It seems to me having religiously watched LOST that it is something to be sometimes understood and many times misunderstood, because (as has already been said) the nature of the show meant even its characters did not realise what was happening themsleves. Just like Sopranos (despite the various theories) people need to learn to let go and realise that not everyting should be explicitly explained for them, imagination and intrigue are often the most powerful forces in quality tv experiences.
Watched the Finale last night, it was a good ending to a good series. Will probably be easier to follow watching it in several large chunks than weekly over six years.
Read through quite a few theories and this is the winner for me:-
The island is not a physical entity it is a kind of concept. This island provides "questions" for those who are not ready to "to let go" or "to go." The most interesting of this, is that the island concept does not only apply to the characters in the series, but for all people who are "thinking" about the series. Since we continue reading and discussing about it, WE ARE STILL ON THE ISLAND. We are still looking for "answers."
Nothing that happened on the island was "real". The life before the crash represents the life of a viewer before the "actual show". The afterlife represents the point of view of the viewer after the show. The funeral represents the moment a viewer of show realize the "true", which is not known at the moment.
At the end of the show it's not Jack's homecoming in the church. Jack is in the pews facing the departed. It's you. You're dead. You are part of the narrative. You are part of the cast, You are part of the production. You are the one being encouraged to move on. You are the one they have been waiting for
Damon Lindelof summed up the drama this way: “The show is, at its heart and soul, a character study. We were fascinated as storytellers by what makes people the way they are.”
In a series as precisely written, edited and created as this, it seems clear that Jack's direct look into the camera in the penultimate episode was purposeful and intentional.
If you consider this as a possible explanation, and you start to think a little more about to it, you can discover that some of the stereotypes viewers can be represented by some of the characters:
Michael: it is the viewer who "abandoned" the island. He simply said, "this is crap" and did not try to find something good on it. This character does not appear in the "end" of the series, sharing with everyone else. So it represents the people who didn't see the full show until the very end.
Ben: it is the viewer who understands, or thinks he understands what the island is. But, who is still "not ready" to "let it go", in other words, "still have things to do". The viewer who wants to say and research a little bit more about the show.
Jack: represents those who want a clear answer. Those who want to “come back” with a rational explanation of the events on the island. In the end, they probably understand and enjoy what happened on the island.
Jack: The ideal observer of the show. That's the reason why the first episode opens with a close-up of Jack's eye and the finale ends with a visual effect opposite to how the show began, with the closing of Jack's eye and a pan over the wreckage.
Sawyer: the viewers who at some point in the series its heart was "broken", either because the favorite character died, "Juliet," "Charlie", ..., or something happened and they fought with the island, and finally could never got over it. But nevertheless, they reached the end of the series with the "broken heart."
Hurley: The people who enjoy to the fullest. The "crazy" or "geeks" who "saw things", those how "followed" the leader and, at the end, those who are going to stay on the island forever.
While this is absolutely subjective, I love it, kudos! I'll add one:
Kate: The viewers that were undecided about liking or disliking the show but stuck until the end, and only as they part forever, they were capable of uttering "I love you." Then they move on with their lives but treasure the memories forever.
Sun: The viewers who started out pretending they didn't understand the show but really do since they started to watch the show to escape from a troubling aspect of their lives.
Jin: The viewers who never fully understood the show but tried and took them 3 years to do so.
Bernard/Rose: The viewers who watched, then got a bit bored, and only watched it at their obsessed friend's house every once in a while, but didn't care enough to be a part of the drama.
Libby/Boone/Shannon: The viewers who for one reason or another were unable to watch the series in its entirety, but were still fans and watched it occasionally and liked it well enough to tune in for finale
Nikki/Paulo: The viewers who, upon hearing great things about the series and expecting to find a gem, tuned in to one episode only to become paralyzed with confusion and never return.
Some people have too much time oin their hands. They crashed on the island because Desmond didn't turn the key. Everything up to, including and beyond the bomb happened juyst as it played out, with Jack finally dying at the end of the show - the only thing that never physically happened was the stuff in the flash-sideways in season 6 - which was a kind of 'limbo' where all the people who were important to each other met up to move into the 'next life' together.
I finally watched the finale last night. It was a bit like buying a TV off a bloke in the pub, you had a vague hope that you'd got some wonderful deal, but you kind of knew it was going to be rubbish.
I say watched... with thirty minutes to go, and having ploughed through six years of it I got up and did the dishes. I could hear the nonsense unfold and had a bit of a laugh at myself for having my pants pulled down so spectacularly. What I don't get though is why people still seem to rate it. Maybe it's emperors new clothes. Maybe it's just that having been sold a pup people take a while to admit it and defend their awful purchase to the hilt.
So many aspects of the plot were just Lost. Walt, the numbers, Dharma, the polar bear (well there was a cursory mention, but how come only one ever got out), the mystery of Claire's baby. I'm sure I missed a lot. There's legions of geeks that document this stuff religiously, why did the script writers not get in touch with a few of them around series 4 and work out the stories that they needed to tie up? I guess it was easier to just come up with something that a 10 year old who's written a complicated story that doesn't quite hang together might do and just hammer in a mawkish religious/they all died and went to god's waiting room bit of daftness. At the very least if they'd had him wake up and go for a shower I'd have said they're laughing with us rather than taking the piss.
I watched the first 2 series.
Enjoyed it immensely at first but ditched it as it became a glorified soap opera.
You knew that it wasn't going to end anytime soon and that any given plotline wasn't going to resolve anything.
Couldn't be arsed to wait years for an ending.
[cite]Posted By: Mortimerician[/cite]I finally watched the finale last night. It was a bit like buying a TV off a bloke in the pub, you had a vague hope that you'd got some wonderful deal, but you kind of knew it was going to be rubbish.
I say watched... with thirty minutes to go, and having ploughed through six years of it I got up and did the dishes. I could hear the nonsense unfold and had a bit of a laugh at myself for having my pants pulled down so spectacularly. What I don't get though is why people still seem to rate it. Maybe it's emperors new clothes. Maybe it's just that having been sold a pup people take a while to admit it and defend their awful purchase to the hilt.
So many aspects of the plot were just Lost. Walt, the numbers, Dharma, the polar bear (well there was a cursory mention, but how come only one ever got out), the mystery of Claire's baby. I'm sure I missed a lot. There's legions of geeks that document this stuff religiously, why did the script writers not get in touch with a few of them around series 4 and work out the stories that they needed to tie up? I guess it was easier to just come up with something that a 10 year old who's written a complicated story that doesn't quite hang together might do and just hammer in a mawkish religious/they all died and went to god's waiting room bit of daftness. At the very least if they'd had him wake up and go for a shower I'd have said they're laughing with us rather than taking the piss.
2/10
Nail. Head. Hit on.
I'm interested in the thoughts on those who say you either 'get it' or don't. I don't get it, but if it isn't simply an exercise in stretching a profitable premise to its absolute limit, then what is it?
Take a show like the Wire where some people don't 'get it' and think it's just a cop show. In that case there really is something to get (the various ruminations on politics, on schools, on the failures of capitalism etc. It's there, and David Simon can talk about it for hours)
But if you think Lost is just a load of wishy washy 'mysteries' thrown together to keep cynically pulling the viewer on a trudge through the seasons (like I do) then what are you missing? If you think that lazy writing means they keep everything as vague as possible to avoid having to come up with a proper plot, then what is the actual intention and brilliance behind the vagueness that I'm not getting?
An 11 minute epilogue has been released which aims to answer a couple of the outstanding questions - not really sure if it does, but I can sense another series coming !!
Comments
Amazing.That's exactly what i told my missus when trying to explain why Jacks Dad was standing next to his own coffin.
The island is not a physical entity it is a kind of concept. This island provides "questions" for those who are not ready to "to let go" or "to go." The most interesting of this, is that the island concept does not only apply to the characters in the series, but for all people who are "thinking" about the series. Since we continue reading and discussing about it, WE ARE STILL ON THE ISLAND. We are still looking for "answers."
Nothing that happened on the island was "real". The life before the crash represents the life of a viewer before the "actual show". The afterlife represents the point of view of the viewer after the show. The funeral represents the moment a viewer of show realize the "true", which is not known at the moment.
At the end of the show it's not Jack's homecoming in the church. Jack is in the pews facing the departed. It's you. You're dead. You are part of the narrative. You are part of the cast, You are part of the production. You are the one being encouraged to move on. You are the one they have been waiting for
Damon Lindelof summed up the drama this way: “The show is, at its heart and soul, a character study. We were fascinated as storytellers by what makes people the way they are.”
In a series as precisely written, edited and created as this, it seems clear that Jack's direct look into the camera in the penultimate episode was purposeful and intentional.
If you consider this as a possible explanation, and you start to think a little more about to it, you can discover that some of the stereotypes viewers can be represented by some of the characters:
Michael: it is the viewer who "abandoned" the island. He simply said, "this is crap" and did not try to find something good on it. This character does not appear in the "end" of the series, sharing with everyone else. So it represents the people who didn't see the full show until the very end.
Ben: it is the viewer who understands, or thinks he understands what the island is. But, who is still "not ready" to "let it go", in other words, "still have things to do". The viewer who wants to say and research a little bit more about the show.
Jack: represents those who want a clear answer. Those who want to “come back” with a rational explanation of the events on the island. In the end, they probably understand and enjoy what happened on the island.
Jack: The ideal observer of the show. That's the reason why the first episode opens with a close-up of Jack's eye and the finale ends with a visual effect opposite to how the show began, with the closing of Jack's eye and a pan over the wreckage.
Sawyer: the viewers who at some point in the series its heart was "broken", either because the favorite character died, "Juliet," "Charlie", ..., or something happened and they fought with the island, and finally could never got over it. But nevertheless, they reached the end of the series with the "broken heart."
Hurley: The people who enjoy to the fullest. The "crazy" or "geeks" who "saw things", those how "followed" the leader and, at the end, those who are going to stay on the island forever.
While this is absolutely subjective, I love it, kudos! I'll add one:
Kate: The viewers that were undecided about liking or disliking the show but stuck until the end, and only as they part forever, they were capable of uttering "I love you." Then they move on with their lives but treasure the memories forever.
Sun: The viewers who started out pretending they didn't understand the show but really do since they started to watch the show to escape from a troubling aspect of their lives.
Jin: The viewers who never fully understood the show but tried and took them 3 years to do so.
Bernard/Rose: The viewers who watched, then got a bit bored, and only watched it at their obsessed friend's house every once in a while, but didn't care enough to be a part of the drama.
Libby/Boone/Shannon: The viewers who for one reason or another were unable to watch the series in its entirety, but were still fans and watched it occasionally and liked it well enough to tune in for finale
Nikki/Paulo: The viewers who, upon hearing great things about the series and expecting to find a gem, tuned in to one episode only to become paralyzed with confusion and never return.
I say watched... with thirty minutes to go, and having ploughed through six years of it I got up and did the dishes. I could hear the nonsense unfold and had a bit of a laugh at myself for having my pants pulled down so spectacularly. What I don't get though is why people still seem to rate it. Maybe it's emperors new clothes. Maybe it's just that having been sold a pup people take a while to admit it and defend their awful purchase to the hilt.
So many aspects of the plot were just Lost. Walt, the numbers, Dharma, the polar bear (well there was a cursory mention, but how come only one ever got out), the mystery of Claire's baby. I'm sure I missed a lot. There's legions of geeks that document this stuff religiously, why did the script writers not get in touch with a few of them around series 4 and work out the stories that they needed to tie up? I guess it was easier to just come up with something that a 10 year old who's written a complicated story that doesn't quite hang together might do and just hammer in a mawkish religious/they all died and went to god's waiting room bit of daftness. At the very least if they'd had him wake up and go for a shower I'd have said they're laughing with us rather than taking the piss.
2/10
Enjoyed it immensely at first but ditched it as it became a glorified soap opera.
You knew that it wasn't going to end anytime soon and that any given plotline wasn't going to resolve anything.
Couldn't be arsed to wait years for an ending.
Nail. Head. Hit on.
I'm interested in the thoughts on those who say you either 'get it' or don't. I don't get it, but if it isn't simply an exercise in stretching a profitable premise to its absolute limit, then what is it?
Take a show like the Wire where some people don't 'get it' and think it's just a cop show. In that case there really is something to get (the various ruminations on politics, on schools, on the failures of capitalism etc. It's there, and David Simon can talk about it for hours)
But if you think Lost is just a load of wishy washy 'mysteries' thrown together to keep cynically pulling the viewer on a trudge through the seasons (like I do) then what are you missing? If you think that lazy writing means they keep everything as vague as possible to avoid having to come up with a proper plot, then what is the actual intention and brilliance behind the vagueness that I'm not getting?
New Lost mini-episode