Does anybody else think the series feels kinda "off" now?

[Delta1]

I'm kind of disappointed by the "magical" explanations we're getting to the mysteries. The whispers are guilty ghosts. The MIB is "evil" and he's trying to escape (still hoping that's more complex than it appears). They had never seen the lighthouse before because they "weren't looking." People in the alternate universe are getting memories from the first universe through NDEs and kissing (except Sawyer and Charlotte, who did a lot more than kiss and never once recovered any memories).

No magic was needed to link the universes together, because they're already linked by a shared history. There are a number of island survivors who remember meeting the candidates and even the Incident itself; they should be central to the alternate universe. Instead, they're arranging rock-classical fusion concerts and handing out awards.

We really need a scientist type to paint a veneer of sci-fi respectability over the island. Say we didn't see the lighthouse because the island's unique spacetime topology obscures it unless you approach it along an exact vector, or the exotic matter in the spring heals wounds by reversing entropy, or something like that. But all our scientists are dead, so all we get is Hurley's handwaving and appeals ad Iacobum.

 

[sidious618]

There is a cloud of smoke flying around the Island and it kills people. If you were hoping for scientific revelations then you were watching the wrong show.

 

[label]

There is a cloud of smoke flying around the Island and it kills people. If you were hoping for scientific revelations then you were watching the wrong show.

So far there's nothing that's so blatantly unscientific that it can't have a pseudo-scientific reason behind it. I'm not suggesting they might go fantasy/mythological on us and abandon scientific reasoning altogether, but they might be able to tie much of this stuff to real scientific theories. So far, the biggest stretch that I think they have to overcome is how Hurley can talk to dead people and perhaps there's even a good scientific reason behind that depending on what the Island is........

 

[Woulfe]

All the science in the world cannot explain the island going
~ POOF ! ~

Kirk : There is no island....

Decker : DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT ?!?! THERE WAS, BUT NOT ANYMORE !

When that happened I was like this is total Sci-Fi, no way can they explain that with any science whatsoever.

- W -
* Who's okay with that *

 

[Magisterfrodo]

I thought season 5 felt a little off with all the time travel stuff.

This season feels more normal to me. I guess everyone's different.

 

[label]

All the science in the world cannot explain the island going
~ POOF ! ~

Kirk : There is no island....

Decker : DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT ?!?! THERE WAS, BUT NOT ANYMORE !

When that happened I was like this is total Sci-Fi, no way can they explain that with any science whatsoever.

That's not true; in quantum physics there's a phenomena that occurs where a particle might at random pop out of it's current place in 3 dimensional space and appear elsewhere. It's never been known to happen at a macroscopic level but there isn't to my knowledge any reason it couldn't happen. Suppose the incredibly strong EM fields on the island force the island to experience this event and turning the wheel is what activates it?

Quantum Tunneling

Another theory that's even more likely (having been even referenced on the show) is that the island is one end of a "wormhole" where the other end is tethered down in Tunisia. Turning the wheel causes the island to shift it's endpoint to a different place. It explains why people who turn the wheel end up on the polar opposite end of the earth instantly and would explain where the anomalous energy comes from. The island is the unstable part of the wormhole.

Casimir Effect

I'm sure there are other plausible theories out there, but point is, there's plenty in science (or at least scientific plausible theories that could explain a landmass disappearing and reappearing at a different place in space.

 

[TheGodBen]

We really need a scientist type to paint a veneer of sci-fi respectability over the island. Say we didn't see the lighthouse because the island's unique spacetime topology obscures it unless you approach it along an exact vector, or the exotic matter in the spring heals wounds by reversing entropy, or something like that.

GEORDIE: Captain, the [tech] is causing a [tech]! If we don't get out of here in the next five minutes then the [tech] will destroy the ship!
PICARD: Can you [tech] the [tech]?
GEORDIE: No captain, that would cause a [tech] in our [tech] and then then our [tech] will [tech].
DATA: Captain, I have an idea; if we [tech] our [tech] then we can cause a [tech] in the [tech] then we can [tech] our [tech] and create a [tech] that will [tech] the [tech].
RIKER: Wont that cause a [tech] in our [tech]?
DATA: Not if we [tech] our [tech] and [tech] the [tech] [tech].
WORF: I should have signed up for a Klingon ship, they wouldn't deal with this shit.

There is a cloud of smoke flying around the Island and it kills people. If you were hoping for scientific revelations then you were watching the wrong show.

Exactly.

I remember the day after the season 4 finale I was talking about it with some guys in work and they were complaining that the island disappearing was silly and that the show was too weird now. I pointed out that 15 minutes into the pilot there was a monster in the jungle knocking down trees and a little later a polar bear showed up. This show was never not weird, and if you thought that it was going to have logical explanations for everything then you were only fooling yourself.

I thought season 5 felt a little off with all the time travel stuff.

This season feels more normal to me. I guess everyone's different.

I feel exactly the same way; I really lost interest last season with all that 1977 stuff and kept watching out of habit, but this season has felt much more like the Lost I loved back in the first four seasons. It's not quite the same, but I consider it a big improvement over season 5.

 

[DevilEyes]

I'm kind of disappointed by the "magical" explanations we're getting to the mysteries. The whispers are guilty ghosts. The MIB is "evil" and he's trying to escape (still hoping that's more complex than it appears). They had never seen the lighthouse before because they "weren't looking." People in the alternate universe are getting memories from the first universe through NDEs and kissing (except Sawyer and Charlotte, who did a lot more than kiss and never once recovered any memories).

Why would they? They were never close in the Island reality. It's not like they had any strong connection to remember. But I bet Charlotte remembers all if she starts snogging Daniel, and Sawyer remembers with Kate or Juliet.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

For example, the answer to what the whispers are is okay, but the delivery felt (sorry for using that word so often, but it will appear more, I promise ) kinda cobbled together, as an afterthought or something.

Yeah, that explanation didn't really click. It didn't explain anything we know about the whispers (what they've been saying) and it had zero emotional impact. The writers were just checking it off the list. (However, it does mean the island was Purgatory all along for some characters, and that's kinda cute.)

There's something scattered about this season that really isn't working on an emotional connectedness level as much as before. Of course, it's all relative. There have been fantastic episodes centering on Sawyer, Ben, Sayid and Desmond. The explanation for How the Statue Was Destroyed was great - ironic, not something we could guess but not totally out of left field either. Jack is much improved now that he's stopped being a control freak. I never would have guessed Smokey would turn out to be a key character in the story - I just thought of it as some sort of unintelligent critter at best - so that development is cool as well.

Maybe the problem is the flash sideways. Unless/until we know why they matter, it's hard to care about them.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

It's the flash sideways and also the "Other Others" which threw everything off. They spent weeks just sitting around the stupid temple with a bunch of new characters, who eventually got killed off. It all just feels a little pointless.

IMO they took too long to bring the Sideways stuff into relevance. What's happening now is cool but I certainly am not going to be going and rewatching those old Sideway stories from earlier this season.

There's a startling amount of things and characters that just seem to be filling up space... Ilana, Lennon, Dogen, would anyone be shocked if Zoe bites the dust next week? There's this sense of aimlessness early on that makes everything feel off.

 

[DevilEyes]

Flashsideways are my favorite part of the season. I enjoy seeing the familiar characters in a different reality, and guessing what similarities and differences there will be. They connect this season with all the previous seasons, featuring long gone characters and allusions to events from several seasons ago.

 

[RoJoHen]

I think the flashsideways might have been less annoying if they had introduced the Desmond story earlier in the season. We still don't really know what's going on there, but at least with Desmond around we're getting a lot closer to figuring it out.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

It felt like the perfect thing to introduce halfway through the season. The problem is that it's a bit past that point. We just need more episodes to make up for that

 

[TheGodBen]

Maybe the problem is the flash sideways. Unless/until we know why they matter, it's hard to care about them.

Yet more proof that everyone is different, because I find them fascinating as an exploration of how different these character's lives could have been. I might not know what caused the difference, but I'm confident that an answer will be given at some point (possibly the finale) and I can't wait to find out what that answer is.

In some cases I would even say that the flash-sideways are better than the island stuff, such as in the Locke episode or the Sun and Jin episode.

 

[spinnerlys]

For me it's certainly not the flash sideways that feel off, as even the flash forwards had its purpose.

So do those sideway flashes, but I agree with some, that the purpose is still quite vague, and the Desmond episode was quite late.
In LA X one could see, that there is a connection, but in sub sequent episodes (except Ben's) it was kinda missing.
I mean Jack's and Ben's realizations during the flash sideways, that there is something off.

Hmm, maybe that's why this season feels that way.

Back to the kitchen.

 

[Mr Light]

The side-flashes would have been much more tolerable if we knew the purpose of them going in. Every side-story should have had Desmond mysteriously appearing in it and making them remember the Island somehow... then we wouldn't have learned how/why Desmond is doing this until his episode half-way through.

 

[Hober Mallow]

For me, season four was the low point. I know I'm in the minority, but I wasn't all that interested in a bunch of commandos with guns running around trying to destroy the island. The flash forwards were cool, but most of the season was pretty "meh" for me. I expected the following season to be when the show totally jumped the shark, but I loved season five. And I'm loving season six.

But I agree with whoever said it's time for the show to end. It needs to go out on a high note.

 

[label]

For me, season four was the low point. I know I'm in the minority, but I wasn't all that interested in a bunch of commandos with guns running around trying to destroy the island.

I don't know that you're in the minority.....I felt the same way. Granted, Season 4 had the constant, one of the all time best episodes of Lost ever, but I really didn't care much for a lot of the on island Season 4 stuff.

I expected the following season to be when the show totally jumped the shark, but I loved season five. And I'm loving season six.

Agreed. I absolutely loved the Dharma storyline. That's been one of my favorite arcs to date. I wouldn't have minded more of that and less of the time travel stuff or have the Dharma storyline arc over a couple seasons even.....

 

[Mr Light]

I wasn't crazy about Season Four either. The flash-forwards off-Island just weren't interesting, and by the time the finale came around, you knew every single event that was going to happen and it was just going through a checklist. And the new characters weren't very interesting or developed (tho ironically in S5 I would come to dearly love Faraday and Miles). And Ben and Juliet, the fascinating stars of S3, kinda disappeared.

 

[label]

And the new characters weren't very interesting or developed (tho ironically in S5 I would come to dearly love Faraday and Miles). And Ben and Juliet, the fascinating stars of S3, kinda disappeared.

Agreed....in Season 4 Miles and Faraday were ok but I loved both in Season 5......especially Miles. I also agree that Ben took a step back in Season 5 but loved where they took Juliet in Season 5 with Sawyer and the Dharma story.