lennon2012

I forgot about that. I should watch the series again sometime. First in the queue though: Arrested Development, Shameless, Six Feet Under, The Big C, The Killing, Friday Night Lights, The League, The Good Wife, American Horror Story, Justified Season 3, and Dexter Season 6. Among others.

That may be true. They often did push the mythology. But how else do you market something like that. As big as that. To keep people interested. Otherwise it’d be a soap opera, right?

And I get why people were upset or didn’t get the whole point. Josh just tweeted about this. "@joshuatopolsky: I love the outrage from people who don’t get how I didn’t “get” Lost’s ending, like it was really straightforward." The only thing I can say to him and them is that the creators (Lindelof and Carlton Cuse et al) said explicitly and repeatedly through several seasons that the show is about the characters, not the mythology. Mythology=secondary (and sometimes even tertiary). They did say there will be “answers” but that leaves a big question about what they meant by “answers.” Obviously they were teasing. Even testing people’s patience. But that’s…you know…“show biz.” Sounds stupid and below the intelligence of the audience, but I really think dismayed viewers should’ve just gotten the hint that Damon and Carlton were serious that LOST is/was a character play (I understand if they just weren’t aware that Damon and Carlton said those things in interviews throughout the years, but they did say so), and not been adamant like "but…but….what about the polar bears, and the ship wheel buried underground that when you turn it makes a really bright light and moves the island and creates kind of crappy water movement special effects?? and the drop shipments and the hatches and the tests and the videos and the weird “natives/occupants” and how the smoke monster became the smoke monster and becomes the smoke monster before/after taking the shape of one or more of the characters and why why why??!"

I think it would be boring if more of those things were fully answered. To me, usually when sci-fi gets explained it gets all (and I’m going to get heat for this) Star Warsy or Star Trekky, and I’m sorry, but those movies and TV shows were s-h-i-t-t-y. Bad effects. Bad dialog. Bad everything. I liked learning about Jack and Sawyer and Hurley and Kate and Ben and John Locke. Not necessarily what the buttons did (or didn’t do).

The fundamental disconnect between those with a grievance about the ending of LOST and those in support of it (along with those who wrote and made it) is that there are two views on what the series was about.

One (the dissenters) says that it’s an amalgamation of sci-fi, mystery, horror, and fable (multiple references in the series were made to the yin/yang and philosophers and aggregate philosophy).

The other (the people who didn’t have a hateful or even a love/hate relationship with it, but a love/omg-love bond with it), saw it as a character play. All about da people. Everything else was just set design. Complicated. Sometimes f-ed up. Sometimes really f-ed up. Sometimes cheesy. Sometimes disappointing. Sometimes egregiously so. But set design.

It was all about Jack & Co, and how they got through what they went through. Not what they went through. Not the physical or metaphysical potential of “The Island”. That’s just to get you in the door saying, “WTF?” and “This might be interesting.” Then you got to know the characters. You get to like them. Or hate them. That’s why I’ve always agreed with what the creators have said about the show. It’s about people. That’s why I think it’s possibly the best broadcast-TV-level show ever broadcast on TV. They told a really long and very good down-and-up-and-down-and-up story about a subject that is actually very simple. They pulled it off. I think so, anyway. Please disagree.

(Spoiler: The only thing that I’ve wondered about is how they could’ve elucidated the explosion after the end of season 5. It was a phenomenal end to the season, but I would’ve liked a little more in season 6 on that. But 6 was occupied with a whole other reconciliation story, so I guess they did it sort of the best they could.)

If he lasts the week, and then the next three, he’ll do the whole 365. In fact, he might be “done” early and only doing the remaining 11 months to set his own record or whatever. It’s surprisingly how fast you can acclimate to a new situation. You just need to find something you like to occupy you during the downtime. Plus, he lives in NYC, which is like the physical representation of the Internet. Everything is in NYC. Everything. Living memes. Naked people. Even Dorito Tacos. Winter might be tough, though. But he’ll just drink himself through that.