You know, I sort of got hooked on Lost after watching the first season. I heard grteat things about the show, mostly loved what I was seeing, and it was generally a show that was just fun as hell.
You know what it reminded me of? The X-Files. I used to love X-Files WAY more than Lost. And then somehow everything went to crap. It started out with cool "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes. But then they had to weave in this huge elaborate conspiracy/epic-plot in order to keep the show from being such a one trick pony. The problem was, that really WAS the one trick they had. Even AFTER the big huge dumbass conspiracy started to becme common, the BEST episodes were STILL the random monster-of-the-week episodes. The ongoing epic conspiracy plot felt tacked-on. And very little was ever really answered. It was just mystery piled upon mystery until no one really gave a fly **** any more. The X-Files CLEARLY seemed to not really have any idea of where it was going, and now even fans don't give a **** about it.
THAT was what I feared Lost was going to become. I absolutely LOVED the first season. But the second and third season were sort of low points in my opinion. In the second and third seasons, the series seemed to lose a lot of weight. Not enough questions answered. Answered questions too often didn't answer anything and just led to MORE unanswered questions. It REALLY started to get sort of stale by the end of the second season. And when during season 2 I heard that the series was going to be 7 seasons long, I was starting to think that the series would long since wear thin and would run out of steam long before it ended. I was thinking that it would turn out EXACTLY like The X-Files. I SERIOUSLY didn't believe that there was actually an end planned, and that the way that the rest of the series builds towards the ending. I got the EXACT same feeling as what I felt when watching the X-Files. That they had no idea where they were going, and were just making up **** as they went along.
Anyway, I no longer believe that. And that started with the end of season 3. The flash-FORWARDS really help in that regard. It's EASY to take absolutely ANY character and do a flash-BACK. It's usually simply a fact that MOST characters' histories are never completely known. Oh, we need to do a filler episode in order to pad time? Then we'll take some character that no one cares about, make them the point of the new episode, and invent some history that is equallly as boring just so that we can fill up 43 minutes worth of screen time. That gets OLD.
But kudos to season 4. Season 4, with its numerous flash FORAWARDS, led me to believe that this story is ACTUALLY going somewhere. Flash-BACKS are easy nas hell, but flash-FORWARDS require actual focus. They require acually knowing where the story is going. Flash-FORWARDS require an actual PLAN, and that's enough to convince me that Lost is NOT just another X-Files. In season 4, we get REAL questions answered, we get a real sense that this **** isn't just following the X-Files formula. And all of the betraals and double-crossings and unexpected deaths and revealed secrets and shifting alliances in season 4 were far more juicy than any daytime soap opera. And as skeptical as I was, this show no longer seems like just a gimmick stretched out too long. Now it seems like they are REALLY getting somewhere.
Anyway, does anyone else really like this show?
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