My Thoughts on Lost

Minor Spoiler Warning

The following review/thoughts are for the entire six season run of Lost. There are some minor spoilers, but not anything gigantic, I don't think. Just be aware that they exist.

My Thoughts on Lost 

For the last month or so, I've been watching Lost as often as I can. This last week, I finished the series. I gotta say, it's not as mind-blowing as I've heard it was. Now, that statement might be one of the most controversial things I could say about Lost... except I'm probably going to end up saying more. Now though, I'd like to elaborate on why I think I didn't find Lost that mind-blowing.

I've got several theories banging around in my head regarding that. They are as follows:

1. I never hopped on the reality show bandwagon.
2. I've always been more attracted to and watched more arc-based television.
3. I didn't watch Lost while it was airing.
4. I've been watching Lost back-to-back.

For the sake of simplicity and inter-linked-ness, I'm gonna talk about all the points together. At the time Lost was airing, and even today, our television screens are bombarded my reality shows. As far as I've seen, reality shows aren't all that exciting or mentally engaging. Yeah, the single episodes are kind of exciting, but only in that you're supposed to take reality shows one episode at a time with no real inter-linked parts in between. With Lost, you pretty much had to tune in every week to find out the entire story. This is normal for most of the TV shows I watch/have watched.

One of the big things I heard/am hearing about Lost is that it's all "mysterious" and stuff. It's really not, especially if you're used to arc-based storytelling. A little bit of the plot is revealed each episode with character stuff or one-off plots filling out the individual episodes. This happens in Lost, Doctor Who, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Angel, etc. etc. Heck, even books are written that way, assuming you translate a chapter into an episode. So yeah, the mystery of Lost was somewhat lost on me. I just assumed everything mysterious would be explained by the end of the storyline.

I talked over some of my feelings about Lost with my dad. When I told him I didn't find it as awesome as everyone else did, he pointed out that I was watching it out of sync with everyone else. This is true. I don't have "Lost Fever" around me as I watch the show. I'm not involved in all the speculation that went on from week to week. I'm watching the show back-to-back, virtually no waiting between episodes, by myself with no one to talk things out with. So there's that bit of excitement thrown out the window.

All of that stuff said, I still thought Lost was an engaging show. It kept me watching 'til the end, at least. I liked the characters. I was somewhat intrigued by the storyline and certain elements of the show. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as awesome as I'd been expecting. Probably a hype problem in there somewhere, too.

So, now my thoughts on characters. I thought Kate was fun, but really wishy-washy. She never seemed to decide, or in fact settle, on Jack or Sawyer at all. In fact, she was constantly, up until the last episode, flipping back and forth between them. Heck, she actually had more chemistry with Claire than either Jack or Sawyer. Kate's ridiculousness got boring after the first season so I pretty much tuned that mess out. I thought Sawyer was brilliant, especially in the last couple seasons. Jack... was your typical reluctant hero. Yeah, he'll get the job done, but he'll complain about it the entire way. Claire was pretty awesome. I loved Charlie. Sayid was the kind of guy I like to see in these shows. Knows where he stands morally, but isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. I thought Sun and Jin were nice together and held their own apart. Hugo was... well, Hugo. Almost too-trusting at times, flipped between pessimistic and optimistic, read people well, and had an interest ability. Ben was annoying at first and then I kind of liked him. Locke... I didn't like him for most of the series. Still have a kind of apathy toward him. I really liked Juliet. I thought she and Sawyer were an awesome couple. I cried over their bit at the end.

And now... some unanswered questions I have. What exactly is the island? I kind of want to say it's a sort of purgatory or a bubble universe or something. That's never fully answered. Next, the giant statue of Sobek. Sobek is the Egyptian god of crocodiles and also the creator of the world. He apparently crawled out of chaos to do so. The island is plenty chaotic so... what's with the statue? Lastly, how exactly is the island so linked with electromagnetic power? Like, how does that even work? Electromagnetism was apparently holding the island together... or whatever. That confused the heck out of me.

So... yeah... that's what I thought of Lost. I'm planning to try to listen to a Lost podcast, see if I can gain any additional insight from other people.

Housekeeping

For those of you who read my blog regularly and are wondering where my Grimm review, Once Upon a Time initial reactions, and Doctor Who review are... they're coming. I still haven't got around to watching Grimm and I missed Once Upon a Time this evening. I also want to watch "Hide" a few more times before I give a review of that. I may or may not have time in the next couple days due to babysitting. However, they will be here eventually.

Let me know what you guys thought about Lost or my thoughts on Lost in the comments.

Love ya, Jessie.