"KEEP BUSTIN'."

TV review: LOST – “The End”

tn_lostI’ve been hearing about this TV show “Lost” for a long time now, everybody loves it, lotta hype and what not. So I decided to check it out last Sunday when they had a special 2 1/2 hour episode called “The End.”

Lost is the story of some people trapped on an island that as far as I can tell is made out of 50% soil and rock, 25 percent foliage, 10% magic and 15% metaphor. The guy from “Party of 5” is their leader and he’s trying to stop THE STEPFATHER himself, Terry O’Quinn, from “destroying the island” and sinking it to the bottom of the ocean. In this episode they do not explain why or how or what the fuck. But these two guys see each other and run at each other and then jump up in the air and it cuts to a commercial.

mp_lostOf course, there is a magic well that transports people to a camp sight, and three other people are trying to fix a broken commercial jet – possibly the same one from EXECUTIVE DECISION – and fly it off of the island. Meanwhile, all of the same people are in the city working as doctors, cops, etc. and planning to go to a big concert. They don’t remember each other, but then throughout the episode all the boys meet all the girls and they suddenly have flashbacks and remember that they’re in love on the island.

One and a half words about alternate dimensions: fuck ’em. I know comic bookers and sci-fi heads feel that alternate dimensions are a great idea for a story and should be explored over and over again forever, but unfortunately they are incorrect. How many god damn stories can there be about the Star Trek guys flying through a space hole and finding themselves in an alternate dimension or timeline where everything is different because of one decision? In this world they decided not to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we see how things are different. Well, if every decision you make has another dimension where you made a different decision, then what meaning is there to any decision? There is none. If you fuck up, don’t worry, it’s fine in another dimension. If you make the right decision, too bad, your doppelganger fucked up somewhere else. Everybody died. Or everybody lived. Who cares? Everything always happened.

Ironically there’s probly some alternate dimension somewhere where I wear an eyepatch and have seen all the episodes of Lost and think alternate dimensions are cool. But luckily I’m not there so I’m sticking by my instinct on alternate dimensions. You heard me, alternate dimensions. Fuck you.

Thankfully this deal in LOST turns out to not technically be an alternate dimension. It’s the same people from the island but transported to another world or plane of existence, possibly at a later date after the events on Symbolism Island. Or maybe it’s simultaneous. At one point the Party of Five guy gets his neck cut on the island and also in the hospital where he works. It was almost like Freddy cuts you in your dream and you wake up with a cut. Since when has The Stepfather had Freddy powers? This is new.

Anyway, back on the island Party of Five is doing some kind of Hellboy shit involving a stone column, lava, magic crystals or who knows what. He causes a glowing thing to happen. This show is alot like LAND OF THE LOST. I’m not clear if it’s an official update or just a blatant ripoff that uses a shortened version of the name. But there should be more dinosaurs.

They talk about alot of stuff that probly is cool if you watched the other episodes of the show (not sure how many there are) but out of context sound hilariously silly. For example, they mention somebody talking to “the black smoke.” The leader seems to have been magically chosen and can transfer his powers through water. It kind of seems like there are different magic rules that kids made up while playing and they got adults to act it out on TV. But the music is pretty dramatic, so it works better than on the playground. Anyway, the fat guy has the power now so I assume he’ll have to run toward Terry O’Quinn and then jump up into the air like a super hero.

Mostly I think the show is about how love conquers all. It conquers the talking black smoke, the Stepfather, the earthquake, the impossibility of fixing up and launching a giant fucking jetliner from a little piece of dirt, the transfer from one plane of existence to the next. You figure in general if you got stranded on an island you got slim pickings, you’re gonna bunk up with whoever is available, whether it’s Ginger, Mary-Anne or Toshiro Mifune. But luckily this group is mostly made up of beautiful heterosexual male-female soulmate pairs. One or two of them, like the Stepfather and the fat guy that says “dude” and mentions Star Wars alot, aren’t good looking enough so they don’t get girlfriends. But they at least make male friends. And the fat guy gets to wear sunglasses.

Anyway the point I was getting at is that they make these love connections while stranded on this terrifying island where at any moment they could end up talking to some smoke. But later they transfer over to another plane of existence and can’t remember anything, but they still manage to reunite. They’re now in what appears to be a populated city, but they find the same people from the more limited group of island castaways. This means they were meant to be.

This is actually very similar to what I have heard happened on another J.J. Abrams creation, the television series Felicity. In the final season Felicity graduated college and went off to marry her troubled, soft-spoken high school crush Ben (the guy from UNDERWORLD). But there were still five episodes left so they skipped forward to six months later and she caught him with another gal, so through witchcraft she travelled back in time to re-do her last year and try to get together with the boy she rejected, Noel (the killer from SCREAM 3). Being from the future she knew what decisions to make so instead of being tormented for 4 episodes about whether or not to tell her boyfriend she cheated on him she just walks up to him and blurts it out. Then she starts telling people she’s from the future and gets locked up like Sarah Connor. Also her plan to get together with Noel doesn’t work as well as planned, for example he is burned to death in a fire. But she manages to get back to the future and realizes even after conquering space and time to get away from her boyfriend that in fact they’re meant to be together and more in love than ever. (also she brings a friend back from the dead as a bonus). And now they know it and can go on to make a life together in the land of whatever-happens-after-the-series-ends. So in substance if not specifics it’s a very similar conclusion to Lost. All this according to wikipedia or something.

The obvious standout character on this episode of Lost was Terry O’Quinn. He seemed to be the scary master villain but a nice father figure in the other world. In this episode he doesn’t get to show off as much as in THE STEPFATHER but he’s very intense and bitter, with a a great presence and grizzled look. I believe this is a pretty well known show so I hope it gets him some more big movie roles and not just more TV. He could almost be a Punisher or something. Give him one of these older gentlemen revenge pictures we all love.

Anyway it was interesting to kind of get a glimpse of what this Lost was all about. I heard people talk about it about a million times and it was also on every cover of Entertainment Weekly ever made. Now I know what they were so excited about: love, and talking to smoke. In retrospect it might’ve been better to watch starting with the first episode instead of the last one, but who has time for that shit. I still haven’t watched The Wire. I did watch Blade: The Series and some other shows.

the end

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 2:18 am and is filed under Fantasy/Swords, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

96 Responses to “TV review: LOST – “The End””

  1. NOTREADINGITNOTREADINGITNOTREADINGIT!!!!
    Dammit, I hope the comments stay spoiler free, because I have to wait till July 7 until the finale hits over here. So far I managed to avoid any spoilers and I knew that this place is going to stay spoiler free, but now all bets are off, I guess. Argh! It would be a shame if I would read a spoiler or two while just lookin at the “Recent comments” section on the right.
    I’m glad that you finally wrote something Lost related and I don’t critizise you for doing so without waiting for the finale to air all over the world (because that would be stupid), but…ARGH!

  2. This was the most awesomest review of Lost ever.

    But seriously, Vern, watch The Wire. You need to watch The Wire. Do it.

  3. Daniel Strange

    June 1st, 2010 at 3:20 am

    Vern,

    I did the same thing. Watched the last episode only, because who has time for that other shit? I made sure to watch with a bunch of fans who had seen the entire series, though, because I thought it would be hilarious to hear cries of “OHMIGOD IT’S HER!!!” or “I KNEW IT, I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!!!” from them at seemingly random moments. (As it turns out, I was right.) So that was fun, even if I spent the first 20 minutes thinking all the non-island stuff was flashbacks. (“This doctor guy did an operation on The Stepfather before they got to the island, and now The Stepfather wants to kill him? That’s gratitude for you.”) But mostly I’m just writing to say that the last three lines of your review made me laugh. Thanks.

  4. I’ve never watched Lost either Vern, but wish I had because Goddamn do I felt left out, it’s like me and Vern are the only people on Earth who have never seen this

    generally I don’t watch much television, not because I’m trying to be a “rebel” or anything but just because I’d rather spend my time doing something else

  5. the thing that pisses me off is that when Lost first started it was basically “Castaway: The Series” and it just didn’t interest me

    then all that crazy shit start happening, but by then I would have to have bought all the dvds from the beginning and I didn’t want to do that

  6. Vern,

    I think »Lost« is one of the most ambitious, complex and entertaining stories ever told in television – and much better than most of the films people love to watch in cinema.

    When the show ends, you know many of the characters from childhood (or birth) to death. You have seen great love stories, heartbreaking drama and some »crazy shit« like time travel, conversations with gosts and a nuclear bomb. You never knew what happens next, and some deaths were really shocking. Besides many interesting thoughts about life and death, science and faith, there was a huge amount of suspense, mystery, action and great humour. Most of all i loved the characters.

    Who has time for this shit? After reading all of your reviews during my work, including JAWS II – IV, LEPRECHAUN and TRANSFORMERS 1 and 2 (many times), i’m clearly not an expert in assigning priorities. However, you better start watching the first season. Now. Don’t think you regret it. The best thing is: you can stop whenever you want, already knowing how it ends.

  7. Great review, Vern. I’m a huge fan of LOST, so I can only imagine what a crazy disaster it must look like from the perspective of only having seen the finale. Honestly, I’d be surprised if it would really be your type of show. BUT, you might find it worthwhile to watch the very first episode, a) because it is entirely lacking in talking smoke, “Land of the Lost”-type challenges, and trips to the afterlife, and b) because it is a truly amazing piece of filmmaking that puts 80% of big-budget summer movies to shame.

  8. Yeah, fuck alternate universes, maybe except the one where I work instead of reading reviews of tv-shows I`ve never seen. Also, the alternate universe where Vern has written a book about summer-movies is pretty cool. But fuck the rest.

  9. I lovelovelove Lost, so seeing it dissected and examined by someone who has no experience with the show is refreshing, especially because me and my friends definitely took it way to seriously. But a great show, and a great write-up.

  10. Jareth Cutestory

    June 1st, 2010 at 7:01 am

    Personally, I tried to watch LOST two or three times and found it turgid, laboured, heavy handed and poorly acted. Much like any other network t.v. show. Not to piss on any fans of the show, because a show doesn’t generate as much buzz as LOST without having something to offer, but I failed spectacularly in my attenpts to enjoy it. Same thing happened with FRIENDS. I never got that one either.

    But like Vern says, any show that gives the world more Peter Watts is okay with me.

    Did any fans of the show have a hard time not seeing that one guy as Harry Knowles? That must have been wierd.

    Also, if Alternate Reality Vern (aka Eyepatch Vern) has a beard, and his web sight is spelled “site,” and that site looks likes Our Vern’s joke site, it is safe to assume he is the evil one.

  11. I’m with Jareth. Watched the first three episodes back when they premiered and wasn’t impressed, so I bailed. (As opposed to the first three eps of The Wire, plug plug.) Was tempted to rejoin when Lost became “ambitious,” but suspected “ambitious” was a code word for “full of arcane mysteries tossed in to build intrigues that will never actually be woven together into a satisfying resolution.”

    And don’t get me started on the hoopla over the frickin’ Super 8 trailer. I’m Abramsed out.

  12. JJ Abrams is a creatively retard and bankruped, and all he can do, and do very well, is to hard-sale his dumb stupid shit he creates, both movies and TV shows. As a creative, he’s a miserable untalent fuck. But he is a great salesman. He’s magnificent as a salesman. He is the best used cars salesman in Hollywood who is not called Jerry Bruckheimer. JJ Abrams’s particular talent is to create buyers loyalty. The man knows all the tricks in the book about fooling the costumers. And it shows, given the devotion people have about his dumb retard shows and his dumb stupid retard incompetent crap movie masquarading and sold as Star Trek (In Name Only).

    JJ Abrams is the Hollywood guy i despise the most after Michael Bay. And with good reason i feel this way. I can’t help being amused by people being surpised that something that JJ Abrams was involved became disapointing or not as good as they though it would. This suprise neveer ceases to amuse me. Everything about Jj Abrams, all his incompetence as a storyteller and filmamker, the writing was always in the wall for allt hose to see. Except those who were hypnotized by his salesman tactics.

  13. Watch the Wire! And please give a review for every season, perhaps every episode. Maybe every scene.
    Also did you ever hear of Roar (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083001/ )? ‘The most epensive home movie ever made’ at $17 million over a period of 11 years during which both Melanie Griffith and Jan de Bont were mauled by lions. It sounds pretty weird imo! I wonder what Tony Jaa could have done with this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoVym6-Ye1Q

  14. That’s funny seeing as how he had no involvment with this show beyond directing the pilot and hiring a couple people. His name is on the credits but JJ Abrams barely even functions into the Lost fabric.

  15. Andreasm, you want REAL ambitious, complex and entertaining stories told on TV, watch ROME and CARNIVÀLE instead. Those are the real deal. LOST is a simulation of a complex story, and a bad and stupid one at that. LOST has to be one of the most blatant and obvious case of a show where the showrunners were inventing stuff as they went along. It’s as Vern said, those people responsible for LOST are like kindergarden kids who change the rules as they go along and according to what is convinient to them.

    My despise for the people involved with LOST, and specialyl for headmaster JJ Abrams, has no bounds. What con rip off artists they are!

  16. I am taking a page from your book and reading a very long post from a writer I have never read before. And after reading it. I say alternate universes are fucking cool. Writers might abuse them as ways to create a loophole in the plot, but since humans only use like 10% of our brain, there is a lot out there we don’t understand. I’ll keep alternate universes to help push our imaginations and boundaries. I do like how you summed up Lost as about love and talking to smoke, that’s simplifying it a bit but pretty great for a rookie. I am wondering if anyone here has heard of this Lost recap band, ‘Previously On Lost’? They play original music recapping episodes. I saw them here:
    http://www.itsasickness.com/lounge/adam-and-jeff-are-obsessed-lost
    and was pretty impressed. I think it’s a neat side story to the Lost phenomena.

  17. Brendan, that didn’t prevented him from screaming from the top of the building for everybody to hear that he is the creator of LOST, and he collected tonens of brownie points for that. “From the creator of LOST” was seen in everything he was involved with, from CLOVERFIELD to STAR TREK IN NAME ONLY to whatever he put his pawns on.

    If he boasts to be the creator of LOST, then he is going to get the criticism as well. It’s only fair.

  18. botmammoth, that “humans only use 10% of the brain” is a stupid fallacy that has been disproved since the 70s.

  19. Jareth-They actually cast him to PLAY Harry in that Fanboys movie, but he couldn’t because he was in Hawaii filming the show.

  20. Asimov-How exactly do you know what the process was? Were you sitting in the writer’s room when they hashed out story details? Were you talking with Lindelof when he was figuring out the rules, and saw step-by-step him making it up as he went along? No. No you weren’t. Some stuff they knew from the beginning, some stuff they figured out later, kind of like every extended work of fiction ever.

    And besides, if they were making it up the whole way, so what? What does the process matter if you hated the ending, who cares if it was something they came up with in some spur of desperation, or if they knew it from the get-go?

  21. Sorry guys, I didn’t consider that this was gonna unleash Asimov’s inner beast. Probly wouldn’t have posted it if I thought it through. I know nobody wants to hear this shit again. I hope there’s an alternate universe where you can say “J. J. Abrams” and Asimov will politely say, “I’m not a fan” and his heart rate will stay normal.

  22. Asimov- Did you even watch the show? That’s some pretty major hate for something you have never seen.

    As far as Lost goes, I watched every episode of all six seasons, and every week I couldn’t wait for the next one. It was an amazing run and I doubt there is ever anything as good for a long time. Breaking Bad and Justified are really good shows but Lost was in a league of it’s own.

    The biggest gripe for the series I keep hearing is people being upset that, in the end, the island ended up having more of a magical explanation going on than a scientific one. I for one would have loved for Daniel Faraday to have figured out exactly what was going on. But then his mom killed him(spoiler) and now we shall never know. But what the fuck did people want? A Star Wars midochlorian type of answer where the writers just made some crazy new psuedo-scientific non-sense? The show had always been about a seemingly magical island with monsters,ghosts, psychics, visions of the future etc etc but then people couldn’t buy into a magical glowing cave that acts as a cork keeping all the goodness of the world in tact ? That’s where nerds draw the line? Well call me a fanboy but I loved the end. The shot with Jack lying on the ground, with Vincent running up to provide our hero with some comfort in his last few minutes. It was fucking beautiful. I don’t get choked up too easy but god damn it if that didn’t do it. All Jack ever wanted to do was help his friends, and in the end he got to watch as his best friends escaped the island.

    Matt Fox has been saying in interviews that the shot of his eye closing has been the ending of the show since the first season, I’m really glad they stuck with it.

  23. Jareth Cutestory

    June 1st, 2010 at 10:12 am

    Brendan: They’re making a movie with a character based on Knowles? I hope they use my idea of having a team of a forensic pyschologists dig through all his memorabilia. It would be like that cable show with Garbiel Byrne, except Knowles’ house would be filmed with the same horror technique they used on the crime scenes in SEVEN.

    AzimovLives: Apart from having Abrams’ name on it, what is it specifically that you don’t like about LOST? Was the storyline more convoluted than BATTLESTAR GALACTICA? Was the acting noticably poorer than LAW & ORDER? Was the “arc” any less satisfying than X-FILES?

    The show wasn’t my cup of tea, mainly because I found it maulin, but it looked competently put together. Sort of like 24:
    I can totally see why people like that show, even though I bailed after six or seven episodes.

    But comapred to the shows that people used to get excited about, shows like KNIGHT RIDER or THE A-TEAM, your argument that Abrams is pushing some empty product seems a bit hyperbolic to me. I would think a more accurate argument would be: LOST has none of the character depth, thematic weight or careful, resonant plotting we’ve come to expect from recent television standard-setters like THE SOPRANOS and THE WIRE.

    Personally, I had to stop comparing shows to CARNIVALE. That’s one I really liked, and I’ve sat through a lot of medocre stuff (ROME included) hoping HBO would live up to that standard again. Ain’t gonna happen.

  24. I guess you’re not a fan of JET LIE IS…THE ONE either, Vern? As a big Lost fan who was actually mostly happy with the finale, I found this a hilarious review. Don’t let people pressure you into watching stuff though…unless it’s SUPERNATURAL(the guy from Friday the 13th remake and Tom from My Bloody Valentine 3D as brothers hunting demons/ghosts/vampires/deities posing as Paris Hilton etc.)

  25. ^JET LI I mean. Jet Lie is a clone.

  26. Jareth Cutestory

    June 1st, 2010 at 10:35 am

    Stu: Dude, you just totally pulled the name “Jet Lie” from an alternate timeline where a whole industry is hard at work producing cheap knock-off films after the premature death of Jet Li under mysterious circumstances on the set of ONCE UPON A TME IN CHINA.

    You’re like Time Cop, pal.

    Also, Vern liked the recent CHRISTMAS CAROL, which is based on the grandfather of all alternate reality stories.

  27. Jareth- There was some comedy that out a couple years ago called FANBOYS and Harry Knowles was a character.

  28. Vern, here it is:

    Season 1 of LOST is very good. There are some eye-rolling moments of melodrama, but overall it is well-paced, has a great amount of supernatural mystery, and several good characters (Terry O’quinn, Josh Halloway, Naveen Andrews) who develop interesting relationships and conflicts. LOST would have surpassed FIREFLY-like status among fans had it not continued past season 1 (which in my opinion is the best place to stop watching).

    Season 2 is still good but not as good, season 3 has good moments but ends poorly…and from there it’s all downhill. I emotionally and physically severed myself after that and only caught snippet updates from my friends during the last three seasons. From what I saw, the Finale was not any more stupid than many of the episodes from season 4 on, and was as good a way as any to end that trainwreck of a show. If you do ever decide to watch it, try to forget about how it ends and imagine something else. And stop watching after season 1 (or season 2, or season 3).

  29. Christof- I hate to break it to ya bud you missed out on some of the best storylines and characters if you bailed on the last three seasons. You missed out on Faraday,Miles,Lapidus,Jacob, The Man In Black, Keamy, The Nuke, all the time travel, Desmonds back story being flushed out. You should have stuck with it man. All the big mysteries eventually wrapped themselves up, the exceptions being Walt and Aaron.

  30. Diesel,

    I didn’t miss out. Like I said, I emotionally severed myself, and caught snippets/updates, so I know about all of those things.

    I also lied. I watched most of season 4, and to prove it: I appreciated their attempts to explain some of the island stuff via Faraday. But I disliked him (I thought he and Miles and whatsherface were pointless characters who were introduced too late into the series) and even though I liked Desmond’s episode “The Constant”, I thought the time-travel stuff was stupid (kind of like how Vern thinks alternate dimensions are stupid). There was enough intrigue in LOST already without adding the time-travel and flash-forwards.

    I don’t want to get more involved in a LOST forum debate. If I want that I’ll go to whylostsucks.com, or aintitcool. I understand that you liked it, but I don’t think we’re going to reach an understanding, and really I just wanted to give Vern my two cents.

  31. P.S.

    Deisel, maybe a better way to put it is that there are a lot of things I grew to dislike about LOST, and they don’t all have to do with the last three seasons. Many were gradual, or in some cases existed almost from inception (hence my increasing dislike from season 1 and on). It would just take a long time to explain it all, is what I’m saying, and I also don’t want to give too much away for someone who hasn’t seen it (ie. Vern).

    Also, I think Terry O’Quinn would make a great Bruce Wayne if they ever made Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN.

  32. Christoph
    It’s all good man I’m not here to flame anyone like the people in most talkbacks. One of the many reasons I visit this site so much is that the community here typically tries not to flame each other on differences in opinion. I just find it odd that people(lots of people) stopped watching ,when in my opinion, the show really started getting interesting in the last few seasons. But I know I won’t be swaying anyone opinion on the matter, didn’t mean to call you out like that.

  33. Oh man, I was hoping you’d find a way to post about LOST somehow but I didn’t know how you might do it.

    It was one of my favorite shows, and a little more audacious than people gave it credit for. I LOVED that it was a gigantic sci-fi trojan horse… you start watching, thinking that it’s a “hot shipwrecked people” show and before long we’ve got atomic bombs, hippie psychological experiments, time travel, etc… Carlton and Cuse didn’t play it safe.

    And more than a lot of shows LOST was a social experience, between the message boards, water-cooler conversation, and drunken bar theorizing.

    I liked the finale up to the last fifteen minutes, and then I wasn’t sure what to think. But after a week’s thinking about it and a second viewing, it’s all pretty damned good, and I’m happy with how it ended.

    IF ANYONE IS CONSIDERING WATCHING THE SHOW WHO HASN’T ALREADY:
    Get the first season DVDs and watch up to the end of episode 4, “Walkabout.” If you don’t like it by then, you probably won’t like the show. But for a lot of people “Walkabout” is where they first say “Holy shit this is good. And then stay with it, even through the clunkers in early season 2 and season 3, because it’s definitely worth it.

  34. A parallell world is also an important element of Abrams’ other show Fringe, though from what I understand of it (I’ve only seen the first season), some people over there are planning to invade or something.

  35. Jareth Cutestory

    June 1st, 2010 at 2:05 pm

    Stu: I hope the invaders you mention are the little woodland creatures from SOUTH PARK, the ones who got Kurt Russell in IMAGINATIONLAND.

  36. screw this show, watch 24.

  37. Never could give a total shit about LOST. Sorry.

  38. RRA, what was the point of posting that you don’t give a shit about lost? Are you contractually obligated to post in every talkback? ;)

    I loved Lost but man I took that shit seriously. I’ve now let go.

  39. Lost was a fun ride but damn I was disappointed in this last season. This whole show is a total grift. They spent five seasons piling unexplained occurrences on top of each other and at the last minute tell you that it all happened because of a magic fucking cave. Seriously, fuck this show. If they’d had the decency to tell me I was watching a show about a magic cave from the get-go I never would have watched the damn thing, but they tricked me by pretending it was a show about time travel and quantum physics and things I am interested in.

    Also, unless their “master plan” that they’ve been talking about all these years was to make a show where a bunch of random unexplained shit happens to important-sounding music, then I’m pretty sure they were just making it up as they went. The sixth season didn’t satisfactorily address a single question that I had about the show.

    Here’s a few of those questions, but I have others:

    http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291

  40. Lawrence – I posted that because I could? What I was not allowed to say I never could understand the appeal of LOST or quite frankly, got tired of everywhere I went, people would bring that shit up randomly*?

    Its one of those programs I wonder how at first the mystery was probably compelling, but what of afterwards when the curtain was lifted?

    Or to put it another way, how many series finales actually deliver on “revealing” stuff without either coming off as underwhelming (X-Files) or just incredibly off-putting wacky for the sake of a twist (St. Elsewhere)

    Since I didn’t see the LOST finale, how did it go?

    *=Hey Gwai Lo, ever see THE WIRE? We never talk much about it around here. That shit is the bomb, yo.

  41. Harker – reminds me how despite 70 or 80 years worth of BATMAN comics, nobody has come up with a satisfying origin for The Joker. Probably why DARK KNIGHT didn’t bother with one.

    Hell if even Alan Moore can’t pull it off, what does that say?

  42. As a fan of Lost, I must admit that the series finale doesn’t make much more sense even if you watch the entire show from first to last. That being said, this review pretty much nailed the entire finale. I had forgotten that Matthew Fox was on Party of Five, so score one for Vern keeping the memory of that show alive.

  43. CrustaceanHate

    June 1st, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    I bailed on this show early on because network TV has never known how to handle a long-running mystery show. I got the impression that they’d be stringing this one out for as long as possible, piling bullshit on top of bullshit until they finally pulled the plug with a half-assed “it was all a dream” or “they’re in pergatory” ending. I don’t know if that was the case, but all the time-travel and flash-sideways stuff I heard from the LOST-faithful makes me glad I got out when I did.

  44. I think too many people are focusing on the plot and not on the fact that the characters and the acting was so great. It’s the reason why we love some of the great shows/movies from the past. It’s never about the plot.

  45. Jareth Cutestory

    June 1st, 2010 at 8:47 pm

    I wonder if the people who didn’t like the LOST finale also didn’t like the last episode of THE SOPRANOS. Can it be divided into people who want concrete resolution and people who prefer open-endedness?

    I didn’t watch LOST, and I have problems with some aspects of THE SOPRANOS, but man I liked that ending. On the other hand, I think the much-loved ending to SIX FEET UNDER was manipulative and corny.

  46. Lawrence – I totally agree that the characters and acting were great. The characters and acting were a big part of why I loved the show. But without some sort of logical framework to hang it on the characters and acting don’t mean so much to me. To be clear I found the finale very satisfying on an emotional level. I’ll even go on record as getting choked up on occasion. But intellectually I thought it was the equivalent of Lost burning doughnuts on my front lawn with both middle fingers blazing while it said unflattering things about my mom. Other than that I liked it though. Good stuff.

  47. Best ending ever still belongs to THE SHIELD

  48. Jareth, I loved the Sopranos ending. Six Feet Under’s too.

    Lost only semi-satisfied me. Emotionally it got to me, but ever since the Walkabout episode in season 1, I have been yearning for answers, and even though the emotional climax somewhat satisfied me, the show has had too many red herrings considering that the main appeal is finding out what went on. Inconclusive endings are fine for me in most cases, but with Lost the main thing is to know what went on (or at least I thought it was).

    Quite an emotional rollercoaster with highs and lows, disappointments and nice surprises. And then some more disappointments.

    And the notion that tv is a subpar medium compared to feature films is not viable anymore. The inventiveness and complex storylines are way more developed and original than most feature films.

    P.S. The Wire (has someone else mentioned this show?) is one of the best things I have ever seen. Vern, if you can watch Leprechaun movies, you can also take the time it takes to watch the The Wire. I’m not saying this, just because I want a review from you, but because I think you’ll love that shit.

  49. I haven`t seen any of Lost, but have a lot of peoples reactions on the internet. The satisfied fan mostly defend it because “it`s about the characters”! Well, most movies are. That doesn`t mean that you can leave thousends of questions unanswered. Not that I mind open endings, i actually prefer them. Like Sopranos. Genious ending. We don`t know what happens with our main-characters, the show just ends and leaves us in the middle of a very tense situation. This is how Tony Soprano is gonna spent the rest of his life, on the verge of a panic attack. He has created his own hell.

    A long story about psycho-analysis which ends with our protagonist not changing at all, killing most of the people close to him because of greed and paranoia, while rising to the top of his criminal empire, that`s great storytelling. On par with Richard the third imo.

    I don`t like televison and haven`t watched tv for at least 7 years. But tv and cinema is all mixed up now. Great tv-shows like Sopranos, Twin Peaks, Ghost in the shell, Rome season 1 and Firefly, is very cinematic imo; told in a cinematic style with satisfying story-arcs. They use the language of cinema to tell the story. A lot of movies are like tv nowadays. It`s characters explaining the plot to the audience, filmed mostly in medium shots of the actors faces.

    Anyway, I like a good puzzle, if the pieces fit. I`ve read posts about Lost that kind of makes the plot make sense, if you kind of connects the dots from all the 6 seasons. Is this true? Can anybody actually explain the hatch on the island, how anybody survives the nuclear blast in season 5, etc? And does this alternate univers (purgtuary) has any meaning in the great schemes of the islands mythology or is it just the writers excuse for gathering all the main-characters in the final episode?

    I only ask because I`m tempted to buy all six seasons and find out what everybody has been raving about for six years, but I haven`t really come across somebody who thinks that the plot actually makes sense. The fans mostly screams “It doesn`t matter. It`s about the characters!!!” and that just doesn`t cut it for me. I don`t need to watch 6 years of television about a group of people trying to survive a magic island to realize that the point of the story is that friendship and love are nice.

  50. I didn’t realize that this was gonna cause AsimovLives to UNLEASH THE FURY!

    Asimov, seriously man, you need to get a life

  51. AsimovLives: I’ve never seen CARNIVÀLE and only three episodes of ROME, so i can’t say much about this shows. Maybe i was not in the right mood, but I wasn’t impressed with ROME. The dialogues, characterizations and goofy sex scenes appeared like they were taken out of a softporn movie.

    I can’t understand your argument that LOST has only a bad and stupid simulation of a complex story. No, they don’t wrapped everything up in the end. Some mysteries were left unresolved. But for me this isn’t a reason to ignore the many things they got right.

    Sure, some of the episodes HAD poor storytelling. Some characters were underwritten. Some mysteries unnecessary. LOST isn’t perfect. I’ve never seen a perfect tv show and only a few (in my opinion) perfect films.

    But every story arc from the main characters was solved in a satisfying way (except Walt), many of the mysteries were solved in a satisfying way. When you look at the stories of John Locke, Benjamin Linus and Desmond Hume, three of most compelling characters (and stories) i’ve seen on tv – you can’t say they are stupid and trivial. How you learn of the fascinating love story between Sun and Jin, layer after layer, and realize how wrong your first impressions were – this is for me great storytelling. The same can be said for almost every character, even if I sometimes don’t like the direction they choose.

    With every season they took a big risk in reinventing a successful tv show. Added flash forwards, time travel and a – for characterization – fascinating new world in season 6. Nothing of this was irrelevant. Everything added a new layer or was a fascinating way to explained something while raising new questions.

    SPOILER For example, it was a question for a long time, why Richard, a man who doesn’t age, believed that Locke is »special« and visited him at his birth. In Season 5 we discovered, it was another man who took the guise of John Locke and travelled back through time, before John Locke was born, to tell a surprised Richard he, John Locke, will be his »leader« and where and when he will born. At this time we don’t even know it’s not John Locke who travels through time. It is a answer to a question that was raised seasons before, presented in way you can’t complete understand while watching this episode. You have to wait until the end of the season until you understand better WHY this happened. This might by crazy, you may find it bad, but it isn’t stupid. END SPOILER

    The flash-sideways in season 6, hated by some viewers, not only brought closure to some unresolved character arcs, but brought a new perspective to the main theme of the show: our protagonists, »lost« in their life. And every time you thought a new character knows more than our protagonists, it turns out he was also only thrown in a situation he can’t understand.

    In the end, some mysteries remain mysteries. Unresolved, open to interpretation. I like it this way, much more than a Medichlorian- or It-was-all-a-dream-or-scientific-experiment-explanation.

    The end – in my opinion – wasn’t a cop out. It was a proper way to end a tv show that seldom took the easy way and always challenged it’s audience. For many people this seems to be frustrating, for me it’s the reason to enjoy, maybe even love LOST.

  52. @ andreas

    That sounds like a cool set-up and suprising pay-off, but I don`t buy the island as a mcguffin. Is there a reason or a purpose for the magic island, other than it has to be protected?

    Fans keep bringing up medichlorians as an excuse for not explaining what the island is (other than a magic place that has to be protected), but it`s not a fair comparison. Every character in the world of starwars accepted the force. It was never supposed to be a mystery. It`s an established part of the universe.
    If Luke Skywalker discovered that he had “the force” and nobody in the universe had heard about it before, then the audience would have asked for some sort of explaination, just like the maincharacter we identify with.

    Lost takes place in a universe where the island is a mystery and the characters percieve it as a mystery. Big difference, i think.

    And it`s not Lost Highway, Solaris, 2001, Possession or The Stalker, where strange events is used as a metaphors for the subconscious or religion or..you know.. clever stuff. Or is it?

  53. nice Oceanic refrence vern.

  54. actually I was wrong, the plane was ajira, the first plane was Oceanic [same as in executive decision].

  55. I feel the same way about michael jackson as you do about lost;
    s’ok, I suppose, but I don’t think its that spectacular.

  56. I guess I’ll take this time though to say that I do watch Glee and am not ashamed

  57. Incidentally: the original name for “Land of the Lost” was going to be “Lost”, but the producers decided it needing sprucing up. It’s pretty obvious the guys creating “Lost” (the show being discussed here) were fond of LotL and borrowed thematic elements from it occasionally.

    (POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD): From what I can tell (having read snippets about the series for years, and working my way through Season 2 right now), the black smoke (which does in fact show up and do things in the Pilot ep, although it seems more like an invisible mechanical dragon at that point) is supposed to be the Devil (or some sci-fi equivalent thereof), trapped on the island ages ago. There’s a population of people on the island trying to keep it from escaping and destroying the world, and they can be a ruthless secretive bunch. (Some have also quietly gone over to the dark side and are helping Smokey.) The Smoke, however, is able to influence world events to some extent, and among other things manipulates a group of people into coming to the island in the hope of finding someone worth possessing in order to be set free of its imprisonment. The crash of the Oceanic flight is the latest such attempt, but an earlier attempt involved a group of paranormal/scientific researchers called the Dharma Initiative, who discovered the wandering island and naively wanted to study its “unique electromagnetic” characteristics. They came close to inadvertently releasing Smokey, but figured out in time that this would be a Galactically Bad Idea, and so hastily patched a seal and abandoned their research on the island. The hasty patch, however, required someone to keep resetting the patch every hour and a half or so. (Due to time traveling, the Dharma side of the story was influenced by some of the Oceanic survivors, too.)

    Meanwhile, God (or a sci-fi equivalent thereof) is also puttering around behind the scenes, less obviously so, working to make sure Smokey stays trapped, and using some of Smokey’s own plans to foil it (including the gathering of the crew of the Oceanic flight). Among other things, God takes the opportunity to prepare some people for heaven by leading them to repentance of their past misdeeds and reconciliation with other people, by putting them through a purgatorial process. (This is the more overtly religious angle of the story.)

    Also, the island floats around the world’s oceans. Which explains several things, including why a family of polar bears is (or was) living there. (Someone involved with keeping Smokey in check eventually put them to use helping with that, pushing a wheel or something. I haven’t gotten nearly that far yet.)

    All in all, it’s basically a Stephen King mega-novel, except not actually written by Stephen King. It has most of the usual Kingish traits (for better and for worse), except for explicit sex and violence. Doubtless, that would’ve been included on HBO. {wry g}

  58. You know, a lot of the show was explained in the last couple of seasons. It’s just that most people don’t want to accept that the answers are the answers. It’s like the Star Wars prequels. People had, in their mind, what they should have been and we didn’t get that.

    For example, they give an answer for why women can’t have babies on the Island. It’s a direct consequence for Allison Janey having killed the woman to steal her baby and make them the next Island protectors. She’s essentially choosing a baby that can’t choose for themselves. As we’ve learned in the past, you have to figure out that you need to be the new protector and you can’t just be chosen.

  59. Lol, it sounds pretty insane. So does God prepare the maincharacters for heaven in order to keep Smokey the bandit trapped on the island or does he do it because he`s a super-nice guy?

  60. Jareth Cutestory

    June 2nd, 2010 at 7:13 am

    atzfratz: It was so awesome how the last episode of THE SHIELD showed Vic Mackey waking up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette.

  61. dna – I think you’re right. The medichlorians are not the best comparison. But also not completely wrong.

    The characters in LOST strand on this island, where unexplainable, »magic« things happen. From there on you don’t have a huge amount of options. It could be a dream, purgatory, a science ficition/alien scenario or simply a island where unexplainable, »magic« things happen. In the way the writeres executed the last option I have no problems with it. It’s not a con, cop out or a mcguffin.

    The things that happen on the island have a huge impact on our characters and help them to get over their ruined lifes and moral dilemmas. Help them to find piece. Everything they see (ghosts of the past), everything they go through (time travel, flash-sideways), everything we see (flashbacks, flash-forwards) is a mosaic piece. Sometimes you discover important things of the lifes of our protagonists or the history of the island, sometimes it’s »only« a detail or a accompanying story.

    Whenever they come up with a »crazy thing«, for example the strange electromagnetic power of the island, they tell you something about the characters. In this case, only for example, about Desmond, who travels through time and get’s, for example, the chance to change his life for the better, to finally come together with the the women he loves, but chooses not to, because a mysterious women assures him that the life he originally choose is important. If he never goes to the island, never fulfills his destiny, the people he loves, the world is in great danger. This episode is not only heartbreaking, but extreme suspenseful. And after he comes back, he tells a beloved character that you can’t change destiny – and this character will die soon. So? Wow. I absolutely love the tension, the foreboding, but also the wonderful love story in this episode. Who is the mysterious women? Will the beloved character die? Will Desmond ever come together with his Penny? All these questions are answered. But why can he travel through time? What causes the electromagnetic power in the island? Not clearly explained. Desmonds special »relationship« to the electromagnetic powers of the island are a important theme from there on, but never explained scientifically.

    The hatch, the cages, the others – everything helped to develop the story and characters. The mysteries and their influences to the protagonists ARE the story. Not a mcguffin. So I can’t understand what it adds to your experience to discover in the last five minutes of the show that everything is a social experiment on a spaceship.

    In fact, i would criticize the writers for trying to explain elements of the show that are more powerful unexplained. Who cares why the statue is broken? I know, the same people that care about who built it. And when. And why. And how.

    Over the time scientists arrive on the island (Dharma, Daniel Farraday) and they discover fascinating influences from the islands special abilities on the human body, soul and time itself. Then influences, not the origin. All this I found fascinating and enthralling. They captivated my interest with this mixture of drama, humour, mysteries and »crazy shit«.

    In the end, there are a few questions unanswered they – in my opinion – should have answered, because there are some unnecessary loose ends. But you have to say: for the maybe twenty, thirty unanswered questions you have hundreds of answered questions (This would be an endless list, from »What did Kate to be under arrest?« to the Black Rock…). Most of them in a clever way.

    The fans, including myself, should not be defensive. It wasn’t »only abot the characters«. Everything mattered.

  62. »Help them find piece«? Haha. Piece of what? Help them find peace. And sorry for the many other mistakes. I have to refresh my englisch

  63. English! Damn!

  64. i believe you guys mean “mcmuffin.”

  65. Sabreman – Devil? God? It’s explained who Jacob and the Black Smoke are. They aren’t god or the devil. The people don’t follow Black Smoke. The Black Smoke didn’t choose the people. The polar bears were brought to the island from– Oh, your comment was a joke, right?

  66. Jareth Cutestory

    June 2nd, 2010 at 9:23 am

    Andreas: If I understand your interpretation correctly, LOST seems to have some elements in common with FANTASY ISLAND.

  67. Shitz McNichols

    June 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 am

    this is a a link to scene from season 5. Hurley (the fat gay) tries to explain what happened on LOST to his mom. Hilarious.

    http://tinyurl.com/b2mk32

  68. Sorry, Vern, but JJ Abrams is for me what Mickey Bay is for you. And Bay is worst for me then what he is for you.

    And why would you ever not post soemthign just because of my reaction? Why would you deprive others of your thoughs and ideas just because of some possible outburst from me? that would be completly unfair to others. Who cares what i think or how I react, anyway? I should never be the reason for your own self censorship, man. Never! I’d rather never return.

  69. dieselboy, who says i never saw LOST? What you take me for?

  70. Jareth Cutestory, what made me dislike LOST? THe bullshit about it. The whole bullshit. It’s beyond obvious that the perople involved in it were inventing stuff as they went along. That was beyond obvious. How they managed to sell that as mystery and deliberate story arc is the real triumph of advertizement and marketing over content.

  71. Jareth Cutestory

    June 2nd, 2010 at 11:56 am

    AsimovLives: I understand what you’re saying, and your earlier comparison to CARNIVALE makes more sense now. It is obvious that CARNIVALE was well mapped out, and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see the last seasons that were planned.

    I think you’re holding a network television show to a standard only cable shows can live up to, but hey, better that than let them get away with bullshit. Still, can you honesty say that LOST is worse than CSI?

    Also, over in the Gary Coleman thread on AICN someone is trying to start a Facebook page nominating you to take Herc’s job.

  72. Shitz McNichols

    June 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Well let’s not take this shit to seriously Asimov. It was a TV show. It was a really good one at that. I, for one, have never seen a show like it before. That, in and of itself, makes it worth while. Then again I don’t watch network TV. Imagine if LOST was on HBO? That would have been sweet

    I believe JJ Abrams didn’t have much to do with the show, or maybe I am misinformed. Anyhow. I really liked the show a lot.

  73. Shitz McNichols

    June 2nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    Hey Vern
    Did you ever review Jacob’s Ladder? Classic and badass. LOST ended with same way but not nearly as good. Gotta review it man.

  74. “It was a TV show.”

    Shitz McNichols – Yeah this shit isn’t supposed to be Shakespeare LOL!

    And JACOB’S LADDER was a pretty good movie, except unlike way too many movies perhaps influenced by it….everything isn’t about the twist, in fact it was the journey which was the point.

  75. Jareth Cutestory
    “Still, can you honesty say that LOST is worse than CSI?”

    My motto is: two wrongs do not make a right. The sins of CSI, which are many, do not absolve LOST.

    Shitz McNichols:
    “I believe JJ Abrams didn’t have much to do with the show”

    THe LOST showrunners couldn’t tie their shoelaces unless Abrams said how. LOST has his imprints everywhere. The other showrunners are this fronts, that much is obvious. Abrams was just savvy enough to realise when the show start to fall (as in, the second series), and sinc ehe had been boasting to the four corners that he was the magnificent creator of LOST (he wasn’t, he was a co-creator and a late comer at that, but didn’t stoped him from lying with all his teeth and self-promote himself to kingdom come), and like a rat in a sinking ship he bailed out while he was still on top. Now, whenever he fucked up, there was some other poor patsies to take the blame. Abrams is nothing is devious. He’s retard in respect to tell a coherent smart story, but he’s very smart in playing politics and covering his ass. And his best talent is selling. The man is a master salesman, i give him that. He’s not just good, he’s magnificent. He should had stayed what hes really is, a studio executive marketing department salesman. That’s who he is. Not a storyteller or a filmmaker, but a devious used cars salesman.

    JACOB’S LADDER is one of the most amazing mindfuck movie ever. I also find it very moving and dramatic. The movie broke my heart the first time i saw it. The most amazingthing is that, until that movie, i really disliked Adrian Lynn as a filmmaker. But JACOB’S LADDER couldn’t had been as good as it is if not for Lynn directing it. After that movie, i gained a new repect for Lynn. FLASHDANCE is still shit, thought. But maybe the fault for that was Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckeimer, really.

  76. Jareth Cutestory

    June 2nd, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    AsimovLives: Based on your description of him, I think Abrams would be a great candidate to play the scenery-chewing villain in his own STAR TREK sequel. Sort of like WRATH OF KHAN meets Herb Tarlek. Wouldn’t that just blow your mind?

  77. Jareth – OK I gotta admit, that made me laugh. Good job.

    But to say JJ Abrams has little input…yet he gets the public media credit as the “mastermind” brand name behind it, no? Has he ever claimed he does nothing or did nothing or essentially little on it?

    I mean regardless of one’s opinion of Abrams’ work, you can’t exactly bullshit out of that one. That’s like saying Michael Bay has nothing to do with his Platinum Dunes projects. Innocent of all charges in spite of his name in the credits. They forced it in there against his will you know.

  78. Jareth Cutestory, JJ Abrams already is a Star Trek villain. Look at what he did to the franchise! He makes all other vilalisn pale in comparison in villainry. He and his evil little minions Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

  79. Shitz McNichols

    June 2nd, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Damn Asimov tell us how you really feel about Abrams. hahaha. Did he steal your girlfriend or something. lol. I dont like his movies very much either. I never watched Alias or any other TV he’s done. He is a snake oil salesman which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in show business, but that’s what he is.

    All I know is LOST was some fiercely original television. Love it or hate it, that can’t be disputed. They might have fucked it up and disappointed people along the way, but they told a unique story in an unconventional manner and it was pretty cool. They did however open far too many cans of worms as far as the plots and never managed to deliver on most of them. But they had my snobby critical ass watching every week wanting more.

    There is a number of sources on the intertubes saying Abrams handed all control of the show over to Lindelof and Cuse in the first season. In fact I remember him saying himself he had no input into the show in like ’96 or something.

  80. Dude, I would totally send you a complete series set of The Wire if it meant you’d watch it. That would be 12 essential kinds of badass right there, and if you wrote it up it’d be epic.

  81. Shitz McNichols

    June 2nd, 2010 at 10:04 pm

    1. The Wire
    2. Deadwood
    3. Six Feet Under
    4. The Sopranos
    5. LOST

    those are my favs
    HBO wins

    The Wire is like a Dostoevsky novel in the hood.
    Deadwood is like Shakespeare with the word “though” replaced with “cocksucker “

  82. Andreas: no, not a joke, only what I said it was–educated guesses from someone who has heard snippets of it for years (including a lot of commentary on the final eps) and is only partway through Season 2. I don’t mind being wrong about details at this point. {g}

    (Though you’re correcting me on some things I never said, too, such as Jacob=God. Which, incidentally, I already knew.)

    McNichols: favorite description of Deadwood ever. {gggg!}

  83. Man, the JJ hate from Asminov is so over the top that it’s ridiculous. Apart from his inability to direct an action sequence that makes sense, JJ Abrams is perfectly fine. I feel real pity for anybody that can’t enjoy the new Star Trek movie.

  84. Sabreman: Sorry. I misunderstood your comment. Have fun with the remaining 3,5 Seasons – and even more fun with guessing. (I was so wrong about nearly everything I guessed…)

  85. I watched every episode of Lost, and the only thing I can say with any certainty is that I also hope Terry O’Quinn gets a lot of work from this. He was the best thing about that show no matter what season

    Vern, If you only watch one more episode of Lost, watch Walkabout from Season 1. It’s the episode that got me hooked

  86. No, just watch everything up to Walkabout! It’s only four or five episodes, and everything up to Walkabout helps pay it off…

  87. Never did get “Lost”. Over on my shores it is the final two eps of 24 on Sunday. Can’t wait. Jack’s gone crazy! And “Flash Forward” reaches its climax soon. I must say, I’ve really enjoyed it.

    What’s the word on “Southland”? Starts here in July.

  88. Shitz McNichols, how can you call LOST original when in fact it’s premise was literally taken from CASTAWAY and then, under JJ Abramshit aegis, they shoved in some half-baked supernatural nonsense? Originality in LOST? Never happened!

  89. Seriously, I doubt this has been made clear enough: You must see The Wire. Best TV ever, and these days there’s some pretty great stuff on TV, so that’s saying something.

    Also, watch THE SHIELD. Seriously great Cop drama.

  90. RRA – Imagine my surprise when, after finishing LOST a few weeks late, I find my name deep in this LOST talkback being recognized for my efforts to plug THE WIRE. THE WIRE, THE WIRE THE WIRE THE WIRE. Omar comin’. THE WIRE.

  91. Finally saw it and I approve. It’s not a perfect ending*, but it’s a satisfying. They not just brought the journey of the Oceanic 815 survivors to an end, they even filled the ending with lots of nice character moments. Hurley, who most of the times was just the comic relief (although one with a well developed character that goes beyond “fat geek”) is now the most important person on the island and there is no doubt that he will do a good job. (My mother and I seriously cheered when he got the job.) Ben has the chance to rehabilitate himself by serving as his assistent. Richard gets grey hair and is now most likely allowed to finally die. And then there is of course the tear jerking “We will meet again” ending.
    So yeah, I’m satisfied and approve. Good bye, Lost! It was an amazing journey! Thanks for the memorable characters, introducing us to Naveen Andrews, Josh Holloway and Michael Emerson (I hope they will have long and successful careers), elevating Terry O’Quinn from “Oh, it’s that guy, I know his face from somewhere” to “award winning actor Terry O’Quinn” and lots of entertaining WTF moments.

    *although I wouldn’t be surprised if seriously every missing mystery has already been solved in other episodes. Lost was a series that had faith enough in the viewer to let him put the puzzle together by himself, instead of let Mr Exposition explain everything. Just like the “Locke was only supposed to be the leader of The Others, just because his imposter traveled back in time and told them he would” thing, that was mentioned above. I didn’t even realize that it happened that way until I just read it!

  92. In an alternate universe, I read this:

    **I’ve been hearing about this movie series “Harry Potter” for a long time now, everybody loves it, lotta hype and what not. So I decided to check it out this Saturday when they had a special movie called “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: The second half of the 7th and Final Harry Potter The End 3D.”

    My favorite part of the movie was being part of a sold out crowd and knowing I had taken a ticket & a seat away from one of the crying kids in the lobby of the theatre who was probably going to settle for seeing CARS 2 instead, and probably a downgraded 2D CARS 2, too, since all the good screens were being used for this “Harry Potter 3D” deal.**

  93. That’s cold, Mouth. I approve, though, since I’ve been reading people talk on Facebook about how their childhood is now over. They’re not being ironic. They’re all in their mid to late 20s.

    Also, Lost is really, really good. It has some problems, I think the last season spun its wheels and could have been better paced but the last episode is brilliant and made me tear up, but I think it is a fantastic show on the whole.

    I initially tried watching it twice and couldn’t get into it. I would watch the first three episodes and just not care. Then I saw the fourth episodes and it really grabbed me. I initially watched the show to see what would happen with Locke and then over time I started to really care about the other characters.

    I actually think they had most everything sketched out from an early stage. It all fits together too well for them to not have had a pretty good idea. I’m not saying things didn’t change or storylines didn’t develop, I know Ben was originally supposed to be a minor character but they liked him so much they greatly expanded his role, but a lot of it makes sense.

    I think it’s a better show than Carnivale. Carnivale has a lot going for it but its mythology is really convoluted and I just didn’t care about the characters. It’s still really good, but it never got to really finish and Lost did and I think Lost was successful.

    Also, my bud Jacob and I would destroy Mouth and his pick in a game of 2v2 on the court.

  94. Talking of Vern reviewing Harry Potter, I still think his next book should be about “Nerd Shit” and in it he should review stuff like the Potter Series, the Star Trek movies and so on.

  95. Also about LOST having everything sketched out: I caught a few weeks ago parts of the first episode on TV and in one of them (I think it was the pilot) Locke explains the game of Backgammon to Walt, by talking about the black and the white stones. By the time it first aired, it seemed like he was talking about the colours of their own skins, but after watching the whole series it became pretty clear that he was in fact talking about the concept of the Island, including Jacob and his brother.

  96. The 10th anniversary of this is coming up.

    And many people STILL think that (mild spoiler for a decade olf popculture phenomenon) the flash forward into the afterlife meant that they all instantly died in the plane crash and were dead all along. Sheesh…

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