For the past 6 years, Lost has captured my undivided attention with all it's intrigue and mystery. Now that the show has ended, I'm not sure how I feel about the way the End Game played out. From the initial plane crash to the revelation of the sideways flashes being some sort of Purgatory where all the characters meet before moving onto their next spiritual plane (aka Heaven?), Lost has managed to make Sci-Fi on Network Primetime TV cool again, which probably hasn't happened since Star Trek,( not that I was around when that happened, but can you name any big extremely successful sci-fi shows on network TV since then?). What I hope if anything, this show accomplished is that it creates a legacy to be carried on for years after. Being a serial that required every episode to be watched, Sci-Fi in Primetime show and succeeding, it deserves a legacy.
When the dust settled and we saw the show begin and end with the proper bookends of Jack's eye opening to the plane crash and Jack's eye closing as he dies (in the same location in the bamboo field with Vincent the dog no less), the finale executed a very poetic end to a beloved series. With the characters, we got closure as they found each other in Lost's personal non-specific religion's Purgatory. Kind of ironic that a long believed theory about The Island being Purgatory would be dismissed and come back as the reason we had a flash sideways universe. However, being that this is Lost, when we saw that all familiar logo (this time with a chime rather than the "boom" sound) we were still left with many questions unanswered. This is where the mixed feelings come into play. We were never told what made Walt special or why he had powers, never were we explained who built the temple and the statue, and we got vague at best answers for what the island was, what is the smoke monster, who the inhabitants before Jacob were, and what is the "light cave of goodness" really about. Furthermore, what was the consequences of detonating Jughead? The DVD is said to feature the island's unanswered questions, but a less-vague explanation to some of these questions would have been nice to hold us over. As my wife put it, maybe 3 more minutes with Christian would have put us at ease. I would like to think of this as Lost's way to create their own personal version of "Trekies", I can see us "Losties/Lostaways" debating the show for years after the finale.
In the end though, I liked the closure we got in the Lostverse afterlife. We saw our favorite couples finding one another again (Claire & Charlie, Desmond & Penny, Sawyer & Juliette, and finally Kate and Jack), it ended in a very "The Last Battle" way and for that the show ended with it's real purpose: showing us the love and lives of the main characters we grew with the last six years. Meanwhile the Island and it's mysteries are left in the air, as the show's MacGuffin.
For me,
I view this as this generation's Star Trek. While i doubt we'll see a Lost movie, I really won't be surprised to see a spin-off down the line. There's a few open possibilities, such as Hugo & Ben's time on the Island or something during the Dharma years, and given the proper treatment, I think it may turn out decent, I'll give it a try. Should it happen? probably not, but it is a lucrative franchise with devoted fans, so in a few years, i totally see it happening. I'd want at the very least, a Lost theme park attraction, and why not? Harry Potter and Shrek gets one! I see a future of Lost collectibles, special edition DVDs, hopefully a Scene-It game, and a Lego set would be bad ass and please God make the Dharma Swan Station alarm clock a reality. I guess now I can understand how people became Trekies (even though i sort-of became a Trek fan recently with the new movie and such) because if there's every any Lost-cons I'm there geeking it up with my band of brothers and sisters who faithfully followed the show for 6 years.
Now that there's no more Lost, aside from having debates and discussions with fellow fans, or rotating the series at our home (like we do with LOTR) every so often, I will probably grow a grief-beard in honor of Dr. Jack Shepard (i'm almost there anyway). I'm a little sad to see it go, but like the show's characters "it was time to let go" and let it end. Plus it would really suck if the show became another ER where only 1 maybe 2 original cast members stay on while everyone else would be killed or wrote off. It was Lost's time, plus tired exchanges with people who haven't seen the show thinking it's just about survivors of a plane crash on a island vs our geeky over analytical conversations about what's happening would probably turn brutal and nasty if the show continued with both parties not being able to stand one another. Last but not least, I want to clear the record about Kate and Charlie. I actually liked them, but making off-color remarks about them verbally and on this blog were fun to do and I liked the mixed reactions for drinking the hate-kateraide. The only characters i hated were Nikki and Paulo...and Bai Ling. But they were responsible for ABC to finally say "Geeze make it stop..We'll give you a end date!! please no more!!". While I'll miss "water-cooler" talks about the latest episode (although i never once talked near a water cooler), or saying "Happy Lost Day", drinking when i see a "Jackface" and finally reading the transcript of the comic-con panels between seasons hyping the next season, I'm glad they got to end the way they wanted even if it generated mixed results.
For the final time: Namaste
No comments:
Post a Comment