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[Terry Cheesecake]

black people all live in the same area

[Jordo]

there was an awesome lost finale?

we did not know this

[Jon]

I didn't want to participate in this thread until I saw every episode that's aired so far, and I finally finished today. It's a good show, and I enjoyed watching it, but I enjoyed it in spite of its flaws, which I think are pretty significant.

- I don't really like the concept of flashbacks. I think it's far more interesting to glean what knowledge you can from what the character is doing than it is to break up the action with spoon-fed "this is why this character is like this" homework. The flashbacks themselves were usually kind of fun to watch, but it actually made me care less about what was happening in the present. The only flashbacks that I'll excuse are Locke's, just because they're so fascinating. It's clear that Locke is the most "special" person on the show, and I think I'd be okay with just seeing Locke flashbacks a couple of times a season.

- If there's one more slo-mo "hooray this guy made it back to camp" scene set to string music I'll probably stop watching the show. I think that happens every third episode, and whenever it happens I usually just laugh.

- "I'm coming with you!/I'm supposed to come with you!" "You're not supposed to come with me!" Over the course of the show, there's probably enough argument about who goes on various adventures to last an entire episode. That's not even the problem, though. The problem is that despite the enormous amount of back story and screen time poured into these characters, we usually don't have a great idea of why they want to do half the crap they're doing. None of them ever seem the least bit hesitant, much less frightened -- it's almost as though the characters know the writers are going to look out for them.

- Mr. Eko died. His character was pretty stupidly conceived, but I still thought he was awesome.

- Most of all, and this is probably the most popular complaint, nothing is truly explained to satisfaction. Things happen that defy all reason, and that's okay, because it makes the show what it is. The problem is that these mystical happenings are explained away by other, more mystical happenings. The show is custom-engineered to make people keep watching through tricks like this, rather than through excellent storytelling.

This isn't a knock on any of you who watch it, because obviously I do too, but I think the show's pretty idiot-friendly. It's Twin Peaks for people who want a fantasy explained to them by hot people. All that said, I'll keep watching it for a few reasons:

- I think a few of the characters are pretty interesting, notably Locke, Ben and Hurley.

- I like the idea of the whole island being some sort of massive puzzle, and they pace it well so that whenever they discover a new place, like a hatch or radio tower, I'm all "AWW NEAT!"

- Charlie is dead. Sorry, I just didn't really give a shit about him being alive.

Right now, my idea of the perfect episode would just be Ben Linus sitting in a chair and talking about shit, interspersed by brief flashbacks of him eating a cheeseburger and then taking a dump.

[Maynard,]

- Most of all, and this is probably the most popular complaint, nothing is truly explained to satisfaction. Things happen that defy all reason, and that's okay, because it makes the show what it is. The problem is that these mystical happenings are explained away by other, more mystical happenings. The show is custom-engineered to make people keep watching through tricks like this, rather than through excellent storytelling.

The writers have definitely been stringing us along, but I assume that is because the major mystical incidents will be explained by the end. This explanation, even if it's LSD laced water and everyone is trippin' balls, is what keeps me watching despite increasing character development flaws.

The others stories don't matter much to me. I don't care if Kate ends of with Sawyer, Jack or Charlie's corpse. That stuff is the mildly interesting story that fills the spaces between "Why is there a polar bear here?" and "Oh, there's a zoo...that's on a second island...so, why was there a polar bear there?" If these stories are resolved and the magical happenings aren't, I'll be extremely pissed come three seasons time.

It's Twin Peaks for people who want a fantasy explained to them by hot people.

Sherilyn Fenn and Madchen Amick were hot. I always assumed that women found Dana Ashbrook and Kyle MacLachlan hot.

[Wat, But A Girl]

Right now, my idea of the perfect episode would just be Ben Linus sitting in a chair and talking about shit, interspersed by brief flashbacks of him eating a cheeseburger and then taking a dump.

I'd watch it.

[Jon]

My guess? Michael. Who would go to his funeral? Even Walt might have gotten pissed at him, and the neighbourhood the funeral was at seemed like it was african-american dominated.

as terry cheesecake said, this is a pretty lol idea

[Alan]

why

(ps the writers had to string us along because they didn't know how long the show would last. now that they've set an end date I imagine they'll start revealing more)

[Jon]

1. Because the caretaker of the funeral home said that Jack was the only one to attend the visitation and I don't think that it's a black guy in the casket just because it was in a neighborhood in which a couple of black guys were hanging out.

2. I understand that's how television economics work, but I don't give a shit. Whether it's the writers' fault or not, I'm not dependent on their product because I can always find something else to do if it gets shitty. The network, the producers, and the writers are all responsible for this product, and I don't really care where the blame lies.

[Jon]

By the way, I'm looking through the episode-by-episode discussions in this thread. It might just be because I watched like three episodes per day, but i don't remember myself being nearly as wrapped up in plot points as you guys were. Part of it may have been because i knew that I had the entire season available to watch rather than having to wait a week for another 43 minutes of it. I haven't don't that with any other dramatic television show before, so if I take the traditional route and just watch an episode a week, I might be able to enjoy it more.

[Alan]

that doesn't mean it couldn't be Michael though. I wasn't saying it was Michael "just because" there were "a couple of black guys hanging out." It was merely an aside to the fact that this person must have been someone who was unliked, who the losties knew (or at least Kate and Jack), and for some reason Jack was distressed by their death and Kate was not. Also, people have screencapped/transcribed the newspaper clipping that Jack read (which led to him going to the funeral) and it mentions that the deceased has a teenage son (Which could be Walt).

[Jon]

ha well you should have said that instead of "the funeral home was in black guy junction"

[Casey]

i went to school in black guy junction

Anyway, Jon, I would say that it is easier to get wrapped up into the hype of the show when you are watching it week-by-week. I liked parts of the show when we were getting "caught up" (we watched the first two seasons just before season three started) but by the end of season three I was having way-too-long discussions theorizing what (blah) was all about only to have another curveball thrown the following week that meant only part of what we had previously guessed could be true. Maybe that's buying into the cheap mysteriousness or whatever, but I don't really care and if you have fun with it you might find yourself not caring either.

I don't think I'll walk away from Lost at the end of the series going "wow, that was a stunning narrative", but I've had a good time trying to out-crazy the writers in terms of what things mean and where they're going next.

Lastly I still think "Exposé" was a brilliant episode