
After 6 years….it has finally come down to this – May 23rd 2010. The day when Lost, the epic, crazy, fantastical, mind bending, confuzzling television series comes to a close!
Yeah, yeah, I know, this is a movie review blog…and here I am talking about a TV series. I absolutely have to blog about this though – because it is as epic as any movie!! Well…as epic as any movie I have seen recently anyway (and easily more epic than Iron Man 2….*shudder*). I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about seeing a tv series come to an end before. It’s sad…but then again at least the producers and writers know when to quit!
There has been so much hype around its series finale though, because it is going to be huge.
Huge as in….2.5 hours huge.
Huge as in….we will get answers to what happens to the characters! What happens to smokey! What happens to the alternate timeline! And what happens to the island!!!
Of course, there are way too many questions for the writers to answer them all…..I mean just view this hilarious song for a start:
Yeah, I thought it was genius too. If you haven’t kept up with Lost however, you may not get many of the jokes made in that clip. Which is sad for you, coz you are missing out!
For those that haven’t kept up with Lost for the past 6 seasons, here’s a short video to recap (it is confusing!):
…..though Hurley gives an even more hilarious recap of what has happened back in season 5 – all in 48 seconds!
See, here’s the thing about Lost. You either like the show…or you don’t. And if you don’t, I suggest you probably stop reading now because the rest of this post will just be me, viewing the show in retrospect and admiring just how clever and revolutionary it has been! Hell, Daniel Dae-Kim said it himself - “I don’t think you can talk about television in the 21st century without talking about Lost”. It really has been that influential, whether you like it or not!
This show started way back when I was 14, and I used to watch it avidly every week. The concept was different and the storytelling style plus the characters combined to form a rather compelling new drama series which left a cliffhanger every week – something which I really enjoy about how the show is presented.
I have to admit I did get a bit complacent for a while, and skipped a few episodes here and there during Seasons 2 and 3 – when thiings started to get really wacky and weird. And seemingly, a bunch of other people got bored of the concept as well because ratings dropped and pretty soon, the most talked about show was not cool anymore – it was simply too silly and nonsensical, plus TOO MANY FLASHBACKS. “They’re still on that damn island?! What the hell is that smoke monster?! And why is Jack so annoying?!” All these questions I asked myself while I was watching the first few episodes. I soon realized however, that to watch Lost is to either commit, or forget about it altogether.
Because really, you can’t watch Lost unless you watch at least 2 episodes back to back…preferably 4.
My friend lent me seasons 1-4 a few months ago for me to catch up on everything as I had fallen way behind in my watching of every episode, and then we had a huge Lost season 5 marathon in 1.5 days. It was epic. But it also made me realize just how amazing this show is, and how much it has contributed to pop culture and tv in the past few years alone. You really gotta hand it to the writers on this one – they really know how to create a few great characters, open up some very interesting story arcs and tie them all up further down the track.
On that same note, I also have to admit, I was spectacularly disappointed with Season 5’s opening episode. It really seemed to me like the writers were just pulling answers out of thin air – making up shit as they went along, trying to scramble to answer at least some of the more important, pressing questions such as what exactly the smoke monster was and why the characters were brought to the island. The two Lockes…the rather placid Ben Linus…the random temple dudes…the annoying stares between Kate, Jack and Sawyer…plus an alternate timeline now?! When is the craziness going to end?! Things did pick up though, and I think it really has gotten to the point where you just wonder whatever happens next!
I’m actually rather surprised how well the writers have managed to pull off the whole time travel and destiny thing with the show. On the outset, the concept seems so realistic and so natural – and yet, there’s just so much crazy stuff going on it’s extremely admirable that it is not unintentionally funny or off putting. The show makes use of so many fantastical elements and deus ex machinas, its incredibly fascinating how much thought and care has been put into the formation of the world and everything that has happened so far. I suppose in that respect, it really does separate the fans and non fans into two distinct groups. I mean really, it is the people who can suspend their disbelief for a while that Lost is aimed at. It entertains and yet there is also something deeper in its portrayal of its characters – I just love how the show is so unpredictable, and how it really makes people think about the how and why the characters are acting the way they are.
Just look at Lostpedia. You could spend literally hours on that site reading all the little details that have contributed to the overall story arc. And that is just the beginning! Lost fans are a different story altogether, and while I don’t consider myself a Lost junkie, I do love the show for what it is, and I absolutely can’t wait to find out what happens at the end!
Will Kate die?! Will the timelines ever meet up! (I would seriously laugh if it was all in Hurley’s head!) Will Jack be stuck on the island for the rest of his life?! Will they all die?! Will they all die on the island and so die in the alternate timeline too?! Will smokey find its way off the island?! What happened to Richard?! Why does the island heal people!? What’s up with pregnancy/island?! I’m sure there’s a lot more but I can’t really think of them right now – brain will explode.
I will probably most definitely review the finale after it airs – I have after all seen every episode so far and am extremely curious as to how things pan out. I seriously cannot wait for Sunday though – it’ll be epic!