Related Sections: Opinion TV
Why we love Lost—and why we hate it!
Lost returns to TV tonight, and if the season premiere is anything like the ones which preceded it, it will answer a few questions while at the same time raising many more.
For some, tonight's episode will be appointment TV. For others, who've given up on the series, this will be just another Wednesday night.
SCI FI Wire has found two viewers—one sworn to stick with Lost until the end and another who once loved the show but now feels so badly burned that she won't bother to watch it ever again—and asked them to tell us why.
Adam-Troy Castro will be with Lost until the final episode no matter what:
Let's get this straight.
I don't expect, and don't necessarily want, everything to be explained.
I don't think we're ever going to reconcile the difference between the Others once commanded by Ben Linus and that spooky barefoot group we once saw wandering through the jungle with that tattered teddy bear. I don't believe that we'll ever know the deal about those magical cursed numbers, and I'd be very, very surprised if we ever received a briefing on that four-toed statue. These are all issues I'd like to know about, sooner or later, but I take definitive revelations, when provided, as garnish.
No, the one thing I most want from the show is also the one thing it has always been scrupulous to provide: the spectacle of conflicted, multidimensional but recognizable people growing and changing in the face of extraordinary circumstance. Whether it's Jack, trusted by everybody but himself and torn apart by self-loathing he has largely earned; Sawyer, doing his best to alienate everybody but sometimes doing the right thing in spite of himself; Hurley, who is seen by many as happy-go-lucky but is in large part neither; Kate, who goes after what she wants but never wants what she has; or Locke, who was profoundly broken long before his spine was snapped in two and who remains broken even after the island restores his ability to walk; the others who must go unmentioned here for lack of space but should not be taken as second thoughts; they are the ones who keep me watching.
I care what happens to them. I cheer when they show nobility, I gasp when they fall back into bad habits, and I shout curses at the screen when, like Boone and Charlie and Ana-Lucia and Mr. Eko, they fall victim to the island's many perils.
There are other fantasy shows—Heroes seems to have become one of them—in which the characters are as inconsistent as the mythology and sometimes seem to make their life decisions only after missing more prior episodes than I have. Not Lost. The island may change shape and character according to rules we cannot fathom, but the protagonists do not. They're knowable people, doing the best they can in a capricious and hostile universe.
And that makes them a lot like us.
On the other hand, Gabrielle S. Faust has already given up:
Tonight, the fifth season of Lost will premiere on ABC as it begins its slow march toward completion. In May 2007, the producers announced that the show would cease after 48 future original episodes, which would be spaced out over three seasons. No doubt millions of viewers will be glued to their television screens in high anticipation of what new bizarre twist the fifth season will bring.
I will not be one of them.
For the past four years, I have attempted to find an insight into the fervent worshipping of the J.J. Abrams phenomenon Lost. About midway through the second season, my attention simply began to wander. Between the constant introduction of entire casts of new characters; plotlines that seemed to have no true beginning, middle or end; arbitrary beasts such as polar bears; and carnivorous swirling black mists that caused explosions, the extremity of the randomness had reached a level that even I, a tried and true fan of the bizarre, could not tolerate. I was beginning to feel as if I needed to keep a notebook with me during every episode to chart it all out and hypothesize on what it could all mean.
Where was this show going, and what was the massive, looming message it was trying to tell us, the rapt, dumbfounded viewers? Too many aspects of the show simply didn't work for me logistically either.
Perhaps they might be small details to the average rabid Lost fan, but to me they were sufficient enough to become a painful thorn in my consciousness every time I watched the show. The extremely overweight man who, even trapped on an island and hiking daily through the jungles, never appears to lose weight. Or the availability of running water (enough to power a washing machine), electricity and dish soap in the bunker in the middle of the jungle where the mysterious computers are kept. I'll take a man-eating black mist over those types of overlooked details any day of the week, because, in the end, it is the little details in science fiction that make the overall story believable.
And I can't forget to mention the horrifying overuse of symbolism! Each episode of Lost wasn't merely an artistic indulgence in symbolism, it was an absinthe-soaked eight-ball of creative chaos and melodrama. By the middle of the second season, it seemed that every single scene contained some sort of dream-vision or hallucination on the part of one or more of the characters that forsake all subtlety. I began at times to wonder if the writers had any clue where they were taking the show, and, indeed, I remember certain rumors circulating that this was perhaps the truth. It had been speculated that the writers were simply charging ahead at full steam without any clue as to how to resolve it, that each show was merely an intense, insane creative compulsion without direction.
Perhaps this was, in large part, due to a growing restlessness in viewers such as myself? At least now we have a resolution in sight.
Three more seasons to go before the great "mystery" is revealed, and, of course, they're heading back to the island. According to producer/writer Damon Lindelof, the fifth season "is about why [the people who have left the island] need to get back". Personally, if I finally found a way to leave an island like that, and the dozens of psychotic people on it, I don't think I would be heading back anytime soon. Call me crazy, but that's just me.
However, despite all of the infuriatingly confounding randomness, there continue to be viewers who seem more dedicated to it than a member of the David Koresh Waco compound. And so, even after the second season ended and I sat back with my head in my hands, I continued to try to embrace Lost through the third season and part of the fourth, to see the light within the melting Dali nightmare of a television program, but it was hopeless. Despite my friends' reassurances that this was the best show on television, I simply kept thinking to myself, "I should have turned it off with the polar bears."
Thus, I will not be tuning in for the upcoming season of Lost. I cannot tolerate another 20 or so hours of my life being consumed by such madness without screaming, "Just get off the island, already!"
What do you think?
By ecgordon at 9:00 AM ON 01/21/09
I'm with Adam on this one. If someone cannot ignore some minor discrepancies and just enjoy some of the best acting and writing on tv (ever!), then perhaps they need to restrict their viewing to more conventional fare.
The hatch was constructed over a giant electro-magnetic anomaly, so don't you think the builders would have thought to drill a well to provide water for the inhabitants of said bunker? While it has been more than four years for us viewers, it has been only about four months on the island for the survivors of 815. I don't think it is surprising that Hurley would not have lost that much weight, if any, in that amount of time.
By balkaster at 9:03 AM ON 01/21/09
I'm with Ms. Faust, and for all the same reasons, except I gave up at the end of season three. Kudos to you, Gabrielle, for having the patience to stick it out a fourth year. I recently caught part of season four on Sci Fi's Monday night block, and I don't feel I missed anything the first time round. Just more incredible ridiculousness with nothing behind it. Jack *just* found out Claire's his sister (didn't we know that two years ago??). Everyone BUT "our heroes" have been able to come and go from the island as they please. Penny's been crisscrossing the Pacific just hoping to run into the island? The island can teleport (without leaving a void for the sea to crash into) and the Dharma Initiative has time travel technology. It's too rational to be Dadaist farce, yet too random to be taken seriously. And it's so tediously grim. People are willing to be spoon-fed this pablum, and numerous shows have tried to ape the model (random extreme plot twists with no suggested goal) and vaporized in cancellation in the blink of an eye. I will never understand why or how this mess became so popular. I think it says something about the psychology of our time, that people are willing to be drawn in to anything that superficially mimics complexity without having any real depth. Mr. Castro exemplifies this: he doesn't expect or want everything to be explained. It completely escapes him that NOTHING is EVER explained. The show simply makes no sense, and the writers/producers are laughing all the way to the bank because they've got you so snowed. The ONLY good thing about the show, the superficially psychological depictions of individuals, is utterly meaningless without the backdrop of a rational milieu.
By Polymer at 9:17 AM ON 01/21/09
Another Scifi Wire article with a headline that ends with an exclamation point! Did the writers go to some second-rate community college? So amateurish. :(
By QuantumSam at 9:19 AM ON 01/21/09
How can you not know what the numbers mean? They are the co-efficients of the Valenzetti Equation!!!
By Asinine Monkey at 9:25 AM ON 01/21/09
I'm with Adam and 'ecgordon' on this.
If you haven't got the patience for Lost and its sci-fi fare (I'm looking at Gabrielle and balkaster here) to just enjoy it then you are clearly watching the wrong programme and/or after all the wrong goals in said programme.
Yes it's full of holes and oversights but I never expected it to be a documentary and/or factual FFS.
By Fan_of_Quality at 9:36 AM ON 01/21/09
As has already been stated, for everyone who cannot tolerate the unresolved plot lines, the chaotic atmosphere, or the possibility of never, ever finding out "what it all means", perhaps more conventional fare would be more appropriate. I would only add that there are many, many non-Lost choices. The CSI flavors seem endless, 24 can be missed repeatedly, and never a question left unanswered, and then there is the Stargate universe. So many choices, so much predictability and redundancy. Enjoy!!
By Virtual Viking at 9:44 AM ON 01/21/09
I only watched a couple of first-season episodes, then decided not to commit for various reasons, mostly time constraints. Then, last summer, I got an opportunity to watch all 4 seasons back to back - don't ask how. It was then that I really "got it" and became a fan. But I had a different hook then most, I imagine. Seeing all the episodes consecutively like that gave me a strange flash: I was watching a giant, living Myst game unfold. You go to these strange structures on a mysterious island, solve puzzles, stay alive, deal with strange "others" - all the elements of a Myst game. I had to conclude Abrams was a gamer.
By AdmNaismith at 11:07 AM ON 01/21/09
I was kind of on the bubble until the Nikki & Paolo episode. After that I turned my mind over to the show to allowed it to be screwed with any way the producers saw fit. If the show doesn't end in a 'Prisoner'-like psychedelic freak-out, I'll be disappointed.
'The Constant' was one of the best hours of television, period.
Watching the Island move, with the water rushing into the, was just thrilling.
I've never seen any show try harder than this in a long, long time. The fact that it takes patience and a viewer's full attention and it still so highly rated shows very clearly that television can be more than 'According to Jim' and '21/2 Men'.
Now, if ABC would just b'cast the last eps of Pushing Daisies...
By jk at 11:39 AM ON 01/21/09
I'm fine with crazy weird stuff as long as there's some kind of internal logic behind it all, which I never felt was the case with Lost. I always got the feeling that they were just making stuff up as they went along, trying to make each reveal stranger than the last with little attention paid to whether or not anything made sense.
The Prisoner pulled off the strange psychedelic stuff because it all made strange sense in context. I had a hard time putting anything in Lost in context.
By PurpleRanger at 12:05 PM ON 01/21/09
I'm sorry, but when I first heard about LOST a few years ago, one thing immediately went through my mind:
"Just sit right back, and you'll hear a tale . . . "
By Handtwist at 12:09 PM ON 01/21/09
What I don't understand is why people seem to think that, in watching Lost, you are somehow required to 'figure it out', or at least attempt to, before anything is explained. The show isn't supposed to be homework! I have never attempted to solve the mysteries myself, and instead trusted that the writers knew where they were going. That patience was sorely tested in season 2 and a large part of season 3, but it has improved to such a rich and thrilling degree in season 4 that I have decided to trust that the writers can maintain that momentum in season 5, especially since all the so-called 'randomness' really is coming together. I particularly love the sense that the story is not actually about the survivors at all, but the island. The survivors, the way they have been dragged through hell, the way all of their demons, hopes and fears have been forced to the fore and have determined all of their actions and experiences, to me, all come together in the 'character' of the island, which represents not just the wildness and danger of nature outside, but the mysteries and darkness of people's inner lives, their true, basic natures, and that of humanity as a whole. The Oceanic Six's need to return to the island reminds us that, no matter how much we try to resist it, the force of our fundamental natures cannot be controlled or ignored, but at the same time should not be simply given in to, and only by accepting that and attempting to understand it can we truly discover what we need to do. Fascinating stuff.
By topaz_bean at 12:20 PM ON 01/21/09
I always felt like the show had a kind of 'Canterbury Tales' element to it. A group of disparate people from all strands of society, who would not normally find themselves together for prolongued periods of time, go on a journey together, and in the course of that journey we are told stories that reveal things about those characters specifically but can also be taken purely as stories in their own right, each with their own specific tone, and message. Then obviously there's the whole island myth, which is another matter entirely.
I'm the same as Virtual Viking: I watched season 2, 3 and 4 back-to-back, after having completely given up on the show halfway through season 2. I started watching again when I saw all the positive reviews for season 4. I think a lot more can be forgiven in terms of lax storytelling and pacing when you know you can get another fix straight after and feel optimistic about it getting better. If you get one hour a week and that hour is consistently disappointing without revealing anything knew to keep you hanging on, for even four weeks, it's not surprising if someone loses interest. I feel for the writers through seasons 2 and 3, the network had obviously decided they were on to a good thing and wanted to stretch it out for as long as possible, regardless of quality. Just as well that Lindelof and Cuse realised that their audience knew when they were being taken for a ride, cleaned up their act, and set the record straight with the network.
By bamberluvr at 12:27 PM ON 01/21/09
I kinda drifted away throug the Others/Nikki/Paolo year, but I slowly returned and have been mildly entertained by what has happened since. I was lucky enough to see the first episode of the new season and it is a game changer - it answers some questions and becomes a true science fiction show. There are a couple of gasp worthy moments, too. I'm with Adam on this one - "Lost" is fun and intelligent (what's wrong with symbolism, Gabrielle?)
By Taiwso at 12:29 PM ON 01/21/09
I am a devout LOST fan and pretty much will be until the end. Why? Because, quite simply, it is the best TV show I've ever seen.
I don't, never have and never will, buy the criticism that 'the writers didn't know where they were going.' It's been proven, both in the execution of the show and in the comments offered by the creators, that they ALWAYS knew where the show was going. The problem was that they didn't know how long ABC wanted to string it along so they had to put more decompression in and introduce more elements in order to extend the life of the series to suit the suits. It is a show whose main pulls are the characters and the mystery. The mysteries that get commonly misinterpreted as 'the writers not knowing where they are gong' are there to offer creative grist for the fans to chew on and to allow for more decompression to accomodate the network's needs to extend the life of the series. Now that a definite schedule has been set to conclude the show, the pace has changed drastically and to anyone that's been paying attention, it's obvious that things have ramped up.
I also don't buy the reasoning that the show has no internal logic. Just because YOU can't figure out why the island has running water and power sources doesn't mean the writers don't have all that figured out, at least to the degree that is required to make the show's plot work (which it does, brilliantly.)
Who knows how long Dharma was there building stuff on that island before they actually started bringing people in? And, hello, they stated that the power source for these hatches are geothermal in nature. Just because the show doesn't delve into the technical aspects of how all this functions to the Nth degree doesn't mean that it can't work, especially not in a science fiction context. And as the characters would have no real comprehension of how it all works, nor would they care to learn given their circumstances, the show rightly doesn't waste any effort putting Dharma engineers on the island to hold our hands and explain it all. The onus is on the audience to stop asking stupid questions like 'how does that work?', anyway.
Other mysteries, like the polar bears, have already been sufficiently explained or hinted at as Dharma experimenting on the effect the unique properties of the island would have on living things. There has been plenty of evidence in the show, in various nuggets of information that, if you're actually WATCHING, are easy to pick up, that zoological experimentation was taking place. What's the reason for this? Who cares? Dharma had their reasons for it and it's not really important for us to know it. All we need to know is how all of this mythology is affecting the characters.
If anyone's 'LOST', it's people like Gabrielle that need their information spoonfed to them. Go watch CSI. It's 40 minutes of mystery wrapped up with a convenient little explanaiton at the end for all the unintuitive types.
Lastly, to complain about them just getting off the island isn't the damn point. The crisis they faced WAS being stuck on the island. But as time has gone on, these people have all been faced with trials that have tested their mettle. Something about the island is trying to help them to all become whole. The characters may be 'trying to get off the island', but anybody who actually watches the show knows that while this drives the characters, and not all of them at that, it is not the reason why WE are watching it. We are watching personal odysseys here, individual journies of redemption. Those journies do NOT end when they 'get off the island.' They end when the characters are healed spiritually and psychologically.
One last point: the show is NOT merely 'grim.' It is emotional and serious when it needs to be and it is warm, compassionate and funny when it needs to be. Characters like Hurley and Sawyer endear themselves to us because their emotions span the range from whimsical and mischevious to nervous, frightened and angry. There have been many moments on LOST where I laughed out loud and many moments where I gritted my teeth or was pensive. So if you aren't laughing at the funny parts of LOST, and there are plenty there, then I'd say you need to go back to something more obvious and lowbrow to get your chuckles.
I'd say that the show is very niche and very much over the head of the lowest common denominator but the fact that it enjoys mainstream success completely obliterates that notion. Gabrielle's caterwauling is way off base here and I think she's just bitter that the show is so popular for something that she, innacurately, sees as flawed.
By Deadlegs at 1:27 PM ON 01/21/09
Plain and simple. If you like it, watch if you don't then don't.
The fact is if you are not of the 5000 people with that little box you dont matter. I for one love the show because it makes me think and it isn't one of the countless shows that eiteher pull headlines from the news (ie CSI, Law and order and many others) or a "reality" show that has no point but to prove the nickname of a TV (the idiot box).
By genericwhiteguy at 1:47 PM ON 01/21/09
My biggest problems with the show lately is that it's obvious they are just killing time and characters don't act like real people. They've all been there a few months-- hasn't anyone actually talked to each other? Typical episode:
Locke (to hurly): I need you to go to the camp, gather all the weapons, put on a dress and meet me at the hatch.
Hurly: Dude, why?
Locke: I'll explain later.
Time passes, Hurly arrives in a strapless sun-dress carrying all the guns.
Hurly: OK, Dude why...
Locke: There's no time, let's go!
Time passes. Shots of them walking through the jungle.
Locke: We'll camp here.
Hurly: Ok, Dude since we're sitting here for the next six hours could you explain...
Locke: Can't explain now. Did you ever wonder what that black smoke is?
Hurly: Well, yeah Dude. Do you know what...
Locke: I don't want to talk about that right now. We have to get up in six hours
Time passes. Morning. Shots of them walking through the jungle. They arrive back at camp.
Hurly: Dude why did...
Locke: I'll explain later. Get Sawyer and Kate. We need to go somewhere.
By budgethero at 2:06 PM ON 01/21/09
lol, generic
but i think it's missing something.. *flashbacks*
By Stephen at 2:27 PM ON 01/21/09
I am a Lost fan and... at last, it’s back on TV in the UK this weekend!!! I have just written a blog entry on the programme and thought you might be interested…
By semishade at 4:42 PM ON 01/21/09
I enjoy Lost for (some of) the characters. I'm entertained by the plot twists and the mystery, whilst not trying too hard to find answers or logic. I like the scenery - that old black and white series of Robinsoe Crusoe evidently had an impact, I must always have wanted to be a castaway!
By dagwud at 6:01 PM ON 01/21/09
If you enjoy LOST, great. If you don't, I'm right there with you. But I'm not going to feel the need to belittle those who don't share my opinion.
We, in our house, didn't stop watching the show because I couldn't follow the plot, or because of the unanswered questions, or because of the oddness. We like those things. Ambiguity can be good. So it's not a matter of toleration.
But we reached a point where we didn't care about the characters anymore. The same thing happened with CSI. Eventually, we didn't care if Sarah & Grissom worked it out, or if Warrick beat his addictions. We didn't care if Kate picked Jack or Sawyer anymore.
The only people on the island we cared about were Hurley and the baby. And that combination just doesn't produce gripping dialogue.
By Rich at 6:43 PM ON 01/21/09
Lost will go down in tv history as the singular example of an interwoven story told across multiple seasons that continually builds to a satisfying conclusion. Many series have tried this - remember Alias? - but I think Lost will be the first and could be the only to be truly successful. Even The Sopranos, in its greatness, cannot match the sheer scope of the storytelling on Lost.
If you don't like it, don't watch. The rest of us will simply enjoy one of the best television series ever created.
By James (not Sawyer) at 9:10 AM ON 01/22/09
Wow, Gabrielle is really out of the loop. They got off the island and now they need to go back, and there are forces that want Aaron to return and forces that don't.
I think LOST is brilliant, because if we imagine a group of people ending up in the middle of a "temporal cold war", a conflict between two opposing forces with access to time travel, but they didn't know that's what was going on at first, then they'd experience precisely what we see in the show: disorientation, confusion, apparent fate/striking coincidences. To manage to write a story that has a clear destination, and flash forward and back, and keep things so consistent is impressive.
This is not to say that LOST is "flawless". But if for nothing else than its ability to mediate not only science fiction but also philosophy and literature to those who might not otherwise take them seriously, LOST deserves appreciation.
By Nathan Brazil at 7:48 AM ON 01/26/09
When the writer and producers get it right, which is more often than not, Lost is the best drama on English speaking TV.
I love the conflicts, questions and dynamics produced by who the characters say they are, who they were, and who they become. The mix of this with the complex mythology of the island, those who seek it, and high quality characterisation means that Lost is, in its way, the equal of the measuring stick for long running arc shows, Babylon 5.
By BPMallet at 1:59 PM ON 01/29/09
Stop thinking too much people! Just enjoy yourselves.
By msmithriv at 5:40 PM ON 02/13/09
I for one, "lost" track of the plot lines due to the writer's strike when the tv stations were running endless reruns of the same episodes until I stopped watching. Even with the recap shows, I am still saying "what the hell?"
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
msmithriv:
I for one, "lost" track of the plot lines due to the writer's strike when the tv stations were running endless reru...More »