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Lost - The Greatest TV Show Ever!

124

Comments

  • #92
    EmmetSpiceland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,921 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122516669#Comment_122516669

    And, for the part they weren’t all dead, the weird stuff like the time travel, the seemingly immortal lads, moving the entire island by turning a wheel, the black smoke and the likes all just happened in, what was for them, the “real world”.

    “It is not blood that makes you Irish but a willingness to be part of the Irish nation” - Thomas Davis



  • #93
    suvigirl
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭suvigirl


    I am more confused now then I was when the show ended



  • #94
    Penn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,018 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122516991#Comment_122516991

    Yup. As much as the writers tried to eventually give "answers" to all those mysteries, really the answers just ended up being "...errrhh.... magic?...."



  • #95
    The Golden Miller
    Registered Users Posts: 5,492 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122517381#Comment_122517381

    People claim there was no answers though, there was. It's not just "meh magic", you could apply that to anything fantasy related. There is a whole lot of lore that goes with Lost and the island, the only question was this intended from the start?

    I don't think they knew exactly where is was going from the start themselves, but in fairness, Abrams had given them a general outline in where the mythology of the island went. It's not as cut and dried as saying they simply made it up as they went along, which is why it's now popular to ridicule it. Had Abrams stayed involved, we would of went down a road of exploring the mythology further anyway.

    What annoys me most though, is you have those that run it down for where it went or how it ended, but talk about it like it was a rubbish show to begin as it "wasted their time". This seems to be the popular narrative and it gets a raw deal when you look at it like that.

    Even if you don't like it, you can't say it wasn't an objectively brilliant show for a long long time, which had people on the edge of their seats like no show before or since, and literally brought cinema to TV.

    Sopranos was the first show where the production and scale started to bring cinema to TV without it looking "fake", but proper Hollywood level production. And for fantasy, Lost took that to another level completely.

    There was nothing before in that genre, that remotely came close to Lost. Game of Thrones and all fantasy TV can thank the success of Lost for paving the way for them. It's a landmark TV show, in terms of it's unprecedented success and hysteria, but also in terms of how it became ingrained in popular culture.

    Which was the original point of the thread, there seems to be revisionism in some quarters, putting it down, not giving it credit where due!



  • #96
    dominatinMC
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭dominatinMC


    I've taken the plunge! Just finished the first episode. As pilots go, it must be one of the best ever.



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  • #97
    The Golden Miller
    Registered Users Posts: 5,492 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122517964#Comment_122517964

    I thought you said you'd watched it, and at it's peak, was the best show ever? Or was that someone else?



  • #98
    dominatinMC
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭dominatinMC


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122517965#Comment_122517965

    That was indeed me, and I stand by that assertion.

    This will be my third time watching it, hoping it will be as good as the previous two!



  • #99
    The Golden Miller
    Registered Users Posts: 5,492 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122517969#Comment_122517969

    The cynics nearly had me doubting my own mind on how good it was. They don't realize though, there's a certain irony at play. They feel so aggrieved and annoyed by "how it ended" or the road it went down, as they were that hooked and invested to begin with themselves. At the very minimum, it's critics are unintentionally admitting the first few seasons were some of the best tv they ever seen, they took what came next nearly personally.

    But I don't believe most of it's critics finished it out. On personal experience, most people I know missed an episode or two on holidays during season 4, and were then lost and gave up. It happened to me, until I rewatched it all again last year. And since then, it's become the popular thing to say the show lost its way, as opposed to them getting lost!



  • #100
    Penn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,018 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122517865#Comment_122517865

    Oh don't get me wrong, I didn't mind most of the explanations. The issue is outside the show, where the writers continuously built up all these mysteries to continuously raise the bar, but also promising the audience that all the big questions would be answered, that they ended up leaving themselves nowhere to go other than putting it down to fantasy stuff that simply is unexplainable.

    The show's main selling point for most became the mysteries, and discussing and trying to figure out what was happening. That's how the show got so crazy popular. But the more the writers had to keep raising the bar, the more they wrote themselves into a corner in many regards.

    The writers definitely didn't know where the show was going from the start, because originally, the island was meant to be purgatory. But the audience guessed that within the first few episodes. So the writers had to keep changing it until they started to come up with the full plan to finish things out by about the middle of Season 3 or so. After that they were working towards an actual ending they conceived.

    But like I said previously, when you put all that aside and mostly just focus on the characters, and their stories and developments, that's actually the strongest part of the show and why it's worth watching. Yes the big twists and cliffhangers add a hell of a lot, but even on rewatches the characters and their journeys are the key to the show, and it's why if someone just wants to know what the big secret or reveal or explanation behind the whole show and island was…. really it's just "magic" because the explanation ended up so rooted in fantasy and sci-fi that you actually can't explain it.

    I love the show overall, and really loved the ending. But I think "magic" is a fairly reasonable response when it comes to explaining what the big mystery was or what was happening on the island by the end of the show.



  • #101
    Mal-Adjusted
    Registered Users Posts: 3,593 ✭✭✭Mal-Adjusted


    I watched the show for a while. my intirest waned in season 3 and i checked out some point during season 4, catching up later, years after the show ended. The first season was fantastic and introduced some great mysteries but the further along you go, it dawns on you that there aren't really any answers, or at least any satisfactory ones. Maybe Abrams had a general outline, fair enough, but there was certainly nothing that tied all the disparate mysteries together.

    It's also unfortunate that i really despise the philosophy behind Abrams Mystery Box approach. IMO, a mystery box is only as good as it's reveal. Abrams assertion that the suspense and potential are far more important than contents of the box itself is utterly anathema to good writing and storytelling.



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  • #102
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,955 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    I loved Lost when it was on, the first few seasons especially were great.

    4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42…. I can still remember the numbers!

    But the mid-to-end it started getting so convoluted, the storylines became quite hard to follow IMO. I think too many of the mysteries ended up being too far-fetched, as if they just wanted to make something to get viewers talking, even if that thing was nonsensical in the end. I think "it's just magic" is a fair summary of some of the plots.

    The closest show I've watched to Lost, in terms of mystery, sci-fi and addictiveness is Dark on Netflix. It's German but I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who likes that sort of show.



  • #103
    EmmetSpiceland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,921 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122523190#Comment_122523190

    Have you seen the show ‘From’? It’s by some of the crowd involved in ‘Lost’. It’s worth a watch if you enjoyed ‘Lost’ but it goes way off the walls just the same, albeit much quicker.

    “It is not blood that makes you Irish but a willingness to be part of the Irish nation” - Thomas Davis



  • #104
    dominatinMC
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭dominatinMC


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122523190#Comment_122523190

    As much as I love Lost, I tend to agree with this assessment. As others have alluded-to, at its best it's really a show about the characters, with the mysteries and intrigue complementing this.

    To be fair to the writers, I think they answered some of the mysteries quite well, particularly in earlier seasons, e.g. the hatch, the others, the dharma initiative. But towards the end, a lot of the mystery and suspense built up in earlier seasons fell flat, e.g. the black smoke, the heart of the island, etc. I think "magic" is definitely the best description here. I can see why some would be frustrated with this but, for me, the highs outweigh the lows. The show certainly lost (no pun intended) its way at times, and I remember parts of Season 3 feeling meandering and pointless. But with those lows, came the highs - and I can think of no better example than "Through the Looking Glass". Simply one of the best episodes of television ever imo. I can similarily point to "Live Together, Die Alone", "Walkabout", and "The Constant" as examples of Lost being at it's very best. I guess the common factor being most of the best episodes were in the earlier seasons. Ultimately, it is a flawed masterpiece, but still a masterpiece at that.

    Also, Dark is unbelievable! Also one of my favourite ever shows. And, unlike, Lost it manages to answer all the mysteries!



  • #105
    OscarMIlde
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 871 ✭✭✭OscarMIlde


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122523190#Comment_122523190

    You should try Counterpart. Really interesting, only two seasons but a lot gets wrapped up by that point. It was filmed prior to covid outbreak but is quite prescient watching it after a pandemic. Great cast, JK Simmons, Nazanin Boniadi, Olivia Williams. The most annoying part is that it was cancelled as Starz wanted to focus on 'women's programmes' which apparently means reality tv white, even though Counterpart had lots of well written female characters.



  • #106
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,719 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    The people most surprised by the answers to the mysteries were the writers.

    Because they didn't have a clue what the answers were going to be when they when they wrote the questions.



  • #107
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,955 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122523479#Comment_122523479

    No I think they knew when they started out, but Lost is a show about mysteries and cliffhangers and when the audience worked it all out really early they had to change it up, otherwise they'd not have maintained the level of viewership they did.

    Early on the show was fairly grounded in reality, yea you had the smoke but for the most part it was a drama with a touch of sci fi. But the later seasons they jumped the shark a bit, it went into full on sci-fi mode as they had to go deeper and deeper to maintain the intrigue.

    I think this is when they lost a lot of their audience, people who aren't into sci-fi struggled at this point.



  • #108
    2Greyfoxes
    Registered Users Posts: 109 ✭✭2Greyfoxes


    THe big issue with 'mystery boxes' is that eventually, you have to open them and reveal what is inside. Lindehhoft, simply didn’t have anything inside his.

    Lost had a great start, but was ruined by the writer's strike, which sadly impacted upon a lot of good shows of that time.



  • #109
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,719 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122523503#Comment_122523503

    I'm very into sci-fi and I hated it because there was nothing sci-fi about it. Sci-fi needs to make sense in world but it was blatantly obvious that Lost was a case of "sht we just got renewed for another season, let's stick a lad in a bunker with numbers" followed by "let's add others, then other others, then other other others on the island".

    Untitled Image



  • #110
    Penn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,018 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524024#Comment_122524024

    Yeah it definitely veers more into just fantasy towards the end rather than sci-fi, but in fairness, that is one of the core conflicts throughout the show particularly as it relates to Jack & Locke; Man of Science, Man of Faith.



  • #111
    pavb2
    Registered Users Posts: 3,004 ✭✭✭pavb2


    I think I enjoyed Dark as much as Lost particularly the first two seasons the third being even more confusing but Dark was wrapped up in 3 episodes. The strength of both series though is the suspense and character story arcs.



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  • #112
    ArmaniJeanss
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,478 ✭✭✭✭ArmaniJeanss


    The Constant was both the best episode of the show and also a big part of it's downward spiral, imo.

    The Constant (which was very early in Season 4) opened the door to time-travel within the show for the first time, and all the resultant paradoxes it potentially causes. The writers are on record as saying that this episode took 3x time to write as they wanted a logically correct episode which they managed.

    It got rave reviews but it led to the situation of the writers thinking that time travel was a good path to go down. So by the end of that series the island is 'moved', and some of our original cast find themselves back in 1974 for most of series 5. And that became a completely inconsistent and illogical mess as the writers didn't put the same care into as The Constant.

    But I'll always have fond memories of shouting/screaming 'answer the fcuking phone Penny' at the end of the ep, so I'll forgive it the problems it led to.



  • #113
    tayto lover
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 52,065 ✭✭✭✭tayto lover


    I watched a few seasons of Lost but gave up. There seemed to be far too many silly twists to it and I got fed up with it. It was promising at the start but got boring after season 2.



  • #114
    suvigirl
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭suvigirl


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122523190#Comment_122523190

    Dark is brilliant



  • #115
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,955 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    I actually started watching this again on Netflix after seeing this thread.

    It's amazing how telegraphed the final outcome is in the first few episodes, or at least what was supposed to be the final outcome.

    Between Locke explaining Backgammon to Walt, where he uses terms like light and dark instead of white and black, to Jack telling Kate that "we all died on that plane" when he's giving her a second chance after finding out she was the fugitive, there really is a few in-your-face moments.

    It's not hard to see why they ended up having to switch it up in hindsight.



  • #116
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,719 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122527615#Comment_122527615

    What was supposed to be the final outcome ?



  • #117
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,955 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528035#Comment_122528035

    that they were all in purgatory I think.



  • #118
    RocketRaccoon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,482 ✭✭✭RocketRaccoon


    I was absolutely obsessed with it when it first came out and despised the ending but I stuck with it. I've watched the first series over the last few days on Netflix, it's still fantastic. I'm 3 episodes in to series 2 and will watch it til the end again in the hope it has improved over time. At least I know how it ends this time around.



  • #119
    breezy1985
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,719 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528095#Comment_122528095

    It's such a tired overdone format now you would forget that having things like showing the same day from different viewpoints and having "origin" stories was actually new to most viewers back then.



  • #120
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,416 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    It really wasn't a great show as they just start intentionally revealing more about people just to change what was shown before to create mystery they hadn't planned then didn't bother answering mysteries they created.

    Compare it to Breaking Bad where minor characters back stories get filled out and they are in the background at various points.



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  • #121
    pavb2
    Registered Users Posts: 3,004 ✭✭✭pavb2


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528192#Comment_122528192

    I’ve started watching again and don’t mind that format it puts a bit of structure and logic on things rather than wondering what’s happening next. I thought it clever for example

    Hurley being on the TV in the background in Jin’s story I can’t recall other examples of this though I think there were more.

    I like BreakingBad, Lost and Dark for different reasons I also think The Wire was superb for running multiple different story threads at the same time.



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