MovieChat Forums > Lost (2004) Discussion > Mindblowing series

Mindblowing series

posted 3 years ago by ksio89 (76)
12 replies | jump to latest

Believe you or not, but I was living under a rock and didn't watch the series until recently, after borrowing the DVDs from a friend and binge watching it. And geez, now I know why this series is praised so much. I don't think saying it's good, excellent or fantastic would make it justice, because it's just something else. The word I'd use to describe the show would be "unique", because it's nothing like what I've seen before.

Lost has the best writing and the roundest characters in a TV show that I've seen, specially John Locke. The island mythology, mysteries, current timeline, flashbacks, flash forwards, "flash-sideways", I don't even know what I liked the most. I wish I had a time machine to go back during the original run to discuss it with other fans.

[–] ExTechOp (2738) 3 years ago

I envy you -- back then, the stupid things about this show were, in my opinion, blown way out of proportion precisely because the majority of the series WAS so well-written and plotted.

I do think the writers gave themselves a few impossible-to-solve problems. The "mystery" of Kate's toy airplane, for example, got built up to the point that no plot point could adequately resolve it.

Also, I recall being really annoyed with the black smoke explanation because Abrams, Carlton & Cuse, at the series beginning, promised that everything would have a logical real-world explanation. They clearly did not plan on time-travel, immortal brothers, etc.

But if we treat all those side-tracks as what they were, premature ambitions by the creators, the end result was worth the journey for me.

FWIW, I live in Hawaii, so it was fun to see all our local locations doubling as Sydney, New York, or even Ireland.

Oh, and let me also jump on the John Locke train - the wheelchair reveal remains one of my very favorite twists ever, but it still amazes me that they could switch him back and forth from messiah to clueless and confident to scared all without ever being untrue to his overall character arc.

My opinion of course.

[–] ksio89 (76) 3 years ago

IIRC, the writers wrote the first and second seasons as it went, and it was not until they knew exactly when it was going to end that they created a consistent mythology and sci-fi plotlines. And it was not the first time TV show creators lied to the audience about what they should expect, and personally I don't have any issues with those dead-ends due to the absurdly good writing.

And Locke is by far the most fascinating and roundest character I've seen in a series, thanks to consistently outstanding performances by Terry O'Quinn and superb writing. He had so many layers and facets, you never truly knew if he was really special or just a fool for the MIB.

For those reasons, imho his backstory was by far the best one in the series. If I had a miserable life like John Locke had, I would not want to leave the island either, poor guy.

[–] BillySlater (4096) 3 years ago

That´s cool you live in Hawaii. Its always been an ambition of mine to visit Hawaii and some of the Lost locations. Seems unlikely with covid now and not being American. Which locations have you visited?

[–] ExTechOp (2738) 3 years ago

There are to this day “Lost” tours, some of which are just no-cost online guides to locations.

Personally, I’ve never taken any such tour, but I recognize a lot of the locations, like:

(1) the mental hospital that’s actually a local school

(2) the Irish cathedral that’s also a local school

(3) the Sydney airport that’s actually our convention center lobby

(4) local office buildings passed off as London and L.A. offices, and my personal favorite:

(5) Hurley’s post-lottery luxury house that actually belonged to an immigration client of mine (she lived mainly in Japan most of the time so she didn’t mind renting it out to the “Lost” production)

[–] BillySlater (4096) 3 years ago

Nice. So you´ve never been out to Kualoa ranch?

[–] ExTechOp (2738) 3 years ago

Oh yeah that too

Though by the time I went they’d taken down the sets

I did get to see Jacob’s lighthouse set though, fairly close to where I lived. It was only part of the first floor

[–] exithereplease (3553) 3 years ago

It's a great series. I didn't care to much for the final season but yes it's pretty damn great!

[–] ksio89 (76) 3 years ago

Yeah, the final season was not as great, but I liked the finale. It was an excellent series that deserved all the praise it got, terrific writing.

[–] BillySlater (4096) 3 years ago

I´m with you, I really hated the flash sideways stuff. Keeping the audience out of the loop for so long is never a good idea especially when most of it was redundant.

[–] ExTechOp (2738) 3 years ago

Agree that keeping the audience in the dark about the afterlife flash-forewards was risky

But .. I think there was also an element of “wish fulfillment,” primarily of the characters’ own wishes. So that was fun to see

There may also be an element of fan service at work, i.e., the ability to show us alternate versions of the characters we’ve already come to know so well

Both notions occurred to me during a podcast interview with Evangeline Lilly while the season was airing (so she knew the whole story but couldn’t share it yet). She described the flash-sideways Kate as different in two key respects:

(A) she’s actually innocent of the crime she’s being hunted for but

(B) she actually enjoys the chase.

In other words, one way or another, everyone in the flash-sideways will get the reality that they want.

[–] NoEasyBuckets (332) 3 years ago

I put off watching it for so long because I just remember hearing people were disappointed with the finale and that the show kinda lost its way as it went on, so I didn't want to invest that many hours just to be unsatisfied with the conclusion. I finally went for it and I'm glad I did. Would the series have benefited from shorter/less seasons? Sure. But I also felt like with whatever idea they were working on it never dropped below a certain level of quality. Considering the premise they started with I think it was an amazing accomplishment to create a 120 episode story of that quality on a major network. Some people just have ridiculous expectations.

[–] gregg325 (215) 3 years ago

I agree with this so much. To me Lost is the greatest show ever. I've watched a lot of tv shows over the years and nothing hits me like it does with Lost. Theres just something really special about it.