D. Keith Robinson

Some quick thoughts on Lost’s Finale, now that it’s over. There’ll likely be some spoilers in here, so don’t read on if you haven’t seen it and care about spoilers.

Overall I thought Lost was a good series. It had its ups and downs, but for the most part I enjoyed it. I liked most of the characters, thought it was extremely well-crafted and, most of the time, entertaining. I tend to look at it (and have been looking at it) as a series of loosely connected story-arcs rather than one cohesive narrative, and honestly, if I didn’t look at it that way I’d be much more disappointed with the series and the finale.

In general, I thought the finale was much like the series itself; it was well done, there were some great moments, some bits that made very little sense and, in the end, was sort of so-so. I thought it wrapped up the “sideways” narrative fairly well from a plot standpoint, but left a bit to be desired in how they handled the specifics.

The idea that the alternate timeline was some kind of poly-theistic purgatory was acceptable, but just barely. It did work fairly well as a vehicle to some great emotional moments between the cast members and I found parts of it pretty touching. However, it also felt a bit clumsy and overly sentimental at times. I mean, we get it, you’re being PC and gunning for a pretty wide audience. But, really, the true love awakening thing was a bit much, and that’s when it made sense. Sayid and Shannon? What happened to Nadia? I did like Desmond as this kind of psycho angelic figure running the show. And “Christian Shephard?” I got a good chuckle out of that.

It left a bit of mystery, which I liked. I thought the scene in the concert where Faraday is asking Desmond about Daniel was particularly intriguing. I don’t mind that they left some threads open, and didn’t try to go about solving all the mysteries.

For the most part though it seemed a bit weak and I expected a bit more controversy, subtlety and mystery there. The last five minutes of the show might have been the weakest of the whole series in my mind. Jack’s dad with the ham-fisted explanation for all the simpletons who hadn’t made the connection? Weak-sauce.

On to the “main” timeline. The Island. What can I say? They blew it big time. The Island was relegated to window-dressing at best. I think had I not seen “A Journey In Time” where they make a very weak attempt at some backstory, I might not have been quite as disappointed. But I saw that episode, and all the others where they worked to build the mystery and mythology of the island and at some point actually cared about it. It was clear, at some point last night, maybe when Jack was putting the oblong rock back into the hole, that I didn’t really care much about the Island anymore and clearly neither did the show’s creators. I kinda just wanted it to be over. We learned that it was real, but aside from that it was pretty inconsequential. What’s worse, they ruined much of the mystery in this last season by trying to explain some of what is going on only to jettison most of that in the finale. Sure, they left it to focus on the sentimental, politically-correct-yet-somewhat-compelling character drama, but it really felt like a copout more than a calculated move to me.

As someone who, at some point in the past, was interested in the Island and what was going on there, I was pretty disappointed yet not really all that surprised. I had thought there was an epic story there, and some deeper meaning related to the island. Sure, I liked the characters and relationships, but I was one of those folks who got bored with all the character expose. Yet, to their credit, they kept me watching and thinking about the mystery of the Island. Well, until the last few episodes when it became increasingly clear that they weren’t going to be able to deliver. And I did grow to care about some of the characters, for sure.

Essentially I feel a bit like I was duped into watching a soap opera. Luckily, it was a well done and entertaining soap opera, with just enough mystery and action to keep me hooked, but in the end, it still feels like a soap, not the grand and epic story it had the potential to be.