Thursday, June 10, 2010

LOST

So, it's been a while.... since I've blogged and since the LOST Series Finale aired. It hasn't taken me that long to digest the ending, just that long to be motivated to devote energy to it. Needless to say, I was disappointed and I am ready to admit it. I've come no further than I did within days of viewing it and I refuse to watch it again. I've read a few reviews, but have mostly kept to myself about it. Apparently, much to my chagrin, I'm not one of those unruffled non-chalant people that can say "I don't need it to be resolved" - because, sigh..., I do. And the response "it's all about the characters, their growth and connections" is hogwash - for me anyway. I love a well developed character/ensemble as much as the next literary snob, but I am not convinced LOST accomplished this. I found the ending to be over-simplistic and cliche, and down-right sappy. And I usually love sappy!! I will not deny that I got teary when Sawyer and Juliet 'found' each other again, as well as some of the other reunion moments. I did. However, I am the tin-man and scarecrow combined. I have a heart and a brain that enjoys being used. And it enjoys watching creative types use theirs.

Maybe my brain is just too small. Or, my synapses never developed the neurological path that allows me to appreciate the story as intended. I am at a loss to see any genius or brilliance... other than I took the bait. I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker. Congratulations on that, Adam and Eddy. I believed there was a purpose since I was told it had an "end". I believed there was going to be a "Sixth Sense" kind of moment at the end that would create this audible gasp around the world that I wanted to be a part of and it would make me want to watch the whole series again. Yet,...I liken the LOST fiasco to a lengthy relationship with a lot of hinting, flirting and teasing, all suggesting that there is something fan-TAS-tic behind the mystery, and then when you finally go on a date...nothin'. Fizizzle.

It seems as though the writers were like a couple of pre-teens that wanted to write a 'story', if you can call it that, that would include anything and everything their little brains could muster into it. It began with a crash, developed multiple characters with backstories, tossed in several random sci-fi elements with a dash of turns and kinks, black smoke, and a polar bear. But an ending? Ummmm.....

Well, anybody can do that. No, really. It's as if LOST was just this long conversation of "what if" stories that I often hear my 9 year old son and his friends pitch. They go back and forth with scenarios, trying to out-imagine each other, but as they attempt to finish them they have great difficulty making them satisfactorily plausible or they simply can't, and they move on to the next "what if?". But, even nine-year olds realize when it's going no-where, gets bored, and move on to their legos. Sure it was fun to imagine. To entertain some possibilities and to have the conversation can be dreamy. But to invest time, spend money on, draw millions into it, and market it as something other than it is? Well, I kinda feel exploited. ...Ok, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but you get the idea right? My conclusion is either they didn't have what it took to pull off a true ending and copped out, or it was all one big fat JOKE and they never intended to have an ending. Maybe it was just one big social experiment to see how long we would watch?

Again, I'd like to think that I don't need everything answered. I'm actually pretty sure that I don't. Geez, though, I need a context to let it all fall under so I can draw my own conclusions. I don't even believe I got that - other than they were on an island, oh and there were people and a plane. At what point they were living or deceased is in question - but yes, there were people there nonetheless, an island and a plane. Yep, of this I am sure. Ta-da! That's as far as I've gotten... seriously. Everything else is up for grabs.

Each time I attempt to answer one question, it causes everything else to change - and it's overwhelming. It's a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces and 70% of the pieces are in my possession and 1/3 are connecting somewhere. 1/3 of the others don't seem to go anywhere. The ones that are connecting to another are intermittent. Some pieces can connect to multiple pieces, but not all of them at the same time. A majority of the edge pieces are completely missing, and there is no picture on the box to refer to. To top it off, I'm pretty sure there are additional puzzles mixed in. Sound impossible? Indeed.

Adam and Eddy, I didn't watch this show so I could go write my own. I watched it because I thought someone smarter than me was going to be able to make chaos, seemingly, make some sense in a magical way. I don't want to have to go back and re-watch the entire series to make sense of it. I don't believe it's possible here. I've already given you enough of my life. If you had done your job - I should have at least understood enough that I would want to go back and re-watch it. But I don't... so I won't. I will forever remain ______.

4 comments:

Wayward Disciple said...

Lost would have benefitted from having a limited number of seasons to tell it's tale....four maybe. It was just too shapeless and rambling. It's commercial success hurt it by dragging it out.

piddler said...

My less skeptical more optimistic side would like to agree. Thanks for your comment!

Brian said...

I'm curious to know how much of the "end" you were frustrated with. Just the final episode? All of Season 6?

I personally desired a few more answers to the nerdy/technical/science questions from LOST, but I actually felt relatively satisfied with the ending -- especially with a couple weeks to digest it.

It has made me interested in going back to the beginning, as I have a feeling there are some hidden answers among the episodes (or at least some cool moments) now that we know the entire story.

All that said, I'm glad you shared your thoughts with us. I like to hear how people I know react and respond to art, and it's something I'd like to do more of. Thanks!

piddler said...

I love to experience the rush of a moment when random things come together in an incredible way that I did not foresee. Probably the last half of Season 6 was where my frustration started to build. I was beginning to suspect that it was not going to give me what I wanted. I think that from the beginning of the series, whether correctly or not, I believed there would be a 'resolution' or answer. That this was not like other shows, where they don't really have an 'end' in mind. This one marketed themselves and said they did, from the beginning - and this was part of the hush hush of why even the actors weren't told things - so the 'answers' would not be revealed. My impression is this is why many, if not most, watched. Intrigued to see how it all could make sense. Maybe this is where it went wrong?

For me, I didn't want for them to connect the dots relationally, or give me the feel good ending with the light and such. I wish that would have been left more unanswered, actually. After the first couple of people reconnected in the final episode, that would have been enough for me to get the picture. I would've liked it if they brought something out more about the journey, brokenness/healing, spirituality, etc. than they did - as well as the science/technical answers. The conversation between Jack and his dad, while I had huge hopes for, left me wanting. I thought it was somewhat trite and oversimplified.

I don't ever expect that I will want to go back and watch, like I did with Sixth Sense or Primal Fear. Ugh...just the thought of it exhausts me! I don't doubt that some things would be revealed and I might have brief encounters of 'aahhh' and 'mmmm' moments, but again, not what I was hoping for.

Thanks for reading and for your questions and comments!! Always appreciated.