COMMENTS

Since the LOST 10th anniversary brought out the good and bad from TPTB, it is probably a good time to review some of the comments in the context of a show community blogger.

1. I don't have a problem with the producers-writers believing that they achieved what they had started to do with LOST. It was their story. It was their show. They were driving the bus; fans were merely passengers enjoying the (bumpy) ride.

2. I don't have a problem with where the producers-writers ended the show. I, like many other people, had a problem in how the show got to the ending. Today, TPTB indicate that the purpose of the last season and last episode was to raise the Big Questions, like what is life? What is the after life? What is human spirituality? It is proper for a creative team to raise these historic and grand questions which mankind has thought about since the existence of human time, but to raise them without answering them is wrong. The solution of allowing the viewers to grasp their own insight from the final season seems like punting the ball on second down and one yard to go.

3. I don't have a problem with the producers-writers killing off all the characters by the end of the series. Hell, I was an early proponent of the crash-purgatory theory. In many ways, that theory still makes the most sense in trying to explain the sideways-afterlife ending. But again, if TPTB wanted to keep the claim that the passengers of 815 survived the crash and the events happened to live human beings, then they should have been much clearer about that point - - - and told us when each person "truly" died (i.e., when did Sayid die - - - in the war, in the crash, in the temple, or on the sub?)

 4. I don't have a problem with fans who were satisfied with the ending. I believe these fans stripped the event story lines from their focus on the characters themselves in order to conclude that the happy ending was good. That is what entertainment is about: getting a personal connection and interpreting it. However, I don' agree with the interpretation that this is the only rational conclusion a fan can have when the series ended.

5. I have a problem with the TPTB's criticism of fans who believe they were "making it up as they went along." By their own comments, the producers-writers used flashbacks to "slow the story line down." They became obsessed with the flash backs and moving the story line away from a linear progression in order to elongate the series. Then flashbacks became filler; and filler became inconsistent canon. LOST started out as an action-adventure-drama of plane crash survivors, but it veered off course by Season 3 into a science fiction-fantasy world. The problem is that TPTB never explained this significant change of direction in the story elements. By making promises that there would be a rational explanation for the events, then not delivering on that promise, supports the criticism. Even today, TPTB have had ample opportunity to explain what the premise and how the story event interacted in the grand scheme of things - - - but they choose to allow all those questions to remain mysteries.

6. I understand that the producers and writers claim that their vision of LOST was fulfilled when the series ended. They ended the way they wanted it to end. That is their right. But for viewers, there is still the open question: could LOST have ended better?