Lost

This is just a very quick post to inform everyone that I’ve started watching Lost. I guess it’s going to become a fixture of Friday game nights; a few episodes of Lost, an hour or two of Rock Band, then whatever game we’re playing until 2-3 a.m.

I realize this show is all about mysteries and questions and plot twists. Part of the reason I avoided it during its run is I was not convinced it was going to be given a satisfying conclusion. I’ve since been informed by fans of the series that the conclusion was satisfying enough to make the whole run worth watching, which is fine by me. I just know better than to get involved in these week-to-week thrillers anymore.

(…says the guy who is counting the hours until the fifth season of Dexter.)

What worries me, though, is that the ratio of real, interesting plot twists and manipulative drama-bomb episode cliff-hangers is going to be skewed too much towards the latter. When it was revealed that Locke used to be in a wheelchair in episode four I didn’t think, “Whoa! Nice plot twist!” but rather, “I wonder if that’s at all important, or if it was just done for shock value.”

These little shock value twists are a great way to end an episode when the viewer has to wait another week to get the next bit… but they tend not to serve the overall story very well. So I hope the series isn’t full of them.

Anyway, wish me luck as I embark on this journey to watch a TV series everyone else has already seen. Maybe when I’m done with this I can go back and watch 24.

5 comments to Lost

  • Personally, LOST is one of my favorite shows ever. I was one of those crazy guys who watched it all the way through; I was hooked from the begging. And, to my knowledge, LOST is not full of that kind of thing. Pretty much everything is important someway or another later. There aren’t many, if any, episodes that just ended with a twist for shock value that didn’t affect the plot in any way.

    At least I think so. I can’t really say, as I watched them week to week and not back to back, but I’m pretty sure it’s all important in the end. Some people hated the ending; personally I loved it. If you disagree with me later, we can fight about it sometime. 😛

  • RT-55J

    “I’ve since been informed by fans of the series that the conclusion was satisfying enough to make the whole run worth watching, which is fine by me.”

    Really? I haven’t watched Lost, but that’s the exact opposite of what I’ve heard.

  • Nich

    “Maybe when I’m done with this I can go back and watch 24.”

    Good idea, but I strongly suggest you stop after season 3.

  • Lys

    LOST is one of those shows where, on first viewing, your faith that it’s going somewhere interesting is going to be tested midway through season two, and then all but shattered early into season three. Those problem spots work much better the second time around (we’re watching it again thanks to the power of Netflix, and those stretches haven’t annoyed me as much this time). Like every show the quality of the episodes can vary, sometimes drastically.

    The more I mull over the finale, the more I like it and think it’s a satisfying conclusion to the show; that didn’t seem to be the prevailing opinion, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts as you go along, and at the end! I think it’s a fascinating show to talk about, even when everything has supposedly been said about it already (it hasn’t).

    There are plot twists that are just done for shock value through the entirety of LOST, and they’re pretty obvious and not terribly effective; I don’t think the Locke reveal is one of those. They’re setting things up with that, and you’ll miss the more natural-feeling reveals, like that one, when you see some of the more DA DA DUNNNN ones. 😛

  • Darken

    Cool, my sister also happens to start watching Lost. For me I watched Lost purely for the characters and to see how they deal with situations. I’m a huge fan of how they do the flashbacks and make it relate to current events for the characters (later on they actually innovate the flashbacks into something… different).

    That said, I’m in the camp of “the ending sucked” but I was glad I watched Lost to the end regardless. Also Dexter rocks, and is probably a better show in terms of balancing plot mechanics with characters.

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