Show: Lost (2004-2010)
Creator(s): Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama

Preamble:

This is a review of the entire series as concluded yesterday, although not heavy in plot points it will contain extensive spoilers.

Plot Points:

A plane crashes on a hidden tropical  island.  The survivors help one another to escape the wreckage, and gradually build a loosely tied community. while they await rescue.  It turns out that while they are strangers, they share a mysterious connection. A series of numbers have played an important part in their lives and it becomes clear that they were brought to the island for a purpose.  The island seems haunted by a smoke monster which appears from time to time, and also is home to a number of other strange occurrences (whispers, polar bears) that the group attempts to find explanations for. Upon discovering other residents both currently and in the past, it becomes clear that the island houses massive power which is being vented regularly to prevent some kind of undefined “incident”.  A company has also established a base there, attempting to study the island for their own purposes.

In the end it turns out that the island is ground zero for a battle between good and evil, and has been for centuries. Those brought to the island aboard Oceanic flight 815 are candidates to replace its protector (Jacob), who means to keep the smoke monster on the island for the good of humanity.  One by one, candidates are eliminated until a successor is finally named – tasked both with stopping the smoke monster’s attempt to escape the island and protecting the light at the heart of the island.

Sounder 2: Man's worst enemy

The Meat:

One of the more interesting discussions people will have from time to time regards the merits of linear vs. non-linear storytelling. For folks who enjoy the works of David Lynch, for example, they will excuse the frequency with which they don’t remotely understand the point of his work (Mulholland Drive, etc.) in exchange for the excitement of his non-linear storytelling. The problem with non-linear storytelling has always been  the sense that so much time has been wasted.

This is not a slight of flash-backs or flash-forwards as devices, since they remain some of my favorites. The Godfather 2 flashbacks to early America are its most memorable scenes.  In that film however, the flashbacks were not trite, and did not serve to bloat what should have been a brief story.  The flashbacks also focused on primary characters, rather than delve into the histories of dozens of ancillary figures.  And most importantly, were the flashbacks removed from the film, there would still be a great, central plot which moved along at a very interesting pace.  Even allowing for the differences in serial storytelling vs. movies, ‘Lost’, in the end, failed with this integration.  What might have come across as in-depth sci-fi mysteries (the numbers, the light, island navigation), turned out to be macguffins, or resolved by deus ex machina (Jacob is really really fucking powerful, THAT’S why nobody can leave the island).

One cannot argue that the plot resolution is unimportant, because it does not take 6 years to resolve character arcs.  Unless, that is, your story is and burdened by an oversized cast and a corporate desire to recoup filming costs.  There’s a point where any fiction threatens to go from actual emotions to imitations of those emotions, from storytelling to exercises in storytelling. In Season 2, Lost  jumped across that line.  While season 3 was a great effort to repair Season 2’s damage, the show never quite recovered from the cast’s expansion.  Pare this all down to 3 seasons (BBC style with less eps/season), quicken the realization by the escaped characters that they have to find their way back to the island, and you have one of the best runs imaginable.

Among the show’s various “flashes”, Season 6′s sideways flashes stand out as particularly useless.  First let’s assume that this is purgatory (Ben’s “not coming in just yet”, even after his time as Hugo’s #2 would seem to cement it), and everyone has to wait until they absolve their sins enough to move on.  While not fully confirmed, it was great to see that they all go onto be a part of the light we see at the heart of the island.  It’s a very nice cyclical finish to the story.  So is Jack’s final resting place and position, as shown below in the opening to the first episode of the series. Highlighting his father Christian Shepherd as Jack’s usher to the next stage was also a great touch.

Why in the world then is it necessary for the entire final season to be filled with alternate time-line stories, such as Sawyer and Miles as detectives chasing down Kate and Sayid? Why do we need to see anything except the end-game of these Bizarro-world/afterlife versions of the characters all coming together to meet at the church?  Their final connections, acceptances of death, and restored memories are all that was needed of their time in the “flash sideways.”  We do not need to see Jack’s non-existent son, David, and his in-depth but ultimately pointless relationship with him.  Was it crucial that we see Locke and Benjamin as teachers and with a budding friendship? The reality is, none of this added to the plot, it destroyed pacing, and did nothing to address the show’s central mysteries.  More bloating.  So how to grade such a frustrating show?

Pros:

• Many episodes including the series finale are extremely well acted, and incredibly shot by TV standards.
• It remembers to focus on characters, and has all the characteristics of a great show.
• The show turns math terms on their heads in order to establish that no matter the amount of variables (location, time, reality) love is the most reliable constant.
• There are some genuinely fascinating, unique characters here (Desmond, Miles, Jack, Rose, among others).

Cons:

• We have entire episodes dealing with meaningless figures.
• Episodes have runtimes that are more than 70% composed of flashbacks.
• Forward momentum is regularly destroyed.
• The time travel often comes across as an opportunity to rewrite the stories for a few characters (Sawyer eventually works for Darhma etc.), even if their memories are intact.
• Plot devices are used often in lieu of plot POINTS, then abandoned as being non-central to the story (the number of unresolved ideas in the show is staggering).
• The show’s mythology comes across as incomplete and cobbled together.
• Jacob and his brother, are not nearly as interesting as they should be.

It’s a bit hard to give the show anything but a mediocre final grade.  ‘Lost’ would’ve worked great as ‘Shogun’ type epic miniseries, but there’s not nearly enough money in that is there?