- I know 'oh it's a character show, so they didn't need to answer all the mysteries' sounds like a cop out answer
Probably because it is! ^^
but watching the show again you really see how close to the truth that is. That's not to say they couldn't have resolved some of the mysteries better, because they clearly could have
Well... yeah, but more importantly, they could ("should", really) have done a better job at preparing/planting mysteries. Coming up with all kinds of random supernatural phenomenons just to hook the audience and without knowing where you're going with those or how they could be tied together is a great way to paint yourself in a corner.
but those first two seasons are just so character focused, it's weird that people who were obsessed with the mysteries kept watching after that. It was like a 90/10 split.
(Wouldn't that make it
even more of a shame that the writers couldn't come up with a coherent mythology? ;þ)
As long as the show only had the clueless survivors (plus Crazy Rousseau, but she was conveniently
craaaaaazy) for characters, yeah, a fair portion of the drama was relatively disconnected from the mythology. But once mysterious-characters-who-act-like-they-know-what's-going-on (*) began to heavily factor in the equation...
(* Until it's revealed that they actually were clueless chumps all along. The mystery baton is then passed on to a
new set of Mysterious Characters, and they all turn out to be freaking idiots who never made sense, down to the two guys who started it all (
).)
And then, I'd argue that the characters' arcs were terrible anyway. You mentioned Charlie, but it doesn't stop there, far from it. For example...
- Locke in season 2 was great. His arc from a really self-confident guy to watching him lose all his faith was really well done.
Why did he decide to believe that second film over the first one? Did he just forget about all the clearly supernatural stuff he witnessed/experienced? The monster? His prophetic dream?
His magical legs?