paulseta: This is why when I got to the end of season one of Lost (I started late and did the DVD thing) I stopped - cause I realised they did not actually have a plan or proper solution planned out.

Oh, you did did you? Fascinating - thanks for weighing in with your opinion on the show that's almost finished that you've seen less than 20% of.

John Dewey: Have we settled whether this show sucks or not yet?

Yes.

I lost my faith in Lost when they intro'd all the time malarky. Maybe it was planned from the start, maybe not, but it's sure a cheap and easy way for writers to do anything they want and later claim that it was their original intent.

Once you introduce time travel into a story, all bets are off.

Mugato: pnjunction: Couldn't they have built an ocean liner and launched GPS satellites by now? What is it like Gilligan's island?

Actually, only about 6 months have passed on the show, I think.

as oh the season 5 finale, 3 years and 6 months-ish.

i'll say the best thing about Lost is the experience. episode was lame? don't care, talked a bunch of friends about it beforehand and had fun guessing, whining, w00ting.

didn't turn out to be a Richard flashback episode? that's cool cause we came up with plenty of thigns it could've been about and it was fun to yak about until 9 that Wednesday.

whether Lost ends well, or not, I don't care. the experience was truly something else and it was an incredibly fun ride while it lasted.

So this is the tale of the castaways, they're here for a long, long time,
They'll have to make the best of things, it's an uphill climb.
The first mate and the Skipper too, will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable, in the tropic island nest.

No phone! No lights! No motor cars, not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe, as primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friends, you're sure to get a smile
From seven stranded castaways, here on Gilligan's Isle!

Confabulat: Star Trek 90210!

There's no canyons where Kirk grew up! This all sucks!

I'm so much smarter than people who write on the TV!



You seem to have a very strong emotional connection to defending some random tv show.

bet it's 66 not 108

JestersTear: Even if Abrams never admits it, it's obvious what influenced Lost and where they are.

They're in Neverland. Not the happy Walt Disney version, but the Barrie version, which Disney's is based off of.

The cable and the mention of Joop in the first season had me convinced they were on the "Mysterious Island" of Jules Verne. I expected a Nemo character to pop up.

pnjunction: It's about me not ever watching a single episode because everything I hear about it just makes it sound dumber.

Hey, I'm with you, man. I've never seen it, but the more I hear people talk about it, the less interesting it sounds.

Why does it have to mean something? Can't it just be entertaining TV? Isn't that good enough? It's a TV show, not a damned work of art.

jj325: No matter how it ends it will never match the awesomeness that was the series finale of Newhart.

This!

Confabulat:

Wait, you mean the sci-fi show with a magic smoke monster in the first episode threw you for a loop when it went all sci-fi?

wow.

Not so much threw me for a loop as disappointed me. Like I said, once time travel gets added to the mix, the writers can do anything they want and I think that cheapens the storyline.

I've got nothing against sci-fi or even stories that start with time travel as their premise, but that wasn't the case with Lost. Since their were no "rules" introduced at the beginning of the story, whatever the Lost writers come up with now just strike me as being a cheap and easy way to tie it all together, after the fact.

I loved Lost for quite awhile, but they lost my faith.

Architecture Of Aggression:
whether Lost ends well, or not, I don't care. the experience was truly something else and it was an incredibly fun ride while it lasted.

Great stuff. Good perspective.

My peek experience watching lost was early in Season 1 with "Walkabout". But I've stuck with it because, yeah, it's fun to share the experience! I bet it *will* suck in the end. I'm counting on it. But that's not going to stop me from watching. I look forward to getting together with a bunch of friends and watching that final, disappointing episode together!

And when I say "suck" I really just mean "not as good as the 'Walkabout' episode, but still better than 99% of TV"

(Entertainment Weekly) Interesting What "Lost" is really all about T-Shirt

Who farking cares?!?! I can't believe that stupid, lame show is still on the air.

Lost is about creating "mysteries" for the profoundly dumb. That's it, that's all. Doesn't need to be artistically, intellectually or historically referential. It just needs to be unclear.

Hetfield: The mere anticipation of the final season's awesomeness makes me lostgasm with vigor.

THISpnjunction: More seasons just makes it more ridiculous.

Couldn't they have built an ocean liner and launched GPS satellites by now? What is it like Gilligan's island?

Final season. They negotiated an end date to the series before they were even half way done. It is one of the only shows in TV history to have done that. They did this so they could tell the story properly. It will all be over next year and they have promised that all the questions "that matter" will be answered by the end of the show.

Confabulat: Not a bad article. The whole Scooby/Goober debate thing (?) reminds me of how Battlestar Galactica fans reacted to the series finale though.

Rationalists: What a ripoff! What's all this nonsense about angels and gods?

Spiritualists Apologists: Did you ever even WATCH the show?

FTFY hippie.

ApostropheX: Architecture Of Aggression:
whether Lost ends well, or not, I don't care. the experience was truly something else and it was an incredibly fun ride while it lasted.

Great stuff. Good perspective.

My peek experience watching lost was early in Season 1 with "Walkabout". But I've stuck with it because, yeah, it's fun to share the experience! I bet it *will* suck in the end. I'm counting on it. But that's not going to stop me from watching. I look forward to getting together with a bunch of friends and watching that final, disappointing episode together!

And when I say "suck" I really just mean "not as good as the 'Walkabout' episode, but still better than 99% of TV"

What about "The Constant"? I say that's on the level of "Walkabout". I just think that some of the amazing stuff that happens on Lost doesn't seem so amazing anymore because we've gotten used to it over 5 seasons.

John Dewey:
I understand where you're coming from, and not trying to change your mind, just wanted to add my .02.

I think the great thing about introducing time travel is they didn't introduce rules, per se. Yes, Daniel stated rules, but they left the answers to them completely ambigious the whole season and we won't know the answers until maybe the season premiere. Some call that cheap, I personally like it.

You're right, but I wasn't thinking about the time travel rules as much as the story's rules. All fiction has rules, which is why the "she woke up and it had all been a dream" endings are usually pretty disappointing.

What bothers me with Lost's time travel is it provides a too-convenient way for the writers to invent solutions. I wanted a deep, meaningful story with novel explanations, not just a whitewashing of what I saw before.

I'm not saying that's how they'll conclude it, but I think it's likely.

So why did they kidnap walt? they never really said. now he is just another fatherless kid wandering around NY.

Lost kills me. Girlfriend loves it but it's just nothing but hack writing. You answer a cliffhanger with a cliffhanger to keep viewers coming back - not to mention the erratic schedule. You get 4 episodes, then another 4 in 3 months.

Lost Writing:
Crash on an island. There's a monster on the island.
What's the monster?
Polar bear.
Why's there a polar bear?
Secret corporation lab also on the island.
What is the secret corporation doing on the island?
Experiment to make a guy push a button.
What happens when he doesn't push the button?
Flash of light.
What does the flash of light do?
Skips time.
How does it skip time?
Island exists over a pocket of energy.
How did the corporation find out about the energy?
From a guy from the future who traveled to the past and told them.
What guy?
This guy here, in this brand new episode that you'll see in 6 months.

And every single subplot unfolds the same way. You answer one question with three more. It's not compelling, it's bad writing.

This is what Lost is all about:

What is Lost about? About 4 seasons too long.
Link (new window)

Lost seems like a massive waste of time...with producers milking this thing for as long as suckers keep watching.

Confabulat: Not a bad article. The whole Scooby/Goober debate thing (?) reminds me of how Battlestar Galactica fans reacted to the series finale though.

Rationalists: What a ripoff! What's all this nonsense about angels and gods?

Spiritualists: Did you ever even WATCH the show?

I'm sorry, this makes me angry. There was a large contingent of us who were thinking: I see where this is going and now I want to see more than ever how the writers get us out of this dead end. It was clear from early on where it was headed and the underlying suspense throughout much of the show was derived from how the tension between the two tracks would be resolved. It wasn't resolved at all, one side of the whole thing was just completely ignored for the last episode. Which, also, was too long and dragged.

As for Lost, that show stopped being logical at a very early stage and any purist 'Scoobies' have completely disconnected from the actual show. That said, it needs to present some sort of internal consistency if it follows a more spiritual route which is difficult now with all the overlapping themes that have been introduced.

They are dead...they all died in the plane crash....this is their purgatory

/jacob's ladder
//owl creek bridge

SomeoneDumb: What bothers me with Lost's time travel is it provides a too-convenient way for the writers to invent solutions. I wanted a deep, meaningful story with novel explanations, not just a whitewashing of what I saw before.

What solutions has their use of time travel provided, outside of "how can we show what was happening on the island 30 years ago for a number of episodes while still having some of the top line actors involved"?

I'm not a fan of time travel plots in general, but I like how they've done it on Lost. So far, nothing they've done has altered the future (that we know of). And the one guy who knew that, who told everyone that, who knew better than to try to change the future, decided to try to change the future. And he was killed. That, I like.

I used to think it was all about Jack and Kate. Lately it's been all Sawyer and Juliette. IMO it's all about Juliette and Gia.

Fano: And obligatory for talking about time travel: Everybody kills Hitler their first time (new window)

Not everybody. (new window)

in the end, i feel like my biggest regret regarding LOST will be that the show's creators missed an opportunity to show eko wearing a tiny hat on the sid of his head, like he wore on "Oz."