Who’s In the Coffin? Lost. That’s Who.

30May08

Ya know what? At this point, who cares? Don’t get me wrong, I love Lost (and I type it as “Lost” because I cannot stand it when people prefer to label it “LOST” – it insists upon itself) but I gotta tell you, I’m getting more than a little put out. (No spoilers in this thought provoking post.)

If you know me, you know I’m not a fair-weathered TV fan. I’ve seen television programs that I love come and go and in most all instances, I’ll stay by it’s side until the bitter end, though it rarely ever grips my hand and names me in it’s will as it goes out the window. Regardless, if I invest my time into something like I have Lost or countless other programs, I’m there to see it through, and a few poorly written episodes do not throw me off the trail. But lately I’ve been feeling remorse for the show. When I heard ABC enforced an end date for the series, I was honestly really happy to hear it because I thought the endless psycho-babble that is continuing from week to week (and hella long hiatus after hella long hiatus) needed to have an expiration date added to it to keep it fresh and have that oh-so sought after ending that everyone believed has yet to exist.

Let me tell you something, I’ve had more broken off dinner plans, more hung up phone calls, and more shady friendships happen over this program – which has to say something about it’s fanbase. Again, I’m a huge fan and tonight’s finale was no exception. I haven’t missed an episode all season and since I called the cliffhanger of last season’s finale within the first 3 minutes of the episode (seriously, I did, and have witnesses to back me up) I was hoping for a caliber episode that lived up to a better-than-last-season…season. I didn’t get it. They highly overhyped this finale based on the surroundings of this season, plagued by the Writer’s Strike as most everything in the industry was. I guess the quality just isn’t there for me anymore, it’s not as thought provoking and intelligent as it used to be. Season 1 and 2 to me were about knowledge, and these last two seasons have been more about a trail of bread crumbs that lead nowhere and have me looking at my watch halfway through an episode. Again, don’t get me wrong – I really enjoyed this season and the way they set things up but I really just want the knowledge more than furrowed brow. Thats not to say I want to know how it ends, I love the journey and the puzzle pieces in getting there – but it’s becoming a trend that I can’t even keep up with the picture on the jigsaw box to know which pieces go where.

I like to think I’m a pretty intelligent guy, I can figure things out pretty well, I pick up on subtle differences and hidden text but there’s a certain formula to Lost that has been poured onto the table and is hiding behind every nook and cranny. But I digress, I do love the Lost, I did enjoy the finale, I just wish that when a network does a setup for a big finale they do it right, they do it justice, and they pay it respect. I think Lost gets sucked down the tube of marketing that rarely has anything to do with the show and everything to do with anything else. I got a little irked when I heard that the two remaining seasons of the show will now have 2 extra episodes each (I believe that’s correct) tagged on to the end due to the strike. Do they really need it? They’ve got their end time set and they’ve got all these flash-forwards going, so do they need extra time to fulfill their journey? I honestly think that while the flash-forwards were a good way to end season three and start out season four, it did get a bit trite as the season continued. I think the Oceanic 6 storyline would have been better suited for later in the series, maybe in the fifth season as a final big step to the end. It’s hard to picture where to go from here, will the show get to a point where there are no longer flashbacks and forwards and there’s only the here and now on the island?

I love Lost. I loved “There’s No Place Like Home”. I love Lost fans everywhere, I just think that when a series is facing it’s final thirty or so episodes, it should start looking like it.

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