Well
where to start? Lost is a decent enough show in parts. It's well produced, mostly well directed, has a good soundtrack and a lot of good actors among a few bad ones. It has an interesting premise, some good ideas, but sadly mostly bad ones.
Early on I liked how the show focused on one character per episode and how we got to know them through flashbacks as well as events going on on the island. OK, some characters were clichéd paper cut-outs and some back-stories were quite ridiculous, but it featured some involving story lines and some clever ideas. I didn't even really mind the constant stressing of opposites and contrasts. A child being born while somebody dies, a person being in the exactly opposite position on the island to the one he was in before.
But the characters stopped developing or, in the few cases they didn't, took unrealistic turns that felt really forced. Also, a problem with the episode design of focusing on one character each episode started to show more and more. Characters disappeared more or less completely (at least as far as meaningful scenes are concerned) for a couple of episodes only to return when needed. It started to feel increasingly less organic. The flashbacks also started repeating themselves and adding next to nothing to the characters. When they switched to flash- forwards in the later seasons, it was a decent idea, but the show had already gotten so ridiculous, it didn't really redeem anything.
Still, character study is Lost's biggest strength in my opinion. For every character that was unbelievably constructed (Sawyer), evolved uncharacteristically (John Locke) or was flat-out annoying (Ana Lucia), there were some well drawn-out characters that evoked my interest.
The plot, however, is just completely unbalanced and, frankly, quite bad. Huge plot-holes are mixed with a mythology that attracted many fans, but ultimately only existed for the sake of itself. It is completely meaningless and honestly ridiculous. Where Twin Peaks succeeded Lost fails miserably. Surreal does not equal good without further qualities. The less than satisfying – to put it mildly – end does not help Lost's cause either. The end proves that Lost is lost in its own plot devices and twists that never served any purpose. The hooks it threw out to bait the viewers have nothing at all at their other end. Throwing in random references to The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, or whatever else the writers could think of doesn't make a show clever. Neither does over saturating it with symbols and iconic imagery that only serves to look cool.
Furthermore, a lot of the things Lost did were quite cheap. Cutting away from a tense moment to show a flashback can be a useful device, but doing this every single time is just lazy and cheap. The same goes for some much too obvious plot twists that are executed as if they were incredibly clever but actually are anything but. People have also praised the show for connecting the end of every episode to the beginning of the next one. It's no real artistic achievement, though. Pretty much all the writers are doing is taking the beginning of the script of one episode and inserting it at the end of the previous one. This keeps the viewers wanting to see the next episode, but it's quite cheap and lazy when employed every time. In later seasons they also tend to ignore the last episode's cliff-hanger for entire episodes to artificially keep the suspense going. That's not even talking about the story, in which every open question was basically answered by "because the island is special", "because he is special" or "because magic".
I wouldn't mind the now infamous ending to the series, if the ride up until then had been outstanding. I could forgive that. But, as it happens, it has not. The early goings of the first season is clearly the best. After that it goes downhill quite quickly with some good moments, ideas and even episodes (The excellent '?' for example) sporadically mixed in. Yes, the show keeps you guessing. But when the writers are able to write in whatever they feel like without ever explaining anything, that hardly holds any merit. So, if you like stories about ghosts, mysterious smoke monster security mechanism ancient evil twin brothers (which appear ever so conveniently when needed as a plot device, but otherwise leave everybody alone), people coming back from the dead, cursed magic numbers, sketchy science, buttons that have to be pressed all the time to prevent the end of the world, time travel, islands with miraculous healing abilities, unexplained giant statues, immortality, , and like them to be told with big special effects, eye candy, a Hollywood budget and cheap thrills, this might just be the series for you. But if you care about good storytelling, character development, meaningful plot or producers and writers simply having a bit of respect for their viewers, you'd better steer clear of 'Lost'. Luckily there are dozens of shows out there who have more of the latter than of the former.
Early on I liked how the show focused on one character per episode and how we got to know them through flashbacks as well as events going on on the island. OK, some characters were clichéd paper cut-outs and some back-stories were quite ridiculous, but it featured some involving story lines and some clever ideas. I didn't even really mind the constant stressing of opposites and contrasts. A child being born while somebody dies, a person being in the exactly opposite position on the island to the one he was in before.
But the characters stopped developing or, in the few cases they didn't, took unrealistic turns that felt really forced. Also, a problem with the episode design of focusing on one character each episode started to show more and more. Characters disappeared more or less completely (at least as far as meaningful scenes are concerned) for a couple of episodes only to return when needed. It started to feel increasingly less organic. The flashbacks also started repeating themselves and adding next to nothing to the characters. When they switched to flash- forwards in the later seasons, it was a decent idea, but the show had already gotten so ridiculous, it didn't really redeem anything.
Still, character study is Lost's biggest strength in my opinion. For every character that was unbelievably constructed (Sawyer), evolved uncharacteristically (John Locke) or was flat-out annoying (Ana Lucia), there were some well drawn-out characters that evoked my interest.
The plot, however, is just completely unbalanced and, frankly, quite bad. Huge plot-holes are mixed with a mythology that attracted many fans, but ultimately only existed for the sake of itself. It is completely meaningless and honestly ridiculous. Where Twin Peaks succeeded Lost fails miserably. Surreal does not equal good without further qualities. The less than satisfying – to put it mildly – end does not help Lost's cause either. The end proves that Lost is lost in its own plot devices and twists that never served any purpose. The hooks it threw out to bait the viewers have nothing at all at their other end. Throwing in random references to The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, or whatever else the writers could think of doesn't make a show clever. Neither does over saturating it with symbols and iconic imagery that only serves to look cool.
Furthermore, a lot of the things Lost did were quite cheap. Cutting away from a tense moment to show a flashback can be a useful device, but doing this every single time is just lazy and cheap. The same goes for some much too obvious plot twists that are executed as if they were incredibly clever but actually are anything but. People have also praised the show for connecting the end of every episode to the beginning of the next one. It's no real artistic achievement, though. Pretty much all the writers are doing is taking the beginning of the script of one episode and inserting it at the end of the previous one. This keeps the viewers wanting to see the next episode, but it's quite cheap and lazy when employed every time. In later seasons they also tend to ignore the last episode's cliff-hanger for entire episodes to artificially keep the suspense going. That's not even talking about the story, in which every open question was basically answered by "because the island is special", "because he is special" or "because magic".
I wouldn't mind the now infamous ending to the series, if the ride up until then had been outstanding. I could forgive that. But, as it happens, it has not. The early goings of the first season is clearly the best. After that it goes downhill quite quickly with some good moments, ideas and even episodes (The excellent '?' for example) sporadically mixed in. Yes, the show keeps you guessing. But when the writers are able to write in whatever they feel like without ever explaining anything, that hardly holds any merit. So, if you like stories about ghosts, mysterious smoke monster security mechanism ancient evil twin brothers (which appear ever so conveniently when needed as a plot device, but otherwise leave everybody alone), people coming back from the dead, cursed magic numbers, sketchy science, buttons that have to be pressed all the time to prevent the end of the world, time travel, islands with miraculous healing abilities, unexplained giant statues, immortality, , and like them to be told with big special effects, eye candy, a Hollywood budget and cheap thrills, this might just be the series for you. But if you care about good storytelling, character development, meaningful plot or producers and writers simply having a bit of respect for their viewers, you'd better steer clear of 'Lost'. Luckily there are dozens of shows out there who have more of the latter than of the former.