Lost Series Finale
May. 24th, 2010 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosdriseSo, it's over...
...And I'm a little torn about how I feel towards the damn thing. I think the recapper over at TWOP summed it up quite nicely:
In many regards, Lost was a story about people just as much as it was a story about a mystical island. The show flew around in time a space following these characters and their lives. I loved, hated, feared, and feared for everyone on this show. It can never be denied that Lost failed in regards to characterization. There was some wonderfully splendid writing and completely engrossing performances by the actors.
And because of that, I loved the finale for what it was: a goodbye. It kind of reminded me of Doctor Who and Ten's final episode where he went back and saw all the people he'd cared about. I bawled my eyes out every. single. time. a person remembered their time on the island and the people they loved.
I'm a sap. I've never denied this.
The problem with the finale is that the show wasn't just about the people. The Island was just as big a character as Jack or Locke. It was this huge presence in the lives of these characters, shaping and defining who they were by their actions.
But in the end, according to the finale, The Island was just that: an island. Stuff happened there, some people died, others lived, but it was just a place.
That is the problem I just can't accept and why I feel, regardless of how powerful the finale was emotionally, it was a failure. It negated everything we'd been through with these characters the last six years. I can't agree with Christian Sheppard when he says that the people Jack met on the island were the most important thing. I just can't accept that.
There has to be a reason for the island. I don't really care why it is the way it is, what I want to know is why did these people come to this island. Not in the "Protect This Glowing Cave" way, but in a broader sense. Not just in regards to the characters on the show, but what the island itself represents. Because, as I said before, it's a disservice to the island to just label it as a meeting ground.
So much of this show was centered on the idea of Good vs. Evil, Free Will vs. Destiny.
I wanted the island to be a place where people proved who they really were, not who they pretended to be (Sawyer), what society forced them to be (Locke), who they had become (Jack), or who they thought they were (Sayid). I wanted it to be a testing ground for humanity.
Unless my memory is completely failing me, didn't Jacob keep bringing people to the island to prove to the Man In Black that people were 'good'?
There was a kernel of something really interesting and meaty in that mission. Especially given how the Others twisted it into something awful and kind of terrifying. The Island could strip people down to the very core of who they were. If Lost really was a show about people, regardless of the ghosts, and smoke monsters, and Dharma, that is what I wanted to see.
But instead, it got swept under the rug in favor of the milque-toast "Candidate" plot that didn't actually mean anything in the end. It was just a job that was never satisfactorily explained so there was no reason for us to care about it. Jacob just seemed like a dick who wouldn't let his brother move out.
Ragardless of my complaints, I still loved this show. It was some truly excellent television from writing, to music, to location, to acting and I'm thrilled that it was allowed to stay on air for as long as it did.
Darlton did something very exciting with this show. There were plenty of missteps along the way, and a lot of it felt like them throwing pasta on the ceiling to see what would stick, but it was an incredible experiment and a fabulous journey. I don't regret watching it at all and I hope that Lost has opened doors to allow other writers to take more chances.
Sure, I'm miffed about the unanswered questions (Why WAS Walt so special... apparently the other lostaways didn't think so if he wasn't invited to their little after-life party. And why couldn't the Man In Black just LEAVE when it wanted? It would have avoided a lot of heartbreak) but I love that they were allowed to be asked.
Just, maybe in the future, the writers won't throw quite so many balls into the air.
...And I'm a little torn about how I feel towards the damn thing. I think the recapper over at TWOP summed it up quite nicely:
This was fan service, but I mean that in the highest sense, rather than in its lowest and common sense. One thing I've always wanted, and one thing I've understood about other fans, is that we came for the mystery, but we stayed for the characters. "The End" was perfectly, wonderfully, unapologetically sentimental, and character-driven in every way I'd ever hoped.
In many regards, Lost was a story about people just as much as it was a story about a mystical island. The show flew around in time a space following these characters and their lives. I loved, hated, feared, and feared for everyone on this show. It can never be denied that Lost failed in regards to characterization. There was some wonderfully splendid writing and completely engrossing performances by the actors.
And because of that, I loved the finale for what it was: a goodbye. It kind of reminded me of Doctor Who and Ten's final episode where he went back and saw all the people he'd cared about. I bawled my eyes out every. single. time. a person remembered their time on the island and the people they loved.
I'm a sap. I've never denied this.
The problem with the finale is that the show wasn't just about the people. The Island was just as big a character as Jack or Locke. It was this huge presence in the lives of these characters, shaping and defining who they were by their actions.
But in the end, according to the finale, The Island was just that: an island. Stuff happened there, some people died, others lived, but it was just a place.
That is the problem I just can't accept and why I feel, regardless of how powerful the finale was emotionally, it was a failure. It negated everything we'd been through with these characters the last six years. I can't agree with Christian Sheppard when he says that the people Jack met on the island were the most important thing. I just can't accept that.
There has to be a reason for the island. I don't really care why it is the way it is, what I want to know is why did these people come to this island. Not in the "Protect This Glowing Cave" way, but in a broader sense. Not just in regards to the characters on the show, but what the island itself represents. Because, as I said before, it's a disservice to the island to just label it as a meeting ground.
So much of this show was centered on the idea of Good vs. Evil, Free Will vs. Destiny.
I wanted the island to be a place where people proved who they really were, not who they pretended to be (Sawyer), what society forced them to be (Locke), who they had become (Jack), or who they thought they were (Sayid). I wanted it to be a testing ground for humanity.
Unless my memory is completely failing me, didn't Jacob keep bringing people to the island to prove to the Man In Black that people were 'good'?
There was a kernel of something really interesting and meaty in that mission. Especially given how the Others twisted it into something awful and kind of terrifying. The Island could strip people down to the very core of who they were. If Lost really was a show about people, regardless of the ghosts, and smoke monsters, and Dharma, that is what I wanted to see.
But instead, it got swept under the rug in favor of the milque-toast "Candidate" plot that didn't actually mean anything in the end. It was just a job that was never satisfactorily explained so there was no reason for us to care about it. Jacob just seemed like a dick who wouldn't let his brother move out.
Ragardless of my complaints, I still loved this show. It was some truly excellent television from writing, to music, to location, to acting and I'm thrilled that it was allowed to stay on air for as long as it did.
Darlton did something very exciting with this show. There were plenty of missteps along the way, and a lot of it felt like them throwing pasta on the ceiling to see what would stick, but it was an incredible experiment and a fabulous journey. I don't regret watching it at all and I hope that Lost has opened doors to allow other writers to take more chances.
Sure, I'm miffed about the unanswered questions (Why WAS Walt so special... apparently the other lostaways didn't think so if he wasn't invited to their little after-life party. And why couldn't the Man In Black just LEAVE when it wanted? It would have avoided a lot of heartbreak) but I love that they were allowed to be asked.
Just, maybe in the future, the writers won't throw quite so many balls into the air.
