# The problem with "Lost" wasn't the finale, it was the entire show
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 8, 2014, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623 "2014-04-08T10:07:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/61 "2014-04-08T23:28:57Z")
The whole Abrams-Lindelof modus operandi is writing like six- year olds: just pile a bunch of stuff that sounds cool to you. never thinking about the ending, and then, once you’ve reached the end of the page, wrap it up with some non-explanation, like the \*“it was all a dream” \*thing, or a deus-ex-machina like \*“it was god / aliens / extradimensional beings who did weird stuff because, well, because mysterious ways and all that, and if you don’t get it that’s because you are dumb” \*cop out.
You all need to watch **Alias**. Imagine a TV show so erratic that it literally reads like they had a new writer for every episode, and every new guy was forbidden from having watched a previous episode ever. That’s Bad Robot in all its glory. Everything else will forever be a pale imitation.
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/62 "2014-04-08T23:33:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> You have to write the final episode first and then lock it away in a drawer. Then you write the rest of the series so every other episode leads to that final episode you’ve already written.
Of course, that’s what the writers of HIMYM did - and that didn’t work either. Even if you have an ending, you have to revisit it at regular intervals to make sure that it still works for the show and be willing to change when it doesn’t.
It’s really, really hard to write a coherent narrative of 100ish or so storytelling hours and have it come out making any sense. Even more difficult when you’ve decided to write a mystery. They set themselves up for a huge challenge and totally failed at it. They even had some of the normal difficulties of US TV taken away - they knew when it was going to end and weren’t working with possibly being canceled at any second, they had a supportive network, they had plenty of time to figure out what to do and either didn’t or couldn’t.
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### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/63 "2014-04-09T01:05:41Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#):
>
> I gave up at the start of season 2 when I realized I didn’t give a damn about any of the characters.
I went further. Early in season two, I was actively rooting for them all to die. That’s when I knew I had to stop watching.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/64 "2014-04-09T01:07:04Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#):
>
> Actually I joke that were I ever to produce a show, I would consider doing just the opposite. I would start by putting out all of the weir mysterious stuff, polar bears, smoke monsters, visions of the dead father, with no idea how any of it fits together. Then I sit back and read all the fan sites as they try to figure out what it all means. Once I’ve crowd sourced for the best explanation I go ahead and put it down for the final season, leaving a few lucky fans feeling satisfied that they managed to guess the answer correctly as opposed to realizing that they were in fact unpaid writers. 😃
Genius, I tell you! Let’s hope this is read in more than a few Hollywood suites.
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/65 "2014-04-09T01:50:48Z")
This discussion makes me appreciate (again) how well “Breaking Bad” pulled off its last season.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/66 "2014-04-09T02:28:02Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> Or just invoke “red matter” to explain all plot loopholes.
>
> Stranger
WARNING: Contains Red Matter.
May Cause Shrinkage.
Keep out of hands of miners.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/67 "2014-04-09T03:17:53Z")
I stopped reading this thread at the end of the first page because I could tell it wasn’t going to end on a satisfactory note.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/68 "2014-04-09T03:30:44Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> I went further. Early in season two, I was actively rooting for them all to die. That’s when I knew I had to stop watching.
I know, right? Seriously, my husband and I were burning through it on Netflix it before the show was over with, and after the first couple of episodes in the second season, I realized I really hated all of the characters and only cared about the mysteries of the plot. I mean, really, if I’d stuck it out because the show’s creators **promised** they’d wrap it all up in an interesting way… well, you’d probably see something about an insane woman arrested for stalking Abrams and/or Lindelof.
(BTW, Lindelof can go pound sand with a funnel for what he did to Prometheus, and so can Ridley Scott for allowing it. I read about the earlier script treatments which were much closer to the original Alien mythos, and which actually fucking made sense. I’m hard-pressed to think of another script that made ostensibly-intelligent people act in stupid fashions related directly to their \*\*jobs \*\*and not always forced by stressful situations.)
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/69 "2014-04-09T04:06:34Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#):
>
> It was the entire last season I hated, not just the last episode. But I also hated that the writer lied. They said there was not going to be any supernatural explanations; they said they weren’t just making it up as they went along.
An invisible tree-crushing pilot-eating monster appeared in the very first episode.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/70 "2014-04-09T04:12:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Keep out of hands of miners.
Sir Alexander Dane: Could they be the miners?
Fred Kwan: Sure, they’re like three years old.
Sir Alexander Dane: MINERS, not MINORS.
Fred Kwan: You lost me.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/71 "2014-04-09T04:12:40Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> An invisible tree-crushing pilot-eating monster appeared in the very first episode.
No, it didn’t. Something that crushed trees appeared in the first episode. You don’t find out the very stupid explanation that it is actually an invisible tree-crushing monster until much later.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/72 "2014-04-09T04:16:23Z")
> [@amarinth](#):
>
> Of course, that’s what the writers of HIMYM did - and that didn’t work either. Even if you have an ending, you have to revisit it at regular intervals to make sure that it still works for the show and be willing to change when it doesn’t.
But the “mystery” on shows like _How I Met Your Mother_ or _Veronica Mars_ wasn’t the whole point of the show. It was more like a macguffin. But on _Lost_, the mystery was the plot.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/73 "2014-04-09T04:20:13Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> No, it didn’t. Something that crushed trees appeared in the first episode. You don’t find out the very stupid explanation that it is actually an invisible tree-crushing monster until much later.
Watch the episode again. An invisible thing crushed trees and roared on screen. You see that you can’t see it.
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/74 "2014-04-09T04:26:49Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#):
>
> This discussion makes me appreciate (again) how well “Breaking Bad” pulled off its last season.
It makes me appreciate Babylon 5.
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### Author:  [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/75 "2014-04-09T04:44:25Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> Sir Alexander Dane: Could they be the miners?
> Fred Kwan: Sure, they’re like three years old.
> Sir Alexander Dane: MINERS, not MINORS.
> Fred Kwan: You lost me.
> […]
And I swear, to my ears, Alan Rickman made the two words sound distinct from one another.
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/76 "2014-04-09T04:44:44Z")
I agree with the OP’s claim. And an example of a show that (at least so far) sets up crazy mysteries and then actually ANSWERS them at a reasonable pace is **Sleepy Hollow**.
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### Author:  [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/77 "2014-04-09T05:12:32Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> You are all my people in this thread. I have no patience for the “but it was a good ride!” people. No, it wasn’t a good ride. It was a mystery story with no solution. Sometime around season 3, I started to get the feeling that this was going to be the X-Files all over again, but stupidly I decided to stick it out and see what happened. What happened? A big pile of shit.
There’s a meme, of sorts, on some more loosely-moderated message boards. Someone starts out talking about something related to the thread topic - say, meeting famous people. They weave a compelling, lengthy story about this famous person, then, as it gets a little hard to believe, the famous person might say they left their wallet in the cab, and need to borrow $3.50. The story usually wraps up with something approximating, ". . . right about then, I realized that this baseball player was 30 feet tall and resembled a giant lizard out of the Crustacious period. “Damn you Loch Ness Monster!”, I said. “I ain’t got no tree-fiddy for you!”
[This is related to a few scenes from _South Park_.](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tree-fiddy)
_LOST_ “tree-fiddy’d” us. I laugh at a good “tree-fiddy”, as it’s the internet and the implied contract with the reader/viewer isn’t there. Also, it only takes maybe 2 minutes out of my life, instead of, say, SEASONS.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/78 "2014-04-09T12:09:26Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> Sir Alexander Dane: Could they be the miners?
> Fred Kwan: Sure, they’re like three years old.
> Sir Alexander Dane: MINERS, not MINORS.
> Fred Kwan: You lost me.
>
> Stranger
It’s a joke, I say, a JOKE, son.
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### Author:  [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/79 "2014-04-09T12:47:27Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#):
>
> _LOST_ “tree-fiddy’d” us. I laugh at a good “tree-fiddy”, as it’s the internet and the implied contract with the reader/viewer isn’t there. Also, it only takes maybe 2 minutes out of my life, instead of, say, SEASONS.
Imagine if it ended like those green text story troll posts.
Open the door
get on the floor,
EVERYBODY WALK THE DINOSAUR!
Now that would have been one for the ages.
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-problem-with-lost-wasnt-the-finale-it-was-the-entire-show/685623/80 "2014-04-09T13:25:29Z")
I watched the first three-four episodes of Lost, and it seemed pretty interesting. But I began to suspect that they would keep piling up mystery upon mystery without any resolution ever.
Since it was broadcasted in France long after the USA, I began reading the synopsis of the episodes to come, and noticed it was following the same trend in season 2 (maybe also 3, can’t remember) : more mysteries, no explanation. And it had become so weird I couldn’t see any possible way to resolve this. At this point I was pretty certain there was no real story, and that they would just add random weird stuff until people would stop watching at which point they would just interrupt the serie. So, I quit watching.
So, in fact, I’m surprised that there even was a finale, regardless how bad.
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