The 2-hour season finale of Lost aired last night, and as we do every Wednesday, Stacey and I watched it hoping for some answers. For those of you who aren’t up to speed on the show, don’t worry, it’s not like I’ll be giving anything away. That would imply I know what’s going on and that the show has actually produced some answers over the past 5 seasons.
We started watching the show when we were living in Hawaii – on the same island where it is filmed actually. It’s been fun to watch the show over the past few years and recognize Korea, or Los Angeles, or wherever the scene is set as really a place in Hawaii. In one recent episode Kate visited a neighborhood in “L.A.” which strongly resembled a neighborhood nearby where we took walks.
I don’t watch but 3 shows anymore: Lost, The Amazing Race, and The Office. That is it. I don’t dabble here and there with any other show on television anymore. I do consider myself a patient guy when it comes to Lost – however, the show is really starting to drag on for me. There is one season left, starting at the beginning of 2010. In typical Lost fashion though, they have continued to create more questions then answers. The few questions they have answered have been small in my opinion.
Here’s my fear about the show: the ending is going to completely suck. What I mean by “suck” is this:
1) This show has been on the air for so long and has so many details that the ending is going to be “Lost” on me. I might get it on a basic level but won’t be able to recall the previous 6 years worth of shows that would make it a good ending. Additionally, the approach they’ve used for this show really requires and points to a blockbuster ending. Sometimes, this approach completely ruins the entire series if the ending isn’t appropriate, is “whacked”, or just doesn’t live up to the expectations that have been building for years.
2) The show is going to have a happy ending for the characters but not answer any of the major questions. I’m more nervous about this happening since the producers have said things like “not every question will be answered” and implied things like “the focus in season 6 returns to the main characters” and people’s connection to the characters. Personally, I couldn’t give a toss about the characters. For example, I don’t care and will never really care if Kate ends up with Jack or Sawyer – or if they even get off the island in the end. Whichever season it was (3 and/or 4), where they spent the entire season building each character and their past, really left me bored and dissatisfied. The story on the island didn’t progress, and for me, entire episodes on a character’s background didn’t really add much to the story for me anyway. I am more concerned with the bigger questions in this series, like, why is this all so important? I.e., why should I care? What’s so special about the island? I think they will tie everything together and explain how and why each person is there. However, there better be a pretty good reason behind all of this – more then just that it’s a “special place” where weird things happen and in the end we only find out the true fate (good or bad) of the cast.
In my opinion, the ideal final season would explain the major questions about the island, its history, and its importance in time and/or the universe. Then, in the last second of the last minute of the last episode, have an ending that completely turns everything I’ve known on its head but, 1) in a way that completely obliterates my perception of what I’ve been watching 2) causes me to think about it/realize things that make it an even better ending for the next couple of days or weeks afterwards.
Is that too much to ask? Probably. I hope I’ll be pleasantly surprised. At any rate, the producers and writers have put all of their eggs into one basket. The show’s reputation will sink or swim based solely on the final season in my opinion, mainly because the first 5 seasons have really all been background information.