I got intrigued with season one. Unfortunately it’s not a book and I can’t skim to the end, so I gotta watch the whole fucker to get to the ending. Sue me. It’s my spare time.
I watched for a few weeks, and all the episodes centered around this guy running around looking for his son. Did he ever find him?
Yes.
That was Michael, looking for his son Walt (Waaaalt!). The Others took him, supposedly because he seemed to have special mind-powers that were only evident to them.
During the 2-season course of Michael’s search, he had to do the bidding of The Other’s wishes and free their leader (Ben) who was captured by the castaways and held hostage in The Swan hatch, and was promised his son in return and a boat to leave the island for the two of them… but a couple innocents got in the way of the plan and Michael killed them.
We were never really told what the Others were doing with Walt that whole time, but Michael and Walt were reunited at the season 2 ender. They were put on a small boat, given the precise bearings to leave the island, and made it back to civilization safe and sound. Walt is now staying with his grandmother.
Michael then shows up in season 4 in an effort to redeem himself. He’s now dead.
But are the owls what they seem?
And apparently the actor was such a jackass about it* that the writers have said that any plans they MIGHT have had to bring him back for a flashback or to resurrect him are gone.
*screaming “RACISM!” to the press.
In answer to the OP:
In answer to everyone else – LOST is flippin’ great. It’s the best thing on TV since The Wire closed up shop. And the whole thing to date is available on ABC’s website if you’re interested.
–Cliffy
Let me try to explain myself.
I think my position on LOST is quite a common one. I really, really enjoyed the show when it started. Loved it. But then it started to drag for me, and soon I had a big problem. You see, I hate being taken for a ride. All these mysteries and strange things were happening on the island, but instead of getting any answers we were just given more strange happenings.
So I realised. We were being taken for fools. They said they had an ending? Maybe so, but we sure as hell weren’t going to see it untill the ratings started to drop and the money stopped rolling in. Untill then they would just stretch things out, keep adding random crap, and make the most of their cash cow.
People may now be able to fanwank explanations of how it all HAD to happen as it has, but I remain convinced that LOST is only 67 seasons long because the producers milked it as long as they could.
So I have a frustration towards LOST. That show should have been a timeless classic, it should have been 12/24 episodes that told an extraordinary story of survival and then left us wanting more. Instead it became a fat, bloated mess. The producers manipulated the viewing public, and as anyone who has ever read Robert Jordan will tell you, manipulation can be an evil thing.
So, forty-seven years after the pilot episode, somebody on a message board posts a summary of the “story” so far. I look at the rubbish listed and I think to myself, “Thank god I ditched that one”.
I am in no position to judge quality or value, each to his own and all that. Its just that LOST leaves me with somewhat of a sour taste in the mouth.
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Yes. My name is at the top. I know.
Except that Lost has an already-specified end date. The story absolutely will end there, assuming they don’t go all X-Files and make theatrical movies as well.
As for stringing along the audience for the sake of making money…hate to break it to ya, but that’s kind of how serialized entertainment works. If they resolve everything each week, then there’s not much of a cliffhanger to come back for, is there?
Thanks, ZipperJJ and cmyk. When I’m not getting fired up for BSG, I’ll read those over, they look exactly like what I was after.
Your argument has some merit, though since I watched the first three seasons on DVD the interminable plot dragginess ( mostly in season 2 IMHO ) and endless mysteries with few answers wasn’t as acute for me as it was for those watching in “real time.”
However the pace of the plot picked up considerably in season 3 and has only continued to accelerate. Still a mountain of new mysteries every minute, but a surprising number of answers as well. So while I sympathize with your position ( some of my friends hold to an identical one ), all in all sticking it out to this point has proved rewarding for me. Entertainment-wise :). It might still implode, but since season 3 I’ve been increasingly enjoying the ride.
Dunno if it’s high art, but it is at least fun.
The show did sort of seem to be on a treadmill midway through. The writers acknowledged this. But since the producers secured a date certain on which they can end the show, Lost has been one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I feel certain they have a plan based on all of the mysteries seem to be coming together.
At this point, I’m willing to say it’s my favorite tv show of all time. I reserve the right to change that if the resolution turns out to be horrendously bad, but I have the feeling it’s going to pretty great.
And yeh, the point of television is for the studios not to lose their shirt on programming. When they hit on a series, they try and maximize that. And maybe it suffered from some of that in season 2 (but honestly, that’s been one of my favorite seasons, because of how the whole premise of the show was turned on its head), but only because the writers were still trying to figure out the pace. Once they determined the end date, things have been incredibly entertaining. The writers/producers have really kept this show honest, and it’s made all the difference.
If you like heavily serialized, mysterious, science fiction, with dimentional characters, good acting a high production values, then you’re really missing out on one of the best television shows of all time.
(And 6 seasons is not a long time for a tv series, especially when the last few seasons only have about 16 episodes.)
Mmmm. It has an end date now. That wasnt the case back when I began to feel very frustrated with the show.
And as for stringing the audience along, you don’t have to break anything to me. You should realise though that I grew up watching UK television where the TV wasn’t so deeply rooted in ad breaks or syndication. Fawlty towers, The Office, Father Ted, are all two (short) seasons long and better for it. Heck even the deified “Only fools and horses” stopped long before the public would have turned against it.
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Father Ted had three seasons (or series), not two.
And lots of other people were getting frustrated with Lost in seasons 2 and the start of 3, because there were more questions arising than answers – I’d say largely because the producers had no idea how long they would need to draw out the overal story. And of course, when a show has high ratings, the network carrying it wants to drag it out as long as possible.
However, it was during season 3, towards the end, that the producers of the show negotiated the agreement with ABC on how much longer the show would run – I believe this happened precisely so that they could plan out the pacing for the remainder of the story and make sure it reached the end. And while the agreement was for three more seasons, each season was to be a spring run, and shorter (16 episodes each, rather than the original seasons’ 22-24 eps). So when that agreement was hammered out, the end of season 3 would mean that 3/5 of the whole story had been aired already. And there would be 48 epsiodes to go.
Since then, there have been fewer “filler” style episodes, and the pacing is moving along quite nicely. I’m greatly enjoying season 5 so far.
Thanks, cmyk.
I might rent it on DVD once it’s all over. I tried watching the second season, but was too lost without seeing season one.
My problem with the show wasn’t the plot, it was the insufferable characters. I wanted them all dead, and since I normally hate when a show kills off a character that’s a bad sign.
Same thing happened with Heroes for me.
Due to the fact that 90% of everything on on TV has characters so bland that you couldn’t care less about them either way, I rather enjoy shows full of characters I can’t stand.
I think the appeal of it to me is that it’s a mix of a lot of tropical setting / action-scifi shows from the past. Just done really well.
Parts Gilligan’s Island, Land of the Lost, Dr. Shrinker, Island of Dr. Moreu, Danger Island (uh-oh Chongo!). Stuff I loved as a kid.
Now with adult sci-fi themes and Hi-Def eyecandy locales it’s just a blast to watch.
Oh hey, are you me? I watched through IIRC the start of the second season (via Netflix rentals, the show was well underway by then) and since it didn’t seem like they were all going to die any time soon, I returned the DVD and cancelled the requests for the other DVDs. Hated all of the characters. Cute doctor, pregnant woman, each and every one. Everyone said I’d love the show, and I couldn’t bear to continue; I think I gave it a pretty good try, too.
The problem is, I find ooo-spooky-mysterious plots really intriguing. So I like finding out about that but fear we aren’t going to get serious answers - at least, not without being buried in more questions.
I don’t require everything to be wrapped up in a bow, mind you, but my concern is at some point after it’s over I’m going to dig through some Grand Mystery Synopsis and feel cheated - so better that way than investing more viewing time.
For your sake, I sincerely hope not. 