Lost - The Full Series Thread

[Daley]

If anyone still cares or is in any doubt (beware contains a Sopranos spoiler if anyone hasn't seen that):

http://www.grantland...ll-origins-lost

Confirms they didn't have a clue what they were doing in the first series and had no idea how things would pan out. Mainly because they thought it would be a short mini-series or they would get cancelled.

The development process had unfolded so quickly, there was very little time to figure out what all the weirdness meant — when I ask Lindelof how much of the mythology they had mapped out at that stage, he says, "During the pilot? None of it, to be honest with you" — and most of the focus during the pilot and immediately after was on fleshing out the characters and their reasons for not wanting to return to civilization.

Lindelof, Abrams, and then Cuse only knew a few broad strokes of the mythology in the early stages: that, for instance, the Oceanic passengers had been brought to the island for a reason, as part of some kind of battle between good and evil. (If the show wasn't a success and had to end after only one season, they would have built to a battle between the castaways and the monster.)

Of course this is where I point out that they still don't really have a clue what they were doing or what it all meant...

[Gabe]

Interesting article, though - much like the series - it doesn't really give many answers to anything.

I wonder if I'll ever have the stomach to re-watch it all from the beginning, knowing how it ends and how much filler is in there?

Still, bumping this thread did make me watch the Comic Con video again, so it was worth it

[Janson]

When I was watching Lost as it aired, I thought it was consistently brilliant. However, i rewatched the whole series last year and realised that from season 3 onwards its pretty poor. The ending was a real disappointment. :-(

Also, didnt they come out with some shit that said there was a clue in the first episode as to how the whole thing would end?

[squirtle]

Madness! From season 3 onwards is when it went into spectacular overdrive. Seasons 4 and 5 are almost peerless in their genre.

[Daley]

I really tried to like it and I think I actually did like most of it but even while watching it, it made you feel a bit unsatisfied and "led on" or teased if that's the right way to put it. Things were introduced and dropped all the time without a satisfactory answer.

I also quite liked the ending despite the fact that i'm not sure it made sense, left loads of things unanswered and relied too heavily on sentimentality to get it over the line.

Madness! From season 3 onwards is when it went into spectacular overdrive. Seasons 4 and 5 are almost peerless in their genre.

I'd agree with this. They lost the plot (quite literally for most of season two and three) but there was a point when they stopped pissing around and it started being good again.

[Harsin]

I may have to pick up Sepinwall's book. Enjoy his writings as a critic. Wonder how many footnotes there are in the full things (there's quite a few even in that short excerpt) as they drive me crazy in Kindle books.

[spork]

I like to think of Lost as an experience more than anything else.

One of the best things about it all for me was all of the crazy theories and stuff, like people finding the numbers or a Dharma logo hidden away in some minor scene. I probably spent more time reading about it all after each episode than actually watching the show.

Rewatching it now you'll be left without a big chunk of what actually made Lost great.

[Daley]

I like to think Lost as an experience more than anything else.

One of the best things about it all for me was all of the crazy theories and stuff, like people finding the numbers or a Dharma logo hidden away in some minor scene. I probably spent more time reading about it all after each episode than actually watching the show.

Rewatching it now you'll be left without a big chunk of what actually made Lost great.

That's another very good point. I enjoyed the reading about each week's episode on here and Lostpedia as much as actually watching it. Probably because it helped me figure out what the hell i'd just seen.

[letsbook]

http://www.chronologicallylost.com/

Probably been mentioned here already but on the off chance that it hasn't... the whole of Lost in chronological order.

[Fireproofradiator]

There's also this, which might already have been posted and apologies if so. It's a thing that pulls together all the dialogue from all the episodes in a visually interesting way. Not necessarily pleasant reading for the show's melodramatic stuff, but it's fun picking out stuff from characters you like. Faraday wub.

[Pekoe]

Interesting article, though - much like the series - it doesn't really give many answers to anything.

I wonder if I'll ever have the stomach to re-watch it all from the beginning, knowing how it ends and how much filler is in there?

Still, bumping this thread did make me watch the Comic Con video again, so it was worth it

I did a rewatch in the Summer, and it stood up well. I didn't find Season 6 as disappointing second time around as I thought it would, although Jacob probably summed it up in one of the last episodes, when something got fucked up and he shrugged it off "It doesn't really matter", because ironically it really didn't. I've sold them now, as I doubt I'd watch a third time, but second time is definitely a charm.

[Anne Summers]

Can you motherfuckers believe this is coming up to 10 years old very soon?

I don't think I could face watching it again, even though at the time I thought seasons 1 and 2 were some of the best TV I'd ever seen. Watching it again now though, and seeing how they built all the suspense up around the hatch, the monster, the "others", and all that - I think it would just seem hollow - knowing that it was basically all meaningless because the writers themselves didn't even know what it was all about back then. Basically just "Lets put as much weird stuff in as possible to make it mysterious - we'll work out what it all means later".

Ok that all sounds a bit harsh and almost like I don't like the series - but I do. Or rather, I like my memories of the excitement that was built up in the early days. Everyone at work was talking about it, to an extent I don't think I've seen before or since. Probably what it was like for people a generation older than me who watched Dallas and Dynasty. I guess maybe the TV audience is too fragmented now, for that sort of thing to happen so often. Maybe.

If I was going to watch it again I'd probably be more excited about watching the middle/later seasons (except the last one, obviously). There was some interesting stuff going on there with the time travel, the buried nuke, different groups coming and going from the island, etc. The show had lost its momentum by then I think, with a lot of the audience turned off because the initial sense of mystery had worn off. But there was some good storyline stuff going on there, I think - with the frozen wheel in the cave, the stuff about Dharma off-island (the old woman who Desmond goes to see, Jim Robinson...)

[Capwn]

I still find that even though it had flaws, no other sci-fi/mysterious show has surpassed it yet.

It was full of great performances, well shot, well edited, music score from a pioneer and most importantly characters you cared about. I watched it all again, each season has it's really great epic moments. I didn't really find it pointless knowing the end, I again was able to enjoy the journey and the characters coming together to build relationships with each other. My main problem and where I really think it screwed up was what they did with one of the key characters in Locke, and to a lesser extent Sayid and Claire. With Locke especially it's like they tried to write themselves into a corner with the reveal at the end of S4 (which can be a good practice) but then came up with a really bad solution which felt out of place and forced. That decision seemed to dictate how the show wrapped up. Again, it created cool moments, the type of moments they probably got over excited about when they initially came up with the idea but ultimately it went against the tone of the show for me.

[makkuwata]

The very end was perfect. I wish less time was dedicated to purgatory in the final season, but it paid off in ending with a wonderful character send-off rather than worrying about silly mythology that could not possibly have had a satisfying explanation.

edit: I'm not one to give a shit about fake internet points, but I wish people would counterpoint an argument rather than just click a red button and move on. That ending was perfect and you're a coward.

[PK]

Ok that all sounds a bit harsh and almost like I don't like the series - but I do. Or rather, I like my memories of the excitement that was built up in the early days. Everyone at work was talking about it, to an extent I don't think I've seen before or since. Probably what it was like for people a generation older than me who watched Dallas and Dynasty. I guess maybe the TV audience is too fragmented now, for that sort of thing to happen so often. Maybe.

If I was going to watch it again I'd probably be more excited about watching the middle/later seasons (except the last one, obviously). There was some interesting stuff going on there with the time travel, the buried nuke, different groups coming and going from the island, etc. The show had lost its momentum by then I think, with a lot of the audience turned off because the initial sense of mystery had worn off. But there was some good storyline stuff going on there, I think - with the frozen wheel in the cave, the stuff about Dharma off-island (the old woman who Desmond goes to see, Jim Robinson...)

I think I'd like to re-watch it for the same reason - I completely lost the sense of excitement & mystery around the middle of the third series and kept watching despite being a bit disenchanted with it. That meant I skipped a couple of episodes and didn't pay a huge amount of attention in a few of the ones I did watch, so I'd like to see if it holds my attention a second time round & whether I'd appreciate it a bit more without that halfway dip of enthusiasm.

So many happy memories of watching it the first time round though! It came out at the perfect time - second year of university - so every episode was a proper social event at someone's house, which I've never really had with any other TV shows since then. 45 minutes of great TV finishing with an "OH MY GOD" moment and then endless shite-talking about it was such a great weekly event

Does anyone remember the forum where people would discuss basically every frame of each episode after it aired? Some real Keyser Soze shit based on brand of coffee cup or number of prongs on a fork, it was ridiculous

[zxcvbnm]

http://www.chronologicallylost.com/

Probably been mentioned here already but on the off chance that it hasn't... the whole of Lost in chronological order.

I planned to watch it all again, but I think I'll give this a go instead of watching the original series all over again.

[Yoshimax]

There's a lost rewatch podcast about with one of the GB guys that I started listening to and put me in mind to rewatch this - then I noticed it's gone from Netflix

[makkuwata]

Go for it.

[Fury4k]

The very end was perfect. I wish less time was dedicated to purgatory in the final season, but it paid off in ending with a wonderful character send-off rather than worrying about silly mythology that could not possibly have had a satisfying explanation.

edit: I'm not one to give a shit about fake internet points, but I wish people would counterpoint an argument rather than just click a red button and move on. That ending was perfect and you're a coward.

I negged you and I think the ending was shit. You're a coward for negging all those puns in the Star Wars thread. Cunt.

[makkuwata]

Star Wars puns are the work of cunts, the Lost finale made me cry when that little dog laid down beside Jack!

[Fury4k]

Who gives a fuck about the dog? That's how empty the ending of Lost was.

[makkuwata]

Heartless. All opinions invalidated.

[Broker]

Does anyone remember the forum where people would discuss basically every frame of each episode after it aired? Some real Keyser Soze shit based on brand of coffee cup or number of prongs on a fork, it was ridiculous

http://www.thefuselage.com

[Mercury]

Lost was so good at its peak I would actually be excited about listening to Damon Lindelof talk about it on the podcast once per week.

[Broker]

Yeah, never before or since has a TV show dragged me into all of the podcasting, discussing, ARGing bullshit so completely. I was ravenously desperate for more lost.

[NEG]

I watched LOST all in one go after it all ended, great, but yeah I can imagine the frustration(joy) from pondering what'll happen next and what it all meant.

I loved the last season and the end, by the way. In a word: Beautiful.

[Gabe]

The very end was perfect. I wish less time was dedicated to purgatory in the final season, but it paid off in ending with a wonderful character send-off rather than worrying about silly mythology that could not possibly have had a satisfying explanation.

edit: I'm not one to give a shit about fake internet points, but I wish people would counterpoint an argument rather than just click a red button and move on. That ending was perfect and you're a coward.

I hated the ending, it made everything we'd witnessed pointless. It started to become clear from the second season that the story was making less and less sense, and it then devolved further and further into unrelated events, pointless side stories and duller and duller character moments and the time travel stuff. The ending was never going to adequately wrap things up (I think everybody probably knew that going long before it aired) but it still, to me, was so very empty. In isolation, it was quite clever to a point, but as the culmination of what went before it was a mess.

[Fury4k]

I negged you and I think the ending was shit. You're a coward for negging all those puns in the Star Wars thread. Cunt.

In retrospect, calling you a cunt was a inappropriate, so sorry.

[makkuwata]

In retrospect, calling you a cunt was a inappropriate, so sorry.

Yeah, well, the Star Wars pun people are still cunts. So there.

But I will forever be an elitist hipster regarding anyone who doesn't like the ending of Lost. "You just don't get it man!

[mdn2]

But I will forever be an elitist hipster regarding anyone who doesn't like the ending of Lost. "You just don't get it man!

But NEG agrees with your opinion. That should be enough to set alarm bells ringing surely.