Monday, May 24, 2010

Lost Wins


Warning: This article contains information which you will not want to read if you haven't finished the series yet. Please don't read any further if you haven't finished the series. If you do, please don't e-mail me to complain as my response to you will be colorful and profane.

There is nothing more difficult in the television world than crafting a satisfying Series Finale for a great series. Three years later, when a show I like is ending my first impulse is dread and the inevitable "Please don't pull a Sopranos here."  Before the Sopranos finale I think the prevailing thought was, "Please don't be another Seinfeld."

Now name your favorite finale.  I suspect you'll find that much harder. I can only come up with two that really blew me away. In fact my favorite finale of all time, The Shield, had me furious for days after it aired.  Then as I let myself step back I realized any other ending wouldn't have been believable and likely would have destroyed the tone of the entire series.

With all this in mind I looked towards the Lost Finale with equal parts anticipation and anxiety.  What could I expect from a show that has given me six years of enjoyment with it's complete unpredictability?  Turns out a lot more answers than I would have expected.

Let's start with the easy stuff. From where I sit, the island was actually real. (This is the part I am least sure about).  The sidewaysverse was some form of purgatory. And with the exceptions of people like Michael and Ben who still had more penance to do everyone has moved onto whatever your version of heaven/nirvana is. But guess what?  None of this is really the point.

The most satisfying part of tonight's finale was finally being let in on the real secret. We finally got to know what the whole point of the show was.  Redemption.  From the opening of Jack's eye in the pilot episode to the closing of his eye in the finale this story has been about the redemption of Jack Shephard.  We followed Jack from the close-minded bitter man of science, to completely broken man, to redeemed hero giving the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of others. In retrospect it seems so obvious that I feel like re-watching the series will be akin to that second time you watched The Sixth Sense.

Beyond answering or not answering questions, the show did everything you could ask for. Tear jerking reunions of the characters we all fell in love with. A long anticipated and highly satisfying battle between Jack and the Man In Black. And more of the amazing acting we have come to expect, particularly between Matthew Fox and Terry O'Quinn.

If you came into tonight's finale on an answer finding mission, you forgot what show you've been watching for the last six years.  Take a step back, think on what you've enjoyed about this show, and as the characters were told to do repeatedly this season, let go. You'll find "The End"  captured and celebrated everything that was great about Lost.
Posted by Ike Diamonds at 2:28 AM

18 comments:

  1. You nailed it man... In a word, last night was poignant
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  2. nice summary.

    I still would have hoped for something a little less cliche than "oh and we all go to HEAVEN!" at the end.

    I'm shocked that Walt never made it back into the show. I kept waiting for him to show up.

    And would it have killed them to make Kate get naked finally? Or at the very least have a polar bear run up on the beach at the end and eat Claire??
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  3. The way the show ended was completely retarded. The writers got lazy and the show suffered for it. The ATL/purgatory was a lame excuse to continue with the "flashback/forward" premise of the show. If you left it out it would detract zero from the show. It adds nothing beyond a reason for Desmond to be willing to go down that rope. Sayid gave up his soul for Nadia then forgets about her once he takes one look at Shannon in a slut suit. Kate is a murderer but gets into heaven? Christian is an alcoholic wife cheater and gets into heaven? And Ben is a mass murderer and gets invited into the Lostie afterlife convention? Lame, lame, lame, lame. The producers should hang their heads in shame, go into hiding. What made the show great was not the characters (as they constantly insist, to the point of "methinks you doth protest too much") so much as the characters in a context, i.e. the mysteries of the island, which got totally glossed over, pretty much forgotten about during the course of the sixth season. The fact is that the writers could have wrapped up Dharma/time travel/Eloise Hawking, etc. but they got lazy or felt they needed to satisfy perceived expectations of their audience by delivering this complete piece of utter crap finale. What made Lost great was how different it was, not how it can be the same regurgitated relationship show it devolved into. Or the tired conventions of cop show/hospital show/supernatural afterlife show, for that matter. Could have been so much more. A royal failure. I will recommend this show, with the caveat that you skip season 6, or at least fast forward the ATL stuff and just watch how they wrap up the Jacob / MiB stuff (which was also pretty lame, truth be told). Some say you can't summarize Lost. Well, now you can, and in three appropriate words: THE LONG CON.
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  4. excellent points by the hoffman fellow. What made Lost so appealing to begin with was how unusual the events of the show were. Ending with a predictable everybody gets into heaven device is just so ordinary.
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  5. and another damn thing -- quit talking shit about the finale of the Sopranos. It was genius. What, you would have preferred St. Peter floating down and escorting Tony up to the pearly gates? At least Chase had the balls to do something original.
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  6. Hate Hate Hate Hate! (c) Dave Chappelle
    http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?title=playa-haters-ball&videoId=24419

    I have no problem with the finale at all. If you think that seeing some sort of mechanical diagram of what the island is would be compelling television, then perhaps dramatic storytelling isn't for you. Maybe give the aviation channel* a try?

    *I don't know that there actually is an aviation channel, but I'm willing to bet it exists somewhere in the murky depths of the 700+ channels that are on my cable box.
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  7. I think the writers of the show were anything but lazy. I don't disagree that I would have liked enjoyed finding out a little bit more about Eloise Hawking's role. But as far as some of your other specifics, Kate being a sinner depends on whether you consider killing a wife beating drunkard a sin, and how much of a sin if you do. Ben clearly stayed behind "to work stuff out" because he had more penance to do in the "Purgatory" he was still in. Michael did not show up on the show because as he clearly told Hurley several episodes ago he was trapped on the island with the other voices. Walt was not there because Walt never died. Your complaint about Sayid only holds water if you were under the impression that someone can only fall in love once in their lifetime. They had clearly fallen in love on the island previously.
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  8. I think the writers were anything but lazy. I would not have minded having a clearer idea of Eloise role, but beyond that nothing really that mattered was left unanswered from where I sit. As for many of your concerns let me see if I can help:

    Kate - How much of a sinner is someone who kills a wife beating drunkard who is trying to cheat on his wife with her daughter?

    Michael - He clearly told Hurley he was trapped on the island with the other voices several episodes ago.

    Walt - Walt never died, he is still living in the real world, and thus not at the "afterlife convention"

    Ben - Is still stuck in purgatory as he said "working on some things". Clearly he has more atoning to do.

    Sayid - Is someone only allowed to have one love in their life? He clearly was in love with Shannon back on the island, why would you take issue with them continuing that love affair now?
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  9. One more thing - the reason that universal themes like death, dying and the afterlife are prevalent in the storytelling of every culture on the planet is that they're UNIVERSAL.

    Sure, if it turned out that the island was a grand experiment concocted by a group of time travelling unicorns overseen by the ghost of Harry Truman and that the polar bear was the reincarnated Buddhist form of Garfield The Cat that would have been very different. I could give a fuck. The meat of any story however isn't in the how, it's in the who.

    To that end, I actually agree with Pete about the Sopranos finale. I don't believe that seeing Tony's family murdered in that restaurant would have given me any more closure than had they flashed forward 15 years and showed the same thing happening at AJ's 2nd wedding. The point is that Tony's family would never be stable, and they would always be living within the shadow cast by his "work", because he couldn't walk away. The consequences for that action, like death, were always inevitable.

    Wait, whats that, Lost AND the Sopranos are both meditations on the consequences of our actions in life and their eventual reckoning in death...

    I AM FUCKING SHOCKED. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT THEY DID NOT EXPLAIN TO ME HOW MUCH THEY PAID FOR THOSE ONION RINGS BECAUSE THEY LOOKED REALLY DELICIOUS SO I ASSUME THEY WERE KIND OF EXPENSIVE BUT THEY'RE ON THE EAST COAST SO MAYBE ONION RINGS ARE CHEAPER OUT THERE. ALSO THEY DID NOT EXPLAIN HOW MUCH TONY TIPPED. I WANT TO KNOW IF HE IS A FIFTEEN PERCENT TIPPER OR IF HE JUST WENT UP TO TWENTY PERCENT BECAUSE THE MATH IS THAT MUCH EASIER TO DO. WORST FINALE EVER. SHAME ON YOU SOPRANOS PRODUCERS.
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  10. @Morisseau Perhaps I would have been more open to the Sopranos finale if I hadn't just sat through three mediocre seasons of television. But as far as I am concerned that finale was unsatisfying and too clever for it's own good.
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  11. I loved it. Of course I wanted a bit more, but only cause I'm selfish. I get though that if they( the writers ) explained every minute detail, that it would have been too clean of an ending.. I think left it so people could sit and argue and have these conversations forever giving their own take on the show.
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  12. I think that is a big part of it. I also would point out that Across The Sea (Jacob and MiB with the kid stealer) is the one episode spent trying to answer questions and it is easily the worst episode of the entire season.
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  13. I enjoyed both Isaac's (aka, Kimmel's) and Hoffman's stance on the LOST finale. There were many unanswered questions, but who actually thought they'd resolve every single nuance of the first 5 seasons in this one? I just know it made me feel good, I teared up a little, and I felt quite a bit of resolve - more than I can say about most other season finale's, other than Friends, which was simply a masterpiece! :)
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  14. The Kimmel after show certainly helped inform my opinion.

    But let's get to the real cause for concern here, don't you have the wrong chromosome package to be watching Friends?
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  15. That reminds me Shannon, I was looking for a male perspective on Sex In The City. Sounds like that might be right up your alley?
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  16. Yes indeed, I've watched every single episode of that marvelous gem of a show. E-mail me what you need.
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  17. personally i just feel depressed that the show is over. i did not discover lost until 4 months ago and have watched each season through from start to finish at least 3 times. one might say i am a bit obsessed- but i've been sick and it made an otherwise depressing time enjoyable. that being said i think the ending was a beautiful piece of work. true, it did not answer any questions about the dharma, time travel. etc. but i bawled like a baby through the whole thing and felt pretty LOST when it ended. my thing is, why end now? this is one of the few shows that has atleast a few story lines to flesh out and could easily have made it through a seventh season. those are my thoughts...back to the kleenex box.
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  18. @Eric Hoffman - A thought on Kate. In theory MiB leaving the island was going to destroy the world. She killed MiB when he was seconds away from slitting Jack's throat and making good his escape.

    So you could say she save the entire world. Perhaps that was good enough for her sins to wiped clean?
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