It Was Never About a Plane Crash.
As I have been sitting here for ten minutes watching the menu screen, that is all I can think of as an adequate title. Sure, a plane crash was the event that sparked the action, but that's not what the show was about in the same way that you can't delude the entire story of World War I to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The show could not have happened without the plane crash, but the plane crash could have happened and the show would not be Lost. It was a show that, in the form, could have simply been a serious Gilligan's Island, but even at it's least unique, it never became that.
Looking back, it's hard to imagine where we started. In season six, Michael, Walt, Boone, Shannon, Charlie, and in a sense John Locke were long gone. We had new characters who were not connected to the plane and if they were, very loosely, like Ben, Desmond, Miles, Juliet, Frank, Jacob, Richard, Faraday, Charlotte, who all became beloved in their own right. If you were to tell me that starting the show, we would have had all these new characters introduced who had no relation to the original survivors, I probably would have written off the show, because, in my mind it was "impossible." Well, the one thing I learned is that there is no such thing as impossible with the world of Lost.
As a new Lost viewer, I get the distinct pleasure of telling people about the show and the distinct pleasure of feeling absolutely crazy when mentioning immortals, moving islands, time traveling islands, tropical polar bears among other things. I'm usually the first to call a show on deus ex machine stuff or the small world/universe syndrome, but Lost is a show that spent its entire run playing to cliches, coincidences and stuff that just didn't make sense, but you learn to except it and find that int hat is the ultimate charm of the show (next to the characters of course).
You can't talk about the show without mentioning the characters. Each and every character had an arc in some sense and to some degree, they all got from point A to point B in a very rewarding manner. Sure characters like Rousseau, Lapedis, and Charlotte, didn't have much of one, but they served their purpose in helping other people complete their roles. Jin and Sun started off where they were about to divorce and were barely speaking to each other and became one of the most beautiful relationships on the show. Charlie started as a drug addicted has been musician in his mid 20s and yet he became a respectable man and a good father. Claire was about to give her son away and in turn became a good mother. And Jack… learned that he couldn't save everybody and learned to let go and just have faith.
Did the finale answer all the questions I had? No (I'm looking at you, Libby), but I got closure, which was much more important. Most of the questions I still have I can fill in the gaps of and if I can't, it's not all that important. I really don't care about the notebooks or stuff like that. What I went into the finale caring about was whether the story lines of the characters would be tied up and given closure. And yes they were. Learning what the flashsideways were was beautiful. In fact, I don't think I would have been happy if it happened any other way. These peoples lives sucked to varying degrees and they didn't get much better on the island and in some cases they got worse. The fact that a happy ending came for all of them makes it not so depressing. The Losties all ended up having to rely on each other to survive and developed some type of bond that you could ultimately call friendship. Like The Hold Steady wrote in their song Ascension Blues, "we're gonna all be friends in heaven."
I mean, how can any true fan of the show be upset to see Hurley and Charlie, Charlie and Claire, Jin and Sun, Juliet and Sawyer, Libby and Hurley, Sayid and Shannon, and others be united again? How can any fan of Lost complain about an episode where Jack and Locke finally came together again as friends, Jack finally admitting he was wrong and Locke was right. THAT'S what the show was about. The character interactions, fights and friendships. Not about what the Dharma Initiative was or some infection that was first mentioned from the ranting of a crazy woman. I know there are different opinions out there and that's cool, because everyone's different, but how anyone can view Lost as a mystery show as opposed to a character piece is beyond me.
But in the end, it was never about a plane crash, or an island, or Jacob, or people being special, It was about Jack, Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Locke, Sayid, Shannon, Boone, Sun, Jin, Dan, Charlotte, Miles, Ben, Michael, Walt, Claire, Juliet, Frank, Bernard, Rose, Hurley, and Desmond. And without each and every one of these characters the show would have been for the worse.
So as I sign off, the a major part of my summer ends here. I will most likely watching it again several times through out my life time, but I don't suppose it will ever be the same as watching it for the first time. Never have I had such an enjoyable TV viewing experience and I think it will be a long time before I can find another show to do the same. Well, thank you Damon Lindeloff, Carlton Cuse, J.J. Abrams, and the rest of the Cast and Crew of Lost.
See you in another life, brotha.
As I have been sitting here for ten minutes watching the menu screen, that is all I can think of as an adequate title. Sure, a plane crash was the event that sparked the action, but that's not what the show was about in the same way that you can't delude the entire story of World War I to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The show could not have happened without the plane crash, but the plane crash could have happened and the show would not be Lost. It was a show that, in the form, could have simply been a serious Gilligan's Island, but even at it's least unique, it never became that.
Looking back, it's hard to imagine where we started. In season six, Michael, Walt, Boone, Shannon, Charlie, and in a sense John Locke were long gone. We had new characters who were not connected to the plane and if they were, very loosely, like Ben, Desmond, Miles, Juliet, Frank, Jacob, Richard, Faraday, Charlotte, who all became beloved in their own right. If you were to tell me that starting the show, we would have had all these new characters introduced who had no relation to the original survivors, I probably would have written off the show, because, in my mind it was "impossible." Well, the one thing I learned is that there is no such thing as impossible with the world of Lost.
As a new Lost viewer, I get the distinct pleasure of telling people about the show and the distinct pleasure of feeling absolutely crazy when mentioning immortals, moving islands, time traveling islands, tropical polar bears among other things. I'm usually the first to call a show on deus ex machine stuff or the small world/universe syndrome, but Lost is a show that spent its entire run playing to cliches, coincidences and stuff that just didn't make sense, but you learn to except it and find that int hat is the ultimate charm of the show (next to the characters of course).
You can't talk about the show without mentioning the characters. Each and every character had an arc in some sense and to some degree, they all got from point A to point B in a very rewarding manner. Sure characters like Rousseau, Lapedis, and Charlotte, didn't have much of one, but they served their purpose in helping other people complete their roles. Jin and Sun started off where they were about to divorce and were barely speaking to each other and became one of the most beautiful relationships on the show. Charlie started as a drug addicted has been musician in his mid 20s and yet he became a respectable man and a good father. Claire was about to give her son away and in turn became a good mother. And Jack… learned that he couldn't save everybody and learned to let go and just have faith.
Did the finale answer all the questions I had? No (I'm looking at you, Libby), but I got closure, which was much more important. Most of the questions I still have I can fill in the gaps of and if I can't, it's not all that important. I really don't care about the notebooks or stuff like that. What I went into the finale caring about was whether the story lines of the characters would be tied up and given closure. And yes they were. Learning what the flashsideways were was beautiful. In fact, I don't think I would have been happy if it happened any other way. These peoples lives sucked to varying degrees and they didn't get much better on the island and in some cases they got worse. The fact that a happy ending came for all of them makes it not so depressing. The Losties all ended up having to rely on each other to survive and developed some type of bond that you could ultimately call friendship. Like The Hold Steady wrote in their song Ascension Blues, "we're gonna all be friends in heaven."
I mean, how can any true fan of the show be upset to see Hurley and Charlie, Charlie and Claire, Jin and Sun, Juliet and Sawyer, Libby and Hurley, Sayid and Shannon, and others be united again? How can any fan of Lost complain about an episode where Jack and Locke finally came together again as friends, Jack finally admitting he was wrong and Locke was right. THAT'S what the show was about. The character interactions, fights and friendships. Not about what the Dharma Initiative was or some infection that was first mentioned from the ranting of a crazy woman. I know there are different opinions out there and that's cool, because everyone's different, but how anyone can view Lost as a mystery show as opposed to a character piece is beyond me.
But in the end, it was never about a plane crash, or an island, or Jacob, or people being special, It was about Jack, Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Locke, Sayid, Shannon, Boone, Sun, Jin, Dan, Charlotte, Miles, Ben, Michael, Walt, Claire, Juliet, Frank, Bernard, Rose, Hurley, and Desmond. And without each and every one of these characters the show would have been for the worse.
So as I sign off, the a major part of my summer ends here. I will most likely watching it again several times through out my life time, but I don't suppose it will ever be the same as watching it for the first time. Never have I had such an enjoyable TV viewing experience and I think it will be a long time before I can find another show to do the same. Well, thank you Damon Lindeloff, Carlton Cuse, J.J. Abrams, and the rest of the Cast and Crew of Lost.
See you in another life, brotha.
