Lost: The Sixth and Final Season-"The End" (Part 4)

Season 5 -18 episodes.
Season 6 - 19 episodes.
Compared with..
Season 1 -25 episodes.
Season 2 -24 episodes.

 

I thought Lost and 24 brought us the best television ever. Add the Sopranos and it's sure gonna take a lot to be that engaged in serial television again. Breaking Bad was a glimpse back to it, but didn't really have that much competition for my attention as those three.

 

24 'Keifer Sutherland ?

 

Yes! That One.

 

I never saw the show as a "Mystery", I realized part way in what they were trying for and realized the "Mysterious Nature" of the show was the appeal.

It was about people and Fate, and being redeemed and larger issues, not about the physics of where the island was etc.

That is why they had non stop flashbacks and character moments for many episodes. It was character driven, not science fiction OR mystery.

 

Agree, all the storyline elements on the island were simply a means to facilitate the character development and interaction. I think that's the brilliant part of the writing. The folks still waiting for answers at the end kind of missed the whole point. At least that's my take on it all.

 

I think the answers they gave, summed up what was going on with the characters for the most part.

I think the intricate details OF the island and stuff were partially "magic" or simply non explainable. They were a means to an end really. Not the actual story.

The story was to put many strangers together and have them interact, and look back on their life before and then move on and do something important to redeem themselves etc.

 

They were probably better off switching to fewer episodes per season. The longer seasons struggled to fill every episode with a good story. Remember the one about Jack's tattoos??

 

At least the dude got laid.

 

Yes, after the writers strike the producers successfully lobbied for shorter seasons.

 

I agree. I think there was usually a major plot working, but in order to keep the multithreaded nature of the show, there were some bits that were strung out more than necessary.

 

Man, so much hate for that episode. I always really liked it! As I've said before, probably in this thread, Bai Ling was white hot and worth the price of admission! Plus, I always liked the Jack character. I watched the show from the very beginning but didn't search out anything online until several seasons in, and I was surprised that a lot of people didn't like/hated Jack. Or Kate for that matter, another character I never had a problem with.

I started a rewatch last night, watched both halves of the Pilot. Kate in the water!!!! Maybe I was watching for the wrong reasons!!

 

Jack is a fantastic character, as is Kate, as are most of the others.

 

I've been thinking about a rewatch. Might be time. So many great characters, was always disappointed to a character killed off until I realized than some came back more after they were dead than originally.

 

One of the gimmicks of the show was that none of the characters were who they really seemed to be. Dr. Jack seemed to be a kind, noble, very competent spinal surgeon... but was actually a recovering alcoholic/drug addict/jerk. Locke appeared to be a heroic leader who could live for weeks in the jungle, foraging food and taking care of people around him; but before, he was a pathetic loser in a wheelchair. We also realized that some of the evil characters -- particularly Ben Linus -- had very good reasons on why they became bad guys over a long period of time. The sudden flashbacks (accompanied by the "whoosh" of sound effects and music) became a hallmark that made the show work.

But I think a big part of the show was about the mystery, as witnessed by numerous episodes about Desmond, the various scientists investigating the Island's magnetic phenomena, and the rival forces trying to harness the Island's power. To say the show was only about philosophy, fate, and characters ignores numerous hours of facts and tantalizing clues spread out over 121 episodes.

I think the reality was that answering even a large chunk of the questions about the Island was just too massive a problem for the writers to lick. It was easier to just ignore everything and move in the direction they did, ending the show on a reflective note about fate and the afterlife, rather than dealing with the mountain of questions raised over the previous six years. Whether the show failed or succeeded largely depends on your opinion of what the overall theme of the show was.

I can tell you my occasional conversations with the lower-level producers and editors when I worked on the show were only about the details, and none of us were interested in a broad metaphysical discussion. We were more about, "hey, where did that cable on the beach go?" or "how could they watch live TV baseball games in that Dharma station?" Nobody gave a crap about the bigger picture.

The Lost Encyclopedia -- which was based on the internal Lost Writers Guide used by the writing staff -- does provide a list of answers, presented in alphabetical order. Some are guesses, some are invented facts, some link clues from many episodes to interpolate an answer, and some they say "the facts are unknown." So the book is very fact-oriented, even if some of it boils down to magic and pseudo-science, but the reasons and explanations are there. If they had just found a way to give us even 50% of these facts in more episodes, I would've been good with it.

 

I agree, and, in my opinion, season 4, the shortest season with only 14 episodes, was the best and most creative season.

 

Who had the best acting chops?

 

I think Terry O'Quinn was hands-down the best actor in dailies. I'm telling you, when I saw hour after hour of footage with this guy, he just about never screwed up. I believed him as Locke 100% of the time. Michael Emmerson as Ben Linus was also really, really good -- an unusual accent, beady eyes, and totally believable as a really evil, conniving guy. Both absolutely stellar. In truth, the entire cast was very good, and they were a large part of the reason why the show was so successful. This is an example of a show that had just about perfect casting.

 

His "Locke" character seemed like a dry run for Bryan Cranston's " Walter White".

 

Agreed, the characters and actors were excellent.

We won't mention Nikki and Paulo!

 

Series 5.
I think best viewed on £SD.

 

Doh, and they got rid of Michelle Rodriguez pretty quickly. Not a great actress.

Yes, there were similarities.

 

A great show overall, regardless of not getting all of "the answers" we felt we deserved. I still think of it often and hope to sit down and rewatch again soon. The emotional investment still bears on me from the first time through. It's hard to gear up for something that intense again, even though I know it won't feel anything like it did the first time. Every episode, the next day I spent like half my day (at work!) reading up on everyone's thoughts on various forums. I've never seen another show involve the audience in the way Lost did.

The final scene, where Jack lays down among the palm trees to die and Vincent comes and sits with him, is among the very greatest moments I've ever seen. I actually pin most of that on Michael Giacchino's incredible score. The music that accompanies that scene is potently emotional. If you like scores, you owe it to yourself to pick up all 6 seasons' worth.

My grips come mainly because of the whole final season - the "sideways" world. It was silly, and while the payoff in the finale of learning that it was all in the afterlife was intriguing, it just didn't have much weight. That, and the also-silly "plug in the island" part of the finale. This is where they should have tapped a notable sci-fi or fantasy author to knock something amazing out of the park.

 

Just finished watching the fifth series(second time). Ending was not as emotionally intense as my first viewing in 2011. But the BD menu on my 55" Pann looks breathtakingly stunning.

 

It was a very good cliffhanger ending. I didn't see a single commercial leading up to the season 6 premiere that showed any footage from season 6, leaving viewers to wonder what the effect of setting the bomb off was. The way they segued that scene right into Jack staring out the window of Oceanic 815 at the beginning of season 6 was very well done and a bit surreal being that things on the plane were a bit different different this time around, Jack's hair being longer, Desmond being on the plane, etc.