What was more interesting?

[Trekker4747]

Lost has made a great shift in the "feel" of episodes over the last few seasons.

I'm rewatching Season 1 on DVD and I find the "living on the island" aspect very interesting, the move to the caves, finding food and shelter, etc. Now, the mystery stuff is great, but I just like the more mundane stuff in the begining. Jack making his doctoral "rounds" using Frontier medicine and all.

Maybe, all said and done, Lost should've been more about island life/living/surviving than this wacked out 1,000-pronged mystery that will never satisfy all this build-up.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

They basically gave up on that premise when the hatch (or more accurately, what's IN the hatch) was revealed. I mean, survival stories become sort of silly when you have a shower, washer dryer, record player, couches, and then eventually DHARMA food of every kind, and then later Barracks, and you get the idea.

I agree they never even scratched the surface of what they could do there. I was looking forward to some real "Lord of the Flies" type shit going down. It never came, and now the story is too weird to go back to that.

 

[Mallet]

Not necessarily, after the Ocianic 6 leave (and the new comers, and Ben, etc...) things could fall apart very quickly amongst the remaining people (Team Locke) and between them and the remaining Others somewhere on the Island. We may still have our "Lord of the Flies" struggle in Season five and part of Season six.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The survival/Lord of the Flies aspect is why I started watching the show (that and for certain actors). I was initially disappointed when that focus shifted, but at the same time, I love the show as is. But as Mallet suggests, there's still a chance for the Lord of the Flies aspect.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think Lost is at its most interesting now, that they're starting to delve into some wacked-out physics theorizing and the possibilities for what's going on are starting to narrow, and answers are starting to crystalize. The Constant is probably the high water mark for being fascinating, but the events leading up to it, and following, are also great (really, I'd say it started with Flashes Before Your Eyes last season).

The first season was the second most interesting time, just because of the fun of not knowing what the frak to expect. But that kind of being-in-the-dark can't be fun forever. I like getting answers now.

The war that seems to be coming could satisfy some Lord-of-the-Flies cravings - things are really going to degenerate? The war that Sayid was leading to rescue Jack, Kate and Sawyer kinda fizzled. Hopefully now we'll see some real fireworks.

 

[DeafPoet]

A show that was about nothing but people surviving on the island would be boring four seasons in. Think Cast Away meets Grey's Anatomy. I'm glad Lost is the show it is and I'm glad they milked the survival aspects just long enough that they left us wanting a little more and way before it got as stale as it could have.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I'm with DeafPoet. Four to six seasons dealing with a bunch of people trying to survive on an island isn't the kind of show I'd want to see. That sounds excruciatingly dull. I like what we got much better. Each season builds on the previous one with something new, and the story is evolving and expanding into something much bigger. That's what keeps me coming back for more. I'll take everything they've given us over the stagnation of non-stop island/survival drama any day.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I'm with DeafPoet. Four to six seasons dealing with a bunch of people trying to survive on an island isn't the kind of show I'd want to see. That sounds excruciatingly dull. I like what we got much better. Each season builds on the previous one with something new, and the story is evolving and expanding into something much bigger. That's what keeps me coming back for more. I'll take everything they've given us over the stagnation of non-stop island/survival drama any day.

That's pretty much what JJ Abrams felt when ABC came to him and asked him to develop the concept of the show. The original pilot script (it was called The Circle back then) was just about people surviving on an island. No mysteries, no weirdness just surviving on an island. He didn't think it was interesting enough to sustain a multiseason show. I think if it was just about surviving the initial interest in the show would've faded. I think in the end Lost did enough survival stuff to keep things interesting but not to bog the show down with it. I like what the show has evolved into.

 

[Mitty]

I really need to go back and watch season 1 again. When I think now about a whole season where basically nothing happened (well okay I know something happened but compared to now, it was a season of nothing!). i wonder if I'd enjoy it as much now, knowing what I know.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Most sci-fi writers are painfully mediocre when they have to write something without "genre" trappings, i think that's the real problem. Lets be honest, a lot of the non-mystery stuff on LOST is kind of dull too (though at times its good). Yet hundreds of thousands of writers write long novels about characters, do long television shows without genre stuff, this year's best picture list was filled with great movie after great movie, none of which had weird mysterious happenings.

If THESE writers had to write a show without all the weirdness, yes I do agree it would probably be mediocre and sort of dull. I believe that JJ Abrams couldn't make the show interesting, he's too much of a "geek at heart" I believe. But lets not pretend it would be dull REGARDLESS Of who's writing it. .. but other people can make a show about people living in a city, or working at a hospital, or living in a suburb, or living in a funeral parlor, into great shows, why couldn't they about a large group of people living on an island?

I firmly and truly believe if Alan Ball or David Chase or David Simon were given the premise of "40 people crash land on the island" with no scifi/fantasy/supernatural trappings, the show could and probably would be brilliant.

 

[Starbreaker]

Keeping the viewers in suspense about the Others, the monster, and the hatch managed to sustain a whole season. At this point in time the flashbacks were much more interesting than they became in the second season, where the stuff happening on the island was much more interesting, IMO. The third season had a nice balance of the two, and now of course we're in a whole new territory.

 

[Trekker4747]

I dunno. Just as I watch through the first season again, I really like the more mundane stuff. I love where the show has gone and I find it very intriguing and all, but at the same time...

I miss the Survivor: Craphole Island stuff.

 

[Aragorn]

While Desmond and Daniel's episode rocked, it was not where I wish Lost had gone.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think a series that was "Lost, minus the weirdness" could actually be great. But the writers couldn't get away with some of their sketchy characterization, such as the Losties' infamous incuriousness and their lack of communication skills at crucial moments. Stuff like that would go from being minor annoyances to truly major. The characterization would have to be consistent and the characters would have to be intelligent and always doing the most sensible thing at any given time (taking into consideration any character-driven weaknesses or blind spots).