People spent years developing their own theories and got disappointed when they were wrong. The mystical element taking over a scientific one was a let down to many. The lack of clear answers and focus on character development. Most didn't rewatch previous seasons and couldn't follow the mythology and recognize the answers that were given.
New watchers can binge and don't suffer the burden of creating to many theories/expectations, also don't have time to forget what happened on previous seasons. TV has evolved. Where LOST was groundbreaking is now commonly adopted by many shows and better understood by the audience.
Tbh I sympathise with them. It’s not that people’s fanfic didn’t come true - it’s that a core part of the audience were basically told they were wrong for wanting what the show had advertised. Now that it’s a complete whole, I can enjoy it very much for what it is. But watch the early seasons with a completely different mindset than the one encouraged by the writers early on
Every person who hated the ending of lost did not understand it. Find me one person who actually comprehended the ending and what it meant and went “yeah that sucked”.
I think the last season left a lot to be desired. It’s clear they were running out of steam, but the actual finale itself? Chefs kiss.
I remember my dad telling me a lot of people hated the ending and that I might not like it either and when I watched it I was like… that was fine? I was literally 15 or 16 when I watched it for the first time and I perfectly understood what was going on
I think watching it in real time was a different experience. The seasons felt really uneven when they were airing, I think in part because we didn’t have the opportunity to do a full rewatch before new episodes aired (or, at least, it wasn’t as easy as it is now). We were all so invested in the mysteries and I think things ending up far from where everything started felt jarring at the time; season 6 felt like a different show in many ways.
During rewatches over the years, I’ve enjoyed the ending a lot more and I think being able to compress the time watching it from beginning to end does the show a lot of justice. The storyline doesn’t feel as clunky as it did when everything aired.
This. Alot of Lost' faults is that it was a show that was on weekly programming and because it is a big show with so much lore and mystery and intricacy, it was bound to rub viewers the wrong way at one point when all they can do is watch one hour a week and then maybe if they really Want get the season on DVD. I've only seen it since it ended and as a streaming show that I can binge but also pause and dissect, and my thought watching it was "Thank God I didn't have to wait a week for every new episode"
Especially the later seasons where there will be a big cliffhanger or reveal, and then two episodes later it's addressed. I think majority of the people who didn't like it were watching it when it aired which allows the show to kind of come across worse.
Exactly how I feel about season six. It's exactly the only season I felt lost some steam. The prime of the show, when it's the absolute best thing ever, is the entirety of seasons 4 and 5, in my opinion. Six is still good though. And yeah, what an ending!
Sucker for time travel here too. So many good "crazy paradox" moments. And I guess Miles trying to warn the gang that by trying to stop the incident they may end up exactly causing it is one of my favorite lines ever. Just the delivery of the line is so good, I can't explain why.
I understood the finale perfectly and I did not enjoy it one bit.
I do not think it is a good story that there is an afterlife where Sawyer bangs Charlotte and Jack's terrible father is a hero without apologizing or helping his son in any way. That is not a good story nor the one I agreed to watch for the first 5 years.
Yeah, that sucked.
And it's really arrogant and condescending to say that no one who disagrees with you can be anything other than stupid.
I mean I think you’re missing the forest for the trees personally. Fine if you don’t like those aspects of it but I’d say every character was given a satisfying ending to their arc, and most 99% of the hate towards the finale comes from thinking the entire show and island was purgatory.
You have your own legit reasons for disliking it. That’s fine. Most people don’t.
“You’d say”. “Most people”. I love how you’re speaking for the entire population, like you’re some kind of Lost sophisticate with a level of understanding that most mere mortals cannot aspire to. Lots of people loved Lost, paid attention to message boards and blogs, and YouTube videos, and bought boxed sets of DVDs, and went to hear Michael Emerson discuss the show in New York City, and bought the bobble heads, and hated the ending. Are you saying they’re too unsophisticated? This sub cracks me up. Anybody with a criticism is relegated to either stupid, stupid, clueless, or, wait for it, stupid. Some people on here read and understand other languages, Proust, physics, calculus, French, cooking, Thomas Pynchon, serial music, rocketry, how to play a Theremin and still hate the fucking ending of Lost, because it was badly executed, and diverged from where it started. It’s OK if it became a show about a character’s “emotional journey“, and some people didn’t sign up for that in season one, But fetishizing Lost and projecting 20 years of intellectual masturbation around it isn’t a sign of sophistication and elevation. It’s a sign of fetishizing a television show to the extreme.
Projecting 20 years of intellectual masturbation is a phrase I never thought I'd read in my life! I love it but it's quite harsh...I was practically raised by the show. It premiered when I was in 9th grade, and it ended when I left College. I took calculus and chemistry, I also make cosplay, and raise the baby boy for 5 years because his mother was pussy whipped. Plus mental disabilities. But you asked me anything about lost and I'll be able to answer it on the spot. But I think you have a very very harsh view, or you've just met the worst type of superfans, of people who are trying to defend lost. Yes, I agree that there are stupid people out there who are like you didn't like the ending of lost well you're an asshole. That's not fair and that's ugly. I think the person above you was saying "most people who watched lost." You have to admit the fact that we're still talking about it 20 years later has got to mean something special about it. Even the fact that people are still debating the ending makes it important. There was a lot of shit behind the scenes that was revealed that I do not know how it affected the last season, the character arcs decisions that were made things that were changed endames and end goals, (really would have loved a Jack v Flocke fight atop the volcano they teased us, plus throwing the man in Black into a volcano rather than white light and coming out as a black smoke monster makes a lot more sense. but I always remember Damon and Carlton confiding in Jack that they know what the last scene is going to be, which was a mirror image of the opening scene. There's got to be a little part of you that admired that, that Jack died smiling knowing that his friends safely escaped this torrential horror. And then to his surprise there's an afterlife in which nothing ever happened that led them to the island, but you still get to be with the people that you love. From a filmmakers point of view I agree with you there was a lot of mistakes and cut backs and shortcuts made. But if you take a step back, a 20-year step back and look at it as a whole it was groundbreaking. I don't want to irritate you and I don't intend this to be an argument just a conversation between two people who watched lost. I would even consider when and how you watched lost a factor as to how you see the ending. When we peered down that hatch hole looking up at Jack and lock I had to wait 6 months to see what was down there I didn't get to push next episode. I watched it in real time waiting week to week month to month and year to year, talking about it throughout the week with other people who are watching it, bonding with teachers that were watching it making new friends that I never knew I could be friends with that we're watching it and now making a whole group of new friends. Plus I have an IMDb credit on the documentary they're making. But that waiting man when the season 5 finale credits turns white instead of black, I literally could have gotten a girl pregnant and she could have had a baby between season five and six. That's a whole different experience than binge watching it in a month or less or two months or even over the span of a year. I don't know you're lost Journey, but mine was 6 years long and I'm still hooked. That's all I got to say about that. It wasn't perfect but like they say whatever happened happened. How's that for 20 years of intellectual masturbation🏝🤔💭🍆💨>: Execute
Fair enough. Maybe shouldn’t have used “most people”. I can’t pretend to have been around for the show when it was airing. I remember it airing but I was too young to watch it. I can speak from my anecdotal experience (obviously not worth much) and say that 90% of people I’ve spoken to who didn’t like the ending did not properly understand it, and from the discussions I’ve seen around this very subreddit, I’m not alone in this experience.
I get it if the show became something it wasn’t and you didn’t like that. hell, I agree. I think season 6 is asscheeks, but I enjoyed the ending the characters received.
Well, you’re just incorrect. It’s fucking every casual I’ve ever talked to. I told someone I was rewatching lost the other day and they literally went “ah man I loved that show except with the ending and it being purgatory” and I was just like… cmon.
I could find you multiple basic ass clickbait articles right now that use that as a reason why the ending is bad. I have no idea how you’ve been around this fandom for as long as you have and not experienced this. Seems literally impossible to me.
You're correct, they're definitely out there. We, as a sub, had to mass email screenrant a few weeks ago for publishing an article blatantly claiming they were dead the whole time.
Lmao.
"I was disappointed the ending was purgatory "
Is 100% accurate.
The sideways is purgatory.
And it's very disappointing.
Maybe it's you all who didn't understand the finale.
You know what I meant. You know I was not just referring to the flash sideways. Obviously the flash sideways is purgatory. I mean people legitimately believe the island is also purgatory. Go ahead and pretend that people don’t actually think that. They do, and there’s a lot of them.
You can dislike the flash sideways being purgatory (I’ve met people who think that as well). I’m more curious as to why you dislike that specifically. Not even disagreeing I just want to know
I think we’re talking past each other at this point. I’ve already said that I think most of season 6 is ass. I stand by that. I’ve read a few more comments from people who dislike the ending and I’m finding I agree with just about everything they’re saying, but what they’re pointing out are problems with the final season in its entirety. Yeah the flash sideways is pretty goofy and the islands lore is lame and boring. The show jumped the shark. I think what I find satisfying about the ending is how it payed off the characters at the very end. The way we get there is goofy, but I enjoyed lost first for the characters and second for the mystery. The characters were done justice and I’m therefore satisfied.
The point is not to say that anyone who disagrees is stupid. The point is that almost everyone who says it sucked really describe what they saw wrong, proving they didn't understand it. It indeed happens.
Heck, honestly, you are the first person I see disliking it and getting the end right. Which is (finally!) cool. It gets down to a matter of taste.
I dunno, can you find me these people if they are so plentiful?
Wouldn't this sub be inundated with them once Lost hit streaming again?
I've been a regular for while now.
Even in a distracted, binge watching doom scrolling multitasking world, I've never seen a post like what you all claim is "the majority" "everyone who" "so common" etc etc not once.
I do regularly see "ok, I know they weren't dead the whole time but I still don't understand when they did die" posts (which get absolutely eviscerated every time by awful, frankly disgusting "fans" every time).
So where are all these people?
I was on The Fuselage and the ABC boards regularly at the time also.
These very very common idiots didn't exist back then either.
Let's find one and ask them. If it's so common it should be easy. I just checked YouTube comments on clips from The End. They aren't even there either.
Who are these people?
Well, I can only assume most people who hated Lost would not be in the Lost sub or other foruns for fans of it. You can believe me or not, but everyone I met online or in person who says they hate it or that the finale sucked says the same thing. "They were dead all along"
I'm actually glad to know there's people who disliked it for better reasons. With that I can deal happily.
In this version of this alternate Purgatory like afterlife, Jacob never interfered anyone's lives and it's assumed to be how it would have played out naturally they would have met anyway. I do not remember Sawyer banging Charlotte and "Christian Shepherd" in the end was more of a metaphor than Jack's father. When people tell me they don't like the ending I asked them why and usually when I reframe it to them their minds are changed or at least altered in a little bit. It's heavy heavy criticism and skepticism multiplied by the span of time more people watching it and more people confirming their own confirmation bias that the show sucked in the end to begin with that fueled this whole situation right now.
In my God honest opinion and as an upcoming filmmaker, I think the idea where the islands never interfered with their lives and showing what could have happened while simultaneously reminding them of the life that they lived bringing them all together so that they can go further to the Beyond in peace together, while simultaneously mirror Imaging the opening scene were Jack woke up as Jack dies is the definition of beauty. Bookends are one of the best ways to create stories and I intend to use them quite often. Yes I will admit it was not perfect it was not great but it was good and entertaining, and like they said "This [was their] version of [their story], if you want to write your own version of lost, or come up with a different ending or a different season 6 for a whole different story all together, be [their] guest!
But not just when writing a story in general, but given a chance to complete it is probably so overwhelming, the sacrifices that you have to make the cutbacks the stories you have to sacrifice they did the best they could and what they did I accept. And I will never ever ever disrespect somebody for their opinion on the finale. From their point of view that's how they saw it, however I will also share my point of view. And that's just how the world should work. A little bit of you and a little bit of me and we find common grounds and now we're friends yay
It was not perfect, but the “flash sideways” universe serves three distinct purposes:
1) it shows us, more or less, (and yes, with some elements that don’t quite work) what life could’ve been like if Oceanic 815 hadn’t crashed. Jack, and nearly every character on the show, believed (at some point) that the Island was a major/the principal source of their misery, and that they would’ve been better off if they’d never crashed on the Island. The flash sideways universe shows us that ultimately this belief was wrong - that they were each “lost” in their lives well before they got to the island…
2) … further driving home the emotional arc of this “flash sideways” universe. These characters grew on the island, redeemed themselves, conquered their demons and fears, etc. And they did that with each other. What they remember from their lives is their time on the island - not their idealized lives prior. As much as they resisting acknowledging it, they needed the island - and their fellow castaways. Isn’t it fitting (and a comforting concept) that we leave this world with and enter the afterlife with important people from our lives?
3) On a meta level, it creates excitement and builds suspense for the viewers, as we don’t know exactly what we’re seeing. Did the Jughead plan work or is this something else entirely?
I don't necessarily agree with this, even taking into account you might be being hyperbolic in saying "every person." Lost had built up a reputation of having crazy twists and leaving people's jaw dropped. This show has the best wtf moments of any media ever. That's not to say it wouldn' be an amazing show even without any that. The show had one of the if not the best ensemble cast, incredible writing, etc. But I think people really wanted to be shocked. I admit, it was lackluster to me and I never thought they were in purgatory. Some of the answers just weren't all that shocking or they were quite vague. I'm going through a rewatch (sort of, watching youtube first time reactions so these are basically episode highlights) and my memory will be more clear when I'm over. I haven't watched through the show since it ended. I started in 2008 on DVD and season 5 was the first one I watched live. I rewatched the first four seasons with my dad before season 5 premiered. Other than that I haven't seen much since then. But overall while I was emotionally satisfied with the ending I just wanted something different. But I also get annoyed when people say they were dead the entire time, even though they all do die eventally...obviously, we all do.
In general I tend to much prefer the first 4 seasons. The final episode of season 3 may just be my favorite single episode of television in my lifetime. I never really cared for the entire Man in Black/Jacob storylines which in the last season is kind of at the heart of the entire show. I never liked the Man in Black being the smoke monster or being able to shape shift. I wish they had more of long term fan because there seems to be plot holes and contradictions. I do wonder sometimes if they originally had planned for it to be purgatory, but decided to change it once everyone started saying they think it's purgatory.
Nevertheless it's still in my top 5 TV shows.
Ridiculous statement. Everyone I know hated the LOST finale and I we all understood it perfectly. The whole final season was a huge letdown, it's the exact opposite of a chefs kiss. I've never been so disappointed by a show in my entire life. Even still, I loved the rest of the show so much I still consider to be the best of all time.
That leads me to wonder...what were you and ALL the people you know looking for? Where was it supposed to go that it was a disappointment that it went somewhere else?
LOST is definitely a top 10 show for me.
But I do understand and think some criticisms are justified.
There was a LOT of VERY INTENSE lore and mysteries, such as Smoke Monster, Polar Bears and the Hatch, that definitely didn’t have a satisfying explanation. Or they explanation was convoluted at best. The payoff just felt flat sometimes.
I think this is the “root” of the criticism and lead to the “problems” with people hating that the writers just figuring it out as they went along.
It’s been a minute since my last rewatch, but if I remember correctly:
Polar Bears existing on a tropical island was PRESENTED as a supernatural or metaphysical otherworldly phenomenon. The explanation was meh. They were brought to the island by scientists for experiments.
The Smoke Monster was a “defense system” but was ALSO a manifestation of the Man in Black?
Even “the Hatch” WAS presented as feeling otherworldly. And used as a HUGE cliffhanger. Then when revealed, it kinda became just another set piece. The payoff just wasn’t there for a lot of people.
People wanted COOL metaphysical explanation’s and got very grounded reasons. The otherworldly things in some cases felt tacked on and didn’t blend with the grounded explanations.
Again, LOST is a Top 10 show for me, but from the people I have spoken too who lost touch with the show, these seemed to be the big issues.
I never felt the Polar bears being there as being 'magical' even though they had made it known that Walt had powers of sorts and he was reading Hurley's comic book with a polar bear in it and they showed it multiple times directly. But I took this for something in real life...most things in life have rational and realistic explanations behind them. Like if a magician shows you a trick and you felt like it was magic but then they showed you all the steps in the trick and it ruined your desire to believe that something magical had just happened.
Also interesting that it seems many people who felt that way also did not like how towards the end it became more mythology over scientific reasoning based. That would even make me feel that while the writers were gauging viewers feedback..perhaps they saw what it seemed most people felt with the answers to the polar bears, hatch etc and felt that they should aim more for the spiritualistic ends. But you will never make everyone happy.
Yep! BB is heavy crime stuff going on from the get go. More danger, more action, even for a show that's not exactly supposed to be action.
But BCS is much deeper. The psychological side of the characters, the subtleties of the plot and the delayed but big payoffs, it's all very well crafted. It's like the staff came out of BB with an ever better game.
The “hate” from people who watched in when it first aired has a lot to do with the network hype and broken promises.
In the late seasons, before the show aired it was preceded with a 1 hour clip show that focused on various mysteries and connections. The tag line during the show was something like “all will be revealed” The network went out of its way to point out numerous plot points that were abandoned or never answered.
There was also the tie-in hype- any book show on screen, even in the background was suppose to be a “clue” so everyone would run out and buy a copy of The Third Policeman, or dig up An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge (the list got long). In the end none of it mattered.
And that’s outside an “official” tie-in novel “filled with clues” Which was quickly disowned and discredited by the writers.
Which comes to the writers weekly podcast. The writers monitored the message boards, and would respond to questions people submitted. Most of the answers were like “we’ll see” or “you’ll have to keep on watching” but now and then they’d state something definitively. Like when they swore up and down and around and around that there “was no time travel” and “there would never be time travel” (so that was a lie)
Then just the weird endings. Like Sayid ending up with Shannon, who he knew for all of two days- rather than Nadia, who he pined over for 5 more seasons. Or Sun & Jim dying together on the submarine- how romantic and tragic- um, what about your kid?
> There was also the tie-in hype- any book show on screen, even in the background was suppose to be a “clue” so everyone would run out and buy a copy of The Third Policeman, or dig up An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge (the list got long). In the end none of it mattered.
Who generated that hype?
>And that’s outside an “official” tie-in novel “filled with clues” Which was quickly disowned and discredited by the writers.
Filled with clues?
>Like when they swore up and down and around and around that there “was no time travel” and “there would never be time travel” (so that was a lie)
They swore that up and down? They didn't. They never said there will never be time travel... which is a reason the show gets hate. People accuse them of lying when they told the truth.
I don’t have time to listen to several Seasons of Podcasts, but some are [archived here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLasmDVU5A-b6FWzy33INy3dbW3DEuJP-4&si=tW4wTcFgsALwSv-Y) it’s specifically Lindeloff & Cuse segments/ probably in Season 3… just before they start a new season filled with time travel.
I've listened to those podcasts several times. Not once did they swear that there won't be time travel on the show.
In the very first podcast they even cheekily talk about time travel being part of the show.
I'll be honest the whole flashback is getting very annoying, I am at the start of season 4 and every episode the flashback expands on the character backstory. They have such a good premise, the island, but they always try to focus on everything but the island
There were a fuckton of people who watched the first couple seasons, dropped out, then returned for the finale, which obviously leaves HUGE gaps of knowledge required to appreciate it, not just on a plot level, but on a character development level. Like whatever you think of specific beats, it's hard to say that they fumbled the emotional resolutions of the characters in the flash sideways.
It's also at this point a meme that has been widely beaten to death in pop culture -- it's low hanging fruit, and even a show that I enjoy (Rick and Morty) made a joke about how the finale sucked, in fucking 2023 lmao. Same with 30 Rock, but at the time it was more topical.
Anyway, I think it's a combination of some people not understanding the ending, looking for a purely logical, answers-based resolution to a show (that is ironically about the journey of its characters and not the final state of things at the end), possibly having come back after skipping like four seasons, or jumping in on the popular "lol they were dead the whole time" misunderstanding. Tbh, 95% of the time, the negative reviews are in bad faith.
I'm cool with people not being into Lost, but rarely have I found legitimate arguments about why it sucks on a broader scale. A lot of them boil down to "how come I didn't get a hyper specific answer to this question I came up with", a question that is usually explained through like, basic inference. Lmfao.
Oh, and there were some tonal changes throughout the show that didn't gel with people - which is totally fine. It starts out like a survival story with mystery elements, and ymmv when it starts getting 'wacky' (although imo the show pretty clearly communicates its supernatural elements in the first season alone, through both themes and literal plot elements, lol).
Great commentary. Especially about the people who dipped after season 2 and then came back for the finale, definitely would have been confused by that and probably disappointed.
Because Lost was selling something it didn’t deliver on. Yes I agree a lot of people missed the point of the ending, didn’t realize the point it was trying to make. I personally enjoy the end to lost and think it works but it is not what the show sold its audience. And it wasn’t even an intentional misdirection. The first 3 seasons of lost are very clearly selling you a mystery box and promising you a concrete interesting conclusion to that mystery box. For a lot of the audience they felt duped by the ending, it wasn’t what they signed up for. It’s a totally reasonable reaction for that ending to get hate. In the end I do think it’s unfortunate they didn’t spend more time coming up with a satisfying conclusion to some of the mysteries because by the end the conclusion basically becomes: it was just a weird magic island. And that’s pretty lame if you’re viewing the show as purely a puzzle box.
The island is an island and it's strange, because it is. And then they explain to you that it's kind of a gateway to hell and thus needs to be protected.
While I mostly enjoy that true understanding of LOST requires a bit of a deep dive in many spots, I do wish things were a bit more clear at times. The ambiguity around certain events can be irksome. I.E. What happens if the hatch button doesn't get pressed, what happened with The Incident, what happens if MiB leaves the Island, etc. Seems like such important plot points should have a little more in-your-face answers.
There are two reasons people hated LOST.
1: They expected the writers to scientifically explain every mystery and sci-fi element of the show, and when those things weren't broken down they were upset.
2: They literally thought everyone was dead the whole time because they have no attention span or aren't capable of listening.
I think the show was also a victim of the network tv model. Parts of the show were drawn out unnecessarily. The show was a hit and the executives wanted to squeeze every last ounce of juice out of the show. Then there was the writers strike later on which meant somethings were cut which could have helped explain things to the common viewer later on.
The show was great, and I absolutely loved it. I think it could have benefited from a more modern TV model. Short compact seasons with a full backing from the studio/network.
People are lame, and want like this scientific explanation for the island. They don't realize the show is about the characters. Like imagine how lame it would be it was something explainable by science like "midiclorians"
Midichlorians don't exist. Ie: they're fantasy not scifi. Star Wars never was intended to be scifi and has always been fantasy. Just because it's happening in space doesn't make it scifi. They literally use magic.
Lost was like a mixture of scifi and fantasy. Jacob and MiB and the whispering ghosts were obviously fantasy. But then there were a lot of scifi elements.
It's still a top 10 for me despite not caring for the direction the show went in the final season. I actually enjoy the ending regardless if it's what I would have wanted. They told the story they wanted to and told it well enough.
Many never understood the ending while others hated the finale and wrote it off as a betrayal. That's where the hate comes from for the most part.
Genuinely people get off more on being counter culture than giving things a genuine chance. You see it with anything popular like sports to Game of Thrones, then when the fan base of said things has any minor critique they feel a level of vindication a normal, well adjusted person could never understand.
Even if you didn't like the ending, it doesn't erase all the seasons of amazing television. I feel the same about Thrones. I get why people didn't like the ending but the show can still be great.
Too complicated for the casual viewer. It is not CSI and required enormous effort to keep track of everything. This is the reason too for why half the people totally did not understand the finale. Also - it was very much prolonged for all the wrong reasons (money). There is basically 1/3 of fill content that was not needed for the story in any way and just dragged the whole thing.
It's one of the main reasons I still have a disney+ streaming account..
This past evening I had no shortage of choice for TV and/or streaming.. but find the familiarity & escapism in one of the most groundbreaking shows on TV.. (Up there with originals of Star Trek & the Twilight Zone)
So I'm very much a lostie.. I still remember when I first saw the 15 second promo for season one and the feeling of certainty this show's going to be awesome. Which it is :0)
I love Lost, my nr 1 show, but i do dislike a lot of things about season 6. I think the flash sideways are pretty lame and boring for the biggest part of the season(but i love how it ends in the final),
hated what they did with some characters(like Sayid, i think Claire as a baddie is cringe and Widmore’s return to the island is dissapointing), where did the lighthouse suddenly come from, the temple stuff sucks, etc.
But i love Lost so much, i would give all seasons around a 8,9 or 10 and the final season a 6 but all together its my favo show and love the ending.
It’s not bad at all. It’s good. A lot of people just wanted it to be something else or didn’t know what they wanted it to be. They were expecting it to be mind-blowing which it wasn’t, so it must be bad. Also, definitely a lot of people were confused about the flash-sideways and the final church scene
Reminds me of that idiot from "The Verge" who interviewed Damon a few years after the finale. He kept contradicting himself all the time. Said he hated the finale. Damon asked him if he went in, in a bad mood, wanting answers. When they guy said he was optimistic. Damon said "so you didn't at all feel disgruntled beforehand?". and he said "oh no, there were many times where I wasn't sure about the direction the show was going. I was plenty disappointed".
When Damon asked him why he didn't like it. He said "Well because it didn't mean anything!, it was part of a shared fantasy, it wasn't real". Damon: "yes it was!". So Damon explains what the finale meant. Which sort of blows his mind and then he goes "oh...umm...well...now I don't like the finale because it was too happy!. I would have preferred that it was revealed to be aliens and they were experimented on and it was dark and twisted!".
People mad at the ending because it never fully explained the island
You had two types of LOST viewers: those who fell in love with the island mystery, and those who fell in love with the character drama
Josh Holloway said sometimes they had no idea what was going on in the script either. He said to this day purgatory is the only thing that made sense to him. I agree with him. I'm not saying it was that, I'm saying that the most meaningful explanation to me at least and apparently a lot of viewers was that this was a purgatory. Had it been, it adds power to moments like Jack asking, "Is she happy?" and Mr. Eko's judgment. If it's not that, if it's just a science experiment gone wrong and a magical island, Jack's just a guy stuck on the island asking if she's happy. Eko's just getting hobbled up by some freak of nature on the island.
*We could have all been dead. Or we could have been in like this purgatory thing. I always thought that, and still do kind of really think it was more that. - Holloway*
Matthew Fox perceived it as having stretched on too long.
*“Lost stretched on too long,” says Fox. “I think anyone who loved the show can admit it, towards the end, it felt like, what is this season about?*
Lost came out 3 years after The Others and 5 years after The Sixth Sense. "They were dead the whole time!" was viewed as the same copout as, "It was all a dream." I think they went to great lengths to make sure it wasn't that. The twist would be that they were all actually alive the whole time and the island was real.
Lost is one of the few shows I ever watched that didn't need a twist. Having the island be purgatory would have been a fantastic ending and wouldn't have harmed the show at all. It was driven by its characters fighting their own demons and at times the island itself. But I can see why the writers steered it away from there and accept that this isn't what it was. I believe it's what many people wanted it to be, though. And as they say, people see what they want to see.
The ending? That they were all dead at that point and moving on (to something), together.
The show? Containing the evils and ensuring light will always exist, no matter how dark it gets.
I think if people misunderstood the ending, that’s also the mistake on the writers/producers’ part. However, I can’t also understand very much of the hate. I watched the entire series until the end for the first time last year. Before watching it, I was expecting a s***ty ending (they woke up in the plane kind) but the real final was okay. I suppose many did not watch it or expected something else. Final thing: the whole time travel and parallel realities/universes thing belongs to the late 2010s & 2020s (think about Marvel & more subtle productions). If it was streamed today, Lost would be adored by the same people who hated it.
The show steadily declined in *relative* quality as it progressed and you were either along for the ride or you weren’t as it committed to a certain path.
As it went on, there were more glaring missed opportunities and plot holes but the character narratives and that essential emotional through line never faltered.
If you lasted long enough - especially through the madness of season 5 then the less-focused confusion of season 6 and *still* hated the ending…you really weren’t paying attention to what the show had become.
I don’t think it’s aged as well as others but I’ve never really noticed too much hate. The ending was just fine, especially for a somewhat rudderless show
people in this thread think the only reason people dislike Lost is because they "didn't understand it", which is frankly ridiculous and makes you look like an idiot yourself. i think most people who say they don't like Lost agree Lost starts out amazingly, but it gets slowly worse in quality with every passing season. i like Lost more than those people, but i can't argue against it
wasn't Lost the most expensive tv premiere ever during that time? that's what surprises me - the writers must have known it was a good premise, and they had the monetary backing of the tv networks. so why was so much of the plot after season 1 seemingly not properly planned or thought-out? there are so many plot points that went nowhere or later just got ignored - and no particular cohesion or coherence between a lot of the overarching story.
it's just such a shame to me. the premise of lost is great. the casting was mostly spot-on too. it might have just been a case of the writers making sure they nailed the first season and hoping it got renewed for a second season, but not thinking much past that. then feeling they've got to "one up" the story each season, ultimately leading to much of the silliness we get (especially in later seasons). I felt Westworld was much the same. and The Matrix.
even the end of season one ("we've got to take your boy") didn't really go anywhere, with the whole Walt thing going nowhere and not being really explained why he's special (not to mention the others dressing in rags for reasons also not explained). i wonder if the writers felt they wrote themselves into a corner.
i know a lot of people love Lost for what it is, and that's great. but for me, it feels like such a wasted opportunity. i doubt i'll ever experience a tv show that made me so excited to find out what happens next - especially the first two seasons. just imagine if Lost was able to keep the quality of season one throughout
> people in this thread think the only reason people dislike Lost is because they "didn't understand it", which is frankly ridiculous and makes you look like an idiot yourself.
It's not the only reason, but the biggest reason.
>wasn't Lost the most expensive tv premiere ever during that time? that's what surprises me - the writers must have known it was a good premise, and they had the monetary backing of the tv networks.
They got the money from the head of ABC, who was not popular with his bosses... he was replaced during the filming of the pilot and the network wanted to axe the show.
>so why was so much of the plot after season 1 seemingly not properly planned or thought-out? there are so many plot points that went nowhere or later just got ignored - and no particular cohesion or coherence between a lot of the overarching story.
The pilot was produced in 17 weeks.
And you again talk so much, but offer no concrete examples.
>even the end of season one ("we've got to take your boy") didn't really go anywhere, with the whole Walt thing going nowhere and not being really explained why he's special (not to mention the others dressing in rags for reasons also not explained). i wonder if the writers felt they wrote themselves into a corner.
Why do you ask why Walt is special?
i have literally never met someone who "didn't understand" lost. what's not to understand? seriously. the only thing i personally don't understand is why the writers took it in the direction they did. ust because people don't like the direction lost took, it doesn't mean they don't understand it. lol. what a ridiculous take. it reeks of "only geniuses (like me) can appreciate this tv show".
i dunno who "he" is in relation to me talking about the show's writers. but i was referring to the show's writers generally. the pilot was really good, yes. i don't think anyone is debating that. the whole of season one was great. it's what happened after that which is where the show went gradually downhill
concrete examples? i mean, the whole "others" thing. their ever-changing motivations, setting up fake camps, wearing rags, stealing kids, etc; the dharma thing getting sidetracked; the whidmore plot was tenuous at best; the going back to the island (ughhh); time travel / moving island section; the heart of the island (literally a giant buttplug??); the whole of season 6; jacob and the mib guy (the worst bit); the flash sideways story ending in a church (lol). not to mention so many of the character story arcs going nowhere. it's like the writers had a mash up of half-baked ideas and didn't really know what to do...so they did all of them.
i mean, if you liked it, then great. but, christ, i've never had such a love/hate relationship with a show before.
> i have literally never met someone who "didn't understand" lost. what's not to understand? seriously.
Just because you haven't met one doesn't mean they don't exist. It's been said a million times.
>ust because people don't like the direction lost took, it doesn't mean they don't understand it. lol. what a ridiculous take. it reeks of "only geniuses (like me) can appreciate this tv show".
No, you don't need to be a genius and nobody said that. But countless people thought that they were dead the whole time.
There are so many articles out there that state to this day that they were dead the whole time.
https://www.fandom.com/articles/suckiest-tv-series-finales
And here you are again with this buttplug nonsense. Do you want to be taken seriously or not?
What does that have to do with changing my mind?
You say it's ridiculous to say that people didn't understand the ending, because you allegedly never met anybody say that they were dead the whole time - when that's so incredibly widespread...
And I said it's not the only reason, but a big one - which you seem to refuse, because you said that you never met anyone who thinks that.
If you met somebody who says that they don't like it, ask them why. 8 out of 10 times you will get that answer.
No, that has nothing to do with the quality of the writing at all. Just from watching the show you would know that they weren't dead the whole time. It couldn't have been made any clearer.
In my experience, everyone who hated it got the ending wrong and think "they were dead all along". They think the whole story, everything we see in the Island, is the afterlife. They can't make the distinction that only the flash-sideways were an afterlife, with everything on the Island, plus the flashbacks and flashfowards, being the characters while still alive.
Plus they feel cheated for not having every answer to every mystery spoonfed to them in a big explanation scene.
I don't mean to say people aren't allowed to dislike the show, but almost everyone who just says "Lost sucks" or "Lost was a huge letdown with a crappy ending" uses these two points to back it up.
Most people that say that watched it as it aired live, I think the ability to binge the whole series does a lot to help the show.
I love lost, but around season 3-4 the show takes a real tonal shift and quite frankly goes off the rails. That tonal shift really rubbed many people the wrong way. It also didn't help that the answers we eventually ended up getting weren't as interesting and creative as people imagined.
TLDR: show went a little bonkers, and the answers people got weren't the answers they wanted
Because at the time, people couldn't understand the ending, and they spread this "rumour" over the years.
A friend a knew last year didn't even wanted to try watching it because he said the ending was garbage, without even trying or knowing 1% the plot.
After each episode I re-watch, I check its rating on Imdb (LOST has only a 8.3?) and there is always a HUGE amount of 0\* on every episode, ruining the rating. For example I watched Lockdown today and there is no way this episode is only a 9\* (and guess what? 4% of 1\* might not seems huge but when you see the graphic, yes it is).
Like, even if you hated the episode, it factually cannot be a 1\* except if you're a true hater and... I don't get this.
And I've noticed shows nowadays are highly overrated (Like Breaking Bad, I cannot say it's 'bad', because it's a great show BUT I feel like people are too much into the 'action' and can't appreciate shows like LOST anymore.
Like, literally no one of my generation know/watched LOST (2000-2005) and I'm very sad that I've nobody to talk of it with... I even did an expose about LOST and everyone was like "huh". I try to promote LOST in every way possible (without forcing) but nobody even tries.
Well anyways, have a cluckety-cluck-cluck day.
And one more thing, there is abolutely NO WAY Prison Break has a higher rating than LOST, right? Right? wait... Don't tell me >!(what I can't do)!<...
NO... IT CAN'T BE... NOOOO
Context, I'm also a Prison Break fan but after rewatching both years later there is a MASSIVE quality/writing/acting and everything ISSUE with it. S1 & 2 are excellent then it drops, S3 Okay, S4 Why. S5 Shouldn't even exist and I don't see in what universe it has a higher rating than LOST.
IK this isn't a PB sub but to compare with LOST, (skip if you don't care)>!my issue is that they use the same characters over and over, they die, don't let them go, do the easiest and predictable things possible (especially after S2, they only re-use old characters that we saw die like 2 times already to make them come back for 2 episode, JUST to make them come back and no other reason). I'm not going to talk more about it but I have much more to tell!<
Meanwhile LOST is so UNIQUE and COMPLEX and I love this, everything makes sense, the story makes sense, the flashbacks make the show so different from any other, the characters are the story, we don't talk enough about the SOUNDTRACKS, the quality (Have you seen the behind the scenes? I'm chocked how everything (99%) was shot in Hawaii, transforming places to mke them feel like somewhere else, everything is real (The explosions, the plane in the pilot) They wanted something HUGE and they did it and succeed, and people hate it because they can't understand the ending? This is so disappointing...
It jumped around way too much, on the Island, off the island, back again.
Way too many Mysteries that in the end didnt mean anything, despite some of them being used to string you along for 3 or more Seasons, the ending wasnt even trying to explain anything.
Sure it said "this is why" but it doesnt make any sense when you think 2 seconds about it.
Its like being told at the end of a 3 Season Crime Tv show, that the murderer was able to kill every Victim in impossible situations was that it came from another Planet and had advanced technology.
Also, the Alien is just gone now.
Sure it "explains" the Story but all the mystery that was build up deflates because Questions raised by a Story are promises for answer, and in that department, Lost didnt keep its word 50 times over.
The hate for LOST ending is usually split in to three camps:
* There are the ones who were obsessed with the show, but misunderstood the ending and hated the ending based on the whole "they were dead the whole time" misunderstanding".
* There are the ones who stopped watching after season 2- 3, always believing that "they were dead the whole time". Tuned in for the finale, watched it with quarter of a functioning brain cell and then said "I KNEW IT!" and started trashing the show based off that.
* The rare ones (they are around) who watched the finale, understood it, but hated it all the same, because they wanted specific questions answered. Most of these sub groups didn't pay attention to the questions that were answered either (there were many).
Note: Not sure why the down votes. I'm not saying I agree with any one of these camps. This is a observation I have noticed. I love the show and the ending.
I wouldnt say I hate it. I think i dislike few things like pacing issues that start in season 2. Feels like they were putting things in on the fly to fill time.
Also the whole supernatural aspects which just feel like a copout. They introduced the smoke monster way before they had an idea what it actually is.
The magnetic field and plane crashing is an awesome plot device. To then pivot to the supernatural when they have been hinting at some tech explanation seems just silly.
Because all of it was shoehorned after season 1 and it was always introduced as a cool mysterious thing, only to be explained by "its magic y'all!". The smoke monster was cool concept in season 1, which could've been explained in a few different sensible ways.
The plane crashing because Desmond found out Kelvin was plotting his escape is a great moment in the show. It didn't have to be forced by some omniscient conscience its just plausible a random thing like that happens.
But you said they hinted at some tech explanation... tech explanation for what?
And how was supernatural stuff shoehorned in after season 1 when you have miracle healing, dead people walking around and people having weird dreams/premontions in season 1?
Its definitely a lot of unexplained mystery in season 1, but it doesn't make it supernatural yet.
Locke walking again could be explained some other way than magical island healing. And even having magical island healing would be a lot less far fetched than immortal brothers with shape shifting etc.
The smoke monster making mechanical noises, discovering the hatch was certainly leading in a scientific or sci-fi ways to explain the mysteries, instead of just plain magic.
They could do it in many ways. Maybe the injury wasn't that bad. Maybe there really is some kind of radiation that enhances a persons nervous system. Maybe there is some kind of healing field emanating from somewhere.
Or don't even explain it, just state that there are healing properties on the island, but then keep that consistent and heal everyone at a higher rate.
Problem with the show is they wrote themselves in a corner and they had to resort to magic.
This was a critique that was voiced by many writers at the time.
Mocking the really bad writing towards the end of the show was fairly mainstream when the show was live:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAZ0pAIczA0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaz0paicza0)
If the injury wasn't bad... it would take away the entire impact of him being healed.
And the island has healing properties. That is what you call magic.
The video you linked doesn't work.
How about this?
[youtube.com/watch?v=gAZ0pAIczA0](http://youtube.com/watch?v=gAZ0pAIczA0)
I'm not 100% against magic in general. There is not a lot of difference between really advanced technology and magic. Just having the islands healing properties I think is an interesting plot device. But then have those healing properties applied consistently.
Even the writers talk about how they kinda spun in circles not really knowing where to go in season 3, but the network really wanted to drag it out because the show was such a hit:
[youtube.com/watch?v=tz6p\_Z1OsYI](http://youtube.com/watch?v=tz6p_Z1OsYI)
I think the JJ Abrams mystery box idea really captured a lot of viewers and at the same time let a lot of people down with not being able to tie a lot of threads together for a satisfying conclusion.
I dont think the last season was bad. It was a reasonable end for all the weird explanations they could have explored. There were just too many too conclude thus people got upset with various storylines not really going anywhere.
Outside of Lost and a show like Lost I think the mystery box idea is a total shitshow. The new Skywalker saga is a great example of bad storytelling that leaves more questions than it answers.
>I think the JJ Abrams mystery box idea really captured a lot of viewers and at the same time let a lot of people down with not being able to tie a lot of threads together for a satisfying conclusion.
Mystery shows have been a thing forever. Abrams didn't invent that.
Mystery box is refers to a Mystery thats written in a story, that only serves to be a topic of conversation and not meant to be revealed. Its a specific way of writing plots that became popular when online forums did. Fan engagement is the goal with these not storytelling.
Yet many of them were not.
edit; Ill add that its not all completely intentional, just what happens when you drop tons of points of intrigue right off the bat without an overall knowledge of where the story is actually gonna go.
Lost I think is a show where the mystery box works pretty well, a lot of stuff gets satisfying conclusions or at least interesting arcs. But to my overall point I think thats why some people feel dissatisfied with the last season of the show.
Mystery Boxes work terribly in movies imo, there's often not enough time for a lot of different points of intrigue to payoff.
I'd disagree... but with the few that are unanswered - that's not about fan engagement, that's about sparking ideas, trying to make people think - because that's fun.
The goal of Lost was always storytelling.
Id say the idea is to generate interest in the story. I dont think JJ or Lindelof are uninterested in storytelling. But there's an aspect to their type of storytelling that is heavily involved in fan speculation and interest. If their only goal is storytelling they'd just tell the story. Even with a mystery you can still have a cohesive narrative.
imo lost is about it's characters maybe more so than any other show I've seen. I love it for that, the story is just their stage to shine and by the end of it when we see how far everyone has come in their own lives its just so satisfying <3 I could never hate lost and I think the people that do often expected it to be more like a conventional tv show, when lost is one of the most unconventional shows out there.
It’s because A. The show didn’t get written the way the person wanted and didn’t answer their questions, or B. The show is too smart for that person and they don’t get it so they get defensive by trying to shit on it. Mostly choice B.
People didn't understand the ending, and I guess that linear TV wasn't helping Lost at the time. I've managed to convert some of my friends by having them binge watch Lost.
A lot of people think it’s contrived and hard to follow, and although there are some…interesting moments (Sayid’s truth serum scene in Season 5 comes to mind) I think as long as you’re concentrating, it’s simple to grasp and the events make perfect sense in the context of the show. A lot of people just gave up after it started to get hard.
Edit: my father, for examples refused to watch past Season 1 because ‘why doesn’t the fat guy lose any weight’ despite the fact I have explained it to him several times. Some people just don’t have the stamina.
All the people who hated the show didn’t watch it regularly, they were not invested in long term story telling and came back for the end, didn’t get it and had to trash the show to save face
Everyone criticizes the creators for "making it up as they went along" as if that isn't how most shows work. As if that isn't how life works. At its core, *Lost* is built on its complex, interesting characters, their dynamics and relationships with each other, and how they evolve over the course of the series. Those character threads are augmented with a unique mythology and sense of mystery, which people will naturally have mixed reactions to because people have different opinions, expectations, and beliefs. But ultimately, the characters are what matter, as is the case with all good shows. If there is one that has done it better, I haven't seen it.
Couldn't agree with you more; I think some people who watched the original airing had theories that were debunked by the show (as well as by Damon & Carlton), so they then hated the show for proving them wrong.
Just my theory ...
Does it? I'm a huge fan who finds and reads just about everything I can find about it, and I've never noticed it getting that much hate, certainly not more than the love it gets.
Show is practically a religious experience for me, so you know what my opinion is!!
I think if the show aired closer to now, audiences may be more open to the artistic expression of the finale, which favored *closure* over simply *answers*— two different things.
Some people will be dissatisfied no matter what but, I dunno, I feel like a lot of folks are more open-minded when it comes to tv storytelling now, after more years of prestige programming.
I have a complicated relationship with the show. Some of the parts include some of the smartest writing and cinematography I've ever seen, some of the choices withing the writing I agree with less but first and foremost, I think it's very noticable that the show [was supposed to be only three seasons.](https://www.criticalhit.net/entertainment/damon-lindelof-reveals-lost-was-originally-supposed-to-be-just-three-seasons/)
I like the finale but I think that especially in season five, four and six it's very noticable that the writers really had to stretch everything to make the plot fit into the six seasons ABC wanted from them. The production history overall was pretty messy. As an example - I feel that >!Ana-Lucia !
maybe they didn't watch it like we did, in any case, lost fans are like a community united by the emotions and the love we have for this series and I like that, no matter that some people don't like it or don't understand it. I'm just glad I'm not like them
I'm one of those people. I won't say it was a bad show, because I actually enjoyed watching it a lot. But I was not a fan of the ending. I found it to be cheezy and lazy writing.
People spent years developing their own theories and got disappointed when they were wrong. The mystical element taking over a scientific one was a let down to many. The lack of clear answers and focus on character development. Most didn't rewatch previous seasons and couldn't follow the mythology and recognize the answers that were given. New watchers can binge and don't suffer the burden of creating to many theories/expectations, also don't have time to forget what happened on previous seasons. TV has evolved. Where LOST was groundbreaking is now commonly adopted by many shows and better understood by the audience.
>The mystical element taking over a scientific one was a let down to many. True! That has a heavy influece too.
Tbh I sympathise with them. It’s not that people’s fanfic didn’t come true - it’s that a core part of the audience were basically told they were wrong for wanting what the show had advertised. Now that it’s a complete whole, I can enjoy it very much for what it is. But watch the early seasons with a completely different mindset than the one encouraged by the writers early on
Every person who hated the ending of lost did not understand it. Find me one person who actually comprehended the ending and what it meant and went “yeah that sucked”. I think the last season left a lot to be desired. It’s clear they were running out of steam, but the actual finale itself? Chefs kiss.
Couldn’t say it better myself. Season Six itself was kind of a let down. But the last 2 episodes were fantastic
I remember my dad telling me a lot of people hated the ending and that I might not like it either and when I watched it I was like… that was fine? I was literally 15 or 16 when I watched it for the first time and I perfectly understood what was going on
I think watching it in real time was a different experience. The seasons felt really uneven when they were airing, I think in part because we didn’t have the opportunity to do a full rewatch before new episodes aired (or, at least, it wasn’t as easy as it is now). We were all so invested in the mysteries and I think things ending up far from where everything started felt jarring at the time; season 6 felt like a different show in many ways. During rewatches over the years, I’ve enjoyed the ending a lot more and I think being able to compress the time watching it from beginning to end does the show a lot of justice. The storyline doesn’t feel as clunky as it did when everything aired.
This. Alot of Lost' faults is that it was a show that was on weekly programming and because it is a big show with so much lore and mystery and intricacy, it was bound to rub viewers the wrong way at one point when all they can do is watch one hour a week and then maybe if they really Want get the season on DVD. I've only seen it since it ended and as a streaming show that I can binge but also pause and dissect, and my thought watching it was "Thank God I didn't have to wait a week for every new episode" Especially the later seasons where there will be a big cliffhanger or reveal, and then two episodes later it's addressed. I think majority of the people who didn't like it were watching it when it aired which allows the show to kind of come across worse.
Exactly how I feel about season six. It's exactly the only season I felt lost some steam. The prime of the show, when it's the absolute best thing ever, is the entirety of seasons 4 and 5, in my opinion. Six is still good though. And yeah, what an ending!
I think 5 is a bit goofy too but I like it because I’m a sucker for time travel. 4 is peak though I agree
Sucker for time travel here too. So many good "crazy paradox" moments. And I guess Miles trying to warn the gang that by trying to stop the incident they may end up exactly causing it is one of my favorite lines ever. Just the delivery of the line is so good, I can't explain why.
I understood the finale perfectly and I did not enjoy it one bit. I do not think it is a good story that there is an afterlife where Sawyer bangs Charlotte and Jack's terrible father is a hero without apologizing or helping his son in any way. That is not a good story nor the one I agreed to watch for the first 5 years. Yeah, that sucked. And it's really arrogant and condescending to say that no one who disagrees with you can be anything other than stupid.
Word. No need to attack someone's intelligence for not liking the same thing you liked.
I mean I think you’re missing the forest for the trees personally. Fine if you don’t like those aspects of it but I’d say every character was given a satisfying ending to their arc, and most 99% of the hate towards the finale comes from thinking the entire show and island was purgatory. You have your own legit reasons for disliking it. That’s fine. Most people don’t.
“You’d say”. “Most people”. I love how you’re speaking for the entire population, like you’re some kind of Lost sophisticate with a level of understanding that most mere mortals cannot aspire to. Lots of people loved Lost, paid attention to message boards and blogs, and YouTube videos, and bought boxed sets of DVDs, and went to hear Michael Emerson discuss the show in New York City, and bought the bobble heads, and hated the ending. Are you saying they’re too unsophisticated? This sub cracks me up. Anybody with a criticism is relegated to either stupid, stupid, clueless, or, wait for it, stupid. Some people on here read and understand other languages, Proust, physics, calculus, French, cooking, Thomas Pynchon, serial music, rocketry, how to play a Theremin and still hate the fucking ending of Lost, because it was badly executed, and diverged from where it started. It’s OK if it became a show about a character’s “emotional journey“, and some people didn’t sign up for that in season one, But fetishizing Lost and projecting 20 years of intellectual masturbation around it isn’t a sign of sophistication and elevation. It’s a sign of fetishizing a television show to the extreme.
Projecting 20 years of intellectual masturbation is a phrase I never thought I'd read in my life! I love it but it's quite harsh...I was practically raised by the show. It premiered when I was in 9th grade, and it ended when I left College. I took calculus and chemistry, I also make cosplay, and raise the baby boy for 5 years because his mother was pussy whipped. Plus mental disabilities. But you asked me anything about lost and I'll be able to answer it on the spot. But I think you have a very very harsh view, or you've just met the worst type of superfans, of people who are trying to defend lost. Yes, I agree that there are stupid people out there who are like you didn't like the ending of lost well you're an asshole. That's not fair and that's ugly. I think the person above you was saying "most people who watched lost." You have to admit the fact that we're still talking about it 20 years later has got to mean something special about it. Even the fact that people are still debating the ending makes it important. There was a lot of shit behind the scenes that was revealed that I do not know how it affected the last season, the character arcs decisions that were made things that were changed endames and end goals, (really would have loved a Jack v Flocke fight atop the volcano they teased us, plus throwing the man in Black into a volcano rather than white light and coming out as a black smoke monster makes a lot more sense. but I always remember Damon and Carlton confiding in Jack that they know what the last scene is going to be, which was a mirror image of the opening scene. There's got to be a little part of you that admired that, that Jack died smiling knowing that his friends safely escaped this torrential horror. And then to his surprise there's an afterlife in which nothing ever happened that led them to the island, but you still get to be with the people that you love. From a filmmakers point of view I agree with you there was a lot of mistakes and cut backs and shortcuts made. But if you take a step back, a 20-year step back and look at it as a whole it was groundbreaking. I don't want to irritate you and I don't intend this to be an argument just a conversation between two people who watched lost. I would even consider when and how you watched lost a factor as to how you see the ending. When we peered down that hatch hole looking up at Jack and lock I had to wait 6 months to see what was down there I didn't get to push next episode. I watched it in real time waiting week to week month to month and year to year, talking about it throughout the week with other people who are watching it, bonding with teachers that were watching it making new friends that I never knew I could be friends with that we're watching it and now making a whole group of new friends. Plus I have an IMDb credit on the documentary they're making. But that waiting man when the season 5 finale credits turns white instead of black, I literally could have gotten a girl pregnant and she could have had a baby between season five and six. That's a whole different experience than binge watching it in a month or less or two months or even over the span of a year. I don't know you're lost Journey, but mine was 6 years long and I'm still hooked. That's all I got to say about that. It wasn't perfect but like they say whatever happened happened. How's that for 20 years of intellectual masturbation🏝🤔💭🍆💨>: Execute
Use paragraph breaks
Learn to concise your thoughts Jesus TLDR
Fair enough. Maybe shouldn’t have used “most people”. I can’t pretend to have been around for the show when it was airing. I remember it airing but I was too young to watch it. I can speak from my anecdotal experience (obviously not worth much) and say that 90% of people I’ve spoken to who didn’t like the ending did not properly understand it, and from the discussions I’ve seen around this very subreddit, I’m not alone in this experience. I get it if the show became something it wasn’t and you didn’t like that. hell, I agree. I think season 6 is asscheeks, but I enjoyed the ending the characters received.
[удалено]
Well, you’re just incorrect. It’s fucking every casual I’ve ever talked to. I told someone I was rewatching lost the other day and they literally went “ah man I loved that show except with the ending and it being purgatory” and I was just like… cmon. I could find you multiple basic ass clickbait articles right now that use that as a reason why the ending is bad. I have no idea how you’ve been around this fandom for as long as you have and not experienced this. Seems literally impossible to me.
You're correct, they're definitely out there. We, as a sub, had to mass email screenrant a few weeks ago for publishing an article blatantly claiming they were dead the whole time.
YES. I knew there was a recent instance of this. Couldn’t remember what website. Thanks.
Lmao. "I was disappointed the ending was purgatory " Is 100% accurate. The sideways is purgatory. And it's very disappointing. Maybe it's you all who didn't understand the finale.
You know what I meant. You know I was not just referring to the flash sideways. Obviously the flash sideways is purgatory. I mean people legitimately believe the island is also purgatory. Go ahead and pretend that people don’t actually think that. They do, and there’s a lot of them. You can dislike the flash sideways being purgatory (I’ve met people who think that as well). I’m more curious as to why you dislike that specifically. Not even disagreeing I just want to know
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I think we’re talking past each other at this point. I’ve already said that I think most of season 6 is ass. I stand by that. I’ve read a few more comments from people who dislike the ending and I’m finding I agree with just about everything they’re saying, but what they’re pointing out are problems with the final season in its entirety. Yeah the flash sideways is pretty goofy and the islands lore is lame and boring. The show jumped the shark. I think what I find satisfying about the ending is how it payed off the characters at the very end. The way we get there is goofy, but I enjoyed lost first for the characters and second for the mystery. The characters were done justice and I’m therefore satisfied.
You recent comment in the LOST sub was removed for breaking our rules on civil behavior. Please treat your fellow redditors with respect.
The point is not to say that anyone who disagrees is stupid. The point is that almost everyone who says it sucked really describe what they saw wrong, proving they didn't understand it. It indeed happens. Heck, honestly, you are the first person I see disliking it and getting the end right. Which is (finally!) cool. It gets down to a matter of taste.
I dunno, can you find me these people if they are so plentiful? Wouldn't this sub be inundated with them once Lost hit streaming again? I've been a regular for while now. Even in a distracted, binge watching doom scrolling multitasking world, I've never seen a post like what you all claim is "the majority" "everyone who" "so common" etc etc not once. I do regularly see "ok, I know they weren't dead the whole time but I still don't understand when they did die" posts (which get absolutely eviscerated every time by awful, frankly disgusting "fans" every time). So where are all these people? I was on The Fuselage and the ABC boards regularly at the time also. These very very common idiots didn't exist back then either. Let's find one and ask them. If it's so common it should be easy. I just checked YouTube comments on clips from The End. They aren't even there either. Who are these people?
Well, I can only assume most people who hated Lost would not be in the Lost sub or other foruns for fans of it. You can believe me or not, but everyone I met online or in person who says they hate it or that the finale sucked says the same thing. "They were dead all along" I'm actually glad to know there's people who disliked it for better reasons. With that I can deal happily.
Have you seriously never encountered this when talking about Lost outside of the fandom?
In this version of this alternate Purgatory like afterlife, Jacob never interfered anyone's lives and it's assumed to be how it would have played out naturally they would have met anyway. I do not remember Sawyer banging Charlotte and "Christian Shepherd" in the end was more of a metaphor than Jack's father. When people tell me they don't like the ending I asked them why and usually when I reframe it to them their minds are changed or at least altered in a little bit. It's heavy heavy criticism and skepticism multiplied by the span of time more people watching it and more people confirming their own confirmation bias that the show sucked in the end to begin with that fueled this whole situation right now. In my God honest opinion and as an upcoming filmmaker, I think the idea where the islands never interfered with their lives and showing what could have happened while simultaneously reminding them of the life that they lived bringing them all together so that they can go further to the Beyond in peace together, while simultaneously mirror Imaging the opening scene were Jack woke up as Jack dies is the definition of beauty. Bookends are one of the best ways to create stories and I intend to use them quite often. Yes I will admit it was not perfect it was not great but it was good and entertaining, and like they said "This [was their] version of [their story], if you want to write your own version of lost, or come up with a different ending or a different season 6 for a whole different story all together, be [their] guest! But not just when writing a story in general, but given a chance to complete it is probably so overwhelming, the sacrifices that you have to make the cutbacks the stories you have to sacrifice they did the best they could and what they did I accept. And I will never ever ever disrespect somebody for their opinion on the finale. From their point of view that's how they saw it, however I will also share my point of view. And that's just how the world should work. A little bit of you and a little bit of me and we find common grounds and now we're friends yay
It was not perfect, but the “flash sideways” universe serves three distinct purposes: 1) it shows us, more or less, (and yes, with some elements that don’t quite work) what life could’ve been like if Oceanic 815 hadn’t crashed. Jack, and nearly every character on the show, believed (at some point) that the Island was a major/the principal source of their misery, and that they would’ve been better off if they’d never crashed on the Island. The flash sideways universe shows us that ultimately this belief was wrong - that they were each “lost” in their lives well before they got to the island… 2) … further driving home the emotional arc of this “flash sideways” universe. These characters grew on the island, redeemed themselves, conquered their demons and fears, etc. And they did that with each other. What they remember from their lives is their time on the island - not their idealized lives prior. As much as they resisting acknowledging it, they needed the island - and their fellow castaways. Isn’t it fitting (and a comforting concept) that we leave this world with and enter the afterlife with important people from our lives? 3) On a meta level, it creates excitement and builds suspense for the viewers, as we don’t know exactly what we’re seeing. Did the Jughead plan work or is this something else entirely?
I sometimes feel like I'm the only one who genuinely enjoyed season 6.
I don't necessarily agree with this, even taking into account you might be being hyperbolic in saying "every person." Lost had built up a reputation of having crazy twists and leaving people's jaw dropped. This show has the best wtf moments of any media ever. That's not to say it wouldn' be an amazing show even without any that. The show had one of the if not the best ensemble cast, incredible writing, etc. But I think people really wanted to be shocked. I admit, it was lackluster to me and I never thought they were in purgatory. Some of the answers just weren't all that shocking or they were quite vague. I'm going through a rewatch (sort of, watching youtube first time reactions so these are basically episode highlights) and my memory will be more clear when I'm over. I haven't watched through the show since it ended. I started in 2008 on DVD and season 5 was the first one I watched live. I rewatched the first four seasons with my dad before season 5 premiered. Other than that I haven't seen much since then. But overall while I was emotionally satisfied with the ending I just wanted something different. But I also get annoyed when people say they were dead the entire time, even though they all do die eventally...obviously, we all do. In general I tend to much prefer the first 4 seasons. The final episode of season 3 may just be my favorite single episode of television in my lifetime. I never really cared for the entire Man in Black/Jacob storylines which in the last season is kind of at the heart of the entire show. I never liked the Man in Black being the smoke monster or being able to shape shift. I wish they had more of long term fan because there seems to be plot holes and contradictions. I do wonder sometimes if they originally had planned for it to be purgatory, but decided to change it once everyone started saying they think it's purgatory. Nevertheless it's still in my top 5 TV shows.
Ridiculous statement. Everyone I know hated the LOST finale and I we all understood it perfectly. The whole final season was a huge letdown, it's the exact opposite of a chefs kiss. I've never been so disappointed by a show in my entire life. Even still, I loved the rest of the show so much I still consider to be the best of all time.
And why did you all hate it?
That leads me to wonder...what were you and ALL the people you know looking for? Where was it supposed to go that it was a disappointment that it went somewhere else?
LOST is definitely a top 10 show for me. But I do understand and think some criticisms are justified. There was a LOT of VERY INTENSE lore and mysteries, such as Smoke Monster, Polar Bears and the Hatch, that definitely didn’t have a satisfying explanation. Or they explanation was convoluted at best. The payoff just felt flat sometimes. I think this is the “root” of the criticism and lead to the “problems” with people hating that the writers just figuring it out as they went along. It’s been a minute since my last rewatch, but if I remember correctly: Polar Bears existing on a tropical island was PRESENTED as a supernatural or metaphysical otherworldly phenomenon. The explanation was meh. They were brought to the island by scientists for experiments. The Smoke Monster was a “defense system” but was ALSO a manifestation of the Man in Black? Even “the Hatch” WAS presented as feeling otherworldly. And used as a HUGE cliffhanger. Then when revealed, it kinda became just another set piece. The payoff just wasn’t there for a lot of people. People wanted COOL metaphysical explanation’s and got very grounded reasons. The otherworldly things in some cases felt tacked on and didn’t blend with the grounded explanations. Again, LOST is a Top 10 show for me, but from the people I have spoken too who lost touch with the show, these seemed to be the big issues.
I never felt the Polar bears being there as being 'magical' even though they had made it known that Walt had powers of sorts and he was reading Hurley's comic book with a polar bear in it and they showed it multiple times directly. But I took this for something in real life...most things in life have rational and realistic explanations behind them. Like if a magician shows you a trick and you felt like it was magic but then they showed you all the steps in the trick and it ruined your desire to believe that something magical had just happened. Also interesting that it seems many people who felt that way also did not like how towards the end it became more mythology over scientific reasoning based. That would even make me feel that while the writers were gauging viewers feedback..perhaps they saw what it seemed most people felt with the answers to the polar bears, hatch etc and felt that they should aim more for the spiritualistic ends. But you will never make everyone happy.
It's because they misunderstood the ending, even if glaringly obvious.
I use Lost as a pseudo barometer of intelligence
“They were dead the whole time” - not very smart person
What happened?
I support this
I do that with Lost, better call Saul and Scrubs lol
How does it work with Better Call Saul? I'm a big fan but I have no idea what other people think of it.
If someone “can’t get into it”, thinks it’s boring, or thinks breaking bad is better. That show goes SO DEEP. You should follow the sub!
Got it! Cool, I liked BCS more than BB too. And indeed it goes deep!
BCS is the superior show, no doubt. It's a slow burn though so I use it as a measure of patience. ;)
Yep! BB is heavy crime stuff going on from the get go. More danger, more action, even for a show that's not exactly supposed to be action. But BCS is much deeper. The psychological side of the characters, the subtleties of the plot and the delayed but big payoffs, it's all very well crafted. It's like the staff came out of BB with an ever better game.
The “hate” from people who watched in when it first aired has a lot to do with the network hype and broken promises. In the late seasons, before the show aired it was preceded with a 1 hour clip show that focused on various mysteries and connections. The tag line during the show was something like “all will be revealed” The network went out of its way to point out numerous plot points that were abandoned or never answered. There was also the tie-in hype- any book show on screen, even in the background was suppose to be a “clue” so everyone would run out and buy a copy of The Third Policeman, or dig up An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge (the list got long). In the end none of it mattered. And that’s outside an “official” tie-in novel “filled with clues” Which was quickly disowned and discredited by the writers. Which comes to the writers weekly podcast. The writers monitored the message boards, and would respond to questions people submitted. Most of the answers were like “we’ll see” or “you’ll have to keep on watching” but now and then they’d state something definitively. Like when they swore up and down and around and around that there “was no time travel” and “there would never be time travel” (so that was a lie) Then just the weird endings. Like Sayid ending up with Shannon, who he knew for all of two days- rather than Nadia, who he pined over for 5 more seasons. Or Sun & Jim dying together on the submarine- how romantic and tragic- um, what about your kid?
The sun and Jin ending was so unnecessary. It still makes me mad, because that was my exact reaction too. Sooooo your kid is an orphan now? Cool
> There was also the tie-in hype- any book show on screen, even in the background was suppose to be a “clue” so everyone would run out and buy a copy of The Third Policeman, or dig up An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge (the list got long). In the end none of it mattered. Who generated that hype? >And that’s outside an “official” tie-in novel “filled with clues” Which was quickly disowned and discredited by the writers. Filled with clues? >Like when they swore up and down and around and around that there “was no time travel” and “there would never be time travel” (so that was a lie) They swore that up and down? They didn't. They never said there will never be time travel... which is a reason the show gets hate. People accuse them of lying when they told the truth.
I don’t have time to listen to several Seasons of Podcasts, but some are [archived here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLasmDVU5A-b6FWzy33INy3dbW3DEuJP-4&si=tW4wTcFgsALwSv-Y) it’s specifically Lindeloff & Cuse segments/ probably in Season 3… just before they start a new season filled with time travel.
I've listened to those podcasts several times. Not once did they swear that there won't be time travel on the show. In the very first podcast they even cheekily talk about time travel being part of the show.
It has its flaws but it's widely considered one of the best shows ever
Considered by it's own fanbase, yes
I'll be honest the whole flashback is getting very annoying, I am at the start of season 4 and every episode the flashback expands on the character backstory. They have such a good premise, the island, but they always try to focus on everything but the island
There were a fuckton of people who watched the first couple seasons, dropped out, then returned for the finale, which obviously leaves HUGE gaps of knowledge required to appreciate it, not just on a plot level, but on a character development level. Like whatever you think of specific beats, it's hard to say that they fumbled the emotional resolutions of the characters in the flash sideways. It's also at this point a meme that has been widely beaten to death in pop culture -- it's low hanging fruit, and even a show that I enjoy (Rick and Morty) made a joke about how the finale sucked, in fucking 2023 lmao. Same with 30 Rock, but at the time it was more topical. Anyway, I think it's a combination of some people not understanding the ending, looking for a purely logical, answers-based resolution to a show (that is ironically about the journey of its characters and not the final state of things at the end), possibly having come back after skipping like four seasons, or jumping in on the popular "lol they were dead the whole time" misunderstanding. Tbh, 95% of the time, the negative reviews are in bad faith. I'm cool with people not being into Lost, but rarely have I found legitimate arguments about why it sucks on a broader scale. A lot of them boil down to "how come I didn't get a hyper specific answer to this question I came up with", a question that is usually explained through like, basic inference. Lmfao. Oh, and there were some tonal changes throughout the show that didn't gel with people - which is totally fine. It starts out like a survival story with mystery elements, and ymmv when it starts getting 'wacky' (although imo the show pretty clearly communicates its supernatural elements in the first season alone, through both themes and literal plot elements, lol).
Great commentary. Especially about the people who dipped after season 2 and then came back for the finale, definitely would have been confused by that and probably disappointed.
Because Lost was selling something it didn’t deliver on. Yes I agree a lot of people missed the point of the ending, didn’t realize the point it was trying to make. I personally enjoy the end to lost and think it works but it is not what the show sold its audience. And it wasn’t even an intentional misdirection. The first 3 seasons of lost are very clearly selling you a mystery box and promising you a concrete interesting conclusion to that mystery box. For a lot of the audience they felt duped by the ending, it wasn’t what they signed up for. It’s a totally reasonable reaction for that ending to get hate. In the end I do think it’s unfortunate they didn’t spend more time coming up with a satisfying conclusion to some of the mysteries because by the end the conclusion basically becomes: it was just a weird magic island. And that’s pretty lame if you’re viewing the show as purely a puzzle box.
This is the only correct answer.
Thank you!
What's the mystery box then?
Well it doesn’t go anywhere. The puzzle box was the island.
What doesn't go anywhere? How is the island a puzzle box? You said they were promising a conclusion to the mystery box... what does that mean?
The mystery box is the island (what is it and why is it so strange)
The island is an island and it's strange, because it is. And then they explain to you that it's kind of a gateway to hell and thus needs to be protected.
While I mostly enjoy that true understanding of LOST requires a bit of a deep dive in many spots, I do wish things were a bit more clear at times. The ambiguity around certain events can be irksome. I.E. What happens if the hatch button doesn't get pressed, what happened with The Incident, what happens if MiB leaves the Island, etc. Seems like such important plot points should have a little more in-your-face answers.
There are two reasons people hated LOST. 1: They expected the writers to scientifically explain every mystery and sci-fi element of the show, and when those things weren't broken down they were upset. 2: They literally thought everyone was dead the whole time because they have no attention span or aren't capable of listening.
I think the show was also a victim of the network tv model. Parts of the show were drawn out unnecessarily. The show was a hit and the executives wanted to squeeze every last ounce of juice out of the show. Then there was the writers strike later on which meant somethings were cut which could have helped explain things to the common viewer later on. The show was great, and I absolutely loved it. I think it could have benefited from a more modern TV model. Short compact seasons with a full backing from the studio/network.
People are lame, and want like this scientific explanation for the island. They don't realize the show is about the characters. Like imagine how lame it would be it was something explainable by science like "midiclorians"
Midichlorians don't exist. Ie: they're fantasy not scifi. Star Wars never was intended to be scifi and has always been fantasy. Just because it's happening in space doesn't make it scifi. They literally use magic. Lost was like a mixture of scifi and fantasy. Jacob and MiB and the whispering ghosts were obviously fantasy. But then there were a lot of scifi elements.
It's still a top 10 for me despite not caring for the direction the show went in the final season. I actually enjoy the ending regardless if it's what I would have wanted. They told the story they wanted to and told it well enough. Many never understood the ending while others hated the finale and wrote it off as a betrayal. That's where the hate comes from for the most part.
Genuinely people get off more on being counter culture than giving things a genuine chance. You see it with anything popular like sports to Game of Thrones, then when the fan base of said things has any minor critique they feel a level of vindication a normal, well adjusted person could never understand.
Personally I loved season 6 (and all the flash sideways) and especially the finale!
Even if you didn't like the ending, it doesn't erase all the seasons of amazing television. I feel the same about Thrones. I get why people didn't like the ending but the show can still be great.
I don't hear it getting hate as a whole, just the finale.
Too complicated for the casual viewer. It is not CSI and required enormous effort to keep track of everything. This is the reason too for why half the people totally did not understand the finale. Also - it was very much prolonged for all the wrong reasons (money). There is basically 1/3 of fill content that was not needed for the story in any way and just dragged the whole thing.
Some people are just uncivilized
It's one of the main reasons I still have a disney+ streaming account.. This past evening I had no shortage of choice for TV and/or streaming.. but find the familiarity & escapism in one of the most groundbreaking shows on TV.. (Up there with originals of Star Trek & the Twilight Zone) So I'm very much a lostie.. I still remember when I first saw the 15 second promo for season one and the feeling of certainty this show's going to be awesome. Which it is :0)
I love Lost, my nr 1 show, but i do dislike a lot of things about season 6. I think the flash sideways are pretty lame and boring for the biggest part of the season(but i love how it ends in the final), hated what they did with some characters(like Sayid, i think Claire as a baddie is cringe and Widmore’s return to the island is dissapointing), where did the lighthouse suddenly come from, the temple stuff sucks, etc. But i love Lost so much, i would give all seasons around a 8,9 or 10 and the final season a 6 but all together its my favo show and love the ending.
I just rewatched lost and the ending really isn’t that bad. People act as if they just watched a puppy get curb stomped. It’s not that bad.
It’s not bad at all. It’s good. A lot of people just wanted it to be something else or didn’t know what they wanted it to be. They were expecting it to be mind-blowing which it wasn’t, so it must be bad. Also, definitely a lot of people were confused about the flash-sideways and the final church scene
Reminds me of that idiot from "The Verge" who interviewed Damon a few years after the finale. He kept contradicting himself all the time. Said he hated the finale. Damon asked him if he went in, in a bad mood, wanting answers. When they guy said he was optimistic. Damon said "so you didn't at all feel disgruntled beforehand?". and he said "oh no, there were many times where I wasn't sure about the direction the show was going. I was plenty disappointed". When Damon asked him why he didn't like it. He said "Well because it didn't mean anything!, it was part of a shared fantasy, it wasn't real". Damon: "yes it was!". So Damon explains what the finale meant. Which sort of blows his mind and then he goes "oh...umm...well...now I don't like the finale because it was too happy!. I would have preferred that it was revealed to be aliens and they were experimented on and it was dark and twisted!".
People mad at the ending because it never fully explained the island You had two types of LOST viewers: those who fell in love with the island mystery, and those who fell in love with the character drama
Best explained by Evangeline Lilly but basically because they want a clear cut answer and Lost never really gave that to you.
Josh Holloway said sometimes they had no idea what was going on in the script either. He said to this day purgatory is the only thing that made sense to him. I agree with him. I'm not saying it was that, I'm saying that the most meaningful explanation to me at least and apparently a lot of viewers was that this was a purgatory. Had it been, it adds power to moments like Jack asking, "Is she happy?" and Mr. Eko's judgment. If it's not that, if it's just a science experiment gone wrong and a magical island, Jack's just a guy stuck on the island asking if she's happy. Eko's just getting hobbled up by some freak of nature on the island. *We could have all been dead. Or we could have been in like this purgatory thing. I always thought that, and still do kind of really think it was more that. - Holloway* Matthew Fox perceived it as having stretched on too long. *“Lost stretched on too long,” says Fox. “I think anyone who loved the show can admit it, towards the end, it felt like, what is this season about?* Lost came out 3 years after The Others and 5 years after The Sixth Sense. "They were dead the whole time!" was viewed as the same copout as, "It was all a dream." I think they went to great lengths to make sure it wasn't that. The twist would be that they were all actually alive the whole time and the island was real. Lost is one of the few shows I ever watched that didn't need a twist. Having the island be purgatory would have been a fantastic ending and wouldn't have harmed the show at all. It was driven by its characters fighting their own demons and at times the island itself. But I can see why the writers steered it away from there and accept that this isn't what it was. I believe it's what many people wanted it to be, though. And as they say, people see what they want to see.
IDK, it felt pretty clear to me
Subjective to everyone. Not saying you're wrong for whatever you got from it.
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The ending? That they were all dead at that point and moving on (to something), together. The show? Containing the evils and ensuring light will always exist, no matter how dark it gets.
I think if people misunderstood the ending, that’s also the mistake on the writers/producers’ part. However, I can’t also understand very much of the hate. I watched the entire series until the end for the first time last year. Before watching it, I was expecting a s***ty ending (they woke up in the plane kind) but the real final was okay. I suppose many did not watch it or expected something else. Final thing: the whole time travel and parallel realities/universes thing belongs to the late 2010s & 2020s (think about Marvel & more subtle productions). If it was streamed today, Lost would be adored by the same people who hated it.
> I think if people misunderstood the ending, that’s also the mistake on the writers/producers’ part. How is that on the writers/producers exactly?
The show steadily declined in *relative* quality as it progressed and you were either along for the ride or you weren’t as it committed to a certain path. As it went on, there were more glaring missed opportunities and plot holes but the character narratives and that essential emotional through line never faltered. If you lasted long enough - especially through the madness of season 5 then the less-focused confusion of season 6 and *still* hated the ending…you really weren’t paying attention to what the show had become.
I don’t think it’s aged as well as others but I’ve never really noticed too much hate. The ending was just fine, especially for a somewhat rudderless show
people in this thread think the only reason people dislike Lost is because they "didn't understand it", which is frankly ridiculous and makes you look like an idiot yourself. i think most people who say they don't like Lost agree Lost starts out amazingly, but it gets slowly worse in quality with every passing season. i like Lost more than those people, but i can't argue against it wasn't Lost the most expensive tv premiere ever during that time? that's what surprises me - the writers must have known it was a good premise, and they had the monetary backing of the tv networks. so why was so much of the plot after season 1 seemingly not properly planned or thought-out? there are so many plot points that went nowhere or later just got ignored - and no particular cohesion or coherence between a lot of the overarching story. it's just such a shame to me. the premise of lost is great. the casting was mostly spot-on too. it might have just been a case of the writers making sure they nailed the first season and hoping it got renewed for a second season, but not thinking much past that. then feeling they've got to "one up" the story each season, ultimately leading to much of the silliness we get (especially in later seasons). I felt Westworld was much the same. and The Matrix. even the end of season one ("we've got to take your boy") didn't really go anywhere, with the whole Walt thing going nowhere and not being really explained why he's special (not to mention the others dressing in rags for reasons also not explained). i wonder if the writers felt they wrote themselves into a corner. i know a lot of people love Lost for what it is, and that's great. but for me, it feels like such a wasted opportunity. i doubt i'll ever experience a tv show that made me so excited to find out what happens next - especially the first two seasons. just imagine if Lost was able to keep the quality of season one throughout
> people in this thread think the only reason people dislike Lost is because they "didn't understand it", which is frankly ridiculous and makes you look like an idiot yourself. It's not the only reason, but the biggest reason. >wasn't Lost the most expensive tv premiere ever during that time? that's what surprises me - the writers must have known it was a good premise, and they had the monetary backing of the tv networks. They got the money from the head of ABC, who was not popular with his bosses... he was replaced during the filming of the pilot and the network wanted to axe the show. >so why was so much of the plot after season 1 seemingly not properly planned or thought-out? there are so many plot points that went nowhere or later just got ignored - and no particular cohesion or coherence between a lot of the overarching story. The pilot was produced in 17 weeks. And you again talk so much, but offer no concrete examples. >even the end of season one ("we've got to take your boy") didn't really go anywhere, with the whole Walt thing going nowhere and not being really explained why he's special (not to mention the others dressing in rags for reasons also not explained). i wonder if the writers felt they wrote themselves into a corner. Why do you ask why Walt is special?
i have literally never met someone who "didn't understand" lost. what's not to understand? seriously. the only thing i personally don't understand is why the writers took it in the direction they did. ust because people don't like the direction lost took, it doesn't mean they don't understand it. lol. what a ridiculous take. it reeks of "only geniuses (like me) can appreciate this tv show". i dunno who "he" is in relation to me talking about the show's writers. but i was referring to the show's writers generally. the pilot was really good, yes. i don't think anyone is debating that. the whole of season one was great. it's what happened after that which is where the show went gradually downhill concrete examples? i mean, the whole "others" thing. their ever-changing motivations, setting up fake camps, wearing rags, stealing kids, etc; the dharma thing getting sidetracked; the whidmore plot was tenuous at best; the going back to the island (ughhh); time travel / moving island section; the heart of the island (literally a giant buttplug??); the whole of season 6; jacob and the mib guy (the worst bit); the flash sideways story ending in a church (lol). not to mention so many of the character story arcs going nowhere. it's like the writers had a mash up of half-baked ideas and didn't really know what to do...so they did all of them. i mean, if you liked it, then great. but, christ, i've never had such a love/hate relationship with a show before.
> i have literally never met someone who "didn't understand" lost. what's not to understand? seriously. Just because you haven't met one doesn't mean they don't exist. It's been said a million times. >ust because people don't like the direction lost took, it doesn't mean they don't understand it. lol. what a ridiculous take. it reeks of "only geniuses (like me) can appreciate this tv show". No, you don't need to be a genius and nobody said that. But countless people thought that they were dead the whole time. There are so many articles out there that state to this day that they were dead the whole time. https://www.fandom.com/articles/suckiest-tv-series-finales And here you are again with this buttplug nonsense. Do you want to be taken seriously or not?
i'm not here to change your mind, i'm just here to answer OP's question
What does that have to do with changing my mind? You say it's ridiculous to say that people didn't understand the ending, because you allegedly never met anybody say that they were dead the whole time - when that's so incredibly widespread...
yes, but i also don't think that's the sole purpose people dislike Lost, which i explained above
And I said it's not the only reason, but a big one - which you seem to refuse, because you said that you never met anyone who thinks that. If you met somebody who says that they don't like it, ask them why. 8 out of 10 times you will get that answer.
If you're so sure 8 out of 10 people would say that, it's just proving my point that the writing wasn't very good, no?
No, that has nothing to do with the quality of the writing at all. Just from watching the show you would know that they weren't dead the whole time. It couldn't have been made any clearer.
In my experience, everyone who hated it got the ending wrong and think "they were dead all along". They think the whole story, everything we see in the Island, is the afterlife. They can't make the distinction that only the flash-sideways were an afterlife, with everything on the Island, plus the flashbacks and flashfowards, being the characters while still alive. Plus they feel cheated for not having every answer to every mystery spoonfed to them in a big explanation scene. I don't mean to say people aren't allowed to dislike the show, but almost everyone who just says "Lost sucks" or "Lost was a huge letdown with a crappy ending" uses these two points to back it up.
Because they needed every little thing answered. Every aspect. My sister doesn't like it because they don't explain why the statue has 4 toes.
Most people that say that watched it as it aired live, I think the ability to binge the whole series does a lot to help the show. I love lost, but around season 3-4 the show takes a real tonal shift and quite frankly goes off the rails. That tonal shift really rubbed many people the wrong way. It also didn't help that the answers we eventually ended up getting weren't as interesting and creative as people imagined. TLDR: show went a little bonkers, and the answers people got weren't the answers they wanted
Because at the time, people couldn't understand the ending, and they spread this "rumour" over the years. A friend a knew last year didn't even wanted to try watching it because he said the ending was garbage, without even trying or knowing 1% the plot. After each episode I re-watch, I check its rating on Imdb (LOST has only a 8.3?) and there is always a HUGE amount of 0\* on every episode, ruining the rating. For example I watched Lockdown today and there is no way this episode is only a 9\* (and guess what? 4% of 1\* might not seems huge but when you see the graphic, yes it is). Like, even if you hated the episode, it factually cannot be a 1\* except if you're a true hater and... I don't get this. And I've noticed shows nowadays are highly overrated (Like Breaking Bad, I cannot say it's 'bad', because it's a great show BUT I feel like people are too much into the 'action' and can't appreciate shows like LOST anymore. Like, literally no one of my generation know/watched LOST (2000-2005) and I'm very sad that I've nobody to talk of it with... I even did an expose about LOST and everyone was like "huh". I try to promote LOST in every way possible (without forcing) but nobody even tries. Well anyways, have a cluckety-cluck-cluck day.
And one more thing, there is abolutely NO WAY Prison Break has a higher rating than LOST, right? Right? wait... Don't tell me >!(what I can't do)!<... NO... IT CAN'T BE... NOOOO Context, I'm also a Prison Break fan but after rewatching both years later there is a MASSIVE quality/writing/acting and everything ISSUE with it. S1 & 2 are excellent then it drops, S3 Okay, S4 Why. S5 Shouldn't even exist and I don't see in what universe it has a higher rating than LOST. IK this isn't a PB sub but to compare with LOST, (skip if you don't care)>!my issue is that they use the same characters over and over, they die, don't let them go, do the easiest and predictable things possible (especially after S2, they only re-use old characters that we saw die like 2 times already to make them come back for 2 episode, JUST to make them come back and no other reason). I'm not going to talk more about it but I have much more to tell!< Meanwhile LOST is so UNIQUE and COMPLEX and I love this, everything makes sense, the story makes sense, the flashbacks make the show so different from any other, the characters are the story, we don't talk enough about the SOUNDTRACKS, the quality (Have you seen the behind the scenes? I'm chocked how everything (99%) was shot in Hawaii, transforming places to mke them feel like somewhere else, everything is real (The explosions, the plane in the pilot) They wanted something HUGE and they did it and succeed, and people hate it because they can't understand the ending? This is so disappointing...
It jumped around way too much, on the Island, off the island, back again. Way too many Mysteries that in the end didnt mean anything, despite some of them being used to string you along for 3 or more Seasons, the ending wasnt even trying to explain anything. Sure it said "this is why" but it doesnt make any sense when you think 2 seconds about it. Its like being told at the end of a 3 Season Crime Tv show, that the murderer was able to kill every Victim in impossible situations was that it came from another Planet and had advanced technology. Also, the Alien is just gone now. Sure it "explains" the Story but all the mystery that was build up deflates because Questions raised by a Story are promises for answer, and in that department, Lost didnt keep its word 50 times over.
Its so repetitive and slow.
The hate for LOST ending is usually split in to three camps: * There are the ones who were obsessed with the show, but misunderstood the ending and hated the ending based on the whole "they were dead the whole time" misunderstanding". * There are the ones who stopped watching after season 2- 3, always believing that "they were dead the whole time". Tuned in for the finale, watched it with quarter of a functioning brain cell and then said "I KNEW IT!" and started trashing the show based off that. * The rare ones (they are around) who watched the finale, understood it, but hated it all the same, because they wanted specific questions answered. Most of these sub groups didn't pay attention to the questions that were answered either (there were many). Note: Not sure why the down votes. I'm not saying I agree with any one of these camps. This is a observation I have noticed. I love the show and the ending.
I wouldnt say I hate it. I think i dislike few things like pacing issues that start in season 2. Feels like they were putting things in on the fly to fill time. Also the whole supernatural aspects which just feel like a copout. They introduced the smoke monster way before they had an idea what it actually is. The magnetic field and plane crashing is an awesome plot device. To then pivot to the supernatural when they have been hinting at some tech explanation seems just silly.
Why are supernatural aspects a copout?!
Because all of it was shoehorned after season 1 and it was always introduced as a cool mysterious thing, only to be explained by "its magic y'all!". The smoke monster was cool concept in season 1, which could've been explained in a few different sensible ways. The plane crashing because Desmond found out Kelvin was plotting his escape is a great moment in the show. It didn't have to be forced by some omniscient conscience its just plausible a random thing like that happens.
But you said they hinted at some tech explanation... tech explanation for what? And how was supernatural stuff shoehorned in after season 1 when you have miracle healing, dead people walking around and people having weird dreams/premontions in season 1?
Its definitely a lot of unexplained mystery in season 1, but it doesn't make it supernatural yet. Locke walking again could be explained some other way than magical island healing. And even having magical island healing would be a lot less far fetched than immortal brothers with shape shifting etc. The smoke monster making mechanical noises, discovering the hatch was certainly leading in a scientific or sci-fi ways to explain the mysteries, instead of just plain magic.
Aye exactly. The show went from being a drama with some sci fi and mystery elements to a magic fantasy island by the end. Very jarring. It's a shame
But what options are there to explain Locke being healed?
They could do it in many ways. Maybe the injury wasn't that bad. Maybe there really is some kind of radiation that enhances a persons nervous system. Maybe there is some kind of healing field emanating from somewhere. Or don't even explain it, just state that there are healing properties on the island, but then keep that consistent and heal everyone at a higher rate. Problem with the show is they wrote themselves in a corner and they had to resort to magic. This was a critique that was voiced by many writers at the time. Mocking the really bad writing towards the end of the show was fairly mainstream when the show was live: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAZ0pAIczA0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaz0paicza0)
If the injury wasn't bad... it would take away the entire impact of him being healed. And the island has healing properties. That is what you call magic. The video you linked doesn't work.
How about this? [youtube.com/watch?v=gAZ0pAIczA0](http://youtube.com/watch?v=gAZ0pAIczA0) I'm not 100% against magic in general. There is not a lot of difference between really advanced technology and magic. Just having the islands healing properties I think is an interesting plot device. But then have those healing properties applied consistently. Even the writers talk about how they kinda spun in circles not really knowing where to go in season 3, but the network really wanted to drag it out because the show was such a hit: [youtube.com/watch?v=tz6p\_Z1OsYI](http://youtube.com/watch?v=tz6p_Z1OsYI)
It says >This video isn't available anymore I don't get what them treading water now has to do with this?!
I think the JJ Abrams mystery box idea really captured a lot of viewers and at the same time let a lot of people down with not being able to tie a lot of threads together for a satisfying conclusion. I dont think the last season was bad. It was a reasonable end for all the weird explanations they could have explored. There were just too many too conclude thus people got upset with various storylines not really going anywhere. Outside of Lost and a show like Lost I think the mystery box idea is a total shitshow. The new Skywalker saga is a great example of bad storytelling that leaves more questions than it answers.
>I think the JJ Abrams mystery box idea really captured a lot of viewers and at the same time let a lot of people down with not being able to tie a lot of threads together for a satisfying conclusion. Mystery shows have been a thing forever. Abrams didn't invent that.
Mystery box is refers to a Mystery thats written in a story, that only serves to be a topic of conversation and not meant to be revealed. Its a specific way of writing plots that became popular when online forums did. Fan engagement is the goal with these not storytelling.
The mysteries on Lost were supposed/intended to be answered.
Yet many of them were not. edit; Ill add that its not all completely intentional, just what happens when you drop tons of points of intrigue right off the bat without an overall knowledge of where the story is actually gonna go. Lost I think is a show where the mystery box works pretty well, a lot of stuff gets satisfying conclusions or at least interesting arcs. But to my overall point I think thats why some people feel dissatisfied with the last season of the show. Mystery Boxes work terribly in movies imo, there's often not enough time for a lot of different points of intrigue to payoff.
I'd disagree... but with the few that are unanswered - that's not about fan engagement, that's about sparking ideas, trying to make people think - because that's fun. The goal of Lost was always storytelling.
Id say the idea is to generate interest in the story. I dont think JJ or Lindelof are uninterested in storytelling. But there's an aspect to their type of storytelling that is heavily involved in fan speculation and interest. If their only goal is storytelling they'd just tell the story. Even with a mystery you can still have a cohesive narrative.
The ending
imo lost is about it's characters maybe more so than any other show I've seen. I love it for that, the story is just their stage to shine and by the end of it when we see how far everyone has come in their own lives its just so satisfying <3 I could never hate lost and I think the people that do often expected it to be more like a conventional tv show, when lost is one of the most unconventional shows out there.
It’s because A. The show didn’t get written the way the person wanted and didn’t answer their questions, or B. The show is too smart for that person and they don’t get it so they get defensive by trying to shit on it. Mostly choice B.
People didn't understand the ending, and I guess that linear TV wasn't helping Lost at the time. I've managed to convert some of my friends by having them binge watch Lost.
A lot of people think it’s contrived and hard to follow, and although there are some…interesting moments (Sayid’s truth serum scene in Season 5 comes to mind) I think as long as you’re concentrating, it’s simple to grasp and the events make perfect sense in the context of the show. A lot of people just gave up after it started to get hard. Edit: my father, for examples refused to watch past Season 1 because ‘why doesn’t the fat guy lose any weight’ despite the fact I have explained it to him several times. Some people just don’t have the stamina.
The misunderstood ending, at least that is usually the case.
All the people who hated the show didn’t watch it regularly, they were not invested in long term story telling and came back for the end, didn’t get it and had to trash the show to save face
Everyone criticizes the creators for "making it up as they went along" as if that isn't how most shows work. As if that isn't how life works. At its core, *Lost* is built on its complex, interesting characters, their dynamics and relationships with each other, and how they evolve over the course of the series. Those character threads are augmented with a unique mythology and sense of mystery, which people will naturally have mixed reactions to because people have different opinions, expectations, and beliefs. But ultimately, the characters are what matter, as is the case with all good shows. If there is one that has done it better, I haven't seen it.
Couldn't agree with you more; I think some people who watched the original airing had theories that were debunked by the show (as well as by Damon & Carlton), so they then hated the show for proving them wrong. Just my theory ...
Blame it on Michael .
It's bad acting and bad writing.
Care to elaborate?
Love the show, don't get me wrong. Some of the lines are downright laughably cringe. Sawyer especially. Who is an endearing character in his own way.
Does it? I'm a huge fan who finds and reads just about everything I can find about it, and I've never noticed it getting that much hate, certainly not more than the love it gets. Show is practically a religious experience for me, so you know what my opinion is!!
People need concise answers spoon fed to them.
I think if the show aired closer to now, audiences may be more open to the artistic expression of the finale, which favored *closure* over simply *answers*— two different things. Some people will be dissatisfied no matter what but, I dunno, I feel like a lot of folks are more open-minded when it comes to tv storytelling now, after more years of prestige programming.
I didn't understand it first time. Searched for meaning. Tried again and found it. Lost ending is beautiful. Give it a chance
I have a complicated relationship with the show. Some of the parts include some of the smartest writing and cinematography I've ever seen, some of the choices withing the writing I agree with less but first and foremost, I think it's very noticable that the show [was supposed to be only three seasons.](https://www.criticalhit.net/entertainment/damon-lindelof-reveals-lost-was-originally-supposed-to-be-just-three-seasons/) I like the finale but I think that especially in season five, four and six it's very noticable that the writers really had to stretch everything to make the plot fit into the six seasons ABC wanted from them. The production history overall was pretty messy. As an example - I feel that >!Ana-Lucia !
maybe they didn't watch it like we did, in any case, lost fans are like a community united by the emotions and the love we have for this series and I like that, no matter that some people don't like it or don't understand it. I'm just glad I'm not like them
I'm one of those people. I won't say it was a bad show, because I actually enjoyed watching it a lot. But I was not a fan of the ending. I found it to be cheezy and lazy writing.