TVSquad

I agree. Lost hasn't given any answers in a while. I like knowing that it will eventually end.

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No doubt, your viewpoints are very correct. However, I've been without Lost since midpoint 2nd season, where all the faults you identified were so glaring, it just caused me to lose any sense of value in viewing the series. If Lost can turn it around and remember why it was a hit in the 1st season, it might get me back for the final season.

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See, I'm of the opinion that the flashbacks tell more story than the island action. I've come to accept that the island story really crawls by; and to be a successful series, it pretty much has to.

But to me, seeing the characters interact with each other and in their own off-island contexts is a much more interesting angle of the show. The way I see it, the endpoint is one of two things: rescue or no rescue. In the meantime, it's about exposing the characters' flaws, exploring them, and seeing them work them out. Eventually, the island story will wrap up (probably too neatly for my liking), but it will only be significant in the scope of what the characters take from the experience.

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Creatively, the show has been suffering since about mid-way through Season 2. The writers are growing increasingly reliant on flashbacks, which gets annoying, and I have to say splitting up the group this season has not been good overall for the show. Setting an end game would not only be a positive thing creatively, but it might also drum up interest in the show once again and allow Lost to go out on top.

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I have to agree here. I'm not entirely sure they actually will address the points you've brought up, but one can hope... In any case, it'll give them a timeframe, and hopefully will give us some more focused storylines.

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I don't understand this expectation that Lost has to explain every single weird thing or event or it's cheating the viewer. I really don't. Would the four-toed statue be any less intriguing if you never find out about it's lack of a fifth toe? _Really_?? I thought the point of the statue wasn't in the number of its digits but the fact that it seemed so old and ruinous. I agree that there are some questions that the show ultimately _does_ have to answer [is the Island magical/mystical, the explanation of the Others vis-a-vis Hanso/Dharma, sadly the Jack/Kate/Sawyer thing, etc] but I think we can get too hung up on the little things and miss out on the really fun journey that Lost is _still_ taking us on. I swear, just loosen up your seatbelts, kittens. The plane's not crashing. Some of the new Lost Moments are proof of that. It's just not heading where you think [at the moment at least] but I have a feeling it's gonna take us all someplace really wonderful. Provided you don't bail. ;)

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I'm glad that they get to go out when they want to and not have to strecth things out too far.

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I have to agree here. I'm not entirely sure they actually will address the points you've brought up, but one can hope... In any case, it'll give them a timeframe, and hopefully will give us some more focused storylines.

Posted at 10:26AM on Jan 17th 2007 by Trina

Ideally they will make these improvements, Trina, but who knows? The writers have done many things that don't make sense to me. We'll have to wait and see. Thanks for the comment!

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I think the best thing would be that the actors might actually know where things are going. I get really annoyed when it's obvious the actor doesn't know what the character is supposed to be thinking when they act the scene.

When Sun told Jin she was pregnant they must have cut between different takes when she was acting sadly and relieved several times. When she was on some late-night talk show she said the producers wouldn't tell her what the deal was...It was obvious and took me out of the story.

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RSL, if you thought the "age" of the statue foot was more the point than the fact that they purposely built it to have only four toes, maybe you're not expecting enough of the show, as much as we're possibly expecting too much.

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Jack, I didn't mean to sound like the four-toed-ness of the statue was beside the point, just that it wasn't the _only_ point. Sayid's quote itself, “I don’t know what is more disquieting; the fact that the rest of the statue is missing or that it has four toes", doesn't just address the four toes. I just don't think that the statue's big reveal is going to be a race of four-toed people but that the island has a long, long history. The number of toes _is_ interesting and, perhaps, part of the meaning as well but I just think it's going to be something more/else so I really don't care about the number of toes. Except that it just happens to be one of the "numbers". Hrmmmm. Maybe you kittens are right to wonder about it.

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Also, the Lostpedia theory page for the statue, http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Statue/Theories, has plenty of theories which have nothing to do with the toes. Interesting read, to say the least.

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While I agree that the guarantee of a very intentional end is a positive, I must disagree that the stories that you call "filler" don't really matter. I think that they are the best at telling us who these people really are. They say that you are only really yourself when you think nobody is watching. When we see these characters NOT under the crazy stress of being chased by the others or being shot at or running from some invisible monster, that is when we get to see them relaxed and at a state of (at least semi) rest. That is the contrast we need in order to enjoy the stressful times and understand the character on a deeper level. It's not the big reveals that makes this show great, it's the roller coaster, and without the baseline of (seemingly) nothing happening, we cannot enjoy the click click click of climbing up the hill or the thrill ride on the way down.
People always talk about character development like they need a steady stream of thick and rich information, but true character development happens slowly over time, like ketchup, the good stuff is thick and moves slowly, you have to wait for it and be patient, while the lousy stuff comes in a plastic squeeze bottle and is runny, but you get a lot at once.
I'll take mine thick, rich, and slow, thanks.

And how exactly was the frog story not character development? Sawyer killing the frog was fantastic insight to the character.

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I am so pleased it has finite wrapping up point. If it dragged on with no end in sight, it would be tough to keep up the intensity. I can't wait to see if their ending can even come close to all of the hype. It better be pretty terrific or there will be a lot of disappointed Lost fans.

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This has been known since season one for most Lost "addicts", nice to see it on digg though. Here's hoping for a better season 3.

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What sucked is in S2E9 you see the horse trainers hand. h0 h0 h0. Shoddy production if you ask me. It's clear as day! Not to mention how really crap the 'soemthing happens' 'lets go back to their previous life and build this character' like it really matters to the real plot on the island.

Can they jjust get on with it already, there has been enough character building to make data from star trek envious

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I'm surprised by these comments. If you don't like the show, what do you care that it has an end point planned. For those of us that enjoy the show the knowledge that the producers are planning the end of the show well ahead of time is a reminder of the forethought that goes into the show.

It's also nice to see that the show will end as intended despite the opportunity to drag it out for an extra season for a bit more money.

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The last thing we need is for Lost to drag on like the last seasons of X-Files. I hope they can keep the show and story crisp from here to the end.

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I agree, with all your points and hope they don't do another season split! I'm ready for all the mysteries to be resolved hopefully with 1 more season.

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I think some of you need to go back, rewatch the second season of Twin Peaks, and think for a long time over whether all mysteries are better when they're "solved."

A big part of the appeal of this show, for me, is the mystery. There's no denouement at this point that wouldn't be anticlimactic to me. Lynch learned this the hard way -- when your stock in trade is creating these densely layered levels of enigma, sometimes peeling them away too quickly will leave your viewers feeling "cheated."

While I agree that the flashbacks have become tedious, I'd rather see eight more seasons of weirdness than two seasons of convenient closure and spotless wrap-ups. I'd be very sad to see Lost lose its Prisoner-esque 'unanswered questions' feel and become an typical "serial drama (NOW! WITH MYSTERIES!)" like CSI or something of the sort.

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