Wow

That's my reaction to the series finale of ABC's Lost.

I guess the showrunners weren't kidding when they said it was a spiritual show.

No, they didn't explain everything - in fact, they left a great deal unexpained - but I think that's just as well.

I'd still kinda like to know what the polar bears were doing on the island. I know they had something to do with the Dharma Initiative, but what? And what purpose did the numbers serve? And ... well, okay, they left most of the details unexplained.

But any explanation probably would have seemed silly anyway. Best to leave it to our imagination.

What they did instead was cut to the heart of the show, which was never the mumbo-jumbo mythology, but rather the emotions and soul-searching yearnings of the characters. And they did it in a way that, as you'll know if you watched it, spoke directly to the concerns of this blog.

Again I say ... wow.

And now it's over.  So what the heck am I gonna watch next year?

Comments

[Tom Ruffles]

I lost interest about the time the Cockney geezer drowned; I never got over my hilarity at the depiction of Brixton tube station.

[GregL]

Michael

I agree, great ending. It reminded me somewhat of Robert Monroes's description of the afterlife. The "construction" of the church meeting place very closely resembled Monroe's "Park" scenario. An excellent and meaningful ending to a great show.

[Tony M]

Why is it that whenever there is a discussion of Lost someone rushes to post that they "gave up on the show". Fine. You didn't like it. Great - can those of us who did talk about it without snarky asides? Brixton tube station? BFD, If I abandoned every film or show that depicted New York or California incorrectly, even shows shot there, I'd have nothing to watch. Your post was a waste of pixels.

[Tom Ruffles]

Sorry Tony, I'll just go and kill myself now.

[Tom Ruffles]

...and as I clearly haven't read as much about the subject as you have, I didn't know that every time the show is discussed someone says they gave up on it. Is it a hanging offence?

btw my first post was not sarky (the second was), just an honest opinion, and I didn't 'rush' to post it either, my typing was measured. You could have just read what I said, sneered quietly to yourself, and moved on rather than waste more pixels on my alleged waste of pixels.

[Tom Ruffles]

...and isn't there an adage about discounting the opinions of people who post anonymously, Tony 'M'?

[Tony M]

If you don't think your post about "the Cockney geezer" and your completely irrelevant comment about Brixton station wasn't snarky, then I don't know what to tell you. It's a snarky, pointless childish post that adds nothing to the discussion Michael is trying to initiate. You stopped watching the show? Great. What is supposed to be our reaction to that bit of news? We’re fascinated to hear that! If I had known that earlier, I would have stopped watching years ago!

Or maybe you can behave like a grown up and say, “Hmmm, a post about Lost. Since I don’t watch, I have nothing to say so I will nmove on.”

PS I will happily email you at your blog so I will no longer be anonymous if you like.

[Michael Prescott]

I was never too worried about the accurate depiction of locales in "Lost." The scenes that took place in L.A. were all shot in Hawaii, and looked a lot more like Hawaii than L.A. (Which is to say, they looked a heckuva lot nicer than the Los Angeles I remember.) Even on a big-budget series, it's not feasible to fly actors all over the world just for a few pickup shots.

Occasionally this kind of thing annoys me. In the remake of "3:10 to Yuma" (which I thought was much inferior to the original), there's a scene that takes place in Bisbee, Arizona. But the town in the movie lies on a flat stretch of desert, while the real Bisbee is perched on a mountainside. Then again, it's also a movie where a character who is shot in the gut at point blank range recovers in a few hours with no ill effects, so I guess realism wasn't the main concern!

Back to "Lost": What I found a little discouraging was the discussion on Entertainment Weekly's "Lost" comments thread, where a large number of people seem to have completely misunderstood the ending. I thought it was very clearly explained, but I guess it wasn't clear enough for some folks, who seem convinced that all the castaways died in the original plane crash. Maybe if they replay the last ten minutes a few times, they'll hear what Jack's dad is actually saying ...

I have to say the ending took me by surprise - I really didn't see it coming, at least not in that way - and while it left a lot of the "mythology" unexplained, it did provide a deeply satisfying emotional closure, at least for me.

But I am sure many people will dislike it and will disparage it for the very reasons that made me like it. (E.g., "too spiritual," "too religious," "too mystical," etc.)

To each his own.

Now on to the series finale of "24"!

[Tom Ruffles]

I was I admit being facetious, but NOT sarcastic. I really stopped watching because I found most of the characters annoying (apart from the cockney geezer of course), and the story arc seemed to be going nowhere. But given that many comments I've now seen about the ending revolve around 'oh that was a disappointment', I still don't feel I was being too left-field in saying I couldn't stick with it for six seasons. But if I have annoyed people, and it seems I have, or at least Tony M, I apologise and will refrain from posting here in future.

Tony, if you expect all blog post to read like Emerson you are in for a sad disappointment.

[Breanainn]

Lost: Serious business.

[Michael Prescott]

I thought this would be the least controversial topic imaginable, but on the intertubes anything can cause a spat.

"many comments I've now seen about the ending revolve around 'oh that was a disappointment'"

Everybody's a critic, and on the Internet there are a lot of Comic Book Guys ("Worst. Episode. Ever."). So I'm not surprised that many people will be negative; but speaking as one viewer who watched the show from the beginning, I was not the least bit disappointed in the finale. Quite the opposite, in fact - I found it highly dramatic and ultimately very inspiring.

Tom Ruffles' comment about "Lost" reminds me of a reader who emailed me to say that my book "Next Victim" was ruined for him because I made a mistake in my description of an LA subway station. There must be something about subways ...

Personally I couldn't tell the Brixton subway from a hole in the ground.

:-)

[The Major]

I think the comments I find the most strange are "I've wasted six years of my life on that".

Did they get nothing from watching the show weekly? Moments of comedy? Moments of beauty? Ideas that made them ponder? Were they ever on the edge of their seat? Yet they judge the entire series on whether the final moments met their narrow concepts of how it should end.

[Sandy]

I watched Lost mostly for Hurley. He's my hero. I was glad he got to be the caretaker of the island because that's always who I thought it should be. Having Ben be his sidekick in the conclusion was awesome.

Where did Vincent end up? I didn't see him in the church...

[Michael Prescott]

Vincent went to doggie heaven.

[Michael Prescott]

I was musing on the kind of pseudo-scientific explanation that some fans (not I) undoubtedly would have preferred. I think it would have gone, oh, I don't know, maybe a little something like this ...

"Well, Jack, the island is actually a point of access to the zero point field, a source of limitless energy. If all that energy were ever unleashed, it would annihilate the universe. That's why the island has to be protected. Now, when you detonated the hydrogen bomb, the resulting explosion interacted with the zero point field to create a parallel universe, and in that universe there were alter egos of everyone on the island. But the two universes were not entirely separate, because, you see, consciousness is a quantum phenomenon, and quantum entanglement ensured a continuing connection between each person and his or her alter ego. Thus the whole thing boils down to the zero point field, quantum entanglement, and the multiverse. Now, about those polar bears ..."

I think this would have been dull, pedantic, and silly, but there are some people who would prefer it because it sounds "scientific." Actually, it's just a lot of gobbledygook, but it does use (or misuse) some scientific terminology. For a certain type of viewer, this kind of "explanation" is preferable to anything that smacks of spirituality or mysticism.

And I'm sure the showrunners knew it. But they went for a simpler, cleaner, and much more uplifting resolution, and for that I thank them.

[Sandy]

Vincent went to doggie heaven.

Are you sure? I like to think he took over the caretaker of the island job after Hurley and Ben were gone.

[dmduncan]

I thought it was a truly GREAT finale. The test of wills between the show and my tear ducts was mighty.

Eh, you win some, you lose some.

[Michael Prescott]

"I thought it was a truly GREAT finale."

I agree. Words like "brilliant" and "magnificent" came to my mind, and I seldom, if ever, use those words in connection with a TV show.

I also think that the show, in its own way, ended up making a contribution toward the spiritualization (for want of a better word) of our culture.

Maybe the re-enchantment of our culture would be a better way of putting it.

And it may be for this reason that some people respond so viscerally to the finale, either for it or against it.

[Julio Siqueira]

Well, I for one was pretty much disappointed at Lost's ending. I wish it had ended differently. But, as far as multiverses interpretations of Lost are concerned, the series has not actually ended, just quantum lept... The characters (actors) have teleported to other series, and the one I am focusing now is flashforward (filled with Lost's refugees :-)). It seems this will be a six-year-long series too, and maybe the ending will be similar, that is, everybody realizing they had dead all the while. Who knows, maybe this is the true mystery of the Universe, the true answer: we are all but dead. That would answer lots of things... ;-) (just kidding).

[J-9]

Great Comic Book Guy quote, Michael. My favorite is "Oh, I've wasted my life" lol

I have mixed feelings about the last episode of Lost. I wonder what happened to Walt and his son, and I wonder what happenned to Mr. Ecko, who died so violently at the hands (or whatever) of the smoke monster. Perhaps, they were written in, but just weren't available professionally.

I was emotionally satisfied that they all moved on to the afterlife together, but would have liked a better explanation what Jacob's "mother's" origins were, and I didn't think an adequate explanation was ever given as to why it was so important that the man in black never leave the island. Why would one person, who was not conceived on the island in the first place, play such an important role? His mother didn't want him to leave before he became the smoke monster, badly enough that she torched his village and knocked him unconscious.

I don't know. It kind of felt like a Sopranos ending to me. Too many loose ends.

[Mark Alexander]

It's a great finale, and makes me want to rewatch from the beginning. Jack's journey from science and reason to faith is a wonderful journey.

As for what you will watch next, Michael, since you've already done the Buffy/Angel journey and the Babylon 5 journey (I'm assuming), then perhaps you should consider some things that may never have crossed your radar:

Eli Stone (unfortunately only 2 seasons, but still amazing and spiritual)

Joan of Arcadia (ditto)

Life (ditto)

Monarch of the Glen (free streaming on Netflix if you have Playstation, XBox, Wii, or iPad)

And the first 5 seasons of the new Doctor Who, which amazingly emotionally sneaks up on you within its schlock)

[Mark Alexander]

And, by the way, those with stronger stomachs will find that these journeys are also amazing:

Deadwood (Shakespearean in language)
The Wire (Best police procedural ever)
Dexter (transcendent writing, mystery, and black humor)

And on the British side:

House of Cards (a trilogy of black political humor)
A Touch of Frost (longest running Brit detective series)
Cadfael (monk detective)
Heat of the Sun (Brit policeman in Kenya)
And Vicar of Dibley (spiritual humor that only the Brits can do)

[J-9]

BTW Julio, I heard that FlashFoward is being canceled. Sorry, here is a link. I, too, am disappointed.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/3001496/flashforward_canceled_by_abc.html

[Michael Prescott]

Thanks for the recommendations, Mark. I may try some of those. Actually I've never seen Babylon 5.

By the way, I thought The Comeback (Lisa Kudrow's series, which lasted just one season) was hilarious and poignant. It does take one or two episodes to get into it, though.

The Shield was another excellent show.

And HBO's Rome is probably my favorite TV show ever, though you have to be willing to overlook some major historical inacurracies.

J-9, I can tell you why Mr. Eko wasn't there. The producers didn't get along with the actor. That's why they wrote him out of the show earlier than planned.

Walt (Michael's son) wasn't there because the actor has grown up and looks too old for the part - a continuity problem, in other words. Michael himself wasn't there for two reasons, I think: a) the actor badmouthed the show after leaving it, and b) the character murdered two people, including the innocent Libby, so he may not have deserved to be in heaven. (Ben is also a murderer, but apparently he is seeking redemption, as indicated by his final conversation with Locke.)

Notice that Ana Lucia makes only a token appearance in the afterlife. The actress probably did not endear herself to the producers when she got arrested for drunk driving and threw their production schedule into chaos.

The producers must have felt like St. Peter standing at the pearly gates when they decided who would get into the "sideways universe"!

[Mark Alexander]

I thought Rome was great too, and was sad that it stopped just as the reign of Augustus was kicking in. (And who can forget Polly Walker after that pilot...whew!).

I thought Babylon 5 was a cheap Star Trek knockoff, and I only started watching it when a friend told me during season 4, "My God, the Minbari stopped their war against Earth once they discovered Minbari souls were incarnating as humans!" I had to check it out!

It's written like a novel, so you can't come in on the middle, like you can with Star Trek.

One caveat with Babylon 5 is that the first season is fairly rough (just like the first season of Buffy). By the end of the second season, you see the overarching themes develop, but it's Season 3 when it really kicks in and you can see how the first two seasons built a foundation for the things to come. "Nobody here is what they seem to be." That is stated in Season 1 and you begin to get it full throttle in Season 3. It's really worth the investment. And by the way, pay particular attention to the news reports of what's going on back on Earth.

[Mark Alexander]

Oh, and in Babylon 5, Walter Koenig (Chekov in Star Trek) has his best role ever in B5.

[omigod]

Monarch of the Glen?

[Art]

My most famous British BBC series was Ballykissangel. It's about a little town in Ireland they call Ballykissangel and the people who live there. We watched it before we watched Monarch of the Glen. We got both series from Netflix. You can watch bits of Ballykissangel on youtube.com. I loved Ballykissangel so much I wanted to go and live there! Even though it's fiction (it was filmed in a little community in Northern Ireland called Avoca).

Oh yeah, one other thing - McCleod's Daughters. An Australian series set in South Australia. About some women who run a cattle station in Australia. My wife loved it because of the strong female leads. I liked it because of the scenery and the animals and the women. After you watch Ballykissangel watch McCleod's daughters. It's great.

[Sandy]

My taste runs more to Corner Gas.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rRT3whzCvl0

[Breanainn]

If you can't be assed with all five seasons of Who, just watch Steven Moffat's episodes (Girl in the Fireplace and Blink being rightly regarded as particularly moving and unsettling). He's just leaps and bounds above every other writer on the show, hence why I was looking forard to his taking over as head writer so much.

[Mark Alexander]

The Dr. Who episode Blink (Season 3, episode 10) has to be one of the most amazing pieces of writing in SF I've ever seen for a single episode.

And also up there is the New Twilight Zone episode in the first season (1985), Her Pilgrim Soul.