by VorJack
Well, I was pretty sure I left an open thread around here somewhere.
Oh well, until I find it, talk amongst yourselves. Say, didn’t one of those big television drama thingies just come to an end last night? And weren’t a lot of people really, really caught up in it? I wonder what they’re going to do now?
(Yes, I know it’s a little off topic, but I figured that everyone would be talking about it anyway…)
Don’t watch Lost. What’s it about?
This sums up the final episode:
http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2010/5/19/how-to-discuss-lost.html
Was this drama thing in the US because that would explain why I know nothing about it.
American Dad! season 5 is over, I feel like sleeping until the next season starts…
Oh wait, I forgot — Penn & Teller: Bullshit! starts next month!
shame they don’t show it in the netherlands. Would be a big improvement on the quality of tv though.
I promised to get myself that on DVD after my exams. Which finishes on 3rd June! Gonna be done with first year Law!
well unless you can buy the DVDs in GB I won’t be getting the DVDs. Stupid coding for DVDs.
De-zone your player.
I quit watching after season two.
Hehe i stopped watching after learning there would be another season. When I first heard of “Lost”, I thought it was a mini series.
I liked the finale. It was much like the BSG finale, minus the wallbangers.
For a moment I thought you were talking about House MD oO
I <3 House. Lost I've never watched…
Found “Lost” silly and never got into it. Glad it is over. Don’t watch much USA TV as I really don’t enjoy it. Come to think of it I don’t watch much TV at all.
I always felt lost with Lost, but honestly, after eavesdropping on numerous conversations friends of mine had been having, I’m thinking maybe I should give it a chance.
Either way, that was an epic trolling of America, so four for you, Lost.
*goes back to rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion (possibly the best blend of science fiction, biblical philosophy and human pyschosis ever created)*
Man, Evangelion just left me sitting confused on the sofa going “What. The. Fuck?”. I pretty much liked it instantly :D
The proper ending (as in, The End Of Evangelion, not the original one screened to make up for the fact that their entire budget had been utterly slashed) blew my skull wide open. I’ve watched A LOT of anime that fits under the pyschological thriller/drama genre, but that was something else entirely.
Also, if you like being getting mind-fucked, I’d highly recommend any of Satoshi Kon’s work: Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, Millennium Actress…
Death Note, of course, is my one true love when it comes to debates involving crime, justice and morality :D /otaku /geek /fangirl
Seen Perfect Blue liked it as I recall.
Lost is better if you’re able to see a bunch at once, rather than having to wait week by excruciating week, since the speed of the reveal is quite slow, but they make up for it with some really spectacular characterization work.
Lost is one of the few shows I bother trying to find online and watch (I don’t have TV) – part two of the finale is buffering as I type :-) Great show, really great.
I can’t stand TV series that go on too long. Why not just make them one season? I could never get into Eastenders, Coronation Street etc. I’d watch a few episodes consecutively and then lose all interest. Same thing happened with Heroes, I watched the first season, enjoyed it and then didn’t bother watching the second. At least my prediction was right, it turned out it sucked.
Try to find a BBC 2 series called This Life. They made one season and utterly refused to make a second because they knew they’d never, ever make anythign so good again. And they were right – it’s awesome.
Ill look for it Custador. That’s always been my gripe with TV series. Instead of trying to write good material, their goal is to hook you and see how far they can drag you before you get board or the actors die. Thats the whole concept behind a pilot episode. To make something interesting enough that the producers want to see what happens next, hoping the sheeple will feel the same way.
I could have been perfectly happy with Dexter season 1, and nothing else. Firefly was great with just one season, they just needed a good ending. Even my beloved Star Trek could have done without season 3.
It must be the literary guy in me. I love the idea of a stand alone book, a full story with an ending. Stories without endings are like sex without orgasm, nice but you feel something is missing when it’s over.
So totally with you on Dexter, it could have done a two season run and been amazing. So far it’s done three and been merely good – mostly because the character of Rita “evolved” into an utter, utter twat.
Then she became bloodsoup. But you’re right, she grew utterly out of character – and so did he, kind of.
The fourth season was pretty good, though. It was tense, I liked that. The 3rd season (with the Puerto Rican dude) was totally pointless. I’m hoping that enraged!Dexter will make a good fifth season.
Firefly could have used a good season two to wrap it up, rather than leave things hanging when it was cancelled at the end of season one. I only discovered Firefly after it was all over, so watched the whole series on DVD in a week. Still gets my top vote.
In Japan most shows are one season and done. I like this format better.
I love multi-season shows. Imagine in ST:TNG was only one season? That was the worst one. The characters were just developing.
To me it’s like saying there should be no novels, only short stories, and definitely not any series.
No, because that’s different. I love long novels. Nothing better than sitting down outside in the cool Caribbean air reading a good book whilst the sun is setting (well, for the brief time I lived there).
But after a while a lot of multi-season shows lose their flair and what made them interesting to begin with. They start bringing in lame plot devices and cheap ratings pulls. Granted some shows can pull it off. But those are rare.
And perhaps a more personal reason is that I get bored really quickly of something. Books/articles/magazines have been the only things able to keep my attention. I remember when Dragonball Z was my favourite cartoon, by the time they reached the Buu saga I had walked away from the entire show.
So I don’t care how good Lost might have been, sitting down religiously every night for 7 years to watch a show that doesn’t give me answers would bore the hell out of me.
I was disappointed in the ending. “Jack dreamed it all” is such a cop-out.
Uh, not Dallas.
Did Jack dream it all? I guess that’s one interpretation. :)
It’s not a very good interpretation. The whole point was Jack didn’t dream it all — everything was real.
I’m very fond of the piece that The Onion did on this season of Lost:
Oops. URL:
the Onion on Lost
Well, just finished watching it…. I feel like the writers set themselves a hard challenge and then really didn’t live up to it. Shame.
Anybody want to take bets on how long it’ll be before a “New Adventures of Hurley and Benjamin” style spin-off? It left it wiiiiiide open.
Meh, I thought it was a fitting end. Called Hurley getting the big job; did not call Ben getting Richard’s job. I doubt strongly they’ll do a “New Adventures of Hurley and Benjamin”; the fans would gut them like sturgeon.
I thought the same thing about “Joey”….
Wow, really amazed that so few people here like Lost! It’s one of my favorite shows.
I thought the writers did a good job. I felt a bit bad for them — there was no way to wrap that up and make everyone happy. The show is so good and has touched so many people that they were in a bad spot to make it end perfect for everyone.
I’m glad they didn’t answer everything. That’s what makes the show so fun.
Yeah but the whole happy version of reality being purgatory that they’ve all created so that when the church door opens they can all toddle off into heaven bit? GodDidIt ™ is a bit too close to a deus ex machina for my liking.
I followed it for 6 seasons and I think it was the greatest series I will see in my lifetime. I’m 54.
For me that crown currently still resides with The West Wing, though Lost, BSG, and Firefly are right up there vying for second place.
West Wing is an all-time favourite, but the #1 slot goes to The Sopranos. US TV produces so much crap, but when they do it well it’s unbeatable.
What, no The Wire fans here? I have a hard time taking most other shows seriously after watching The Wire (especially network shows, though that’s probably not totally fair.) The writing always seems lame- ‘I don’t believe in much, but I believe in duct tape.’
I did like Lost overall, though. Some cheesy dialogue, but it was fun and worth my time.
The Wire ruined television for me. Nothing can be that good again. Nothing.
That’s pretty much how I feel.
(Robert Wisdom (‘Bunny’ Colvin) said in an interview on NPR the other day that the suits at HBO wanted to cancel it after the 3rd season! Said they just couldn’t see where it was going. Seems tv execs can be pretty stupid a lot of the time.)
The Wire, while very good, was trying (and failing) to live up to The Shield. The latter is by far the better show.
I never saw The Shield, but I recently enjoyed Sons of Anarchy, which I think was created by the same guy, so I guess I’ll give it a try.
SoA is great, except for the part where Gemma suddenly “discovers” religion.
The Shield has a nice plot-line going on there with uber-religious black cop trying to pray out the gay and marry a woman. Best line in that one: “You’re dick in my ass makes you gay. My dick in your mouth makes you REALLY gay”.
Guess you have to watch it :D
Only S1 so far in the UK, but shaping up nicely…
Of The Wire?! All five season aired long since!
Mmmm… 28 comments about series and no one talking about “The Big Bang Theory”.
I’m going back later…
Now that’s a show I love!
I stopped watching Lost after season 2. I didn’t enjoy watching a show whose title accurately summed up how I felt week after week. I did watch the finale; there were some nice moments, but overall, meh.
I was left wanting a little more clarity after the finale, and my husband and I stayed up discussing what we thought happened. I think a truly great show is one that makes you want to continue talking or thinking about it once it’s over. I don’t think Jack dreamed it all; rather, I think that everything on the island actually happened, and it was that “flash sideways” bit that wasn’t real. What I’m a bit disappointed in is that it does imply strongly (IMO) that all of these people have died and are on their way to heaven, which is a plot device that my friends and I were hoping they wouldn’t use. Over the last 6 years, I’ve heard so many theories about purgatory, heaven, and hell that I really thought the writers wouldn’t go there. I would’ve preferred if they had just left it with “this is a magical island where mysterious magical shit happens.”
I’m just now getting into BSG, and I must say, even just 7 episodes in, I can tell I’m going to be just as obsessed with it as I was with Lost.
I liked the first few seasons of Lost. Back when there were lots of questions, but the island seemed to be much more about science. The whole “the island is magic and everyone is really dead!” thing did absolutely nothing for me.
As far as I can tell what actually happened was: Jack died on the island. Hurley and Ben stayed (and one day way in the future died of unknown causes). The rest escaped (and also died one day way in the future of unknown causes). When they were all eventually dead of whatever, their souls went to a sort of timeless purgatory that they’d all dreamed up for themselves, except they couldn’t remember their lives (or deaths) until they met the right people there. When that happened and they all got together, they were allowed into heaven.
So kind of like Ashes to Ashes (final episode was shown this weekend), but different.
Never seen Ashes to Ashes. Life on Mars was way, way too good and I was convinced they’d balls-up the spin-off, so I’ve avoided it.
What happened to the people who died on the freighter? Or the people who died in the original Oceanic 815 crash? Or the Dharma people who died in the purge? Or the Others who died? Or for that matter what happened to the billions of non-island people in the “real” world who died? What happened to Michael, Walt, Isabella, Charles Widmore, Keamey, Tom Friendly, Dogen, lennon, all the Temple people, Iliana, Iliana’s homeboys, and frickin’ Paulo? Hell, what happened to Mother, Jacob, and MiB???
Did they all get to go to their own little moderately-happy non-denominational pseudo-purgatory afterlife world too?
It’s one thing to leave a few things open to interpretation and a few questions unanswered, but there are some major lapses of storytelling here that we the audience are apparently supposed to fill in with our imaginations. It’s kind of a cop out if you ask me. Lazy storytelling.
Oh I forgot Mr Eko, Mr Eko’s brother, the crew (and slaves) of the Black Rock, the Romans that Mother killed, etc etc…
And who built the frickin four-toed statue and why??
The list goes on and on ad infinitum.
I hate when shows do that. They pile mystery on top of mystery and, eventually, promise “answers.” What you wind up getting is a bunch of deux ex machinas, trite answers, treacly codas and no resolution to some of the major mysteries that were allegedly key to the show in the first place.
Would you have preferred that the show ended simply by metaphysically navel-gazing on the after-death fates of every character? The show was first and foremost about the losties, and their story arc. Does it really matter if everyone gets purgatory? (Which is directly implied they do not, since Michael describes himself and others being trapped by the island as a lingering spirit.)
I thought it was the perfect ending to Lost. The show was always about the characters more than the mysteries. I got pretty emotional near the end. Perfect, perfect ending to an outstanding series.
Also, there is now a Lost-shaped hole in my heart. After 6 years of watching the series, and now knowing it’s completely over, it’ll be a tough job filling that hole.
i don’t own a tv , what was it all about anyway…?
a friend was glued to his idiot box for hours last night and no one could talk to him WTH?…
I think I’m missing something- wasn’t the plane that Lipidus and the others used to finally get off the island wired with explosives by Charles Whidmore? Or have I confused it with another plane? If it is the same plane, then I suppose Lipidus just probably fixed all that while the other two were working on the hydraulics, but if that’s the case, it just seems a little bit choppy to me.
That was addressed in the ante-penultimate episode; the explosives on the plane were taken by MiB-Locke, smuggled into Jack’s bag and rigged (indirectly) to destroy the sub.
Ooooh, right… thanks!
Am I really one of the only people who thought that ending was a total cop-out? It’s like they dug themselves a deeper and deeper writing hole that they couldn’t get out of, so ok, let’s just make an emotional finale so everyone forgets about what the whole series was about. I actually loved the finale up until that lame-o ending. I may be a bit of a geek, but I wanted something more scientific, more intellectually stimulating. AND what is up with baby Aaron being along with all the dead people in the ‘church’??
I agree!
I really liked this last episode… that is until they revealed the sideways time frame wasn’t “real” but some sort of pseudo-heaven reunion meeting place (WTF?). I stopped watching the series when they killed off Charlie, but figured I’d give it another chance and caught up with DVDs. I’m glad I did. It was an interesting show, but I’m just going to pretend the last 10 mins of the final episode didn’t happen.