ve moderated that position above to something that I think is much more of a grounded opinion to give to those who haven’t seen the show. (Though I disagree with you broadening it out from yourself to the larger “audience”).
As Hurley might say, Dude, I don’t want to fight with (or misinterpret) you. I just think your original condemnations that I replied to were over the top, and I think potential viewers might want to know that there is differing opinion.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-watch-lost/540556/42 "2010-05-26T17:49:59Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#):
>
> The reason I said that is because I believe that your original statement, which was to warn people not to watch the show because they would get sucked into the great first season, then suffer through the remaining 5 years, was way over the top.
Eh, it’s not that far-fetched. Lost is like crack: it’s shitty, but that doesn’t stop people from indulging to get their fix.
I actually enjoyed watching the show more because of how actively terrible it was, and had fun engaging with my similar feeling friends on that level.
---
### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-watch-lost/540556/43 "2010-05-28T08:13:27Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#):
>
> I am not deliberately misinterpreting you. Can we drop this antagonism, please? You said, and I quote: “That’s essentially all the show is - a long treadmill designed to hook you just enough to keep going so you don’t have to admit that you’ve been fooled up to this point and wasted your time.” I’m sorry, but the plain reading of that is ludicrous. Then you amended/clarified that after I questioned you about it. Your _clarification_ makes a lot more sense and may well be true, but that doesn’t change the fact of what you originally said and what I originally responded to, which I believed was hyperbole.
>
> Again, this makes more sense than your original statement, and I think it’s a valid opinion to hold, and to advise potential viewers about.
I stand by my statement. The goal of the writers was not to tell a coherent story over a number of years, despite claims to the contrary. It’s easy to create intrigue and mystery, but hard to resolve satisfyingly. They know this and so they just kept up the building intrigue/mystery stage as long as they could because it was holding most of the audience. Well, half of it - looks like the half the audience gave up between S2 and S6.
> [@](#):
>
> Sorry, I can see that I made it a bit personal with the “take a breath” line, which again was not my intention. The reason I said that is because I believe that your original statement, which was to warn people not to watch the show because they would get sucked into the great first season, then suffer through the remaining 5 years, was way over the top. I mean, if you really were suffering, why did you bother watching 5 whole seasons of bad TV? It makes no sense - that’s why it’s hyperbolic. It obviously wasn’t _that_ bad or you would have stopped. You’ve moderated that position above to something that I think is much more of a grounded opinion to give to those who haven’t seen the show. (Though I disagree with you broadening it out from yourself to the larger “audience”).
Again, it wasn’t pure torture to watch it. It’s a slick package. The acting is mostly very good. Sometimes individual episodes or storylines were interesting.
The actual creation of mystery is fun - the problem is that it’s fun because you try to figure out ways it could resolve. You think “wow, this is well constructed and interesting - when it comes to the resolution, I’m in for a treat.”
In order for mystery to be fun, you have to have some faith that the writers know that they’re doing. If you know from the start they’re just making stuff up as they go along, the mystery loses its value. Or, in this case, you watch it until it shakes apart and it’s clear that there was a lot of buildup to nothing, hence, some of the enjoyment you got from watching the buildup was … fraudulent, undeserved. Which leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
It ends up being a buzzkill, a dissapointment. So if anyone else asks me if they should go through the same experience, knowing what I do now, I’ll recommend they don’t. I mean - imagine watching the series after reading this thread, knowing that all the plot wouldn’t ever amount to anything - how much could you enjoy the intrigue/mystery buildup stage, knowing it’s hollow?
Of course, I guess that’s sort of spoiling the fun - but the other way they’d find out is after sinking 100 hours into it and then being dissapointed.
> [@](#):
>
> As Hurley might say, Dude, I don’t want to fight with (or misinterpret) you. I just think your original condemnations that I replied to were over the top, and I think potential viewers might want to know that there is differing opinion.
Other than acknowledging that saying “suffering through” could be interpreted more severely than it was meant, I stand by what I said. My opinions aren’t that extreme, and several people in the thread agreed with them, and probably a good chunk of the viewers Lost lost as the show went along too.
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