Lost (spoilers)

Started by MacGuffin, October 07, 2004, 01:10:26 AM

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polkablues

A couple hours ago I went down to the convenience store across the street to buy something to drink and had to wait in line behind ten people buying Mega Millions lottery tickets.  All of them were buying multiple tickets, all of their tickets had to be specific numbers, and every one of the people looked like they'd be a whole lot better off just keeping the twenty to fifty bucks they were flushing away.
My house, my rules, my coffee

mogwai

'Lost' will return one day, claims co-creator

But Damon Lindelof says he will not be involved

Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof has predicted that the show will one day return.

The writer and producer, who is currently working on the current generation of Star Trek movies, said that the cult hit show would likely be revived at the Entertainment and Technology Summit hosted by Variety.

He said: "It's been two years [since the show ended] and we told the story we wanted to tell. I do feel like the world has not seen the end of Lost but I'm not going to have any involvement."

Lindelof added that any new production team who wanted to work on a Lost revival or continuation would have his blessing. "It would be hypocritical of me to say I'm going to [reboot] Star Trek but I don't want anyone to touch Lost."

Lost concerned the mysterious fate of the survivors of a crashed plane on a mysterious island, and was notorious for its dense and intricate plots. It finally concluded in May 2010. Lindelof also served as the show's chief writer.

Jeremy Blackman

Meh... it wouldn't be the same.

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on May 03, 2012, 11:00:18 AM
Meh... it wouldn't be the same.

truth. I just want to know where that statue came from instead of just having a couple hints.

Sleepless

Haven't seen Prometheus, but having gone through the frustration of Lost, I think it's clear that Lindelof is a hack. Are movies generally better when they clearly leave you with a definite "idea" in your mind? Of course not, but that doesn't mean that you can leave things unanswered or unexplained just for the sake of doing so. By embracing plot holes and even forgetting about entire plotlines (I'm talking about Lost here) Lindelof believes he is leaving things open ended for the audience to impose their own beliefs, imagination, or whatever. In reality, he's just being lazy.

I think a good example of how to correctly leave things open/unexplained is the sadly poorly received second X-Files movie. The question is raised throughout the film of the possibility of a divine power, but it never forces a certain perspective on the audience, trusting them enough to come to their own conclusion whatever that might be. Lindelof is not doing anything approaching this. On the flip side, given the X-Files example, I think it's fair to once again criticize the final scenes from The Tree of Life. That film would have been so much more powerful if it hadn't rammed the idea that Heaven is definite down our throats right at the very end.

A good point, poorly made?
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Jeremy Blackman

Attacking Lost and defending the second X-Files movie? Really?

I won't defend Prometheus, but Lost definitely pulled it off.

I think Lost achieved tasteful ambiguity as well as anything possibly could. And half the time people complain about Lost's unanswered questions, those questions were actually answered. They either don't remember or didn't feel like putting any effort into interpretation. I'm so tired of that.

modage

I really hate the way that history is being rewritten that LOST is somehow a bad show or wasn't a worthwhile experience. Even if the last 2 seasons werent great (they werent) that doesn't/shouldn't/can't detract from how excellent the first few were. Does no one remember those?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

socketlevel

I really liked lost, just saying there were a couple red herrings that weren't needed. I recently watched it again on netflix and i was totally into it and you're right a lot was answered, but not everything. The stuff that wasn't appeared to be a neat trick, that wasn't followed up; probably the by-product of not having season by season planned out as much as it could have been. The last episode really did stick out as being poor though. I loved the stuff with Jack, but everything else was forced.
the one last hit that spent you...

modage

Further thoughts: people generally look back on Twin Peaks as an excellent landmark series despite the fact that only about 1/4 of it is great. But (most) people (I read/hear) seem to look back on LOST with scorn like the entire thing was a waste of time. Why?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Jeremy Blackman

Totally agree.

In general, the questions that Lost left unanswered are the ones I want to remain unanswered. In fact, in some cases I think they went a little too far dispelling some mysteries... Richard Alpert is the big one, and Jacob's backstory to some extent.

Sleepless

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on November 14, 2012, 12:33:34 PM
Attacking Lost and defending the second X-Files movie? Really?

Absolutely. It may not be the XF movie most people wanted or expected, but it does what the show always excelled at - telling a great story through the use of the Mulder and Scully characters.

Quote from: modage on November 14, 2012, 01:10:04 PM
I really hate the way that history is being rewritten that LOST is somehow a bad show or wasn't a worthwhile experience. Even if the last 2 seasons weren't great (they werent) that doesn't/shouldn't/can't detract from how excellent the first few were. Does no one remember those?

Good point. The show was awesome. The last season (at least) was terrible. But the bigger problem for me was that they would bring up a whole host of new ideas and plot threads while conveniently ignoring several big ideas which had previously been treated as significant. I guess Lost is something which we can debate to death ad finem.

Quote from: modage on November 14, 2012, 01:30:47 PM
Further thoughts: people generally look back on Twin Peaks as an excellent landmark series despite the fact that only about 1/4 of it is great. But (most) people (I read/hear) seem to look back on LOST with scorn like the entire thing was a waste of time. Why?

My guess at that is despite the fact Twin Peaks likewise got shit at the end, it did answer the show's central questions: who killed Laura Palmer. Lost never accomplished that, maybe because it was never sure what its central question was in the first place. Also, 90% of people completely misunderstood the final episode and thought it meant all the characters had been dead the whole time.

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on November 14, 2012, 01:43:42 PM
In general, the questions that Lost left unanswered are the ones I want to remain unanswered. In fact, in some cases I think they went a little too far dispelling some mysteries... Richard Alpert is the big one, and Jacob's backstory to some extent.

Can't disagree with this. The episode with Jacob and the other one as kids was one of the worst episodes the show churned out. Yes, worse than that one with the two newbies in season three.

Didn't mean to derail this thread. Sorry! FYI, despite Lost's descent into awfulness, I do look forward to going back and re-watching the first 5 season on DVD again years from now.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

socketlevel

Quote from: modage on November 14, 2012, 01:30:47 PM
Further thoughts: people generally look back on Twin Peaks as an excellent landmark series despite the fact that only about 1/4 of it is great. But (most) people (I read/hear) seem to look back on LOST with scorn like the entire thing was a waste of time. Why?

time and place my man, time and place. don't knock a pioneer.
the one last hit that spent you...

©brad

Quote from: modage on November 14, 2012, 01:30:47 PM
Further thoughts: people generally look back on Twin Peaks as an excellent landmark series despite the fact that only about 1/4 of it is great. But (most) people (I read/hear) seem to look back on LOST with scorn like the entire thing was a waste of time. Why?

While I disliked the last two seasons, I don't think the whole endeavor was a waste of time at all. Even on its worst day Lost was always a captivating show, and you had to admire its ambition if nothing else. I don't disagree with you, but I'll try and answer this just based on what I hear from friends who were once fans.

Regardless of what you think about the finale, the show was building to it from episode 1. So if you thought the ending was underwhelming, as many did, it renders the whole journey to it somewhat of a tease, a long run for a short slide. I remember Mod you had a good write-up in the middle of the show's run about how posing questions was more fun than getting answers, which makes sense to me. I had friends who always used to joke that the show was a ponzi scheme of questions. You had to wonder, after answering questions with more questions, and exploring tangential mysteries that had little barring on the main story, did a truly satisfying ending that would blow everyone's mind even exist? I almost fall on the side of thinking that come the last season, they tried to answer too much, and in the end the show fell victim to its own fanboy-perpetuated hype. As viewers we think we crave answers, but what we really crave is the mystery and theorizing and furious online debating. The writers set the bar so high with the sheer badassery of the first couple of seasons, the lofty expectations of fans were always going to be higher than whatever answer was spoon-fed to them come series finale time.




Drenk

The issue with Lost was the all "We know everything about the end" I'm sorry, but you can't know everything. Seasons 3 and 4 were great and, then, they began to be too focused about their ending and they forgot to write things before that. So the: "But it's a show about characters, not questions !" is funny. Can you remember interesting things happening between the characters in the last season ? They didn't even try...
Ascension.