No, Forzare. You Are The Madasses: A Lost Review

Forzare

Forzare's Thoughts On Lost

Come, sit, and I'll tell you what they died for.

NOTE: I've tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but there are occasional minor spoilers, but the big stuff is hidden, and I'll be happy to discuss about spoiler-y stuff if someone wants.  Also, this would have been longer and more coherent, but there was like a month where I wasn't watching any episodes and I didn't take notes, so I forgot a lot of stuff.  Also, I'm bad at walls of text and editing is for weenies.

I've watched Lost in it's entirety twice.  Once as it aired, and once over the last couple months on DVD.  I can honestly say that it's my favorite television show ever, maybe second only to Breaking Bad.

Lost might be a television show, but it's far better on DVD.

I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw... was beautiful.

Lost is a very slow burning show, at least in it's first few seasons.  During season 4, once the end date had been announced and the seasons were shorter, answers come at a very quick rate, and the show obviously knows where it's going.  That's not true so much for the first couple seasons.  In the beginning, questions are raised faster than they're answered, and the show seems kind of aimless.  That's not to say that it is, but when you're watching with a week between every episode, it can all seem sort of pointless, like the creators were kind of floundering without any idea of what they were doing. 

When viewed in a shorter timeframe, however, the first two seasons especially become much stronger.  The focus is more on the characters than plot at first, and the early episodes do a great job painting a portrait through events on the island and flashbacks of a group of deeply flawed but very likeable characters.  If Lost had just jumped straight into the weird stuff instead of giving it a few seasons to build up and develop it's characters, Lost would be a very different show, and not necessarily a better one.

Watching the series for a second time is also a much different experience.  There's so much foreshadowing that it's kind of ridiculous.  The entire focus of the final season is foreshadowed in the pilot.  One of the biggest twists of the show is foreshadowed in episode three.  Especially on a second viewing, Lost as a whole does not at all come across as something that was made up as they went along.  You could argue that the foreshadowing is only foreshadowing retroactively, or that these things are just coincidence, but really, what's the difference?  Everything fits when you watch it, and whether intentional or not, the foreshadowing is there.

The Characters

"Why do you find it so hard to believe?" "Why do you find it so easy?" "It's never been easy!!"

Lost's greatest strength lies in it's cast of characters.  There is not a single character, outside of those few who are meant to be hated, who I can point to and say I can't stand.  Every character is unique, every character has flaws, almost every character changes over the course of the show. 

The best moments are almost always Jack vs Locke regarding destiny.  Their "Man of science, man of faith" thing is consistently interesting, and the direction it takes later on only makes it more poignant.  Locke, who has tried his hardest over the course of the show to believe that everything is happening for a reason, through all sorts of terrible things that nearly break him, is almost pointlessly murdered by Ben just as he loses all hope.  When we see him in purgatory, he's more bitter.   He doesn't believe in miracles.  Jack, on the other hand, also takes a one-eighty by the end.  He learns that he does have a purpose, and he sacrifices himself to return the keystone and prevent the destruction of the island.  When we see him in Purgatory, he's become more idealistic, trying to convince Locke that miracles can happen, that destiny is real.  And that's really the appeal of Lost, to me. 

It's not learning about the Dharma Initiative.  It's not finding out about the Others.  It's not discovering the Monster.  It's the characters.  You could have the most intriguing mysteries ever, but there's no way it can be as emotionally charged as Lost when you don't care about the characters.  Hell, I even kind of like Kate, even if she does have the worst episodes.

(my favorite is Ben, by the way)

Flashes Before Your Eyes

This moth's just about to emerge. It's in there right now, struggling. It's digging it's way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it - take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free - but it would be too weak to survive. Struggle is nature's way of strengthening it.

Ah, the flashbacks.  Probably the most characteristic part of the show. At least for the first three seasons, every episode is punctuated by flashbacks focusing on a character's life before the crash.  The most important thing these flashbacks do is character development; every episode, you're guaranteed to learn something new about one of the main cast, and give you more insight in why they are who they are today.  I don't really have much to say other than that I'm so glad they were a part of the show, and added to it so much more than if flashbacks were only an occasional narrative device.  Plus they allow for one of the best twists in the entire show.

The fact that the season 3 finale was a flashforward, which show that people would get off the island, was a complete gamechanger.  The question was no longer "Will they ever get off the island?"  Now, it was "How would they get off the island?" and "Why were some left behind?" and "Why are they lying to the world about what really happened?"  That was really the turning point in the series, I think, when it went from an above-average show into a truly great one.

And then there's the things fans call the "flash-sideways."  Replacing flashbacks in the sixth season, they take place in what seems to be a parallel universe.  Upon first viewing, I had... mixed feelings about this sideplot.  While it was somewhat interesting at first, as it went on I began to question why it was even there.  It didn't really seem to add anything of value to the characters or story, and I didn't see why they'd waste time on it in the show's final season.  Without spoiling anything: I was wrong.  The finale completely justified the existence of the flash-sideways in my eyes, and made it all worthwhile.   And on my second viewing, it worked so much better than the first time through.  When the survivors began to remember each other the first time through, my reaction was pretty much just "huh?"  I didn't see why this was important or why any of this mattered.  But knowing the true nature of the flash-sideways, those scenes become a whole lot happier and more meaningful.

 

The End

I did not ask for the life I was given, but it was given nonetheless, and with it, I did my best.

The end really does bear some discussion, I think.  It's very divisive, as I understand, but I stand firmly on the side of loving it. I've heard people be dissatisfied because it doesn't provide all the answers.  I couldn't disagree more.  The vast majority of important questions raised in the series are answered by the time the credits roll.  There are some lingering mysteries that are never quite resolved, but I don't think that's a bad thing.  Even with everything we know by the end, the Island is still a mysterious place, and to know everything would take that away.

The series finale is one of my favoritet two hours of film I've ever seen, and I'm including movies in that.  Watching the last fifteen minutes was the first time I've ever cried at a fictional work, and the last two minutes made me cry harder than anything else (except for two scenes in Higurashi.  I'm sure you're all shocked.) since.  It's not just that my favorite series is ending, and that I'm sad to see it go.  It's a happy ending, and I think it's a testament to how attached I'd grown to the characters that seeing them find each other after death and move on as one could affect me so deeply.

(And if any of you say "NOTHING MATTERS THEY DIED WHEN THEY CRASHED AND HAVE BEEN IN HELL/PURGATORY/WHATEVER FROM DAY ONE" I will find you and I will break you.  I'm tired of hearing this from people IRL.  No, they weren't.  The finale is very clear on this.)

Problems

I am so not moving to the rape caves.

Lost has plenty of problems, but in the end, they're all minor.  There are occasional dropped plots, like Eko's arc (a shame, but the actor wanted to leave so they had to write him out) and what was really so special about Walt (though by the end it can sort of be inferred).

Characters occasionally do stuff with flimsy or weird motivation.

There are some boring episodes.  Kate episodes are almost universally the worst.  Really though, it's kind of amazing how few real stinkers there are in a six-season, 121 episode show. 

There are some dangling questions that I'd like answered.  Like I said, I don't think it's bad that some stuff was left open, but I think there were one or two things that deserved a token explanation.

 

Final Thoughts

Let me ask you something, Jack. Why do you want to leave the Island? What is it that you so desperately want to get back to?

As it all ends a second time, I mostly feel sad.  Sad that it's over.  Sad that this is pretty much the last of these people I've grown so attatched to over the years I'll see until the next time I go through the show.  And that means it succeeded. 

Lost is one of the most ambitious shows out there.  And in my opinion, it succeeded with flying colors.  I'd recommend it to almost anyone, and I'd defend it forever. 

Is Lost a masterpiece?  I think it is.  But really, that's for you to decide for yourself.

You can let go now.

MillerCross

I don't quite love it as much as you do (I feel that season sixth really dropped the ball, regardless of how fuckawesome The End was)

One of the problems I noted was that while all the characters were interesting to a degree, a lot of them tended to be poorly chosen when it came to "Who gets the spotlight?". Kate is probably the most infamous example, to the point that a lot of characters, such as Juliet, who were actually interesting and actually helped moving along the mythology of the show were often shafted to spend more time with her and her background story (Which honestly? Was both lame and irrelevant. Although it gave us Nathan Fillion, so it's somewhat forgiven)

With all that said, Lost was quite an experience and I definetly love it. Sadly, I feel it was a bit rough around the edges and that for all its ambition, it simply couldn't pull off everything it attempted to pull off. 

Forzare

I do think that apart from a few episodes (The End especially), six was one of the weaker seasons, which was really a shame.  But I don't think it got as low as, say, early season three, for example. 

Kate is probably my least favorite of the main characters, but that's mostly because of the quality of her episodes.  They did tend to be the worst.  It didn't bother me as much as it does most people, though, to be honest.

MillerCross

I don't think the writing per se got bad, though. I think that a lot of the show would have been better if they hadn't been forced to give out answers and kinda ruin the mystique behind the island. On the other hand, that was the same mentality that led to Richard Alpert's back story, and that was probably the best episode the show produced, to be honest, if only because it relied on the character's strenght to carry it and Carbonell's acting so, of course, different strokes, I guess.

Kate didn't bother me so much as the fact that she needlessly got the spotlight a lot of times, and it really helped towards that feeling of a meandering show that was trying to know what to do post first season. I think Jack had the same problem (There's a reason Stranger in a Strange Land is so hated, after all)