Is it still on the air? I don’t care.
Some things still unresolved? So what?
I watch Lost not: past, present, and future.
So tell me what the deal is and why people do. Don’t bother evangelizing, just lay it bare.
So why are you asking then?
Idle curiosity, plain and simple.
I have no idea. It’s like 24, I just can’thelp myself.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that the point of the thread was “why do people watch Lost?” I just want a quick rundown of what the show is about.
A plane is flying from Australia to LA. It crashes on an island.
A bunch of people survive. They live on the island.
But they’re not alone on the island! There are other people, called The Others.
In fact, there’s all sorts of secret stations around the island, under ground and such. Plus there’s a old slave ship in the middle of the island. And some skeletons. And an old VW Bus, and a prop plane, and a little suburban town! WTF? Oh and there’s a few polar bears and a monster made out of smoke that kills people.
Lots of people die on the island. One kid gets born.
The Others have a leader named Ben. He is a tricky motherfucker. Do we (the audience) trust him? Do the plane crash survivors trust him? What happens when you trust him?
So 108 days after the plane crashes, a whole bunch of shit happens and 6 people end up getting rescued. A whole mess of people are still on the island. The 6 people who got rescued decided not to tell anyone in The Rest Of The World that there are other survivors. Ben told them to say that (they trusted him).
At the same time those folks got rescued, the island “disappeared” (we all saw it!) But it still exists…and the people left on the island are jumping through time.
The audience sees them jumping through time (with the “base” time being 3 years ago) and the 6 survivors dealing with shit in LA in now time (3 years from when they got rescued).
Now they’re all convinced they need to get back to the island. And that’s where we are now.
Of course, there’s like 120 hours or more of show wrapped up between the beginning and now, so it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Extremely hard to encapsulate the plot. That’s why people either watch it or they don’t.
Here it is, laid out plain, thus far:
A bunch of seemingly random people on Flight 815, from Australia to LA, crash on a smallish island somewhere in the South-Pacific in 2004.
48 passengers miraculously survive the wreck, and immediately start to notice there’s something ODD going on on the island, as the hear a loud ROAR coming from the interior.
No, it’s not dinosaurs.
Here’s what we know so far:
There’s other people on the island. And they don’t seem friendly at all.
The survivors find a hatch, in the first season, that turns out to be a scientific installation from a commune-like, shady group called the Dharma Initiative to proceed with experiments in all facets of cutting edge science. It was set up in the 70s and run through to the 80s, until a rouge group of people, led by one of the Dharma Initiative’s members, killed the entire installation in an act of genocide.
There are several “Hatches” on the island, each with a separate purpose to explore scientific anomalies that the island seems to harbor.
The “monster” of the island turns out to be an amorphous black smoke-like entity. It seems to have been there since antiquity. It’s so far been explained as a security system, but we’re not exactly sure what it’s guarding. It also seems fickle and very temperamental. It’s killed several people.
There are several as yet unexplained ruins, statues and temples. One of the ruins is of a large statue, and all that remains is the figures foot. It has 4 toes.
The Dharma Initiative was on to something. It was funded by a guy named Alvar Hanso. We haven’t met him yet. They came up with a set of numbers called the Valenzetti Equation. Supposedly they somehow predict the “end of the world”. The numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42. These numbers appear almost everywhere in the LOST world, but mostly as easter eggs. Also as harbingers of coincidence or fate itself. Most of this is lost on the characters, and only presented for the audience to notice. (e.g. Flight 815).
Over time, many people have been marooned, and have come and gone on the island. Including the U.S. Military in the 50s, and they left behind a leaking H-Bomb called Jughead. An old (slave?) ship from the 1800s called the Black Rock, that is mysteriously beached in the middle of the island.
Some ancient civilization that hasn’t been revealed yet (we assume they had 4 toes). And, of course, the infamous Dharma Initiative. The island is very compelling, yet not easy to find. It seemingly has a life of its own, and is vaguely menacing.
Once flight 815 crashed into the island, our main characters become tormented by “The Others”. They turn out to be the group of people that were responsible for the genocide of Dharma. Most of the members seem to belong to yet a third party know to the Dharma Initiative as the “Hostiles”. Anyway, at first they were bent on taking the children and babies that survived the crash (and that were given birth to on the island). It seems no woman can conceive a child on the island and survive the 100-day-ish mark of their pregnancy. We don’t know why, and they seem to not know either. Babies and children seem a very important aspect to the mythology.
Last season, the castaways were visited by a large freighter ship, with some secretive people on board. The castaways first thought this was a rescue mission. In the end, we learn that there is a small team of mercenaries and scientists on board. They were sent by a rich, corporate asshole, who once spent time on the island, and wants to get back. He sent the mercenaries to capture the leader of The Others, and the scientists for reasons yet to be fully explained.
After much hostility and death, some of the castaways (six) were rescued, and got back to the mainland. They lied about everything, claiming everyone else was dead. The rest who stayed on the island, did so because they felt they shouldn’t leave. That there is some reason they need to stay.
Come to find out, there’s a ton of supernatural and sci-fi elements to the show. Among the supernatural, is apparitions of the dead, and interactions with them. Strange whisperings in the jungle. Miracles, such as one of the paralyzed main characters getting his legs back, and a woman free of her cancer. Kids with mind-powers. Men with the ability to talk to the dead, and glean information from their corpses. And a strange, ghost-like cabin, inhabited by an entity known as Jacob, who seems almost omniscient, yet terse, cryptic, and even coy (of course). And of course the Black Smoke Monster.
Through some major workings in the plot, the characters have been able to move the island itself through time and space. As of right now, the castaways left behind (including some of the scientists that came of the ship), are jumping erratically through time, and we are seeing the island at different points in its history. Even going back to some scenes from season one, and seeing first hand some of the development of some of its mysteries. This time jumping is lethal stuff though, and can’t go on forever, as the hapless time-travelers are learning, and have hatched a plan to fix it.
Meanwhile, back in LA, some of the six who were rescued, are trying to find their way back to the island, as they realize they are wrapped in some kind of dance with FATE. Some of these want desperately to get back in order to save those that decided to stay, and some want to stay the hell away. For some reason, leaving the island was a mistake, and doing so jeopardized the ones that stayed behind. They are currently very close to finding their way back, and they have to somehow ALL go back, or it won’t work out right, so we’re assuming the other six that don’t want to go back will have to be persuaded one way or another.
Anyway, that’s the gist. There’s a lot more subtlety and storytelling within there. The plot is incredibly interwoven, so it’s hard to relay it all in a linear fashion. It’s on it’s 5th season, with one more to go, and we are promised there was a plan to this whole story all along, and most of the BIG QUESTIONS, and loose ends should be tied up, nice and neat.
Man, am I glad I stopped watching years ago! This is a lot of really crazy shit–and I thought I was quitting because of too much crazy shit.
Speaking of which, I have yet to see a single “soiler” here.
Also… PARALYZING SPIDERS!
Ahh yes, who could forget the integral adventures of Nikki and Paulo?
Yeah, but does Dominic Monaghan ever get naked?
It is hard to describe just how relieved I am that I stopped watching that rubbish midway through season one.
I actually think of Lost with some regret. It could have been a revolutionary show to stand the test of time, but I suspect it will be remembered as, well, a mess.
I really hope you’re not just basing that off 5 seasons condensed into one post. Ever the writers have even acknowledge that when condensed down into a brief summery, the show sounds ridiculously dumb.
Also, here’s the first three seasons in 8 minutes and 15 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIuXZ37GQIs
What makes you think the show’s not of any quality or value? Anything sort of fantasy will sound dumb when you boil it down like that.
Seconded. If you’re using a condensed synopsis to declare that a show currently in its fifth season has “too much stuff” in it, you weren’t really in danger of thinking otherwise. I mean, Hell. I dare you to write a detailed synopsis of any long-running TV show and not make it sound awful.
For me, the test is as follows:
EITHER the writers are winging it and when it all finishes it’ll be “A Bunch Of Random Wacky And Unexplained Adventures On Mystery Island” or (as the writers claim) there’s been a grand plan all along and ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED.
If it’s the first, it will go down as a complete mess of suckage. If it’s the latter, it’ll be remembered as a classic.
So far (especially based on this season) the writers are tying stuff together—loose ends are being connected and things seem to be building towards…something. So I’m hopeful.
Are there Sleestak?
Actually, that’s the big secret. This show is really a prequel to Land of the Lost.
When we get a good look inside the temple, we’re gonna see some pylons.
I don’t watch Lost, but I figure “soilers” must be bits of info about the plot that are especially shocking . . . :dubious: