TV Series: Lost

[A.C]

Spoiler

'I've made it so you can't hurt each other'

lol

 

[Lithrael]

Spoiler

Man. How do completely batshit people always end up Guardians of Powerful Shit?

Now I'm just annoyed with Smokey that he would go with the LETS BE MYSTERIOUS line after having been fucked over by it all his life.

 

[CowTip]

Again taken from another board:

Michael Emerson talks "Lost"
http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/michael_emerson_84X3K3M1gDq8cgC0s2PxaM

PW: A lot of fans have wondered what the actual purpose for the flash-sideways is -- will it eventually be explained?
Michael: Yes, but they’re not going to spoon feed it to you. For me, the ending of the series required some analysis. It’s not given to you on a dish, neatly organized with a fancy bow put on the end of it. What it does have is a great soulfulness and the ending is human scale.

PW: It sounds like fans will have to do a lot of rewatching once the series finale airs.
Michael: Yeah. Well, I think that’s a possible response for some people. I have received the finale by degrees. I read the script without the secret scenes, then I read the secret scenes, then I shot the script and each time I’m thinking about "what does this mean?"

When I first read it, the ending wasn’t clear to me – but since then it’s grown more clear and I have to say, grown more satisfying the more I think about it. I expect a mixture of satisfaction and consternation amongst the viewers when it airs. But once they rewatch it, rethink about it and possibly look at the saga again, gradually they will feel like they have just read a good novel -- but you have to chew on it for a while.

Well this sounds familiar.

 

[Griffith]

Last night's episode of Lost was so universally bad that it even transcended into the world of sports, as reported on ESPN's Around the Horn during their coverage of the Celtics 120 to 88 demolition of the Cavs (click for wav):

You ever seen so much fallout come from one non-season-ending loss? People asking whether last night was LeBron's last home game in Cleveland, and whether Mike Brown would be fired by half time of game 6, and whether LeBron was worse than last night's episode of Lost? Which he wasn't, or at least they were tied for stinkyness.

 

[CowTip]

You guys might be getting tired of this stuff, but I'm throwing it up here anyway. The writers respond to reactions to last night's episode:

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/exclusive-interview-lost-producers-damon-lindelof-and-carlton-cuse-talk-across-the-sea

A few notable quotes from the interview:

Okay, finally, I have to ask, simply because it's been driving me nuts for a year and a half: what's going on with showing the other half of the outrigger shootout?

CC: The outrigger shootout is not something we're bending around in gyrations so we can solve it. In the grand scheme of the show, that is a fairly obscure piece of the show. It is your particular obsession...

DL: ...and you're not alone in it.

CC: You're not alone in it. And yes, it would have been great if we had had the opportunity to close the time loop. But you can't get everything done and keeping the narrative going in a straight line. This is one of those things where we made a very conscious choice to ask, "What are the big questions? And most importantly, what are the paths of these characters? Where do they lead?" And we followed those paths and tried not to trip ourselves up getting too diverted from that. We felt that that's the thing that's ultimately going to make the finale work or not work. We got to the point where we made the finale we wanted to make, that was our approach, and I think it was the only approach we could take. We sat here in my office, had breakfast every day for six years, talked about the show, and we used this gut check methodology, where if we both loved something and thought it was cool, that would go in. We applied that same methodology to the finale, and that was the only way we could do it. We came up with a finale that we thought was cool, that was emotional and one we really liked. That's the best we could do.

DL: When we wrote that scene and somebody started shooting at them, we knew exactly who was shooting at them. That is not a dangling thread that we don't know the answer to. That being said, as we started talking about paying that off this season, it felt like the episode was at the service of closing the time loop, as opposed to what the characters might actually be doing in that scenario. It never felt organic. We decided we would rather take our lumps from the people who couldn't scratch that itch than to produce an episode that was in service of putting people in an outrigger and getting shot at.

You put people in a lot of outriggers this season. It feels, frankly, like you're taunting me.

DL: We can't entirely deny that we're taunting you.

CC: Honestly, though, the logistics of getting all the participants in the outriggers in the configuration that was on the A-side of the time loop was actually really daunting.

DL: Considering half of them had been killed off

CC: It's not like we didn't want to do it. Like Damon says, it was just too much of a narrative deviation to do it.

And even better:

You've said many times that when people find out who Adam and Eve are, we'll all realize just how long you've been planning the mythology. Well, I went back and watched the "House of the Rising Sun" scene, and Jack says that the clothing looks like it's 50 years old. Is he just not very good at calculating the rate of decay on fabric?

CC: Jack is not really an expert in carbon dating.

DL: He's not really a forensic anthropologist. We need to bring in Bones.

CC: Or Charlotte. She's an anthropolgist.

DL: The other theory that I would like to throw out there is that Jacob and his mother were just expert craftsmen. They made those clothes on that loom so well, it would appear that they were only 50 years old in decomposition, when in fact it's several thousand.

CC: Or perhaps the fabric is magic. A lot of theories there, Alan.

These guys just keep coming across as bigger and bigger jerks

 

[Aazealh]

Spoiler

I knew this was going to be particularly good when I saw that the mother's belly remained the exact same size after the first AND second births. It's like they're not even trying anymore.

Spoiler

So the mother character raises these two boys to protect a mystical light on an island that supposedly contains the light of all humans (I assume light means literally their life), but then she goes on to bash the humans on the island calling them selfish, power hungry and overall terrible. She doesn't think twice about murdering anyone she meets and is grateful to die by the end of the episode. So why again did she care about protecting the light again? You'd think she'd point the humans right to it just to end it all.

Spoiler

Yeah she comes off as the worst human of them all really. And this episode basically reduced the whole series to retarded family drama where characters make insane choices following nonsensical logic all the time. Jacob is mama's dense boy who always does what he's told and Smokey is the teen rebel who skips school to smoke cigarettes behind the church.

"WHY DO YOU LOVE HIM MORE?"

As for the magic cave filled with magic light, it's so blatant and literal and that I slapped my knee laughing when it showed up. I could say more but I think Griff summarized it perfectly:

it was so laughably vague and simplistic it wasn't much more than a metaphor itself [...] it's pretty clear there's nothing behind the curtain, which I expected, but now it looks they're not even trying to make something up [...] It felt downright surreal halfway through the episode, like, THIS is what they're going with, really? Is this Lost, or a lost hour of the Merlin miniseries?

Spoiler

When I first saw the cave I half-expected Xena to come out of it, that's how bad it is. I would have respected them more had they made it a big plastic jewel with "PLOT DEVICE" written on it. It would have paradoxically been less lazy.

The imaginary rules (I've made it so you couldn't hurt each other / one day you can make your own game with your own rules and everyone will have to follow them / I'm special) are in the same vein, confirming that the writers are just trolling the audience. The only answer anyone's ever going to get is "magic did it."

Yep, from what I've gathered most LOST fans consider this episode an "acceptable" explanation. I was a little surprised, I thought they would've been really angry that the solved mystery wasn't more intriguing... but at this point I guess "acceptable" is all they're asking for.

Dude, anyone who calls themselves a fan of Lost at this point has no taste and could eat dog shit and tell you it's "not that bad". The ending could be 10 minutes of black screen with whales singing in the background and they'd call it a masterpiece.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and call this episode the best of the entire show. It perfectly summarizes how inane it's all been and as a bonus the regular characters of the show have less than a minute on screen.

Spoiler

I've also got to give them props for trying to pass it off like they'd planned it all along by showing the scene of Jack and Kate finding the two skeletons in season 1. I just find it hilarious because that "mystery" really is one of the oldest and least important loose ends, and they were obviously trying to blow the viewers away by bringing it back, regardless of the discrepancies.

"For me, the ending of the series required some analysis. It’s not given to you on a dish, neatly organized with a fancy bow put on the end of it. What it does have is a great soulfulness and the ending is human scale."

-----

"CC: Or perhaps the fabric is magic. A lot of theories there, Alan."

Hahaha, just as expected. I'd like to point out that I hadn't read these when I wrote my post, but it's been clear for a long time that this was what they were going for. What Emerson says is an open admission of a falsely DEEP philosophical ending.

 

[Rhombaad]

This show really is the worst. My girlfriend and I were laughing almost the entire time while we watched the last episode. This was, by far, the shittiest episode of the series and what scares me is that the writers were probably looking at each other as they wrote it saying things like, "Genius!" every few minutes. Also, could they have found a worse actor to play

Spoiler

the mother

? What complete and utter shit. Damon Lindelof and Carleton Cuse are some of the biggest hacks in Hollywood today. Just reading their comments pisses me off. I can't believe how much time (and money) I've wasted/am wasting watching this show. Thank God it's almost over (although at this point I'm seriously considering skipping the last two episodes).

 

[CowTip]

To be fair, I still feel like I can say I more or less enjoyed seasons 1-5 despite their problems so I can't call a complete loss here, but season 6 has been akin to being kicked repeatedly in the scrotum.

 

[Walter]

Terrible episode.

 

[Th3Branded0ne]

Good grief it's almost over.

Spoiler

how come it took too long for Hugo to get the others to meet Jacob, it was bright and sunny and they arrived when it was dark already. And smokey telling Ben he liked walking to feel the feet on the ground to remember he once was human just cracked me up. And Nothing really detailed was explained by Jacob other than he made a mistake and that they had to fix it.

 

[Aazealh]

Spoiler

how come it took too long for Hugo to get the others to meet Jacob, it was bright and sunny and they arrived when it was dark already.

Spoiler

Yeah, noticed the same. It's just ridiculous. Same for when Ben says he needs to get all the C4 from the safe and the next shot you see C4 left in there. And what to say of Widmore's explanation for his complete change of character from evil bastard to misunderstood nice guy. "Jacob came to me and he turned on to his side." I know this is to be expected at this point but still, I can't look past so much lameness. The finale's going to be hell to sit through.

Spoiler

And Nothing really detailed was explained by Jacob other than he made a mistake and that they had to fix it.

Spoiler

He just means that time he threw his brother into the light. That's the only "explanation" we're ever getting.

P.S. Ben & Daniele's "love at first sight" scene had me gagging.

 

[Walter]

Sorry this show sucks, but 24 just had one of its best episodes ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EymJrmCMJ_4

 

[CowTip]

Walter speaks the truth. I honestly expected things to go down the opposite way... Lost to be awesome, 24 to just quietly die, but the second half of this season's 24 has been amazing. Last night was great! Can't wait to see how it ends.

As for Lost... At least the pain is almost over~

 

[Aazealh]

Walter speaks the truth. I honestly expected things to go down the opposite way... Lost to be awesome, 24 to just quietly die, but the second half of this season's 24 has been amazing. Last night was great! Can't wait to see how it ends.

As for Lost... At least the pain is almost over~

Speaking of which, Fringe has really been awesome recently. A good example of a series that turned out better than expected as opposed to a show like Heroes. And I know you're not a fan of NCIS, CowTip, but while watching its latest episode I reflected on how well written the show is compared to something like Lost.

 

[Rhombaad]

Fringe is a show I really need to start watching. Do you need to watch from the very beginning, or can I just start now?

 

[Aazealh]

Fringe is a show I really need to start watching. Do you need to watch from the very beginning, or can I just start now?

You definitely can't start now. Some episodes are absolutely unnecessary, especially from season one, but I couldn't tell you which from memory, and they're in the midst of episodes you can't do without, so my recommendation is to just watch everything.

 

[Rhombaad]

You definitely can't start now. Some episodes are absolutely unnecessary, especially from season one, but I couldn't tell you which from memory, and they're in the midst of episodes you can't do without, so my recommendation is to just watch everything.

Okay, sounds good. I'll add Season 1 to my wishlist.

Thanks, Aaz!

 

[CowTip]

Well. They took us all for a ride.

That was... awful. Man. I feel like I just got punched in the gut, and I saw this coming.

Just... terrible.

 

[Walter]

Well. They took us all for a ride.

That was... awful. Man. I feel like I just got punched in the gut, and I saw this coming.

Just... terrible.

Oh, it's over? Haha, I totally forgot it was ending tonight. Oh well!

 

[Death May Die]

I feel weird. What some people had to keep up on for 6 long years, I sat down and watched a 1hr recap episode, followed by the final episode. I guess I liked it. Not bad. I don't know if they had to drag it out 6 seasons. I hope LOST fans are pleased. I could only imagine being so dedicated and feeling it feel really short. IMO I don't think it did. Felt like from hearing things from other people, that it had every reason to fall short.

 

[F611]

WTF did I just watch?

I got up at 5am for that.

 

[Xem]

One word... sad.

To play devil's advocate, it is a cable television show, and I don't think it should be held up to ... big .. stan...

Oh fuck who am I kidding it was predictable and disappointing. I coughed/laughed in a sick way when

Spoiler

Jack jumped at Locke 300 style.

Didn't the producers refute somewhere along the line that

Spoiler

they weren't actually dead or in purgatory or whatever? Way to have literally NO idea what you're doing... seriously.. I'm an optimist and I the best thing I can say out of this episode is that it was a "Best of" episode... trying to remind of us a few actual enjoyable moments from the series yet simultaneously making them completely redundant.

I... just... I'm at a loss for words. A 3rd grader could have come up with a better ending. Ex:

Spoiler

"The island is radioactive... and.. uh, that's why girls can't have babies... and uh... also, the radioactive shit created a monster that needs to be contained... so uh.... some people created an electromagnetic defense system to contain it.... but uh.... it's like, malfunctioning... so yeah! Series finale! Monster vs. Electromagnetic Defense System!"

As random and B-movie as that would've been, I think it would've been better. It could've also explained the

Spoiler

"Hurley Bird"

, which will apparently be a "mystery" forever.

 

[Walter]

To play devil's advocate, it is a cable television show,

No it's not, it's on ABC, a major television network available everywhere with a digital antennae.

 

[Xem]

No it's not, it's on ABC, a major television network available everywhere with a digital antennae.

I don't see why this matters at all, but ABC is a major cable television network isn't it?

The point was, and I assume most people would understand, is it shouldn't be help up against shows that come on premium channels. It's on the same level of other cable television shows such as... oh I dunno... CSI or something.

 

[Griffith]

I don't see why this matters at all, but ABC is a major cable television network isn't it?

Well, it matters because the designation seems to tie directly into your point, as seen below. Anyway, no, ABC is not a major cable network, it's technically a major broadcast television network. Cable channels aren't really networks, networks have broadcast affiliates, while cable channels only exist independently via cable hookup. If you have cable, they certainly provide ABC, but if you don't have cable, you can get ABC anyway simply by owning a television, not so with cable channels. That's the difference and point of the network/cable designations.

The point was, and I assume most people would understand, is it shouldn't be help up against shows that come on premium channels. It's on the same level of other cable television shows such as... oh I dunno... CSI or something.

No, again, that's network television (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc), not basic cable (TBS, TNT, AMC, Comedy Central, etc) or premium cable (HBO, SHOWTIME, etc). Your point is correct that many see network as inferior to both cable or premium at this point because of the more adult material cable can feature, and the artistic risks they can take while using that advantage. So, in that regard your point is on, just your vocabulary is off.