After the finale, I read many reviews and blogs. I agreed with much of the disappointment about the show not answering dozens of critical questions that had been center pieces of the story since Season 1. I could understand the frustration from some elements of the fandom.
There are a brave few who are on the web trying to "re-write" the show (via fan fiction) to answer their questions. It may be a way to keep the series alive or to buffer the show's real dead ending with something more palatable within each fan's own show theories.
LOST, the show, appears to be more theoretical and than the reality showed in the finale. It is an odd mirror image where the fans invested "more time and research" into the show than the show's own producers.
After the finale, I spend two quiet evenings scratching out the unsolved mysteries, key plot elements and the key character back stories to see if there was a way to tie virtually everything together. In a few hours time, and some encyclopedia research hours, I had created a complete outline that could rationally explain the keys to LOST. I then found it quite disturbing; if I could have scratched this out in two nights, why, over six years, did TPTB not have it done?
So I had the story elements to "re-explain" the LOST world(s). And I was thinking of using this blog site to publish those ideas. But then I decided not to. It was not my place to correct the story that TPTB wanted to show the world. Any brilliance in making the puzzle pieces (concepts and ideas) fit would be better used in my own sci-fi story. And when I mean disjointed pieces, I include The Numbers, Egyptology, symbolic tangible items, the light and darkness, theology, quantum physics, core concepts of humanity, transportation incidents, the periodic chart, Hawking's pendulum construct, life forces and the debate between faith and science. Yes, Virginia, there is a coherent story within those diverse elements.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
CONSTRUCTION ZONE
I can see why there is a growing trend in the analysis of the finale that critics find the whole ending badly constructed by the writers. It was like the saw horses were put in the lanes, but the workers were no where to be found to actually fix the roadway. Trying to map out any true cohesive concepts and character lessons in Lost is becoming harder and harder.
In construction, people plan out everything on blueprints and drawings to connect all the pieces to form one solid structure. The same holds true for story telling. If a writer creates a concept, he or she needs to make sure the action explains the concepts in a meaningful fashion. And if one fashions a concrete idea, it needs to be strong enough to hold the weight of criticism.
There was little foundation for the concept of the sideways ending. If the characters "created" the sideways world to "remember the most important thing" in their lives, why would they "forget" the island events in their own sideways world? It is a baffling contradiction.
Well, some would say they had to "remember" or be awakened in the sideways world. Then, if you "forgot" about the place to meet in the after life, then how could you "find" it? To become awakened presupposes that you know where to be at the right time; and the inference is that the sideways world was not the next normal place for souls to go after death.
Plus, if the characters created the sideways world as a fantasy holding tank until everyone else arrived, why did early arrivals make such stupid choices? Example, island dying Juliet's last words were to her love, Sawyer. But in the sideways world, she is Jack's ex-wife. Why is there no carry over of her emotional last moments on her soul into her sideways story line?
The same goes for Kate. In her sideways world view, would she not have at least sought to rekindle the happy moments of living with Jack in the O6 time frame? Especially, since there emotional departure after killing Flocke on the island?!
And why would Jack's sideways story focus on a life and son with Juliet? One could rationally see Jack trying to make things right with his first true love, Sarah, in the sideways gambit. That would make more sense than a cordial divorce with a make-believe son with Juliet. If that is what his subconscious wanted, then why did he immediately move on with Kate?
The whole "love of one's own life" concept is totally destroyed by the Sayid choice. Shannon. Really? Every season Sayid's story centered around Nadia. She was center stage in his sideways story, too. But a two-week island fling with Shannon trumps a life time of yearning? For many, this was the most disappointing aspect of the church reunion resolution.
And there is a real core sadness, too. If Hurley's only love was Libby, whose only true romantic "quality" time was in the make believe sideways world, then Hurley lived a sad and lonely life. Then add to his story the fact that Boone and Locke showed up to the church with no one to share the moment - - - how sad was their lives? Dying in the island time frame was the "best" thing they had??
And how the show treated children was center to some people. Was Aaron's most important time of his life the island? Was he merely a "prop?" Was David just a figment of Jack's daddy-issue imagination. What ever happened to Emma and Zach?!
For the finale was supposed to be all about the characters, "character" was lacking in the end. Did they know it was fantasy land with no consequences? If the sideways world was purgatory, a place where one is to seek redemption, then it was a total failure. Example, Sayid kept killing people, Desmond severely injured people, and Ben kept scheming people. If you compare the island and sideways characters, there was no dramatic change in the personalities, their motivations, their sins. The end did not have a soul cleansing reunion but a mere show cast party.
So what were the BIG changes to the characters in the finale? What were their individual spiritual realignment moments? How were these lost souls found?!
Nothing. They just died at some point. That's all. Nothing changed in their collective behavior, conscious memory, or even in their dream fantasy world. Even though cloaked in religious overtones, there were no rewards for being "good" and no punishment for being "bad." The characters remained essentially the same, like raw materials being fed down a cosmic processing plant.
In construction, people plan out everything on blueprints and drawings to connect all the pieces to form one solid structure. The same holds true for story telling. If a writer creates a concept, he or she needs to make sure the action explains the concepts in a meaningful fashion. And if one fashions a concrete idea, it needs to be strong enough to hold the weight of criticism.
There was little foundation for the concept of the sideways ending. If the characters "created" the sideways world to "remember the most important thing" in their lives, why would they "forget" the island events in their own sideways world? It is a baffling contradiction.
Well, some would say they had to "remember" or be awakened in the sideways world. Then, if you "forgot" about the place to meet in the after life, then how could you "find" it? To become awakened presupposes that you know where to be at the right time; and the inference is that the sideways world was not the next normal place for souls to go after death.
Plus, if the characters created the sideways world as a fantasy holding tank until everyone else arrived, why did early arrivals make such stupid choices? Example, island dying Juliet's last words were to her love, Sawyer. But in the sideways world, she is Jack's ex-wife. Why is there no carry over of her emotional last moments on her soul into her sideways story line?
The same goes for Kate. In her sideways world view, would she not have at least sought to rekindle the happy moments of living with Jack in the O6 time frame? Especially, since there emotional departure after killing Flocke on the island?!
And why would Jack's sideways story focus on a life and son with Juliet? One could rationally see Jack trying to make things right with his first true love, Sarah, in the sideways gambit. That would make more sense than a cordial divorce with a make-believe son with Juliet. If that is what his subconscious wanted, then why did he immediately move on with Kate?
The whole "love of one's own life" concept is totally destroyed by the Sayid choice. Shannon. Really? Every season Sayid's story centered around Nadia. She was center stage in his sideways story, too. But a two-week island fling with Shannon trumps a life time of yearning? For many, this was the most disappointing aspect of the church reunion resolution.
And there is a real core sadness, too. If Hurley's only love was Libby, whose only true romantic "quality" time was in the make believe sideways world, then Hurley lived a sad and lonely life. Then add to his story the fact that Boone and Locke showed up to the church with no one to share the moment - - - how sad was their lives? Dying in the island time frame was the "best" thing they had??
And how the show treated children was center to some people. Was Aaron's most important time of his life the island? Was he merely a "prop?" Was David just a figment of Jack's daddy-issue imagination. What ever happened to Emma and Zach?!
For the finale was supposed to be all about the characters, "character" was lacking in the end. Did they know it was fantasy land with no consequences? If the sideways world was purgatory, a place where one is to seek redemption, then it was a total failure. Example, Sayid kept killing people, Desmond severely injured people, and Ben kept scheming people. If you compare the island and sideways characters, there was no dramatic change in the personalities, their motivations, their sins. The end did not have a soul cleansing reunion but a mere show cast party.
So what were the BIG changes to the characters in the finale? What were their individual spiritual realignment moments? How were these lost souls found?!
Nothing. They just died at some point. That's all. Nothing changed in their collective behavior, conscious memory, or even in their dream fantasy world. Even though cloaked in religious overtones, there were no rewards for being "good" and no punishment for being "bad." The characters remained essentially the same, like raw materials being fed down a cosmic processing plant.
Monday, June 21, 2010
HOW IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED
Since the finale, the negative reviews seem to be pounding the neutral-to-sweet "nice" ending for the characters reviews. The vile appears to be directly inserted into Season 6's bag of tricks: creating another new "story telling device" (the sideways world) while at the same time allowing all the important island events and mysteries to become meaningless. Some say the producers merely kept throwing "effects" at the audience for five seasons to keep the show alive. The critics howl that the producers had no legitimate story basis or "cause" for any of those "effects." Some have charted the unanswered questions as purely dead ends, throw out to the viewers with no preconceived answers. It is like Eloise, Faraday's lab rat, running a maze of dead ends; the only solution to the vexing story problems was the "sideways exit."
Some harsh critics view the last season and wrap up as the producers being "intellectually dishonest" to the fan base. If you are going to hoist science, science fiction or fantasy elements into a show, you should know the reason why 1 plus 2 equals 3. Otherwise, the even the charge "they are making it up as they go along" would be a sounder position than "they had no clue what they were doing; they were just throwing crazy twists against the wall to see if the viewers stuck to it." Like monkeys in a zoo throwing objects at each other for their own amusement. So, there is some bitterness in a growing number of hard core fans that they feel they were "conned" by TPTB into watching a unique sci-fi show that had no lasting "pay off" explanation.
If the producers and writers wanted to make a meaningful ending, they could have done so if they really wanted to do so . . . they could have tied all the elements into "their" sci-fi world, but in the end they did not even try that route. They decided to keep their story world vague and story line unexplained and confusing in order to not to answer the hundreds of burning questions from the fans.
For some fans, they are now looking for an external answer to disappointing conclusion. The most bitter question is "why?" Why create a new fabrication to end the show (dead limbo sideways purgatory)? Why throw out mysteries and events you had no answers to? Just to be smug? Just to mess with people's minds? Pure laziness?
The funny thing is that if those spiking questions are true, then TPTB could have played their hand better. In reading both sides of the Ending issue, there could be only one way to let the series live on with some vitality. They could have saved themselves the grief of the teeth grinding anger of Season 6 by merely ending the entire series with the Season 5 cliffhanger! Yes, the screaming Juliet fade to white light ending. It would have drawn comparisons to a Sopranos WTF? ending, but at least the fans could still rationally debate what it all means (or could mean). Season 6 flushed all rational debate down the toilet. After another season, we still really don't know if Jughead exploded; whether "it worked," whether the island was another sidecar rest stop in purgatory, whether it was just Jack's redemptive dream or plain shenanigans.
Some harsh critics view the last season and wrap up as the producers being "intellectually dishonest" to the fan base. If you are going to hoist science, science fiction or fantasy elements into a show, you should know the reason why 1 plus 2 equals 3. Otherwise, the even the charge "they are making it up as they go along" would be a sounder position than "they had no clue what they were doing; they were just throwing crazy twists against the wall to see if the viewers stuck to it." Like monkeys in a zoo throwing objects at each other for their own amusement. So, there is some bitterness in a growing number of hard core fans that they feel they were "conned" by TPTB into watching a unique sci-fi show that had no lasting "pay off" explanation.
If the producers and writers wanted to make a meaningful ending, they could have done so if they really wanted to do so . . . they could have tied all the elements into "their" sci-fi world, but in the end they did not even try that route. They decided to keep their story world vague and story line unexplained and confusing in order to not to answer the hundreds of burning questions from the fans.
For some fans, they are now looking for an external answer to disappointing conclusion. The most bitter question is "why?" Why create a new fabrication to end the show (dead limbo sideways purgatory)? Why throw out mysteries and events you had no answers to? Just to be smug? Just to mess with people's minds? Pure laziness?
The funny thing is that if those spiking questions are true, then TPTB could have played their hand better. In reading both sides of the Ending issue, there could be only one way to let the series live on with some vitality. They could have saved themselves the grief of the teeth grinding anger of Season 6 by merely ending the entire series with the Season 5 cliffhanger! Yes, the screaming Juliet fade to white light ending. It would have drawn comparisons to a Sopranos WTF? ending, but at least the fans could still rationally debate what it all means (or could mean). Season 6 flushed all rational debate down the toilet. After another season, we still really don't know if Jughead exploded; whether "it worked," whether the island was another sidecar rest stop in purgatory, whether it was just Jack's redemptive dream or plain shenanigans.
Monday, June 14, 2010
WHAT TO BELIEVE?
For those souls wandering the Internet like lost travelers in a desert, searching for the Answers to LOST, take your time wandering around my miscellaneous ramblings from Season 6.
Since the conclusion of the series, it is becoming more evident that people will believe what they think "should" have happened than what really happened (or apparently happened) on the screen.
For example, in Doc Jensen's last epilogue, he tries to find closure on the Desmond symbolism with a show referenced novel entitled The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien. " Now, the link seems pretty clear, at least to my eyes. The Third Policeman is the story of a nameless narrator who realizes at the end of the story that (1) He is stuck in a constantly repeating cycle of unchangeable history from which he can't escape; and (2) He is actually in hell, for he has been dead for the duration of the tale. The natural application of The Third Policeman to Lost would be as foreshadowing for the Sideways world twist."
It is an attempt to explain the Sideways afterlife as different than the Island real life; but one could take his evidence and conclude that both the Sideways and Island events were in the afterlife.
The critical church scene between Jack and his father actually re-enforces that everything was in the afterlife:
VOICE: Hey, kiddo.
[Jack turns around to see his father standing behind him.]
JACK: Dad?
CHRISTIAN: Hello, Jack.
JACK: I don't understand...you died.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah. Yes I did...
JACK: Then how are you here right now?
CHRISTIAN: How are you here?
JACK: I died too...
[Jack begins to cry as he remembers.]
CHRISTIAN: It's okay...it's okay. It's okay son.
[Christian approaches Jack and they hug each other.]
JACK: I love you, dad.
CHRISTIAN: I love you too, son.
JACK: You...are you real?
CHRISTIAN: I should hope so. Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real too.
JACK: They're all...they're all dead?
CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you.
JACK: But why are they all here now?
CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here.
JACK: Where are we, dad?
CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.
JACK: Kate...she said we were leaving.
CHRISTIAN: Not leaving, no. Moving on.
JACK: Where we going?
CHRISTIAN [smiling]: Let's go find out.
Christian's statements can be taken into the context of his definition of "real." He acknowledges he is dead, but he is "real" to Jack. And "everything that has happened " to Jack "was real." If being dead in the sideways world is "real," then so to can being dead in the Island world also be "real." It follows one notion that life is not a linear composite of birth, living, dying, death, and an afterlife in heaven or hell. It follows the pattern that once a person dies, he is "reborn" in an afterlife existence consisting of many layers, many attempts to redeem their souls, in order to find cosmic enlightenment.
An overall supernatural afterlife structure makes all the dead end island story lines easier to digest. In an afterlife SAT test, candidates often skip over questions they cannot answer. Some who fail, re-take the test until they get a passing score. Whether this one realm of the dead concept works for the average fan is open to debate.
Juliet's dying thought, "it worked," had nothing to do with Jughead exploding (it probably did not detonate). It is more likely she meant that she found an off-ramp on the afterlife highway, a rest stop, where she would wait for the other characters to finish their island tests, so they could move on together in the afterlife. It makes sense that only a dead person (on the island) could "make a place" in the afterlife where all of their souls could meet in the future (now).
Since the conclusion of the series, it is becoming more evident that people will believe what they think "should" have happened than what really happened (or apparently happened) on the screen.
For example, in Doc Jensen's last epilogue, he tries to find closure on the Desmond symbolism with a show referenced novel entitled The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien. " Now, the link seems pretty clear, at least to my eyes. The Third Policeman is the story of a nameless narrator who realizes at the end of the story that (1) He is stuck in a constantly repeating cycle of unchangeable history from which he can't escape; and (2) He is actually in hell, for he has been dead for the duration of the tale. The natural application of The Third Policeman to Lost would be as foreshadowing for the Sideways world twist."
It is an attempt to explain the Sideways afterlife as different than the Island real life; but one could take his evidence and conclude that both the Sideways and Island events were in the afterlife.
The critical church scene between Jack and his father actually re-enforces that everything was in the afterlife:
VOICE: Hey, kiddo.
[Jack turns around to see his father standing behind him.]
JACK: Dad?
CHRISTIAN: Hello, Jack.
JACK: I don't understand...you died.
CHRISTIAN: Yeah. Yes I did...
JACK: Then how are you here right now?
CHRISTIAN: How are you here?
JACK: I died too...
[Jack begins to cry as he remembers.]
CHRISTIAN: It's okay...it's okay. It's okay son.
[Christian approaches Jack and they hug each other.]
JACK: I love you, dad.
CHRISTIAN: I love you too, son.
JACK: You...are you real?
CHRISTIAN: I should hope so. Yeah, I'm real. You're real, everything that's ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church...they're real too.
JACK: They're all...they're all dead?
CHRISTIAN: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some...long after you.
JACK: But why are they all here now?
CHRISTIAN: Well there is no "now" here.
JACK: Where are we, dad?
CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
JACK: For what?
CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.
JACK: Kate...she said we were leaving.
CHRISTIAN: Not leaving, no. Moving on.
JACK: Where we going?
CHRISTIAN [smiling]: Let's go find out.
Christian's statements can be taken into the context of his definition of "real." He acknowledges he is dead, but he is "real" to Jack. And "everything that has happened " to Jack "was real." If being dead in the sideways world is "real," then so to can being dead in the Island world also be "real." It follows one notion that life is not a linear composite of birth, living, dying, death, and an afterlife in heaven or hell. It follows the pattern that once a person dies, he is "reborn" in an afterlife existence consisting of many layers, many attempts to redeem their souls, in order to find cosmic enlightenment.
An overall supernatural afterlife structure makes all the dead end island story lines easier to digest. In an afterlife SAT test, candidates often skip over questions they cannot answer. Some who fail, re-take the test until they get a passing score. Whether this one realm of the dead concept works for the average fan is open to debate.
Juliet's dying thought, "it worked," had nothing to do with Jughead exploding (it probably did not detonate). It is more likely she meant that she found an off-ramp on the afterlife highway, a rest stop, where she would wait for the other characters to finish their island tests, so they could move on together in the afterlife. It makes sense that only a dead person (on the island) could "make a place" in the afterlife where all of their souls could meet in the future (now).
Friday, June 4, 2010
FINAL REPORT CARD
In less than two weeks, the buzz and reaction from the LOST finale has died down to the last ember in the campfire. The fan blog posters have said their peace and started to sever the ties that bound them for the past six years. The graduation of fan interaction is upon us. Time for the final report card for the show.
LOST was a television show that captured the hearts of minds of its viewers. Some became engaged, some confused, some adamant, some drifted away. The series needs to be judged as a television series as the sum of its parts.
CHARACTERS: There was a diverse group of characters; "good guys," villains, intriguing back stories, with different ideas and agendas. The compound qualities of the character base was much more than an average television series that recycle stereotypical characters. GRADE: A
ACTING: There have been some exceptional performances from Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson, to average fair of Matthew Fox, to some cardboard cut-out acting from some of the other characters. As a result, the overall ensemble performance was above average. GRADE: B
FORMAT: The use of new story telling techniques such as flashbacks, and flash forwards made the show different from average shows. However, the difference to some became an annoyance as the editing tricks were used more to create or maintain mysteries than advancing the main story. GRADE: B-
PACE: The pace of a show is an important component. Did the series "move along" crisply enough to maintain interest? The first season clearly had its legs underneath it as the viewer explored the island along with the survivors. But at times, the story seemed to bog down on back and forth understated missions. In the last season, there were times when the characters merely sat around and waited. With the conclusion of the sideways reveal, some people think most of the island elements were mere unexplained "filler." GRADE: C
STORY LINE: This category must be broken into three sub-parts: plot, climax and conclusion.
a) PLOT: The apparent survival of the plane crash was the hook that got most viewers attention in the pilot episode. Then, the sudden arrival of island mysteries (like the smoke monster) made survival story even more compelling. If you add in the plot twists, con games, and mysteries, the show was layered and complex. It lead to viewers researching elements of the show outside the (TV) box. GRADE: A
b) CLIMAX: Every good story needs to have a defining, heroic, action filled peak for the story to resolve itself and its main character(s) to find what they were looking for. In the beginning, the whole purpose of the characters was "to leave" the island; be rescued. When some did in fact get rescued, the purpose shifted to "going back" to the island. When they returned, the purpose then shifted from leaving the island, to taking sides in a mysterious conflict between Jacob and MIB. The unwinding of the characters appearances into mini-climatic actor show reels turned the build up into a soap opera formatted conclusion. GRADE: C
c) CONCLUSION: Even after a climax, there needs to be a final resolution for the characters. Something that ties all the loose ends together into one coherent package for the viewer. The series finale drew remarks from viewers of being satisfied with the ending, to down right anger-betrayal. Many were disappointed that the island mysteries were not resolved, or that the ending added more questions than answers. Many were okay with the ending but disappointed or underwhelmed by the conclusion of the series. GRADE: C-
PREMISE: The show's premise was hidden from the very beginning. What was the show about? Were the characters in purgatory? Did the plane crash have survivors? What was the Island?! After the show ended, no one can truly answer these basic questions with any 100 percent accuracy. The show producers ended the series in a vague sideways feel-good moment without answering the Island questions. GRADE: INCOMPLETE
If you add up the grades for a cumulative or comprehensive grade for LOST, the final over all Grade would be a B (minus). This means that the show was above average by television viewer standards, but not great. The steady decline in viewership has to be taken into account as well. A complaint that the show filled up on questions with little or inconsistent answers ("they are making up as they go") was never put to rest. It may have been part of the higher expectations, or the massive amount of hype for Season 6, that led to viewer angst, anxiety toward the end. As one TV critic remarked, "it could have been worse."
LOST was a television show that captured the hearts of minds of its viewers. Some became engaged, some confused, some adamant, some drifted away. The series needs to be judged as a television series as the sum of its parts.
CHARACTERS: There was a diverse group of characters; "good guys," villains, intriguing back stories, with different ideas and agendas. The compound qualities of the character base was much more than an average television series that recycle stereotypical characters. GRADE: A
ACTING: There have been some exceptional performances from Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson, to average fair of Matthew Fox, to some cardboard cut-out acting from some of the other characters. As a result, the overall ensemble performance was above average. GRADE: B
FORMAT: The use of new story telling techniques such as flashbacks, and flash forwards made the show different from average shows. However, the difference to some became an annoyance as the editing tricks were used more to create or maintain mysteries than advancing the main story. GRADE: B-
PACE: The pace of a show is an important component. Did the series "move along" crisply enough to maintain interest? The first season clearly had its legs underneath it as the viewer explored the island along with the survivors. But at times, the story seemed to bog down on back and forth understated missions. In the last season, there were times when the characters merely sat around and waited. With the conclusion of the sideways reveal, some people think most of the island elements were mere unexplained "filler." GRADE: C
STORY LINE: This category must be broken into three sub-parts: plot, climax and conclusion.
a) PLOT: The apparent survival of the plane crash was the hook that got most viewers attention in the pilot episode. Then, the sudden arrival of island mysteries (like the smoke monster) made survival story even more compelling. If you add in the plot twists, con games, and mysteries, the show was layered and complex. It lead to viewers researching elements of the show outside the (TV) box. GRADE: A
b) CLIMAX: Every good story needs to have a defining, heroic, action filled peak for the story to resolve itself and its main character(s) to find what they were looking for. In the beginning, the whole purpose of the characters was "to leave" the island; be rescued. When some did in fact get rescued, the purpose shifted to "going back" to the island. When they returned, the purpose then shifted from leaving the island, to taking sides in a mysterious conflict between Jacob and MIB. The unwinding of the characters appearances into mini-climatic actor show reels turned the build up into a soap opera formatted conclusion. GRADE: C
c) CONCLUSION: Even after a climax, there needs to be a final resolution for the characters. Something that ties all the loose ends together into one coherent package for the viewer. The series finale drew remarks from viewers of being satisfied with the ending, to down right anger-betrayal. Many were disappointed that the island mysteries were not resolved, or that the ending added more questions than answers. Many were okay with the ending but disappointed or underwhelmed by the conclusion of the series. GRADE: C-
PREMISE: The show's premise was hidden from the very beginning. What was the show about? Were the characters in purgatory? Did the plane crash have survivors? What was the Island?! After the show ended, no one can truly answer these basic questions with any 100 percent accuracy. The show producers ended the series in a vague sideways feel-good moment without answering the Island questions. GRADE: INCOMPLETE
If you add up the grades for a cumulative or comprehensive grade for LOST, the final over all Grade would be a B (minus). This means that the show was above average by television viewer standards, but not great. The steady decline in viewership has to be taken into account as well. A complaint that the show filled up on questions with little or inconsistent answers ("they are making up as they go") was never put to rest. It may have been part of the higher expectations, or the massive amount of hype for Season 6, that led to viewer angst, anxiety toward the end. As one TV critic remarked, "it could have been worse."
SIDEWAYS LOOK AT 06
With the reveal that the "sideways" world was something created by the 815ers so they could be together when everyone arrived (awakened) for the next journey in the afterlife, we must ponder one last look at the other flashes. The sideways Season 6 story line was a dream like state, not reality (even though Christian said "everything was real"). This sideways world contained many miraculous, strange or unbelievable medical situations that resolved themselves quickly. In past seasons, we found numerous medical and legal factual errors. Most egregious were the elements of Kate's "trial" in LA after the O6 were rescued.
The resolution of the O6 character's issues mirrors the happy feeling church finale. It was all too good to be true. There were no true consequences for the past bad actions. It was not a reward, but in a way, a child's dream resolution of their problems.
If you take the similarities of the O6 off-island events and the sideways stories, one could conclude that they are one in the same.
When did the O6 turn into the sideways dream world to wait to be awakened?
1. They all could have died when the helicopter crashed in the ocean.
2. They all could have died in the original 815 plane crash. The island was their true purgatory.
3. They could have all died prior to Flight 815. The plane was the symbolic passage to the afterlife.
If one recalls many elements of the island, they are part of the collective memories of the characters. Hurley was reading a comic on the plane that contained polar bears. Polar bears appeared on the island. Locke, as a child, drew a smoke monster picture. The smoke monster appeared on the island.
If you also look at the list of unexplained continuity errors, most could be erased not as factual errors but dream like perceptions of reality if the sideways concept is applied outside of Season 6.
The resolution of the O6 character's issues mirrors the happy feeling church finale. It was all too good to be true. There were no true consequences for the past bad actions. It was not a reward, but in a way, a child's dream resolution of their problems.
If you take the similarities of the O6 off-island events and the sideways stories, one could conclude that they are one in the same.
When did the O6 turn into the sideways dream world to wait to be awakened?
1. They all could have died when the helicopter crashed in the ocean.
2. They all could have died in the original 815 plane crash. The island was their true purgatory.
3. They could have all died prior to Flight 815. The plane was the symbolic passage to the afterlife.
If one recalls many elements of the island, they are part of the collective memories of the characters. Hurley was reading a comic on the plane that contained polar bears. Polar bears appeared on the island. Locke, as a child, drew a smoke monster picture. The smoke monster appeared on the island.
If you also look at the list of unexplained continuity errors, most could be erased not as factual errors but dream like perceptions of reality if the sideways concept is applied outside of Season 6.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
THE BOMB OR THE DUD
People are still confused on what to take from the enhanced episodes of LOST. Some believe that it is merely "marketing department" annotations and not canon material. Others believe that TPTB have to have some input into the screen crawls otherwise their work could be contaminated with non-canon material. TPTB never denounced any of the enhanced materials. However, ABC admitted that it added the plane crash scenes over the End credits.
Now, the sideways world was subtitled as "what if" time line if Flight 815 never crashed on the island. In the End, we find out that if "what if" was fantasy, then that is correct. The sideways world was a made-up construct from the 815ers collective memories as a place to meet in the afterlife. (Who, what, when, where and how this occurred is a complete mystery.)
Next, the enhanced episodes stated that Juliet died when Jughead, the h-bomb, "went off." This is the apparent "Incident" that changed the course of the island events. If one suspends disbelief that a hydrogen bomb can be detonated by a rock, then how did Juliet not vaporize? How did all of the 815ers survive radiation fall-out and the shock wave? Further, the blast door map said the Incident happened in 1985; not when Juliet hit the device in 1977. If the bomb did go off, then the island world was not "real," but the illusion of reality. No one would have survived. If the bomb did not go off, and the drill hit an EM pocket that caused the sky to turn purple (and time flashed back to 2007), based on past experiences, the 815ers could have survived the jump. But that itself, does not put the island in the real world.
The problem with the island world is that light source and EM was never explained to any degree to determine what exactly is the island. Is the light source and the EM part of the same energy pocket? What is the energy pocket? What causes the EM and its "unique" properties? Why would you need to release the EM build up in the Hatch, but not in the island cave (the heart of the island) near the bamboo grove? And if an atomic bomb did go off, what changed? The sideways "events" were not created by the bomb, but according to Christian, it was made up by memories.
The whole mission to detonate Jughead appears to be a story dead end. It is one of many story line dead ends: why the Egyptian sets? who were the Others? what was Dharma really doing? what was the smoke monster? what was the lighthouse? what were Hanso, Widmore and Paik industries roles in the island? None of these story elements had any true relevance or material implications in the LOST ending of the characters being reunited in the church.
Now, the sideways world was subtitled as "what if" time line if Flight 815 never crashed on the island. In the End, we find out that if "what if" was fantasy, then that is correct. The sideways world was a made-up construct from the 815ers collective memories as a place to meet in the afterlife. (Who, what, when, where and how this occurred is a complete mystery.)
Next, the enhanced episodes stated that Juliet died when Jughead, the h-bomb, "went off." This is the apparent "Incident" that changed the course of the island events. If one suspends disbelief that a hydrogen bomb can be detonated by a rock, then how did Juliet not vaporize? How did all of the 815ers survive radiation fall-out and the shock wave? Further, the blast door map said the Incident happened in 1985; not when Juliet hit the device in 1977. If the bomb did go off, then the island world was not "real," but the illusion of reality. No one would have survived. If the bomb did not go off, and the drill hit an EM pocket that caused the sky to turn purple (and time flashed back to 2007), based on past experiences, the 815ers could have survived the jump. But that itself, does not put the island in the real world.
The problem with the island world is that light source and EM was never explained to any degree to determine what exactly is the island. Is the light source and the EM part of the same energy pocket? What is the energy pocket? What causes the EM and its "unique" properties? Why would you need to release the EM build up in the Hatch, but not in the island cave (the heart of the island) near the bamboo grove? And if an atomic bomb did go off, what changed? The sideways "events" were not created by the bomb, but according to Christian, it was made up by memories.
The whole mission to detonate Jughead appears to be a story dead end. It is one of many story line dead ends: why the Egyptian sets? who were the Others? what was Dharma really doing? what was the smoke monster? what was the lighthouse? what were Hanso, Widmore and Paik industries roles in the island? None of these story elements had any true relevance or material implications in the LOST ending of the characters being reunited in the church.
FINAL POLLS
The polls in the right hand column of this blog were closed about halfway through Season 6. It was to gauge the unscientific opinion of new readers. It was an effort to get people bridging the first season with the last one.
Did Flight 815 actually crash in S1E1 (the pilot episode)?
84 percent said yes; 15 percent said no.
After the first half of season one, one would have thought the yes answer would have been 99 percent. This was especially true after the show producers were adamant that the characters were not in purgatory.
But in the end, some are calling the sideways world purgatory (it is better named a waiting room to heaven than a place where people are working out their sins. Or in the hospital setting, a recovery room where characters were "awakened" by their past memories in order to "move on.") But the cross-over between the characters in the sideways world and the island world could mean that the worlds are connected in a single, spiritual realm where the sideways world is a repressed consciousness while the island is the conscious effort for redemption.
Did the plane crash? At the very least, there is the perception that a plane crashed and that certain souls survived it.
If Flight 815 crashed, where are the survivors?
Alive, on Earth: 30 percent
Alive, in a different realm: 30 percent
In limbo, purgatory: 30 percent
Dead, in the underworld: 7 percent
This may have been the most interesting aspect of the LOST Season 6 mid-point. Where the characters were was open to wide interpretation. In the end, the characters are "dead" in some afterlife realm, 37 percent would have been partially correct. If you believed the characters at some point were in a different realm, 67 percent would be partially correct. If you believed the characters were alive (especially on the island), 60 percent thought that was true. If you try to make a consensus out of these close opinions, it would seem that people believed the characters were "alive" but in a "different realm."
Then, if you factor in what Christian said, that everything Jack experienced was "real" including the sideways world, one could conclude that the show's unspoken definition of life and death does not have a normal definition. It could mean that the "reality" of human existence spans both being alive, being dead, then being "reborn."
Based on your (mid-season) expectations, how do you think LOST will end?
Great: 19 percent
Satisfactory: 28 percent
Underwhelming: 38 percent
Badly: 14 percent
Based on the reviews, comments and posts throughout the Internet, I think the vast majority of viewers found themselves in the Satisfactory or Underwhelming range. Many were satisfied with the sideways ending giving some happy-ending final resolution to the characters. But at the same time, there was major disappointment in the lack of answers to the island mysteries. Those who were satisfied with the ending have accepted the producer's premise that the show was not about answers but about the journey of the characters. In rebuttal, those underwhelmed (and the few really angry viewers) felt that if the writers were making a complex, layered storyline of events, mysteries and Easter egg clues, that they should have answered the questioned they posed to the viewers. Some felt conned or cheated in the end. Anyone can criticize the material presented to them; if this is how TPTB wanted to end their story, that is fine. But as some commentators said, "it could have been worse," or more to the point, "it could have been better."
Did Flight 815 actually crash in S1E1 (the pilot episode)?
84 percent said yes; 15 percent said no.
After the first half of season one, one would have thought the yes answer would have been 99 percent. This was especially true after the show producers were adamant that the characters were not in purgatory.
But in the end, some are calling the sideways world purgatory (it is better named a waiting room to heaven than a place where people are working out their sins. Or in the hospital setting, a recovery room where characters were "awakened" by their past memories in order to "move on.") But the cross-over between the characters in the sideways world and the island world could mean that the worlds are connected in a single, spiritual realm where the sideways world is a repressed consciousness while the island is the conscious effort for redemption.
Did the plane crash? At the very least, there is the perception that a plane crashed and that certain souls survived it.
If Flight 815 crashed, where are the survivors?
Alive, on Earth: 30 percent
Alive, in a different realm: 30 percent
In limbo, purgatory: 30 percent
Dead, in the underworld: 7 percent
This may have been the most interesting aspect of the LOST Season 6 mid-point. Where the characters were was open to wide interpretation. In the end, the characters are "dead" in some afterlife realm, 37 percent would have been partially correct. If you believed the characters at some point were in a different realm, 67 percent would be partially correct. If you believed the characters were alive (especially on the island), 60 percent thought that was true. If you try to make a consensus out of these close opinions, it would seem that people believed the characters were "alive" but in a "different realm."
Then, if you factor in what Christian said, that everything Jack experienced was "real" including the sideways world, one could conclude that the show's unspoken definition of life and death does not have a normal definition. It could mean that the "reality" of human existence spans both being alive, being dead, then being "reborn."
Based on your (mid-season) expectations, how do you think LOST will end?
Great: 19 percent
Satisfactory: 28 percent
Underwhelming: 38 percent
Badly: 14 percent
Based on the reviews, comments and posts throughout the Internet, I think the vast majority of viewers found themselves in the Satisfactory or Underwhelming range. Many were satisfied with the sideways ending giving some happy-ending final resolution to the characters. But at the same time, there was major disappointment in the lack of answers to the island mysteries. Those who were satisfied with the ending have accepted the producer's premise that the show was not about answers but about the journey of the characters. In rebuttal, those underwhelmed (and the few really angry viewers) felt that if the writers were making a complex, layered storyline of events, mysteries and Easter egg clues, that they should have answered the questioned they posed to the viewers. Some felt conned or cheated in the end. Anyone can criticize the material presented to them; if this is how TPTB wanted to end their story, that is fine. But as some commentators said, "it could have been worse," or more to the point, "it could have been better."
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
PERCEPTION PERCENTAGES
I was told that some one who watched LOST broke down the show as follows:
75% walking through the jungle;
5% of the time on off-island scenes;
5% of the time "waiting" for something to happen;
15% of the time something "happens."
75% walking through the jungle;
5% of the time on off-island scenes;
5% of the time "waiting" for something to happen;
15% of the time something "happens."
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
S6E17 (ALMOST) MIRROR IMAGE
I thought I had a Revelation about the End. Jack was wearing the same dark blue suit on the original S1E1 episode in the bamboo forest and during the church scene. If he was wearing the exact same suit and tie, that would have made for a very interesting speculative mind melt.
But, he was not. He was clearly wearing a different tie. If he had been wearing the exact same clothes, then one could reference that as the connection between the island and the sideways solution. Since he was not wearing the same clothes, one could reference that fact as stating that the island and sideways worlds were separate.
But, he was not. He was clearly wearing a different tie. If he had been wearing the exact same clothes, then one could reference that as the connection between the island and the sideways solution. Since he was not wearing the same clothes, one could reference that fact as stating that the island and sideways worlds were separate.
S6E17 WHAT CHRISTIAN SAID
It was not what Christian said to Jack, but how he said it that continues to cause problems in understanding the whole show construct.
In the church, Christian tells Jack that everything that he went through was real. But he also says that Jack is real, he is real, and the sideways world is real. Everything is real.
But we know that is not logically true because we were told that the sideways world was made up by the castaways as a place to meet in order to move on in the afterlife. The sideways world was not a "what if" Flight 815 never crashed; it was a holding pen for souls until Jack was ready to join them in an "awakening."
Everyone in the church was dead. Everyone in the sideways world was dead. Dead is dead.
But Christian called those sideways experiences "real." If dead is real, and the island was real, then one can argue that the island was also "dead." The island was a Dead Reality just like in the sideways world.
If the island was a level of the afterlife (the cast was dead or died in the plane crash), all of the legal-medical-science inconsistencies in the past story lines become immaterial because the island itself was a purgatory test of each person to redeem themselves. The sideways world was not a purgatory setting as the characters mirrored their bad behavior without any consequences (like in a dream state).
In the church, Christian tells Jack that everything that he went through was real. But he also says that Jack is real, he is real, and the sideways world is real. Everything is real.
But we know that is not logically true because we were told that the sideways world was made up by the castaways as a place to meet in order to move on in the afterlife. The sideways world was not a "what if" Flight 815 never crashed; it was a holding pen for souls until Jack was ready to join them in an "awakening."
Everyone in the church was dead. Everyone in the sideways world was dead. Dead is dead.
But Christian called those sideways experiences "real." If dead is real, and the island was real, then one can argue that the island was also "dead." The island was a Dead Reality just like in the sideways world.
If the island was a level of the afterlife (the cast was dead or died in the plane crash), all of the legal-medical-science inconsistencies in the past story lines become immaterial because the island itself was a purgatory test of each person to redeem themselves. The sideways world was not a purgatory setting as the characters mirrored their bad behavior without any consequences (like in a dream state).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
