LOST the final season review

So I finally got around to finishing the last season of Lost. Because I don't have DVR I had to wait to watch the season on DVD. It's a hard-knock life. So forgive me for this review being 4 months late. But after I saw the end of a show that I had faithfully followed for 6 years I had to get my two cents out there. (So original, a blogger wanting their voice to be heard...")

Yes, I did watch the entire series without ever giving up during season 2 like most fairweather Lost fans did. I watch a lot of TV and as I've said before I think my opinion is the most valid on high quality entertainment. Let me just get this out of the way. I believe the first season of Lost is the single greatest season of any TV series out there. (Yes, even better than Buffy season 2, 24 season 5, Arrested Development season 2, and Dexter seasons 1 & 4) I dare anyone to watch the pilot and tell me that they didn't really dig it. Anyone who has seen the pilot has gone on to watch the entire season. It has it all: anti-heroes, villains, torture, monster noises, love, hurley, and polar bears. But herein lies the problem. The 1st season was so phenomenal, where do you go from there. Down. The audience expected so much from the show that they expected insane answers to mind-bending mysteries. But all they got was Michelle Rodriguez. Yuck. It is a well known fact that 74% of Lost fans dropped off in the middle of the 2nd season. And another 12% left during the 3rd. These seasons were solid and better than most other TV shows, but we expected more from the show that made the "Party of Five" guy cool.

The show got its groove back in seasons four and five. I remember watching season 5 and thinking "Oh, so they finally answered that lingering question. I forgot that even happened early on in the show. That's the problem with the show. There were so many cool questions and mysteries early on, that you were dying in anticipation of the answers. But if any answers did come, they came with 7 more mysteries. And each of those mysteries had 7 more mysteries. And they told 7 of their friends. And so on...and so on.

This show has relied on flashbacks in each episode to give more depth to each character and reveal mini-twists of their pasts. The show was turned on its head when, in season 4, they focused on flash-forwards of the surviving characters. Season 5 went crazy with time travel and nuclear bombs and ended with a possible show ender. I couldn't wait for season 6. Skip the next paragraph if you are ever going to watch it.

*Begin Spoiler* (I have always wanted to say that)
The final season begins right after the bomb goes off and the castaways have successfully reset being stuck in 1977. They are back to the present and reuniting with each other again. But Locke having been killed previously is back, or should I say the Smoke monster has taken the form of Locke and his only mission is to get every castaway together and get off the island. Everyone knows he's evil so they go to a temple for no apparent reason and get captured by the natives. Locke ends up killing the natives and one by one, recruits the castaways. We find out why each of the characters was brought to the island but not exactly what they're supposed to do. Apparently Jacob knew his number was coming up and needed one of them to be the Island's protector. Jacob and the Smoke monster represent the good and evil of the island and Jacob warns that Locke can not be allowed to leave or "everything you have ever known will cease to exist!" Those are some pretty alarming words. Does he ever give the reason why that would happen or why the smoke monster is so evil? No. (This is Lost, after all) Eventually there is a struggle and many of the original cast die. Of course, Jack becomes the new protector but sacrifices himself to save everyone and the Island. A few people get off the island and who knows what happens. The novelty of this season was the flash-sideways. During each episode we find out what would happen to the characters in a parallel dimension if the plane never crashed. I really enjoyed this, and it was very refreshing to see past characters who previously died. The character Desmond is the link and somehow remembers his past on the island. He finds each character and helps them remember as well. The last episode, we discover that the flash-sideways is really purgatory and constructed by the castaways so that they would find each other again and all go to heaven.
*End Spoiler*

Ok, I know I probably made the season sound stupid. It wasn't. It just didn't seem like a final season of a show tangled in mythology. I want to talk specifically about the final episode "The End." I believe the majority of fans were disappointed in it. I'll first attack it, then defend it.

Really Lost, you give us mystery after mystery, major characters dying everywhere, a smoke monster for pete's sake, and you basically tell us that none of it was important?! You only say that the experience made every castaway better and brought them together?? That's your explanation?! What about the button? The numbers? Walt?! You teased us and didn't pay off in the end! Really?!

Ok, now I'll defend it. Lost, you have given us great characters with solid depth that I felt for. Nearly every death was a blow to me. (Charlie, sniff sniff) Sure a lot of weird stuff was going on and we never learn why, but at least you kept us guessing and blogging about it.

Lost really was all about the characters. The ending proves that. I don't cry for movies or TV, but when everyone remembered each other in the flash-sideways I was almost blubbering like a baby. (Fact: the only time I've cried in a movie, is when Artex dies in the swamps of sadness in The Neverending Story) The reunion of Claire and Charlie was especially effective.

In conclusion, did the end of the show tell us what the island is? An episode in the middle of this season teased us that the island might be a (buffy reference) hellmouth, a gateway of sorts for stopping evil from entering our world. But that's all they gave us, a tease. Lost is a tease, but not a wholly unsatisfying one. I have been glad to have a show to watch that has a cliffhanger at the end of nearly every episode and leaves me wanting more.

I will miss Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin, Sun, Charlie, and the rest of the gang. I would say the last episode is a very consistent end for a very inconsistent show.

Lost the Final Season gets a decent 3 stars from me. The ending was emotional but, as expected, answered nothing.