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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Lost...Once Again

I just finished watching Lost for the fourth time. I think it's been four times now. It's such a mix bag for me as a television series. It starts out so strong. It immediately sucks you in and builds such rich characters that you just keep coming back.

Then it throws them away and you don't see them again until the very last episode.

They come back here and there throughout and it's nice when they do. But they get lost in the excessive use of so many new characters that come into play season to season. I'm sure it becomes difficult to write interesting things for the same set of characters over many seasons, but by season 6 when they are at the temple and the other friends of Jacobs and Widmore's people and OMG who are these people and why should I care????

Some of the new people work. Mr. Eko, Libbey, and Bernard were nice additions. So was Juliette. And I'd also include Miles and Daniel and Lapidus. And obviously Desmond, who doesn't really count as he was such an integral part to the entire story.

"I love you, Penn-ay!"

I remember first watching Season 2 with all of these new people and I was so excited to find out all about the tail section and thought it was such a cool storyline.

But by the fourth time through, when you know how frustratingly awful Ana Lucia is and how short of a stay Mr. Eko and Libbey's stays are and their completely unsatisfying endings...it becomes really hard to trudge through.

In Season Three, we meet all of The Others. Once again, most don't make it through the season. Just a bunch of filler people to kill off so that the main cast can stay in tact.

Not that they don't ever kill off the main cast, but really, the only one that comes to mind is Charlie. Everyone else came back to life. Jin and Sun, sure, but not until the end of Season 6. (I had to skip that scene this time as I knew I just couldn't take it and it's also very frustrating because, come ON, what about their kid? It's like neither gave a shit about her. It's amazed I cared about Sun's death at all as at this point in the storyline, Sun had been reduced to two lines: "Do you know where Jin is?" and "Can you help me find my husband?" Oh, and her brain injury storyline where she could only speak Korean but could understand English...so bad.)

But, really, even with all of those issues, I still very much enjoy the show as a whole. They are great characters. But the final season is very difficult - especially after many viewings - because you know that 90% of it is bullshit and unnecessary. The side story is filled with so much filler that I find I tune out for most of it.

But the finale...the finale I do enjoy. I think it's very well done. I enjoy the idea behind it, even though I'm not a religious person. I like seeing everyone remember each other. Charlie and Claire, Jin and Sun, and John with Jack make me lose it. I heavily sob with each one.

The worst one, though? Sayid and Shannon.

You spend the entire series watching Sayid pine for his childhood friend Nadia. He carries her picture with her everywhere. He was in Australia only to turn in his friend so the US government would tell him where Nadia is. He was only on the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles to get to Nadia. She was there when he returned home. They were married. She was killed suddenly. He went on a killing spree for Ben Linus to avenge her death....but he chooses to go to the afterlife with Shannon. A woman he met on an island for a few weeks. And in his purgatory time, he envisions Nadia married to his brother.

What? No. Just...no.

The one side story during Season Six that makes the whole thing worth watching, though, is John Locke's. They completely destroyed his "real time" character in the final season. Sure, it wasn't really John Locke killing everyone on the island. But it was his likeness and everyone called him Locke so you start to associate the two. The real John Locke's story was devastating enough. A real tragedy. I could live with his death, as depressing as it was, as it fit his story. Nothing ever went the way it was supposed to for John. But using him as the Smoke Monster was just too much. So it was nice to see sweet, smart John Locke in the side story going about a really nice life. He'd earned that.

But the real kicker in the finale. The scene that just fucking kills me and I have to mentally prepare for it every time because I know I will be a puddle of tears and even though it is so contrived and created to induce many tears, I still sob anyway:


Every. Single. Time. Even just the picture brings the sad face.

What a good dog Vincent was.

I had put off watching the finale for a week because I knew I would be a mess and nobody ever wants to be a mess. But I had time to waste last night and I went for it. And I was a mess.

As for all of those unanswered questions and mysteries that everyone complains about on the internet, they were answered. I'm not going to go through them point by point, but the answers were there. They may not have been the answers you wanted, but they were answers. Really, the one big mystery that remained after the show was over was this:

Where did Ajira Flight 316 land when they returned and how did that not cause all sorts of issues? How does a large passenger plane suddenly reappear in the air with no explanation carrying one passenger from the famed Oceanic 6 and two other passengers from Oceanic Flight 815 that the Oceanic 6 person had already said died in the original crash and then two other people who weren't on either flights, including one who is over 200 years old?

How did they explain that to the world upon their return? I would like to see a two hour special on that.

Also, I wonder how many posts about this show I can have on this blog?

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