Readers of this blog will know that I’m a fan of Lost. Or was. Spoiler warning, of course. The ending has bummed me out the more I thought about it. Still, it was 6 years of good television, so much that prior to the ending, I speculated what the end would be, and after the ending I noodled on what the ending was. Now Damon Lindelof, co-writer of Lost, has given a couple of answers in his recent interview on The Verge:
There’s also a very much extended interview with more tidbits.
The ending of Lost was ambiguous and fairly hard to grasp, some would say disappointing. I think I’ve finally gotten it, and I’ve decided whether I liked it or not. Here’s what happened.
Spoilers. Stop reading if you haven’t seen every episode of Lost.
It seems like just a few weeks ago; I watched the season 5 finale of Lost. It was only after the final LOST logo came on to the screen that the reality of a 9 month wait started to sink in. So, impatient as I was, I decided to speculate my way to a series conclusion. Because Lost is the best thing to happen to television since color. Lost is why cave-men painted shows on walls.
Now I’ve had 9 months to speculate on these mysteries, and for the very same reason, this post will be massively spoilerful (unless I’m completely off the mark and even then). Do not read this post unless you have seen every available episode of Lost first. Otherwise, you’ll be ruining a great experience for yourself.
Warning! Don’t ruin this for yourself.
Still here? Okay, I trust you have, in fact, seen Lost. So read on.
While every government is busy buying up bad dept and obsolete car companies and every company is busy firing people (out of a cannon, into the sun), it may be hard to see what there is to look forward to in 2009. But there is stuff. Good stuff. Here’s my top 7.
What are you looking forward to?
Yesterday I managed to see Lost season 3 episode 11, entitled Enter 77. Having followed Lost intently since the very first episode, it’s now becoming clear to me that there are two types of episodes. There are episodes that reveal tiny tidbits of “Lost mythology”—those are the episodes that deal with what’s actually going on. Then there are the “fleshing out” episodes, episodes that mainly elaborate on the stories of each of the Lost characters. In that way, Lost is very much like Star Trek, which might indicate that Lost is here to stay for a while.
That almost brings me to my point. Like the two types of episodes, I think there are two types of viewers. There are those who are lost and have no idea what’s going on and love it and those who are lost but despise it.
While I’m slightly annoyed at having zealously watched three seasons, having had to drop countless theories, I’m still firmly in the first camp. I love Lost, even if they’re milking it this season. What camp are you in? To put it in another way, would you like the producers to announce an end date to the series? Or would you (like me), like the series to continue for two or three more seasons (as long as they do end the series at some point)?
While I’m at it, I might as well dive into that whole Lost mythology. If you’re averse to spoilers, you might not want to read on. There’s been talk of the island being some sort of buddhist Shangri-La (Dharma is a buddhist concept, by the way), so right now I’m holding on to that as my best bet of an explanation. What’s your best bet?
Since Lost – one of the most worthwhile TV shows since Twin Peaks – is taking a break until February next year, I’d like to spend the time inbetween discussing one of the issues that really annoy me about that show.
No, it’s not the fact that they’re milking every episode, postponing the ultimate revelation one season at a time. It’s not the nagging feeling that once that revelation is upon us, they won’t be able to explain all the myriad of threads they’ve torn the story into. No, it’s much simpler. It’s a visual glitch.
See every time the show starts, right after the opening sequence, the Lost logo comes into focus and zooms past the camera. Freezeframe! There, a glitch in the 3D shape. The face of the logo doesn’t connect properly to the sides.
If you, like me, know just a tiny smudgeon about 3D modelling, this glitch is a symptom of an utterly crap 3D modeller. It bugs the hell out of me. What about you? Are you just sitting there, taking it?