If you haven't been living on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere for the last four years, you've heard of the show Lost. If you have been living on an island, well that would be totally ironic and Lost should be a pleasantly familiar concept for you. But I digress. This show has held a thrall over me since its inception, but that thrall that was once exciting and desirable has slowly grown more and more unpleasant. Although I've watched the newest season premiere, I'm undecided whether or not I should just give up entirely until the show is finally done and I can just rent the DVDs, or even just have someone else tell me what happens to save myself some time.
I openly admit to having been addicted to Lost at one point. Who wouldn't be? The concept of minimalist survival is one that we civilized humans are fascinated by. Just look at the literary proof: The Swiss Family Robinson, Lord of the Flies, Robinson Crusoe, My Side of the Mountain, and even - to a small extent - the Benji franchise (oh Benji, you brave little dog, how I loved watching your movies!).
In the beginning, Lost was as fascinating as these stories. The survivors had to figure out how to stay alive and civilized when civilization was gone, and they had the delicious Dr. Jack to lead them (ah, Matthew Fox of four years ago, how cute you were).
Then Lost got weird. Like, really weird. And without any satisfactory resolution to the many mysteries that the show forced down the viewers throats. Smoke monsters and mysterious scary noises were bad enough, but telepathy? Visions and ghosts? Unexplained sci-fi type phenomena? Moving islands?? Finally, the last straw: in the future the beautiful Jack Shepherd became bearded, crazy, and like a homeless drunken guy - the sad kind, not the funny kind. WTF!
So now as I watch the season premiere and it's filled with time travel - and the kind of time travel where people can change the past and alter the future, which I HATE - I'm just not sure if it's worth my time or mental/emotional effort. Unlike Alice (of Wonderland fame) I'm not inclined to follow along the trail of "curiouser and curiouser." I'm more inclined to grab that smug Cheshire Cat by the tail and scream at him to answer my questions before I slap that stupid mysterious smile right off his face and make it disappear for reals!
But I digress again. How about it, any thoughts or feelings from anyone reading this?
9 comments:
Aaaah - it only took you two seasons longer than it took me to reach the same conclusion. Clearly you were weak and thus more susceptible to the magnetism of Dr. Jack than I was...
OH MY GOSH! I am so happy you posted this. All the Lost posts I have seen are all about how amazing the season premier was, and I realized that I was over it and and tired of answering questions with questions. I'll probably keep watching, but it's just lame.
I didn't bother with lost until the third season, which meant that I watched the first two seasons back to back on DVD and then saw season three week by week as it unfolded. Then I waited 9 months for season four to start. Somewhere in the interim, I lost track of what was going on and a lot of the magical coolness disappeared. Same thing happened on the way to season five. Watching the premiere, I couldn’t remember why I was following the show. It was less mysterious and more violent than I remembered. I guess I’ll watch it next week if I have nothing else going on. But it’ll be more like when a deer gets hit by a car and you’re watching to see what it does with itself as it wanders into the forest to die. Apparently the Jack factor has been lost on me all these years.
You are not alone--there are many of us saddened by Lost, secretly wondering how the plot got so, well, lost.
It's so good to have this sense of solidarity. I'm glad I'm not alone, since everyone else seems to think Lost is brilliance in TV form. Also, Homeless Jack can shave that gross beard all he wants, but he will never be the same to me, and without Jack - why bother with Lost at all??
argh, hate the show. I mean, menancing clouds? polar bears? a society of stepford people? and the WORST? Killing my favorite hobbit :( ...
Matt and I have only watched the seasons on DVD as they came out to rent. Well, the first two we borrowed from his cousin Larry. The first season: strange but fascinating. The second season: a little violent but they did kill off Shannon which is undoubtedly a plus. The third season: ceases to have anything good happen and destroys my favorite character (also a Charlie fan). Lastly the fourth season: I personally didn't finish it (while Matt watched it I listened to my MP3 player) I hated Lost so much by this point I refused to watch it. Lost is the fungus in between my toes. It killed all the nice things and left you with only bad things. I expect season five (which Matt might watch when it is available to rent but I will not) will probably contain an alien race that consist of polar bears which will abduct Jack in order to shave his beard, and provide John Loch with both common sense and some hair. Also they will give the mysterious Jacob a brain, Ben a heart, and Hurley some courage.
Lisa: BEST. RESPONSE. EVER.
I hope those alien polar bears do shave Jack's crazy beard and glue it on Locke's head, but alas, I don't think that will bring the magic back to the show.
Post a Comment