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TV|Shark 005: Lost

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    TV|Shark 005: Lost

    Numbers, hatches, smoke monsters, polar bears, visions and logo'd sharks. Lost presented viewers with a pirate assaulted rafts worth of questions and whether satisfactorily or not it managed to answer a chunk of them by the time its final episode aired. It remains one of TV's biggest yet most infuriatingly discussed puzzle box drama's as fans debated whether it was the characters, the viewers or indeed the writers that where the ones who were truly...




    Lost
    Ran: 6 Seasons (2004 till 2010)
    Episodes: 121 plus epilogue
    A plane full of passengers find their aircraft falling out the sky and when they awake after the ground collision they emerge on a tropical beach amidst the burning wreckage. Dazed and struggling to work out what happened and how to come to terms with the crash they find themselves stopped in their tracks when a strange mechanically sounding creature stalks them amidst the treeline. And thus, the saga of Lost began. With a sprawling multi-character approach the show utilised cut away sequences to explain and tease character arcs and to present hints as to the secrets of the island. Unafraid to end characters lives it tried to keep threats tense though many viewers struggled with the shows mid-point where it came to a head between wanting to see it out and the show increasingly showing how unplanned it was. The result was the last three seasons being created to re-aim the show to an ending with shorter, more focused runs. The ending was a controversy in of itself.

    Share your thoughts and memories of Lost!


    #2
    I gave up part-way through season... 3? I think?

    Just decided that I would drop it and pick it back up again when it ended, if people thought the ending was satisfactory.

    A while ago I asked (maybe on here?) how it turned out, and the main reply I got was...

    "If you want to see an ending to the arcs of the characters, and an emotional climax, then you'll be fine. If you're still all like 'it better explain why there was a polar bear on the tropical island' then you're going to be disappointed".

    This provided a great razor for me to say "**** that" and not go anywhere near it, as it seems Lost is like taking the very type of storytelling I hate the most, putting it through a complex distillation process and getting the purest, most rarified form of that storytelling.

    I'm somewhat happy that I dropped it, given that, because I can't help but feel that it's fundamentally manipulative, and suggests a contempt for the audience.
    Last edited by Asura; 26-02-2018, 08:47.

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      #3
      I gave up half way through the second season (which started brilliantly). The show moved sideways far too much and not forward enough.

      When you have seasons of 20+ episodes you'd better have plenty to say. Lost didn't. The intrigue factor fizzled out and I moved on.

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        #4
        I'd say Lost doesn't deserve to be mentioned anymore, let alone have a thread dedicated to it.

        I put it in the same category as Little Britain. Best buried deeeeeeep.

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          #5
          I watched it all. I felt cheated. I hated myself more than the show by the end, mostly because I gave it more time than it deserved.

          I wasn't rooting for anyone towards the last 3 seasons. They all felt like characters from the movie Speed - by the end you just want the whole bus to blow up with all those annoying fekkers on it.

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            #6
            It would've been more apt to call it 'Beige'.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Asura View Post
              I'm somewhat happy that I dropped it, given that, because I can't help but feel that it's fundamentally manipulative, and suggests a contempt for the audience.
              Oh man, I totally agree with this.
              "What's in the hatch? What is the smoke monster? How do you keep an idiot in suspense? Find out next week on LOST!"

              LOST is some of the best and worst television I have ever seen.
              At its peak, it was phenomenal, mind-bending, inventive, heart-breaking and fascinating.
              In its troughs, it was writers floundering to pad out more episodes than were entirely necessary and drop thread strands when they were no longer needed as a distraction whilst they continued the main plot.
              These series used to be 24 episodes long, remember.

              For me, it was the first glimpse that television could rival films for excitement, budget and "water cooler" moments.
              My friends and I would get together to watch the season finales or openers, because it really was event television and it predated the popularity of the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
              Sometimes we'd torrent an episode because we couldn't wait.

              Some of the best moments off the top of my head:
              Finding the hatch
              Start of season 2 in the hatch
              The lights going off in the hatch to reveal a UV map
              The Constant episode
              Shark with the Dharma logo on it
              OOh, this is a flashback.
              OOOOH! This is a flashforward!
              Is that someone in the rocking chair in the shack?
              NOT PENNY'S BOAT
              Smoke monster
              Kate in the shower
              Various big character deaths
              The numbers - everywhere
              John Locke
              John Locke was in a wheelchair before the island
              Hurley!
              The dog
              The French warning message on a loop for 16 years
              Jack's "Live Together, Die Alone" Speech
              The Others are revealed
              Michael murders Ana Lucia and Libby
              Ben moves The Island
              Ben and Locke's "final" meeting


              So, it was amazing television and I'm glad I watched it, but I think television has moved on for better and worse (a lot of cancellations).
              I wonder if there's a streamlined version that skips the chaff?

              Great show.

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                #8
                My missus was a Season 1 ship jumper so some time ago we started trying to return to it as I know the character arcs will mean much more ot her than the 'what's going on' element. However, we've struggled as the shows early pacing is so hard going. I've recently gone through a few sites to separate the episodes that aren't necessary which should make it more like each season is the same length as it's mostly Seasons 2 and 3 with useless stuff in them.

                I was okay with the first run, mostly buoyed by it all being new rather than anything else. The second season was a bit of a struggle, I think the Ben storyline ended up being the main pull as the hatch became laboured and was the true first clear sign there was no game plan at work. Season 3, my interest was waning at that point, the first half is really gruelling to sit though but it was during this run that the writers agreed an end plan with the network and you can almost pin point the episode that happened as you watch it because the show suddenly lurches back into life towards the end especially with Charlie's arc.

                Season 4 just felt more focused and as it was shorter was much easier to digest. It's definitely the point where they accepted that they couldn't explain everything and so started to make it increasingly fantasy based. Season 5 is probably the most nuts of the runs but by god, I enjoyed it. Season 6... I honestly do like the ending of the show but the journey to it in this final run is a bit more messy. I found the flash-sidewards to undermine the tale and whilst some of the character wrap ups were almost harrowingly haunting, others were very poor. There are unanswered questions, that doesn't bother me so much and I feel most of the big things where answered, but I remember it ultimately for the characters and I do feel that element is undersold due to the early promises the show made about the mystery. It certainly played an important role in establishing the ambitions TV series could achieve but also some key lessons to programme makers in how to deliver on them.

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                  #9
                  I loved it, and I'm not ashamed to say it!

                  The plot was convoluted but I loved the characters so the finale was a nice pay-off.

                  I've been considering re-watching it all ever since it popped up on these streaming services but never got round to it. Then Hulu queued up the first episode after I finished Game of Thrones a few weeks ago and I decided to let it run for a couple of minutes. What a cracking opening scene!

                  A friend of mine binged it on DVD a few years ago and wondered what all the fuss is about but a large part of what kept fans drawn to it was the chatter afterwards. Without that, I wonder what my feelings would have been towards it. I'm sure I'd have loved it either way and recently I'm finding myself left out of TV chatter because everyone just binges everything the moment it's released(e.g. still haven't watched Stranger Things S2). Also, being in Japan means there's no one talking about these programmes at work so no pressure to get through them.

                  I wonder if I'll ever find a chatty programme like Lost again...
                  Last edited by randombs; 28-02-2018, 03:43.

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                    #10
                    That watercooler element of the show was so special to it in the first two seasons, entire conversations could hang on trying to discuss and work out what was going on. I think, for some shows, they learned that any puzzle elements need to have a pay off after a couple of eps which keeps them compelling but take away that long term mystery Lost tried to foster as they want to avoid falling into the same trap. It's a shame TV production is so unpredictable as doing a similar concept but having it pre-planned for five seasons would be great.

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                      #11
                      Well, I finished the first episode and decided I'm going to carry on watching it for now. At least the later seasons are a bit shorter(especially the one during the strike) so there's that.

                      WALT! WAAAAALT!

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                        #12
                        If it gets to be a slog have acheck online as to which ones can be skipped from the first few seasons such as the ep entirely spent explain about Jack's pointless tattoo

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                          #13
                          Thanks for the tip

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                            #14
                            You know they do the "Previously on Lost", they could shave about 18 whole episodes if they did that with all the filler episodes, then streamline some others right down.

                            Jin: "You know, Sun, your father doesn't like me very much, despite how much I love you or try to make him happy."
                            Sun: "Sheesh, yeah!"
                            EPISODE ENDS

                            I'd consider doing that if there wasn't so much other new telly to watch.

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                              #15
                              Easy clue for next weeks thread:

                              The World is at Stake

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