So you disagree about all the inconsistencies listed in those videos, really?
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Reetae reviews the ending of LOST by comprehensively reviewing the series.
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I agree that there is some mysteries that don't have answers.
I agree that Darlton lies to us many time
I agree that some answers are badly done (really badly)
But i think the whole story is well scripted, mostly in characters way.
I saw this story about "how do you forigve yourself". It's the main story of the show. And by that standard it's quite a great achievment.
I repeat i didn't like Lost season 2 and the beginning of season 6.
Consider me as a fandom if you want, but i really think that if Resetera want to give the whole hate on Lost, there is many other shows that made huge mistakes too.
I agree that Darlton lies to us many time
I agree that some answers are badly done (really badly)
But i think the whole story is well scripted, mostly in characters way.
I saw this story about "how do you forigve yourself". It's the main story of the show. And by that standard it's quite a great achievment.
I repeat i didn't like Lost season 2 and the beginning of season 6.
Consider me as a fandom if you want, but i really think that if Resetera want to give the whole hate on Lost, there is many other shows that made huge mistakes too.
You watched the videos and you still don't see any inconsistencies?
Okay, so you didn't answer my question at all...
Sure. That doesn't make the writing on Lost suck any less though.
I don't think the writing of Lost suck.
It's one of the best writing with easter eggs for fans in each episodes, since the last part of season one because in many dialogue there is many references to prior events or catch phrases linked to one characters .
You know, i watch those videos, but that doesn't mean i don't agree with everything or i agree with everything.
It's like you trapped me in a corner and forced me to say "SAY IT! SAY LOST IS A BAD TV SHOW ! DO IT! "
I won't .
But i understand if you don't like Lost.
I watched all of this and enjoyed it.
But.
Lost not answering all its questions doesn't make it a bad show. Yes, they marketed it as such and that was a terrible idea but someone today watching the whole series, free from the context of behind the scenes interviews and over hyped marketing could probably ignore 99.9 percent of the criticism here and still have a good time.
If you need all those commercials and writer interviews to make your point instead of just doing an analysis of what it IS instead of what was promised then maybe your analysis is a bit flawed.
Of course, he's pretty much right about everything. Story threads were dropped. Mysteries lead nowhere. The show promised to have all the answers when they were making it up as they went along.
As someone who watched since the pilot aired, this never bothered me. I knew it was bullshit. They were clearly writing as they went along. If you can accept that, then you'll be ok.
Honestly, there are way more valid criticisms to make about lost then 'they were making it up as they went along!'. In a way having a critical analysis about lost this long and focusing primarily on that is kind of a missed opportunity.
But.
Lost not answering all its questions doesn't make it a bad show. Yes, they marketed it as such and that was a terrible idea but someone today watching the whole series, free from the context of behind the scenes interviews and over hyped marketing could probably ignore 99.9 percent of the criticism here and still have a good time.
If you need all those commercials and writer interviews to make your point instead of just doing an analysis of what it IS instead of what was promised then maybe your analysis is a bit flawed.
Of course, he's pretty much right about everything. Story threads were dropped. Mysteries lead nowhere. The show promised to have all the answers when they were making it up as they went along.
As someone who watched since the pilot aired, this never bothered me. I knew it was bullshit. They were clearly writing as they went along. If you can accept that, then you'll be ok.
Honestly, there are way more valid criticisms to make about lost then 'they were making it up as they went along!'. In a way having a critical analysis about lost this long and focusing primarily on that is kind of a missed opportunity.
It's been a while, but if I recall the show was great for seasons 1-3, then the first big 'we are making this up and changing whatever as we go, please accept' happened in 3 or 4 with the others suddenly not being mystical but actually having a nice village and equipment, and having been trudging through the woods in rags...just because Ben wanted them to. Garbage explanation as a throw away line that served as the first major red flag.
After that if you accept it, the show gets better again, before season 5 and 6 go weird with all sorts of shit. The final episode, though a bit confusing, was actually decent in comparison with what had come in the lead-up to it.
Watching some of these videos just points out all sorts of issues that I'd either forgotten or missed originally, so it's interesting, but also hurts to be reminded of the numerous flaws.
After that if you accept it, the show gets better again, before season 5 and 6 go weird with all sorts of shit. The final episode, though a bit confusing, was actually decent in comparison with what had come in the lead-up to it.
Watching some of these videos just points out all sorts of issues that I'd either forgotten or missed originally, so it's interesting, but also hurts to be reminded of the numerous flaws.
The review will ruin the show. Don't do it.
Watch the pilot, Tabula Rasa, and Walkabout. If you aren't intrigued by then, you can safely ignore the rest of the series.
I think the show is one if the greatest achievements in TV history. Others disagree and that's fine. But LOST's influence can be felt in every great serialized drama that's come out since 2004. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Leftovers, Rectify, Carnivale, The Orville, Penny Dreadful, Spartacus... you name it. Lost will always have a spot in TV history as one of the pioneers of the TV Renaissance of the early 2000s.
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Just because a show features flashbacks or a serialized story doesn't mean it was influenced by Lost.
Mad Men, Breaking Bad, TWD - I don't see any trace of Lost in any of these shows.
Even just the fact that they were serialized dramas is enough to qualify. Back then it was still a novel concept; LOST, the Sopranos, and The Wire were basically it back then.
But you also have the flawed, haunted protagonist. The hyper focus of each episode on one to three of the main characters, often to the exclusion of some of the cast. The regular use of flashbacks to a certain period in a character's life.
TWD follows this formula the least, but even then, the adversarial relationship between the castaways and The Others is a well that TWD draws from often.
Lost didn't invent serialized dramas, it didn't even popularise them in the early 00's.
The Sopranos ran from 1999. 24 ran from 2001. Six Feet Under ran from 2001. All to some extent feature 'flawed, haunted' protagonists' (Tony Soprano is a lot more complex).
Buffy and the X-Files were largely self-contained episodes, but also qualify as serialized dramas running throughout the mid-late 90's.
TWD draws from the graphic novel, which ran from 2003.
Lost aired in 2004, after all of these shows. I think you're giving Lost far too much credit.
Lost aired on network television meaning that it reached a lot more people than The Sopranos. Lost was immensely popular leading to a bunch more serialized network tv shows in its wake. It was a very influential show
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Shows like The Wire, The Sopranos and Buffy were influential to people in the television industry. But to the mainstream at large, I credit shows like 24 and Lost for priming the viewing public for serial shows. And it wasn't because the public at large suddenly have a taste for better storytelling, it was because each episode of those two shows was a mini cliffhanger that made for good water cooler discussions at work.
Nowadays serials are so prominent we don't have time to see them all, so we are more selective with the content we watch, and as a whole the viewing public drifted towards what are perceived as "prestige" shows.
I think it's important to make this distinction before arguing in circles. The Wire and Breaking Bad are my favorite shows, but BB didn't get popular until it was put on Netflix in season 3, and most people discovered The Wire after its run.
Nowadays serials are so prominent we don't have time to see them all, so we are more selective with the content we watch, and as a whole the viewing public drifted towards what are perceived as "prestige" shows.
I think it's important to make this distinction before arguing in circles. The Wire and Breaking Bad are my favorite shows, but BB didn't get popular until it was put on Netflix in season 3, and most people discovered The Wire after its run.
You specifically said that you didn't think Lost had any inconsistencies. Those videos you just watched list many inconsistencies. Logically, that would mean you disagreed every single time.
So.
Did you really disagree every single time?
If the show don't answer some things that doesn't mean the show have no sense you know?
Terrible ending. Especially as they promised it wouldn't be a "they were dead the whole time" ending but what we got wasn't really any better.
Couldn't have said it any better. I have the same attitude toward the show. That's why I will always hold it in high regard.
Dear lord... I guess I shouldn't be surprised you're fine with the writing on the show, considering you too are apparently unable to give a straight answer to a simple question...
No, he is clearly a sociopath with no regard for human life, but I don't think he is supposed to be good. He does a good thing, which is protecting the whatever that does whatever and it should be protected because otherwise God help us, but as far as godlike beings go, he is horrible.
I like to think Hurley or Walt (lol) are better at being Jacob, but, well, we will never see how that will work out.
I like the idea of an evil God doing a good thing, but being completely utilitarian about it. That said, someone with Jacob's power, mission and completely lack of respect for human life would only do his reality TV competition for next leader if he also derived pleasure from suffering and death.
Well in his own way yes
Humanly? No lol
But as i said the whole point of the show is to redeem yourself so they illustrate that by a guy who need someone to replace him for protecting the island so why choose someone who have family etc...in the outside world?
As for Hurley or Walt there is no smocke monster now...so...of course they won't bring people here.
But remember that ABC have the LOST rights of propriety so they can launch a next gen.
Darlton already said to us that this will happen because, capitalism you know
Lost is one of those shows that you either love or hate. I'd give it a try and if you don't like it a few episodes in (I'd say to episode 4) then you likely won't ever like it.
I didn't have the show spoiled at all and although some seasons weren't as good as others, I adored the show as a whole and it was truly unique. It's truly a character driven show and by the end you care about the whole cast, it's pretty impressive.
It's hard to buy the theme of redemption when the reason they were all brought to the island is for Jacob to find a replacement and how used methods that killed other people for no reason. The theme isn't reflected the Man in Black, the supposed villain. He's not trying to seek redemption or anything like that. He's just trying to get off of the island. And having family has nothing to do with being redeemed. At all. He didn't choose people who had families on the outside and yet he let Jin and Sun come back to the island after their daughter is born. I don't see the redemption in that.
I think the creators intended JAcob to be good. OR else the main characters would've called him out for bringing them to the island at the expense of numerous lives twice. But that's left up to interpretation I guess.
I don't necessarily think Jacob was meant to be a "good" character in the sense that he is supposed to be jesus like but the fact that no good character ever calls him out on anything is part of the problem in how he was positioned. Especially with all the black and white symbology they employed.
I think early on they were trying to go for this old gods type of type of morality that older religions had but then that's bungled in their need to pivot back to good and evil to try to raise the stakes.
I think early on they were trying to go for this old gods type of type of morality that older religions had but then that's bungled in their need to pivot back to good and evil to try to raise the stakes.
Jacob didn't need to be a saint but his callous disregard for life muddles the narrative that the Man in Black is supposed to be completely evil. And other characters not commenting on his actions or questioning him just tell me that the writers either didn't think it was important or that Jacob is supposed to be good.
Because at that point they had no idea what the smoke monster fully was. There is no way you can tell anyone that Darlton had a plan with the smoke monster and him being MiB and then Locke early on. They planned that out in the 5th season. That is why there are too many inconsistencies with the smoke monster throughout the show.
The smoke monster wants to get off of the island and decides to kill the pilot.
I mean, obviously. As demonstrated by the final episode's portrayal of our protagonists' efforts to fix the plane and use it to leave. Last thing to cross Jack's mind before dying: "shit, they're leaving, so I guess this is a bad ending, really".
It's cute that you still seem to buy into the idea that they knew what/who the monster was at the time...
Simple, really: becaus- *conveniently explodes*
The smoke monster needs the candidates dead, so he shows them where to find water.
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Exactly. The smoke monster is an inconsistency. They had no idea what it was going to be when the series began.
And I'm still waiting on the reason why the Man in Black leaving the island is bad, Kylo. You say that the bad side is leaving the island to return to civilization is bad but that is not supported by the show in any way. You are misinterpreting the show.
And I'm still waiting on the reason why the Man in Black leaving the island is bad, Kylo. You say that the bad side is leaving the island to return to civilization is bad but that is not supported by the show in any way. You are misinterpreting the show.
Well, I think the point of harping on the numbers so long is to drive home how far Darlton would lie for the show. Things like the numbers on the hatch are simple production mistakes that in any other normal show would be acknowledge and laughed at by the creators, but Darlton couldn't do this, they had to craft elaborate lies to cover their mistakes often times throwing whole people under the bus in the process.
Funny, this review made me go back and rewatch LOST again and boy you can feel the series taking a nose dive starting in S2. The show doesn't get bad with S2, but you can see it beginning to go off the rails. The show begins to focus more on mysteries instead of the characters, flashbacks start to become redundant, and even crazier mysteries are laid upon another. And, of course, the Dharma Initiative is born out of nowhere. It's actually really funny just seeing them pop-up everywhere in S2 despite being no where in S1. S2 is the last time LOST was great, S3-4 is when it just becomes decent. And, post-S4 is just pure garbage, even if you like the characters. Because, post-S4 doesn't care about the characters anymore, it only cares about the mystery plot and the mystery plot has no answers.
I'm on the 5th 6th? part of these youtube videos now, and it really does seem like they were making this shit up as they went along. Like, why was it so important that they had to return to the island as soon as possible? Why were they on a time limit? Would the universe explode?
And that the writers would have these unnamed assailants chasing after the characters just before (after?) the island moved and we never find out who they were.
Also, I love how they decided to change Charlottes date of birth and blamed the inconsistency on the actress' refusal to appear older then she actually is and THEN apologized for bullshitting when the actress called them out on trying to throw her under the bus. What a mess.
And that the writers would have these unnamed assailants chasing after the characters just before (after?) the island moved and we never find out who they were.
Also, I love how they decided to change Charlottes date of birth and blamed the inconsistency on the actress' refusal to appear older then she actually is and THEN apologized for bullshitting when the actress called them out on trying to throw her under the bus. What a mess.
Was a huge LOST fan back in the day until season 5, can't wait to finish watching this and post my feelings.
I think it's certainly better. So they were dead half of season 6. Eh.
If they were dead the whole time I never would have watched the show again but as it is, it's one of my favorite shows ever. I liked the ending for what it was, it wasn't perfect but it was a good goodbye to the characters I had grown fond of for 6 years.
Figured that shit out by the end of Season 2. I was surprised when people kept watching. I felt it was unforgivable. Extremely disrespectful of viewers intelligence.
I was someone that got into LOST very late in the game. I was able to marathon Seasons 1-4 without participating in any of the community talk and forums. I watched seasons 5 and 6 as they aired, and loved them both. Overall, I thought the series finale was really good.
I'm a sucker for mysteries and the mystery box, but at the end of the day, I was more involved with the characters of the show, so "the answers" weren't as big of a driving point for me as I'm sure it was for those people that had been there since day one, waiting for each episode to air as letting the mysteries build and speculation grow. I had the benefit of being able to just take in the seasons without having much time to "stew" on things, so to speak.
A lot of my questions were answered, but not all of them. I admit that I don't need everything to be solved or spelled out for me, because I truly enjoy theorizing and speculation and coming up with my own theories. With that said, I also understand the disappointment many people had. I also think the danger of a mystery box isn't the mystery box itself, but often that the answer to the mystery has a disappointment factor proportionate to how tantalizing the mystery box itself was. And how tantalizing a mystery is is mostly subjective.
For example, I couldn't care less about why the statue has four toes, but for some people, that mystery was everything. For others, the mystery of the smoke monster or the Black Rock, or the whispers on the island were important. And the answers to those mysteries could have disappointed them.
For me, LOST is, as a whole, one of the best television series I've ever watched. Not every season or storyline was a winner or well executed, but overall, it was amazing television, and I admit to being a little bummed I didn't hop on board sooner to be a part of that community. It seemed really fun/insane to speculate with everyone else about what was going on.
The fact that people can still talk and argue about it to this day I think says something positive to its effect on our culture and television series production as a whole.
I'm a sucker for mysteries and the mystery box, but at the end of the day, I was more involved with the characters of the show, so "the answers" weren't as big of a driving point for me as I'm sure it was for those people that had been there since day one, waiting for each episode to air as letting the mysteries build and speculation grow. I had the benefit of being able to just take in the seasons without having much time to "stew" on things, so to speak.
A lot of my questions were answered, but not all of them. I admit that I don't need everything to be solved or spelled out for me, because I truly enjoy theorizing and speculation and coming up with my own theories. With that said, I also understand the disappointment many people had. I also think the danger of a mystery box isn't the mystery box itself, but often that the answer to the mystery has a disappointment factor proportionate to how tantalizing the mystery box itself was. And how tantalizing a mystery is is mostly subjective.
For example, I couldn't care less about why the statue has four toes, but for some people, that mystery was everything. For others, the mystery of the smoke monster or the Black Rock, or the whispers on the island were important. And the answers to those mysteries could have disappointed them.
For me, LOST is, as a whole, one of the best television series I've ever watched. Not every season or storyline was a winner or well executed, but overall, it was amazing television, and I admit to being a little bummed I didn't hop on board sooner to be a part of that community. It seemed really fun/insane to speculate with everyone else about what was going on.
The fact that people can still talk and argue about it to this day I think says something positive to its effect on our culture and television series production as a whole.
So on video 3 right now, the guy is really sort of pouring on the haterade.
His obsession with the pregnancy issue I thought, was pretty heavily hinted at being linked at Annie, which as the video states was dropped. I still can't believe they ditched whatever happened to her motivating ben into becoming the man we saw him become present day in favor of some evil water soul sucking thing. But the guy seems to be overly critical of things which while sketchy,
Also the criticism of Juliet knowing about the guy that Sawyer killed the night before isn't really outside the realm of possibility, considering they would have followed any news reports from The Flame.
Everything else is spot on though. The way they handled the show ruins the entire thing for me, I rewatched parts of it a few years ago. It's really not just the ending though, its everything with their half assed answers throughout the series which contradict the established information. You could make another 10 hour long video about that.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but people like you can't understand the frustration us live viewers encountered. Every week, people would stay up till 2 AM discussing and connecting clues. When the blast door came down and the map was revealed, I stayed up till like 4AM partaking in the decoding of it, and it's importance to the series as a whole, was in the end totally negligable. I understand people who watch the show and get hit by the good acting, beautiful moments, and mystery and twist after twist, but to do that is to really turn your brain off while watching it.
I don't mean it in that anyone who enjoys it is dumb, but the show was meant to be sipped, not gulped. It's like experiencing Trump's presidency. When it's strung out over a year or 4, it's unbearable. If you binge it "it's like wow that's some crazy drama, but everything ended up okay in the end (we can hope)."
You also didn't have producers telling you things like the 3 toed statue was important, the whispers, and literally almost anything. Right down to the importance of the smoke monsters sounds.
On a side note, did anyone ever see that leaked ABC document for season one which sort of went into some of the mysteries? The smoke monster's behavior and security system like behavior is mentioned into it (as well that is is artifical) along with some tidbits on the others, such as them biting Vincent's ear and some other things.
I had heard somewhere that the flash sideways being a semi afterlife was something decided haflway through the season. It's weird in the flash sideways that they decided to show the sunk island. Either way, it's bullshit that they tried to trick the viewer into thinking it was a result of the bomb, and then to just be like nope it's just coincidence!
His obsession with the pregnancy issue I thought, was pretty heavily hinted at being linked at Annie, which as the video states was dropped. I still can't believe they ditched whatever happened to her motivating ben into becoming the man we saw him become present day in favor of some evil water soul sucking thing. But the guy seems to be overly critical of things which while sketchy,
Also the criticism of Juliet knowing about the guy that Sawyer killed the night before isn't really outside the realm of possibility, considering they would have followed any news reports from The Flame.
Everything else is spot on though. The way they handled the show ruins the entire thing for me, I rewatched parts of it a few years ago. It's really not just the ending though, its everything with their half assed answers throughout the series which contradict the established information. You could make another 10 hour long video about that.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but people like you can't understand the frustration us live viewers encountered. Every week, people would stay up till 2 AM discussing and connecting clues. When the blast door came down and the map was revealed, I stayed up till like 4AM partaking in the decoding of it, and it's importance to the series as a whole, was in the end totally negligable. I understand people who watch the show and get hit by the good acting, beautiful moments, and mystery and twist after twist, but to do that is to really turn your brain off while watching it.
I don't mean it in that anyone who enjoys it is dumb, but the show was meant to be sipped, not gulped. It's like experiencing Trump's presidency. When it's strung out over a year or 4, it's unbearable. If you binge it "it's like wow that's some crazy drama, but everything ended up okay in the end (we can hope)."
You also didn't have producers telling you things like the 3 toed statue was important, the whispers, and literally almost anything. Right down to the importance of the smoke monsters sounds.
On a side note, did anyone ever see that leaked ABC document for season one which sort of went into some of the mysteries? The smoke monster's behavior and security system like behavior is mentioned into it (as well that is is artifical) along with some tidbits on the others, such as them biting Vincent's ear and some other things.
I had heard somewhere that the flash sideways being a semi afterlife was something decided haflway through the season. It's weird in the flash sideways that they decided to show the sunk island. Either way, it's bullshit that they tried to trick the viewer into thinking it was a result of the bomb, and then to just be like nope it's just coincidence!
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Was watching this and just had to highlight The Old Country getting a spotlight during the "you didn't get it" rant.
(Might have been tongue-in-cheek though, as Lindelof had made the same kind of "just go watch NCIS instead" comment.)
I have watched all review episodes now... twice, very impressive analysis!
Imo this is far from a hater review and you can tell he loved the show but he was not going to let the things slide that got him and many people interested in the show in the first place. The characters were the saving grace when the mysteries couldn't keep the fassade up any longer but there was a breaking point to the overall framework of the show and they only could do so much to keep me interested, it really didn't help that their motivations at the end came out of thin air and there was no solid ground for them to stand on.
But if you never seen the show then you really shouldn't watch this review, one reasonable advice tho is that if you feel like the show has lost you at any point... then there is no shame in giving it up, know that you have made the most out of what you've seen up to that point already, just do what your gut is telling you.
Imo this is far from a hater review and you can tell he loved the show but he was not going to let the things slide that got him and many people interested in the show in the first place. The characters were the saving grace when the mysteries couldn't keep the fassade up any longer but there was a breaking point to the overall framework of the show and they only could do so much to keep me interested, it really didn't help that their motivations at the end came out of thin air and there was no solid ground for them to stand on.
But if you never seen the show then you really shouldn't watch this review, one reasonable advice tho is that if you feel like the show has lost you at any point... then there is no shame in giving it up, know that you have made the most out of what you've seen up to that point already, just do what your gut is telling you.
I'm not really engaging in this thread since I feel at this point in time, people's opionions on LOST are pretty entrenched and I've more or less heard it all. Was - and still am - a major fan of the show, and it had lasting impact on my life like few entertainment mediums have. Even got my first GAF tag based on a S3 episode I was defending.
Anywho, since I'm not someone who "needs to know everything!" Most "plot hole" arguments don't bother me.... save one. One small thing bothered me so much then, still does now if I think about it.
How was Christian Shepard able to appear off the island? How was he in jack's hospital (and the smoke alarm going off).
Anywho, since I'm not someone who "needs to know everything!" Most "plot hole" arguments don't bother me.... save one. One small thing bothered me so much then, still does now if I think about it.
How was Christian Shepard able to appear off the island? How was he in jack's hospital (and the smoke alarm going off).
Just finished part 4, man this guy is so spot on what ruined the show for me. While I hate fan fiction, he really has the perfect ending for this show with season 4.
Yemi said to Eko "How can you think i'm your brother?"
It's the first time we understand that the monster is more than just a smoke but can actually talk and think
Eko respond "WHO ARE YOU?" after that
I don"t care if at this time they didn't know what MIB was. The fact is now that the scene is more good.
I don't think Eichiro Oda think of everything too.
For Rayleigh we know he takes the sketch of that guy in the first arc but he had no idea who Rayleigh would be.
It's not because they won't have the master plan since day one that there is inconsistencies everywhere.
Benioff and Weiss wont' answer the assassin who tried to kill Bran even if the books did.
So..
As for Shepard or Charlie appearing to Hurley it's obvious that those are from the flash sideways. I mean Charlie Pace is quite obvious "i'm dead but i'm here".
It's the first time we understand that the monster is more than just a smoke but can actually talk and think
Eko respond "WHO ARE YOU?" after that
I don"t care if at this time they didn't know what MIB was. The fact is now that the scene is more good.
I don't think Eichiro Oda think of everything too.
For Rayleigh we know he takes the sketch of that guy in the first arc but he had no idea who Rayleigh would be.
It's not because they won't have the master plan since day one that there is inconsistencies everywhere.
Benioff and Weiss wont' answer the assassin who tried to kill Bran even if the books did.
So..
As for Shepard or Charlie appearing to Hurley it's obvious that those are from the flash sideways. I mean Charlie Pace is quite obvious "i'm dead but i'm here".
You're bad at this. You say that the Man in Black represents the bad side of Lost which is leaving the island and use the Eko scene as proof but it doesn't prove anything. You just try to steer the argument away to something more comfortable for you even if it doesn't make any kind of logical sense.
It's why you keep bringing up Game of Thrones. You say it doesn't get the same criticism when it does in heaps. You say they don't explain the Assassin that tried to kill Bran, but they did.
So, I'll ask again: why is it bad if the Man in a black leaves the island?
You only barely make some sense here and there, sorry.
Just a few things.
No, Lindelof and Cuse aren't the only writers who improvise. The problem with their improvisation is that:
1) they lied about it and kept pretending they knew what was going on,
and
2) it was extremely careless. It's possible to improvise without contradicting yourself. You just need to be careful. Lindelof and Cuse weren't.
As for dead characters appearing here and there... You (naturally) ignored the smoke alarm bit, but let's not go there, for the sake of the argument...
They can't quite be from the flash-sideways, since flash-sideways Charlie wouldn't know all the island stuff he talks about in that scene. But yeah, they'd have to be ghosts still, I guess.
So it looks like that's what happens to our characters after they "move on" in that church: they go on to appear to their past selves and spout cryptic nonsense! Yay!
I think reetae sums it up pretty well. They had no idea how they were going to explain the mystery they introduce in the show and the last series shows this. They had no idea how to tie the whole thing up. Ignoring some shitty direction, the whole end of the show sucks, because they had no idea what they were doing after a certain point.
My own theory is at the start of the show, they had an idea where they were going. They wrote down notes that got them as far as Season 4. That's why there is a dip in quality post that season. I think they were planing on winging it and writing an ending as the show went on, but something happened. The writers strike or something else happened and there was just no attempt to realise a resolution until midway through season 5. There is an episode where I remember just feeling it at the time. Like this was the moment they started to panic.
The real problem is that if you don't have an ending to a mystery show you threaten to write yourself into a corner. By having no ending, they screw themselves with lore that directly limits what they can do with the ending.
My own theory is at the start of the show, they had an idea where they were going. They wrote down notes that got them as far as Season 4. That's why there is a dip in quality post that season. I think they were planing on winging it and writing an ending as the show went on, but something happened. The writers strike or something else happened and there was just no attempt to realise a resolution until midway through season 5. There is an episode where I remember just feeling it at the time. Like this was the moment they started to panic.
The real problem is that if you don't have an ending to a mystery show you threaten to write yourself into a corner. By having no ending, they screw themselves with lore that directly limits what they can do with the ending.
Maybe they just didn't want to create a story that would be uncovered by fan theories so the way to ensure that is not knowing what it is all about yourself. When the time comes to end the show, cook something up that makes sense somehow!
The writers guide from the very beginning is interesting in that regard as it already has some of those key elements roughly outlined but they seem random and some of them weren't even used later in the show.
I don't want to trashtalk the writers but maybe they weren't as inventive and clever as they thought in the beginning, in theory, this could have worked out beautifully.... in theory!
The writers guide from the very beginning is interesting in that regard as it already has some of those key elements roughly outlined but they seem random and some of them weren't even used later in the show.
I don't want to trashtalk the writers but maybe they weren't as inventive and clever as they thought in the beginning, in theory, this could have worked out beautifully.... in theory!
Honestly, rewatching LOST I think the reason they never planned an ending is because they went too far with the mysteries such that attempting to answer them would break what the show was. Which, of course, is what they end up doing any way.
What do I mean? Well, LOST started out as a story about survival, with the added element of a mysterious island. Once the whole hatch was revealed, bare survival was no longer a concern, and The Others were changed, the show started to morph into something else.
As a result, end game could no longer be about merely leaving the island but uncovering the mystery. Prison Break has this exact same issue, people watched that show and got hooked for the titular Prison Break. However, once they broke out of Prison the show began to morph from Prison Break into 24 conspiracy fuckery. The show had gradually lost what made it special in the first place.
Once Lost started introducing all these insane mystery elements in S2 it was hard for the show to maintain the simplistic core of the first season. Suddenly, the mysteries become the driving factor of the show and the mysteries become so massive that they literally have to invent a GOD to help stabilize some of this craziness. As a result, the show had drifted too far from what made it special, forced to answer mysteries which, regardless of if they were answered, could only take the show further off course.
I hope that makes sense, basically any answers to these new mysteries would only take the show further off course from what it was.