So, emotionally, the finale was a beautiful end note to a series that has captivated me for years. Intellectually, perhaps even thematically, it was a terrible example of storytelling. I'm sure by now others have pointed out similar, but I felt cheated by the ending scene's rendering of every previous scene in the show completely irrelevant.
Thing is, the whole production crew are competent enough that they sorta almost made it work. I was taken through that emotional rollercoaster; the production and technical direction of the show was never in doubt. But the moment it ended I felt so damn empty about the whole affair.
As I'm sure people have/will put it more eloquently than me, there were a couple of less-nebulous things that leapt out at me whilst watching:
1 - the heart of the island having man-made elements. Explaining who/what civilization/god made that place would be terribly trite. Exploring whether or not the Island is a completely natural entity would not have been. We're told that the island is like a cork for all the world's evil, that scene showed us a literal cork. I don't need to know how that cork got there, but I sure as hell need to know why much better than simple vague statements about it being a very bad thing.
2 - Jack was the only character to have any semblance of an arc. Everyone else just went through a series of states (or maintained one constant state) throughout the entire show without any ultimate purpose. That's fucking bullshit.
Masaki_" said:
Also, this video, holy shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxIUJgRsC9U
I really don't wanna sound like those excessively zealous fans who think all the major plot points were planned, but this conversation makes me BELIEVE.
What this video illustrates best for me is the massive shift that occurred in LOST post-season 3. LOST was a slow program that gave room to ideas. It set up questions that, while not necessarily needed answering for the show to succeed, certainly needed on-screen contemplation. Solo is a fan of posting that scene in Season 2 where Locke gets Jack to cave in and push the button - that back and forth, discussion. Drama.
That sort of thing was almost entirely absent from Lost in the end. It just started throwing plot at us and moving the characters along the plot, never stopping to consider or expand on anything whilst Damon and Carlton used the excuse of focussing on the characters and story rather than the mythology. Both of those elements were hurt by this approach. I thought season 4, despite being very fast-paced, worked magnificently. It presented clues to an ultimate endgame - an intelligent one - that ultimately never emerged. Season 5 managed the impossible of removing the mystery and enigma behind the Dharma Initiative (previously my personal favourite element of the show) without actually explaining a single thing of consequence about it other than the management had some internal politics it really should have worked out in a team-building session.
And I don't really have a proper conclusion or direction for this rant. Just stating how I feel with the most immediate objections that leap into my mind. The real kicker for me is that they knew since season 3 that they had three years to sort this out, and this was the best they could come up with. I disliked the purgatory concept, but I don't even think they executed on their own idea well enough to dissipate my own personal preference disappointment.
***
Not entirely unrelated thought -
Seasons 1 to 3 presented a fascinating balance between retro science intrigue (cold war-esque secret scientific experiments in the 70s and 80s is
always a brilliant aesthetic to use) and spiritualism. The Island was definitely something more than a scientific anomaly, and with Jacob's fantastic (unfortunately, ultimately faux) introduction at the tail end of season 3, there was a hidden element controlling things from afar.*
Building up with hints in seasons 2, season 4, with its use of the hieroglyphics and donkey wheel, introduced another element - the mythological. Season 4 was the last time these thematic aesthetics were all in complete balance. Season 5 pretended to explore the scientific elements, season 6 pretended to explore the mythological to the exclusion of the other two and the spiritual was brought front-and-centre for the finale without any intellectual depth behind it, just feel-good (I'll admit, it felt good, until it finished and left a bad after taste) rubbish. Demond's episode looked to re-address that balance, but it was a false promise.
*I will never for one minute believe that when the reveal was initially written, the idea that Ben was making it all up was in place. His reaction ("you've had your fun!", "that was Jacob...") made that particular twist at season 5's near-conclusion wash false with me.
I'll stop here.
edit - judging by the flaming going back and forth in this thread, perhaps in the interests of full disclosure I should say I loved the finale to BSG the first time I watched it, and everytime since? That show did 'not answering things but still leaving you thematically satisfied' much better.
