"Lost" Series Finale "The End" Sunday 9-11:30pm NO SPOILERS UNTIL AIRED

[A Casual Fitz]

Soooo good and then soooo bad. I honestly don't even know how they could have made the last season any worse. They should have just left the show open ended and set it up for a sequel at some point when someone came up with a decent idea for an ending.

It would have been one of the most legendary shows in history if it ended on the 5th season cliffhanger.

 

[Kaido]

man that season finale

People try to justify it, but it was a total cop-out. From my perspective:

1. The writers had an amazing 3-season story
2. It got popular & got extended to 6 seasons
3. The ending was garbage

People can make all the excuses they want, but it just wasn't a truly fulfilling ending. To me, you have to be very careful about doing a huge build-up, because if you don't have a meaningful payoff, then it leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth.

Some good answers here:

Lost: all the mysteries explained, 15 years on

The US television drama Lost first aired in the United States on September 22, 2004 with the most expensive pilot in TV history.

www.telegraph.co.uk

I remember watching Heroes after Lost and feeling so satisfied that they gave you answers in a reasonable timeframe.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

People try to justify it, but it was a total cop-out. From my perspective:

1. The writers had an amazing 3-season story
2. It got popular & got extended to 6 seasons
3. The ending was garbage

People can make all the excuses they want, but it just wasn't a truly fulfilling ending. To me, you have to be very careful about doing a huge build-up, because if you don't have a meaningful payoff, then it leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth.

Some good answers here:

Lost: all the mysteries explained, 15 years on

The US television drama Lost first aired in the United States on September 22, 2004 with the most expensive pilot in TV history.

www.telegraph.co.uk

I remember watching Heroes after Lost and feeling so satisfied that they gave you answers in a reasonable timeframe.

I remember in 2007 when they secured 6 total seasons when season 3 had just finished. They said the advanced notice would give the creative team time to plan the arc properly. I believed them.

 

[BudAshes]

I remember in 2007 when they secured 6 total seasons when season 3 had just finished. They said the advanced notice would give the creative team time to plan the arc properly. I believed them.

It was a more innocent time....

 

[PowerEngineer]

I loved the discussions when Lost was current. I don't think I'll ever have a show that recreates that for me.

Twin Peaks.

 

[JEDI]

I remember watching Heroes after Lost and feeling so satisfied that they gave you answers in a reasonable timeframe.

Heros wrapped up nicely at the end of Season 4?
(the producers were expecting a shortened Season 5 as the final season but didnt come)

 

[Kaido]

I remember in 2007 when they secured 6 total seasons when season 3 had just finished. They said the advanced notice would give the creative team time to plan the arc properly. I believed them.

Having worked in production before (non-film-related), I 100% understand this; 90% of the work should be done ahead of time in the design phase. Production needs to be about (1) implementing the design, and (2) coming up with creative problem-solving methods for the issues that invariably crop up. TL;DR you do crap work when you're under the gun & in a rush, doesn't matter if it's something as small as homework due to tomorrow or a multi-million-dollar TV show.

The first two seasons of Lost were absolutely epic. I feel like the show that's come the closest since then was Breaking Bad.

 

[JujuFish]

Twin Peaks.

I've heard good things, but that's not current.

 

[dasherHampton]

The first two seasons of Lost were absolutely epic. I feel like the show that's come the closest since then was Breaking Bad.

The first season was very good. The second season was pretty flawed in some respects.

Some of those episodes were cringe-worthy, like the one where Locke beat up Charlie for having his visions. Ugh. And Man child Hurley's self-pity episode, where he cries that everyone will hate him because he's in charge of the food. Barf.

The entire shift toward giving the show a religious bent was extremely ill-conceived imo. Was Ecko a priest or not? He seems to be a full-fledged man of God when an episode requires it, and then reverts back to thug in the blink of an eye.

The attempt to turn Sawyer into the chief baddie was also pretty laughable. He cons everyone, steals the guns, proclaims that "there's a new sheriff in town"...... and nothing happens. It's basically forgotten, except for the fact that Sawyer has the guns.

But then Benjamin enters the scene and S2 mostly gets fixed.

 

[dasherHampton]

It would have been one of the most legendary shows in history if it ended on the 5th season cliffhanger.

I like this. They could have added an epilogue that shows some ambiguous stuff (like the plane landing as if nothing happened, with Lapidus piloting it) and had everyone arguing about the ending for years.

 

[JEDI]

The first season was very good. The second season was pretty flawed in some respects.

Some of those episodes were cringe-worthy, like the one where Locke beat up Charlie for having his visions. Ugh. And Man child Hurley's self-pity episode, where he cries that everyone will hate him because he's in charge of the food. Barf.

The entire shift toward giving the show a religious bent was extremely ill-conceived imo. Was Ecko a priest or not? He seems to be a full-fledged man of God when an episode requires it, and then reverts back to thug in the blink of an eye.

The attempt to turn Sawyer into the chief baddie was also pretty laughable. He cons everyone, steals the guns, proclaims that "there's a new sheriff in town"...... and nothing happens. It's basically forgotten, except for the fact that Sawyer has the guns.

But then Benjamin enters the scene and S2 mostly gets fixed.

the fat guy who played Hurley originally tried out for the conman Sawyer role.
i wonder how the show would have evolved if Hurley was the tough guy who knew how to handle himself both verbally and physically?

 

[A Casual Fitz]

But then Benjamin enters the scene and S2 mostly gets fixed.

One of the best villains of all time IMO.

 

[TridenT]

Definitely garbage ending. The final season wasn't great either.

On the same level of garbage as Game of Thrones last season and ending though? No.

But Lost had the 2000s most garbage ending. Game of Thrones did it for the 2010s.

And as with both shows, I don't know if I'll ever rewatch them. Part of my enjoyment was all the theory and crazy shit going on with Lost. It was /the/ show for easter eggs along with other things. Even for minor stuff - it was really good and attention to detail was great.

Sadly, a lot of it didn't matter when the writers fell through. So many things were left unresolved. Lost could never wrap up all the loose endings. Every time they tried to chop a question down - like a hydra - it emerged with 3 more questions.

 

[destrekor]

I remember in 2007 when they secured 6 total seasons when season 3 had just finished. They said the advanced notice would give the creative team time to plan the arc properly. I believed them.

It was a more innocent time....

Now I haven't given it a ton of thought in quite some time, but acknowledging the history of this show and of my obsession with it... I gotta say, my first thought now is that it did truly meet the objective and I think the overall story arch captured the vision they had.

Some of season two and, well, all of season three, they drifted around. Ultimately starting with season 4, they put in place a story that still reached the end goal they had in mind from the beginning, but now accounted for all the meandering plot that developed since then.

And I remember how we were all mad that it did end up being about purgatory or something akin to it... I mean it really was telegraphed like mad from the beginning, yet we all wanted it to be mean something different. And they of course played into that and toyed with we viewers, but that's what a good story does. It hit all the marks I think.

I had started to rewatch the series a couple times, mainly with others, but today that kind of quality TV is available all over the place -- it was a relative rarity back then. Plus there was the fact that DVRs weren't yet 100% the norm, and Netflix was still 100% disc based (in fact I think it may have been birthed while the show was airing.

 

[JujuFish]

Netflix launched in '99, well before Lost. Unless you're referring to the video streaming part of Netflix, which I think didn't launch until '07.

 

[dasherHampton]

Ah, memories.

I bought a SD Tivo not too long before the Lost pilot aired. It ended up being one of the best entertainment related purchases I ever made. The night Lost came on(wed iirc) I often didn't get home until after 10 pm. I never could have kept up with the show without Tivo since I was a hopeless retard when it came to programming a VCR (didn't get it right a single time).

Years later, after finally getting an HDTV, I rewatched the entire series in HD. Even knowing the show's eventual plot deficiencies it was still a great nostalgia trip.

Remember when Netflix had the 4 little bars at the top of the screen to show your signal strength? I managed 2/4 on dialup and it still gave a decent HD experience.

 

[BudAshes]

Definitely garbage ending. The final season wasn't great either.

On the same level of garbage as Game of Thrones last season and ending though? No.

But Lost had the 2000s most garbage ending. Game of Thrones did it for the 2010s.

And as with both shows, I don't know if I'll ever rewatch them. Part of my enjoyment was all the theory and crazy shit going on with Lost. It was /the/ show for easter eggs along with other things. Even for minor stuff - it was really good and attention to detail was great.

Sadly, a lot of it didn't matter when the writers fell through. So many things were left unresolved. Lost could never wrap up all the loose endings. Every time they tried to chop a question down - like a hydra - it emerged with 3 more questions.

I also remember hearing that there was a split in the writers room where one faction wanted a scifi type ending to the show and the other wanted a disney style magic/faith happy ending to the show. Obviously the Disney side won since ABC is owned by disney.

 

[dasherHampton]

I read that the guy who played Benjamin was on a 3 episode contract. I'm not a fly on the wall but I assume that means that they intended for him to be a generic "other" who was to be killed off.

Most likely they took a look at the first shots of him interacting with the cast, showed it to some test audiences or to the producers, and proceeded to ditch everything they had planned.

For me the initial appearance of Ben was one of the high points of the entire series. The scene of him eating cornflakes while toying with Jack and Locke took everything up two notches.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

For me the initial appearance of Ben was one of the high points of the entire series. The scene of him eating cornflakes while toying with Jack and Locke took everything up two notches.

When he was telling them how he *would* have done it. It gives me tingles just thinking about that scene.

 

[ultimatebob]

Definitely garbage ending. The final season wasn't great either.

On the same level of garbage as Game of Thrones last season and ending though? No.

But Lost had the 2000s most garbage ending. Game of Thrones did it for the 2010s.

And as with both shows, I don't know if I'll ever rewatch them. Part of my enjoyment was all the theory and crazy shit going on with Lost. It was /the/ show for easter eggs along with other things. Even for minor stuff - it was really good and attention to detail was great.

Sadly, a lot of it didn't matter when the writers fell through. So many things were left unresolved. Lost could never wrap up all the loose endings. Every time they tried to chop a question down - like a hydra - it emerged with 3 more questions.

I don't know... House Of Cards at least deserves a nomination for worst final season of the decade. Kevin Spacey ended up doing a five minute YouTube video after it was done that was more satifying finale than the real thing.

 

[JEDI]

I don't know... House Of Cards at least deserves a nomination for worst final season of the decade.
Kevin Spacey ended up doing a five minute YouTube video after it was done that was more satifying finale than the real thing.

this one?

 

[JujuFish]

How about we don't give a child molester attention here?

 

[ultimatebob]

this one?

That's the one. You might not like the man, but you gotta love the character that he played.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Shrug, I always thought House of Cards was overrated. I couldn't shake the Malcolm in the Middle vibe when he addressed the audience. It was probably a me problem.

 

[JEDI]

10th anniversary of the series finale: b4 and now

Evangeline Lilly (played Kate Austen)

wtf unrecognizable?

speaking of unrecognizable (at least by me), she plays the Wasp in Avengers.
I never made the connection.
<Mind blown>

Also, the guy who played Charlie 'Not Penny's Boat' Pace dated Evangeline Lilly from 2004 to 2009.