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Maybe it's just me, but Lost just didn't feel like a show that would go full-on magic. I mean that I've read HP and LOTR and other fantasy and know just how to accept their stories.
To try and jump to fantasy in the last 3 or 4 episodes is a bit of a cop out.
I loved Lost, but I would have liked a few things cleared up myself. While I thought the finale served as one of the finest examples of giving the characters closure I've ever seen, there were a lot of questions I would have enjoyed getting the answers too and a few I thought that we deserved answers to.
For instance:
1. What would have really happened if the MIB actually left the island and, at least in general terms why? Why did he want to leave the island? Why is it bad if he does? I don't need midichlorians here.........just a general metaphor like the island is a cork in the bottle type thing. I felt we at least needed more clarity on this one point as it was the crucial to the plot and what everyone was fighting over.
2. What was the point of the numbers and why bring them up at all?
3. What was the deal with woman not having babies on the island and how does it tie in with the main story? Why bring it up at all or make it a big part of the story and then just ignore it?
4. How does the Smoke Monster/Jack's dad appear off the island several times?
I dunno......it's been months since I've seen the finale and I'm sure if I rewatched it and cataloged my questions that were relevant to the main story, there'd be more.
1. What would have really happened if the MIB actually left the island and, at least in general terms why? Why did he want to leave the island? Why is it bad if he does? I don't need midichlorians here.........just a general metaphor like the island is a cork in the bottle type thing. I felt we at least needed more clarity on this one point as it was the crucial to the plot and what everyone was fighting over.
The only explanation we're given is that he will bring hell with him. As far as I understand it, he is the embodiment of the essence of hell (a demon of sorts) and if he leaves the island it will uncork the barrier between the hell dimension and ours.
2. What was the point of the numbers and why bring them up at all?
The numbers were not mentioned in series, but were included in a video game or something. They are a mathematical sequence that has something to do with maintaining order against chaos (but my memory is vague here). Yes, a fault of the series not to explain this detail a little further on screen.
3. What was the deal with woman not having babies on the island and how does it tie in with the main story? Why bring it up at all or make it a big part of the story and then just ignore it?
My memory is vague here too, but it has something to do with the power of the island, i think. (This had some relationship with the electromagnetic radiation and the drilling.)
4. How does the Smoke Monster/Jack's dad appear off the island several times?
When does he appear off the island, except in the final season?
Yeah, I was going to bring up the infertility stuff. That was never explained. They also didn't delve too deeply into how or why Desmond was special or what the rules between Jacob and his brother were all about. It felt like they set these and other mysteries up as if we'd get a clear answer at some point.
I have a question about Lost that relates to the ending of BSG...
[BSG spoilers ahead]
Why did some people think that BSG's ending was so bad that it ruined the show while Lost's ending was satisfying eventhough it did something similar. Not explaining "God" in full was a copout, yet not explaining the island gets a pass? What's funny is that I was satisfied with BSG not giving us a concrete explanation for God or Starbuck, but felt that they dropped the ball in not explaining things more fully on Lost.
I get the impression that the whole Lost saga was originally set up to take place in the afterlife, but the actors thought it was a lousy way to go and the fans figured it out, so they changed course and made the island events "real", but saved their original idea and used it in season 6. Why didn't they die in the plane crash? They did. Or at least they were supposed to have died until they changed it.
Maybe it's just me, but Lost just didn't feel like a show that would go full-on magic. I mean that I've read HP and LOTR and other fantasy and know just how to accept their stories.
To try and jump to fantasy in the last 3 or 4 episodes is a bit of a cop out.
What's funny is that I was satisfied with BSG not giving us a concrete explanation for God or Starbuck, but felt that they dropped the ball in not explaining things more fully on Lost.
Maybe it's just me, but Lost just didn't feel like a show that would go full-on magic. I mean that I've read HP and LOTR and other fantasy and know just how to accept their stories.
To try and jump to fantasy in the last 3 or 4 episodes is a bit of a cop out.
Never Ever saw a episode... So, I can't say I ever will miss lost.....
I did see however the last ten minutes of the last episode.... and heard everybody was a earthbound spirit... pretty cool....
The only explanation we're given is that he will bring hell with him. As far as I understand it, he is the embodiment of the essence of hell (a demon of sorts) and if he leaves the island it will uncork the barrier between the hell dimension and ours.
That's just it. It's the underlying story to the entire series. It's the main narrative of Season 6. It's the reason everything has happened from day 1 (and well before). This is the main plot point for the entire series and we don't even have a clear idea of what the stakes really were, what the MIB's motivations were or how any of this came to exist in the first place.
I could live with minor mysteries like the numbers, the pregnancy, Walt and potentially Aaron being special, Desmond's erroneous vision of Clare and the baby getting on the chopper, and a dozen other mysteries like those that weren't really resolved or even addressed. However, if we are to understand the point of the series, it seems like the very least we could have gotten was more than just a brush off from an on screen character basically saying "answering questions will only lead to more questions".
For me, that was just lazy. At least paint us a picture in broad strokes without getting midichlorian on us and we didn't even really get that. About the most you can say is the MIB getting off the island was probably going to have negative consequences - we think - and we're not sure what those might be or if something would have happened in the first place.
We don't know why the island is on the sea floor at some point in the future, if that represented the uncorking of the island and spelled out the doom for everyone still alive at the time. When you really get right down to it, we really don't know much of anything other than the island being uncorked is probably - we think - a bad thing and it seemed like we could have gotten just a few more answers at least where this part of the story was concerned.
Maybe it's just me, but Lost just didn't feel like a show that would go full-on magic. I mean that I've read HP and LOTR and other fantasy and know just how to accept their stories.
To try and jump to fantasy in the last 3 or 4 episodes is a bit of a cop out.
Personally, I thought that the Smoke Monster was a tool to help protect the Island and the island is literally the light of the world. Earth's power source and keeping "Hell" from spilling out. It was able to invoke the memory of the dead to steer people away or to different things to help protect the island and if that didn't work, it would have supreme power to kill anyone it wanted. However, when the Man in Black was killed by Jacob, the two ended up fusing. Since MiB was being groomed to become the protector of the island, his power corrupted the monster and therefore MiB became the dominant personality.
I'm pretty sure the infertility stuff was explained. It was the latent electromagnetism on the island that was preventing pregnant women from carrying to term. Now, I'm not sure if that can happen in the real world, but I'm pretty sure it can't cause people to see the future or have their brain time travel either.
As for the Donkey Wheel, I'm pretty sure they explained this too. It was created by the MiB to manipulate the electro-magnetism on the island, which made the island move and do other kinds of crazy things. For those talking about magic, the island was always mystical and this was one of those things. They used electro magnetism as an explaination, but in reality that's just Lost's version of magic.
Those are just my fan-theories. If you asked Presents Galore or theenglish, their ideas will be completely different. If you talk to Cuse and Lindeloff, so will their ideas. But that was the beauty of the show when it was on and that's the beauty of the show now. We still get to debate the nature of the Island and the Smoke Monster and what the hell was with the island moving. I'd be willing to bet that there'd be thousands of more fans disappointed if they answered everything, including some of you who were already angry. To create definitive answers would tell a lot of fans that they were wrong.
Never Ever saw a episode... So, I can't say I ever will miss lost.....
I did see however the last ten minutes of the last episode.... and heard everybody was a earthbound spirit... pretty cool....
I had the opposite reaction--I really loved the BSG finale but was lukewarm on Lost's. Yes BSG had a mythology but it wasn't the expansive kind threaded throughout every episode as LoST-- LOST was plot-driven focusing on a myriad of questions/mysteries, twists, and cliffhangers where BSG raised questions but not like Lost did in every episode--it was a character drama stitched together with a bunch of character moments.
Personally, I thought that the Smoke Monster was a tool to help protect the Island and the island is literally the light of the world. Earth's power source and keeping "Hell" from spilling out.
I'm sorry but the smoke monster was MIB and he's EEEEEVIL and wants to escape the island. That's what I got out of watching the season.
Please elaborate on why you think the Smoke Monster was a tool to help protect the island? Where do you see evidence of a Smoke Monster before MIB gets washed into the cave after Jacob beats him up and gets "smoked" for all his troubles?
If I remember correctly, It was a theory based on what Delenn (sorry, can't recall the character's name on Lost, Alex's mom, the crazy frenchwoman) says - it's a security system or sentinel or something. But that was categorically disproven in s6 when it turns out that MIB is the smoke monster and that in his smoke monster form, he does bad things to people. Presumably as a part of short-term plan or long-term plan for trying to escape the island.
And don't get me started on how Ben is able to call the Smoke Monster at will (when Alex is killed). That whole thing gets completely shot to pieces with the s6 explanation of what the Smoke Monster is. I had to come up with a completely made-up retcon of MIB is "playing" with Ben and letting Ben think that he controls him by letting him "call him" from time to time. But why? Part of some weird long-term plan to escape the island. We never get to know what it is.
I continue to be boggled by the people who say the writers didn't answer questions. My response to that is, "Yes, they did. You just obviously weren't paying attention."
They really started to overdo the answering-questions routine, getting into midichlorian territory. If the answer to what the whispers is, is "ghosts," I guess I never needed to know the answer.
Lost was far more ambitious than other shows, with two major, complicated plot threads happening at once (about the characters and about the islands). I think it's getting slammed for setting its sights unrealistically high, but that's one of the reasons I love it!
Some TV critic whose name I forgot summarized it best: "Lost shot for the moon in an industry that usually shoots for Encino." And look at what we're left with. At this point, I'd be happy with a show that had Bakersfield in its crosshairs.
The statue depicts Taweret, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. It was probably erected by Egyptians who stumbled across the island. Taweret is a hippo, hence the four toes. (Actually I'm not sure if hippos have toes at all instead of hooves, but since she's not human, all bets are off).
I get the impression that the whole Lost saga was originally set up to take place in the afterlife, but the actors thought it was a lousy way to go and the fans figured it out, so they changed course and made the island events "real", but saved their original idea and used it in season 6. Why didn't they die in the plane crash? They did. Or at least they were supposed to have died until they changed it.
Has it been confirmed that that was the original plan for the show? Because that would have sucked!!! Good idea to change it.
I'd probably have been happier with more definite, sciencey-type explanations for things, such as, the island was some kind of alien intelligence, a big blob of something from outer space that crash landed eons ago and the weirdness on the island is its attempt to communicate. Being utterly alien, it probably has other goals that are impossible for humans to figure out, which could be used as a catch-all for anything the writers can't figure out how to explain and also hang onto some mystery.
But that kind of twist could easily become mega-cheesy. The more you explain and make things concrete, the greater the danger of cheesiness. The trick is to know where to stop with the explanations and just leave it to the viewers' imaginations.
Honestly, the magic was there from the beginning. People just chose to ignore it. The Second Season premier was titled Man of Science, Man of Faith.
There definitely was a tension between the sci fi aspect of the show and the mystical/spiritual/fantasy dimension, and what kind of balance they would strike. I recall during the first season wondering whether it could all have a rational explanation, but by S2 or so, I stopped thinking of that as an option. I remember being pretty surprised when the notion of time travel was raised (Sayid and Hurley's conversation about the Big Band music they picked up on the radio) because that was more definite sci fi than I was expecting.
In answer to the OP: Oddly enough, no.
I really loved the show while it was on. Only missed a handful of episodes first run but was able to catch them later. It's not a show that, to me, feels like I want to revisit it with any regularity. I chalk it up due to it being SO arc driven.
Even as interconnected as say DS9 is I can pop in random episodes and feel I get a good complete story. The flashbacks weren't always tidy let alone the main story.
I loved it while it was around but have even sold my season sets 1-3, cause that was the point I realized the show was so serial that the rewatch factor wasn't there for me.
I'm sorry but the smoke monster was MIB and he's EEEEEVIL and wants to escape the island. That's what I got out of watching the season.
Please elaborate on why you think the Smoke Monster was a tool to help protect the island? Where do you see evidence of a Smoke Monster before MIB gets washed into the cave after Jacob beats him up and gets "smoked" for all his troubles?
And look at what we're left with. At this point, I'd be happy with a show that had Bakersfield in its crosshairs.
