LOST Discussion Thread

[Broskirose]

Did you love it, hate it, understand it? Share your thoughts...

Edited November 2, 2013 by Broskirose

[Black Sabbath]

Loved it. One of my favorite shows, if not my favorite.

Here's a great take on it: http://ericknowsitall.com/ultimate-lost-theory/

[Lithium]

I liked the first three seasons, but then season four was all gay, so I stopped watching.

[GivenToFly]

It was good. Its main flaw was that the writers were nowhere near as intelligent as they thought they were. Funny how nowadays when Lost is discussed people tend to talk about its flaws more than anything else.

[DR DOOM]

Loved/Hated it.

The last episode is one of the biggest rip offs in TV though, get fucked.

[Ace Nova]

Here's a great take on it: http://ericknowsitall.com/ultimate-lost-theory/

Seems plausible. The theory still leaves several holes but it's one of the better ones I've read.

[OmarBradley]

Seasons 1 and 2 were terrific, maybe the best first and second seasons of any show I've ever seen. And that first scene of the pilot is by far the best opening scene from a TV series. Season 3 was hit or miss, season 4 was even more hit or miss. Seasons 5 and 6 were a disgrace. The problem with theories like the ones posted above, is that it really became clear towards the end that the producers really had no intention of fully answering the big (and small) unanswered questions. Not only did they not intend to, it looks like they never even had answers; they continuously posed questions to the audience that there were simply no answers for. They propelled this phenomenon early on in seasons 1 and 2, but by season 5, it was easy to see there were simply no answers constructed for many of the series's mysteries. I watched the whole series live starting from season 3. I was wholly disappointed in the end, found myself with literally 3.5 pages worth of unanswered question on a Microsoft Word document.

The producers said they would come back about a year or so after the finale aired to finally seal the deal... that never happened. I heard Damon Lindelof had to leave Twitter because he was getting trolled about Lost too frequently (can't say I have much sympathy).

The show had a great combination of mystery, history, philosophy, science, acting (sometimes), writing (most of the time), and story telling. But they really "lost" it towards the end, at least that's my opinion.

[Nobodys_Fault]

I was wholly disappointed in the end, found myself with literally 3.5 pages worth of unanswered question on a Microsoft Word document.

Let's see them. I thought the show answered most things that needed answers and the stuff that was left a mystery was better left that way. Giving a clear explanation for some of it would have been like attributing the force in Star Wars to a high count of internal microorganisms called midi-chlorians.

[OmarBradley]

Let's see them. I thought the show answered most things that needed answers and the stuff that was left a mystery was better left that way. Giving a clear explanation for some of it would have been like attributing the force in Star Wars to a high count of internal microorganisms called midi-chlorians.

The problem is, with Lost they lead you on to believe that there were answers in existence for all of these mysteries. Those Star Wars prequels were regrettable, but the original saga never claimed to have answers for its sci-fi characteristics. LOTR doesn't really give you an elaboration on why the ring has power other than that it was forged in Mordor and made to rule other rings. Did Inception give you the scientific explanation as to how you could force certain characteristics in dreams? No. The difference between SW, Inception, LOTR, and Lost is that the first three are sci/fi in nature, and claim to be nothing more than that. Lost trotted along as a thriller/drama/mystery (in the beginning this was essentially the only genre) with sci/fi elements (progressively added as the series went along). Lost fomented the spirit of mystery and surprise while SW, LOTR, and Inception triggered your intrigue regarding the metaphysical, philosophical, and sci-fi/adventure elements in each respective piece of art.

I know this isn't a 100% parallel comparison, but hopefully it helps you to see the fundamental difference I see between Lost and its artistic counterparts. This isn't necessarily a bad thing inherently, when Lost was about the thrill/the surprise/the mystery, it was great. But as it progressed it became clear that some mysteries that simply didn't have answers (and it go more sci-fi), and this to me seemed lazy on the part of the writers. "Lets put X/Y/Z in this episode, and then if we get to it later, we'll answer it." From viewing the series, that's how it looks like it went.

As for that Word document, I'll have to look, that was 3 computers ago.

[Nobodys_Fault]

Let's see them. I thought the show answered most things that needed answers and the stuff that was left a mystery was better left that way. Giving a clear explanation for some of it would have been like attributing the force in Star Wars to a high count of internal microorganisms called midi-chlorians.

The problem is, with Lost they lead you on to believe that there were answers in existence for all of these mysteries. Those Star Wars prequels were regrettable, but the original saga never claimed to have answers for its sci-fi characteristics. LOTR doesn't really give you an elaboration on why the ring has power other than that it was forged in Mordor and made to rule other rings. Did Inception give you the scientific explanation as to how you could force certain characteristics in dreams? No. The difference between SW, Inception, LOTR, and Lost is that the first three are sci/fi in nature, and claim to be nothing more than that. Lost trotted along as a thriller/drama/mystery (in the beginning this was essentially the only genre) with sci/fi elements (progressively added as the series went along). Lost fomented the spirit of mystery and surprise while SW, LOTR, and Inception triggered your intrigue regarding the metaphysical, philosophical, and sci-fi/adventure elements in each respective piece of art.

I know this isn't a 100% parallel comparison, but hopefully it helps you to see the fundamental difference I see between Lost and its artistic counterparts. This isn't necessarily a bad thing inherently, when Lost was about the thrill/the surprise/the mystery, it was great. But as it progressed it became clear that some mysteries that simply didn't have answers (and it go more sci-fi), and this to me seemed lazy on the part of the writers. "Lets put X/Y/Z in this episode, and then if we get to it later, we'll answer it." From viewing the series, that's how it looks like it went.

As for that Word document, I'll have to look, that was 3 computers ago.

The mistake the Lost writers made was that early in the shows run, one of them made the claim that everything had a logical/scientific explanation. Maybe they said this to keep people watching, I don't know, but it was a stupid thing to say because Lost was science fiction from the very beginning. I think that expectation for "the answer" may have ruined it for a lot of people. They only part of the show I'd accuse them of 'making up as they went on' was the beginning of season 3 because they were in talks with ABC at the time, didn't know how many series they were signing on to do, so just meandered for 6/7 episodes.

Any questions off the top of your head that you thought needed answering? I found that, on my second watch-through, a lot of the questions are actually answered if you look hard enough.

[OmarBradley]

The mistake the Lost writers made was that early in the shows run, one of them made the claim that everything had a logical/scientific explanation. Maybe they said this to keep people watching, I don't know, but it was a stupid thing to say because Lost was science fiction from the very beginning. I think that expectation for "the answer" may have ruined it for a lot of people. They only part of the show I'd accuse them of 'making up as they went on' was the beginning of season 3 because they were in talks with ABC at the time, didn't know how many series they were signing on to do, so just meandered for 6/7 episodes.

Any questions off the top of your head that you thought needed answering? I found that, on my second watch-through, a lot of the questions are actually answered if you look hard enough.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. And I'm pretty sure they planned the story by the season. So when S4 ended, they would then write the story for S5. The problem with this method is that on a show like Lost, you lose the flow of the story because each new season is essentially a new story, regardless of its connections to previous seasons. I'm not saying there's no connection, there certainly is a lot, but you can tell each season has its own elements characteristic to that specific season.

As for my questions, I don't know when I'll be able to find that document, and I haven't seriously watched the series since 2011. But if you want to find a bunch of unanswered questions check out the theories pages on Lostpedia (example: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Incident,_Parts_1_%26_2/Theories). Obviously, some of the theories you're going to find are obscure and don't warrant actual answers, but many of the theories on Lostpedia are completely valid and were never answered.