I just finished watching Lost. I didn’t watch it in the previous decade, because everyone told me the ending was super bad. Now that I’ve finished it, I don’t get it. What was so bad about it?
IIRC, most of the fan theories were that they were all “dead” on the island. The writers promised this was not the case from about season five onwards and yet…
But they weren’t dead the whole time. They were only all dead in the final season’s flash forwards and last episode.
Just the bullshit they fed everyone to cover up the bullshit ending. People argue this point as if it makes any difference in the quality at all, but it doesn’t.
It’s been 14 years since I’ve seen the finale, but I think that the ending with them all together in some afterlife, was both different and enough from the original theories in season one that they were all in purgatory. It was like people who weren’t even watching heard that the ending was they were all dead, and said that they called it in season one.
That being said, my memory of the final season was pretty lackluster, and the expectation was that everything would be explained and tied together. For the most part, the original questions were answered with even more questions and philosophical metaphors, that just confused people even more leading up to the final season.
Boost isn’t marking spoilers correctly and I’m confused… So be warned to anyone curious about watching it. (I recommend it )
I watched it back then, and enjoyed it, but I get why some people were disappointed. We were told it would be explained, and the explanations got kinda hand-wavey. We were told they weren’t dead, and they weren’t in purgatory… And while that was true, they did all die and end up in “purgatory” for the resolution to happen. (And if the flash-sideways weren’t exactly “purgatory” five, but it was equally as unfulfilling and unexplained.) And all this happened when we weren’t investing days and weeks into it, but years.
That said, it was still one of the best “first seasons” of TV ever. And back then the prevailing logic was that flashbacks were tantamount to narration; just not to be done in GOOD media. But Lost did it great. It often showed us motivations (and even the reason decisions were made) in the modern day, without informing other characters the reasoning behind those choices. Sure, sometimes they just felt like plot, but not usually.
Also, if you enjoyed Lost, go watch From. It’s been renewed for a 4th season. Oddly, also featuring Harold Perrineau.
It’s been so long, I don’t know if I even remember why, but it felt like they didn’t answer all the questions they had strung us along with.
I’m still waiting to know who added a whole ass island teleportation stirring system, but I guess the point of the ending is that there’s shit that not even the mythical beings that we meet know or understand, because they themselves were simply thrust into the island long after most of its mistycism started.
I’m not saying it was aliens, but…
It was me. I did it. All my fault
It was a cop out. Let’s all meet at the church and kum ba yah.
No pay off and few answers after all those seasons.
I think in hindsight, the ending is not that bad. Especially when you compare it to disasters like Game of Thrones and Pretty Little Liars. I haven’t seen the series in a few years, but I think watching it now on streaming is a completely different experience than tuning in every week.
I found it hard to follow the mysteries and plot week to week. To be fair, I was young, my attention span was short, and I didn’t participate in any discussions or forums which would have been helpful for understanding.
A lot of people didn’t understand the plot in the church was a sort of alternate reality where people were reunited in the afterlife. So people were upset that they were dead the whole time and that was too obvious. But that is not the plot, it’s just how people misremember it.
Love it or hate it, I think the ending wrapped up enough of the plot to be respectful to the audience that fell in love and watched all those seasons. I personally kind of appreciate that some things felt unanswered. It made the whole tv show seem more mystical without being tied up in a perfect bow. But I am not prone to poking too many holes in the fiction I consume. I find it relaxing to just suspend my disbelief and enjoy.
The whole fucking show was absolute garbage. It couldn’t be more obvious that the writers had absolutely no coherent story, no vision. I regret having watched it.
I understood that after the first 20 minutes. Maybe that’s because I’m not an fan of all those tv series to begin with…
I’m exactly the same as you, I never got round to it at the time, finally did and couldn’t see a problem with it at all tbh.
I thought the final couple of seasons were excellent in fact.
I loved it.
I also watched the series recently and didn’t see anything wrong with the ending. But I was told to go in with no expectations of things being entirely explained, so for me, I just accepted that the island was an unsolvable mystery and enjoyed the other parts of the plot. It was a great show IMO.
In my personal opinion, the show went off the rails in season 2. I would have liked to see the show end with most of the main characters going back to their lives and taking the lessons learned on the island with them. I don’t like that most of them die on the island. But I’m clearly not a typical Lost fan. I can’t speak for those who liked most of the show and hated the ending.
