(BEWARE MATEY’S, THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Six years and 6 months ago I was fortunate enough to have accidentally stumbled over some new TV show simply labeled “Lost” on a file sharing system.  I’m typically in the know regarding new television shows and movies in production however this time I was completely in the dark.  I had downloaded an early version of the show that didn’t yet have all the titles or special effects in place yet.  However it was immediately apparent this was something big, something different.  I went online and found some other people who had seen the same leaked video and the buzz that was beginning.  At this time JJ Abrams, though known for Felicity and Alias,  was not yet a hot property.  So it was quite a surprise to find that ABC had commissioned him to create the most expensive television pilot episode ever made.

The first two seasons of the show, the first episode in particular, was probably one of the most mesmerizing I’ve ever seen.  The intriguing plot, interesting characters and mystery of everything was so hypnotic it was hard not to get wrapped up in the story and people.  However there were some ups and downs in the seasons.  Season three drifted astray for a while, though it did get Brian K. Vaughn (Y The Last Man) as a head writer and he stayed on through season 5.  I’ve been pretty dismissive of this entire last season in general.  Season after season we asked Where are we?  What’s in the hatch?  Who are the Dharma Initiative? Will Des find Penny? and questions went on and on.  As the final season neared to a close it became more apparent that the questions didn’t seem to be leading to any real resolution.  Instead it only introduced more new questions.

“You know when I used to get high, I’d watch nature programs on the Beeb. Polar bears are meant to be quite clever, very clever. They’re like the Einstein’s of the bear community.”

By the time the final episode came a long I was getting very nervous about how it would all end.  Unfortunately the critics were right all along, they had no idea where any of this was going.  We were all so worried that the show so known for cliffhanger season finales would end the series with us hanging.  Instead of giving us a cliffhanger they just kicked us over the cliff.  In the end the creative team of writers basically answered all the hanging questions with a “Meh, doesn’t really matter.  Just enjoy your time together eating coconuts, picking on the fat kid, and fighting unexplained monsters because in the end that’s all that really matters.”  The final 5 minutes of the last episode is just a cast reunion in some random Unitarian church (notably missing are Michael, Waaaaaaalllt and Vincent).

So that’s what we are left with.  No it isn’t as bad as the ending of Battlestar Galactica (which was pretty bad in my opinion), nor did it have the sad and slow fizzling out of The X-Files, The Sopranos (lame, loose cop out ending), Star Trek Enterprise (a holodeck. . . really?), 24 (people that thought Bauer was going to die are suckers.  It was obvious 24’s heading for movies).  How about some shows that had half way decent endings?  Life on Mars was a short lived American version of an English show that had a half decent ending like Jericho a show so loved by fans the network brought the show back to give it a proper, though short ending.  Or Dollhouse, which also had a short but decent ending.

“Look, I don’t know about you, but things have really sucked for me lately, and I could really use a victory. So let’s get one, dude! Let’s get this car started. Let’s look Death in the face and say, ‘Whatever, man!’”

The writing team could have given us a better ending if they had actually cared enough to write a framework for the story to begin with.  Interview after interview with the producers there were promises that there were real reasons for everything that happened.  In the end most of it was just a lie because they realized they could write anything and wave their hand later using a little Jedi mind trickery.  To all the folks that said “they really couldn’t have ended it any other way” I say bollocks.  Though I admit by writing themselves into a corner they were more likely to give us a crap ending.

The X-Files creator Chris Carter wanted to give a proper end to the show at season 5.  The network pressed for more and so began the slow fizzle.  With Lost it seems like ABC knew they had a hit and wanted to keep it a hit for as long as they could dangle the carrot and people were willing to follow without seeing the string.  They succeeded in giving us 5 years of amazing television entertainment that will be remembered for years to come.  And a final season that should otherwise be forgotten like the Matrix sequels, brutha.

If you want to a good list of questions that were never answered, watch this.  And a note on the post credits stinger weirdness.