Submitted by shadowdra126 t3_11dlf06 in television
I have been in the market for a binge worthy show and after trying and dropping several shows I am finally settling on watching LOST for the first time.
I do know vaguely how it ended as that was discussed constantly at the time of its airing and over the years you hear bits and pieces
But I have no context for the show at all other than they crash on an island and it’s got some sci fi elements to it.
I think most people don’t understand the ending so don’t be discouraged by what you’ve heard.
I loved the ending, but your assumption that people who didn’t like it also must not have understood is wrong. I’ve known people who liked it and who didn’t like it, but they all understood it. Such is life that people have different opinions about subjective pieces of art.
Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I mean I see people all the time say what happened but it’s not really what happened. Trying to not spoil.
Like, constantly. For over ten years now. I saw people saying it twice last week. I used to correct them. Now I just don't even bother.
Exactly. Like, the ending is not some high concept, obtuse conclusion that you need a film degree to understand. It's pretty straightforward. It's crazy to me that people could watch 6 seasons of a show and then get upset by a clear ending that they somehow misinterpret as something completely different. What were they watching that entire time? I don't think of myself as a very intellectual person that has a higher understanding of things and I don't like accusing people who don't like something with "You just don't get it", but in this case, they simply didn't.
Yeah, a character literally explains that what they are saying is not the case in clear, plain English. Whatever. They can be wrong. I still think that it's a bummer that it probably drives away people who would love the show if not for having gleaned a mistaken impression of it, but I think I've hit my lifetime limit for arguing with text on a screen.
>I still think that it's a bummer that it probably drives away people who would love the show if not for having gleaned a mistaken impression of it
It definitely does. I have a friend who I had been trying to convice for a while to watch Lost because I knew he would like it, but he kept saying "I heard it goes nowhere and in the end they don't answer anything". He finally caved and wound up loving it.
To this day you see people posting “what happened” in the finale and the show incorrectly. What they post directly conflicts with what is actual said in the finale and shows that they don’t understand the show. Anyone that understands the show and reads other people takes on the internet knows exactly what I’m talking about without looking at the spoiler text. I’m prepared to say that it’s the wrongest take of all wrong takes. I see supposed “media journalists” and reddit threads espousing this take to this day, and in my book it instantly discounts them from ever having an opinion worth reading. It is honestly mind boggling how these people get to their conclusion.
If you want to know their incorrect take: >!these people think they were dead all along and the island was purgatory. They outright tell you in the final episode that this is not the case, and the only instance of purgatory in the show is the season 6 flash-sideways realm. Everything else happened while they were alive.!<
I had a discussion with someone on here awhile ago who apparently was a huge fan of the show when it aired, but they hated the ending and had never gone back to it since. Only thing was that they had misunderstood the ending in the way that many people seem to have. After a back and forth on the subject they refused to accept what I was saying and put it down to "different interpretations", despite what the show explicitly spells out to the viewer. Incredibly frustrating. I've got no problem with anyone who disliked the ending, but I really don't get how so many people managed to misunderstand it when they basically have a character knock you over the head with exposition explaining everything.
>!Jacks dad (Christian) literally says “you’re dead now, but everything happened on the island while you were still alive, with these people, and it was the most important time of your life which is why you are now in the afterlife with them getting ready to move on”. It is mind boggling how people get from that to “island = purgatory”.!<
It just blows my mind that people don’t understand it. I just can’t figure it out. I remember watching it live in College, then talking the next day with people. To this day I think less of the people that thought >!island = purgatory!<.
I think a lot of people had that theory in their head the whole time they were watching it and just refuse to accept that they were wrong. Kind of like a "See? I called it years ago!" attitude.
I'm with you though, I can't help but judge someone who watches a show for that long, is explicitly told in the finale what happened, and still completely misses the point. I had a coworker who fairly recently was going on about what a waste of time Lost was because the ending was so bad. I told him his interpretation of the ending was flat out wrong and why, but he wouldn't accept it.
I absolutely loathed the ending, and still do, but I did a quick search to find the conversation you had in mind and honestly it's hilarious, and a little sad. I really have no idea how a person can be that wrong.
The guy trys to argue the last scene with Jack and the dog happens after the crash. As far as I remember the dog wasn't even present at the time of the crash and if it was it wasn't fully grown
Well now you're both wrong. The dog was present after the crash. It's in the first scene of the show. Vincent wakes Jack up and runs out of the woods.
Fair enough, it's been almost a decade since I watched it. But their interpretation would mean the dog comes out of the forest wakes jack up then he just dies
>I really don't get how so many people managed to misunderstand it when they basically have a character knock you over the head with exposition explaining everything.
I imagine that these people got lost somewhere around flash-forwards and time travel shenanigans and just didn't have a good grasp of anything that was going on by the time we got to the actual ending.
The final had ratings that hadn't been seen since early season 4. A lot of people had stopped watching and just came back to the last episode or two to,see how it ended. Unsurprisingly its not an easy final to understand as a standalone episode
> I’m prepared to say that it’s the wrongest take of all wrong takes. I see supposed “media journalists” and reddit threads espousing this take to this day, and in my book it instantly discounts them from ever having an opinion worth reading
I mean I would have maybe gone with "the holocaust was awesome" or something on that level but sure, misunderstanding the ending of a TV show, I suppose that's pretty far up there.
I meant in the context of TV show takes. There’s no need to be pedantic.
I was fine with the ending it was the “flash sideways” leading up to the ending that ended up not being good to me
>I loved the ending, but your assumption that people who didn’t like it also must not have understood is wrong
In my experience, it's not an assumption at all. I've talked to multiple people about the ending of Lost and I've asked those that dismissed it as "bad" and "a waste of time" why they felt that way. They all gave a variation of the same answer, proving they didn't understand it.
thank you. it was a bad ending
That’s kind of what I keep telling myself.
I loved the leftovers and how it handed its mystery so I am gonna go in and by the end hopefully make my own choice. Or watch a million ending analysis videos afterwards
The leftovers was from a LOST showrunner, and inspired by how people reacted to the ending. No spoilers in that as there's no direct parallels but if you didn't know, now you know, they share a writer
It’s very similar to The Leftovers
Nope, it's legitimately a bad ending, but it's an extremely fun ride to get there, so I still recommend it.
Idk I loved the ending
That's fine, we can't really discuss it without ruining it for OP, so to each their own.
Awful final season, amazing finale, imo.
Too much of the last season was written by Kistis and Horowitz, who went on to create the absolute narrative mess that was Once Upon A Time
I understood it and think it was a lazy copout.
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The ending isn't great if you do understand it. But yeah people were salty about that for a while.
I disagree, I really love the ending. I get why some people didn't like it, but a good chunk of people did.
There are some things that are a bit, 'but why?' like why is >!Sayid is with Shannon and not his wife we just saw he go on a murder spree for?!<
As others have said, the show plays better now that you can binge it. I agree I think others didn’t understand the ending and I think it’s easier when you can binge the show instead of waiting week after week. The mysteries are great but you really fall in love with the characters.
It’s very bingeable, but I feel like half the fun of LOST was talking and theorizing about LOST with your friends and coworkers. It’s this whole element of the show new viewers just won’t be able to experience.
"Where did the polar bear come from??" ... that question came up so much in Uni and with friends. There's an insanely detailed video about Lost on youtube, like 3 hours long (plus some skits that the dude acts out)...it shines a light on just how huge Lost was, with one of the first ever podcasts, magazine covers, features on every late night talk show under the sun etc... and the Internet was really becoming a thing, so it was during the wild west of message boards / forums etc.. Great nostalgia.
Dharma was training the polar bears to man the island. That’s why it’s so cold in the cavern with the wheel. They needed an animal that could withstand it.
His channel is great! I’m a huge lost fan and watching him dive into it was a huge nostalgia blast for me.
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and i will add that was one of MANY questions that was never answered not even in the finale
Umm, the polar bear explanation was strongly alluded to in early season 2, and all but confirmed (indirectly) during season 3, and spelled out explicitly in season 5. Many of the mysteries/questions were handled this way, so odds are you just missed them.
The polar bear is explained multiple times. The finale has bigger things to address than the origin story of a random animal on the island.
Lmao yeah it was answered though. Comments like these are just obnoxious. 95% of the questions were or have answers the problem usually stems from the show making something seem like a big mystery and it turning out to be a lot less mysterious. Like the explanation for the polar bears
They don’t spoon feed you the answers, but >!The polar bears were imported by the Dharma Initiative for their experiments with the electromagnetic energy. They used a variety of animals for this. At the start of season 3 Kate and Sawyer are kept in their bear cages before Sawyer is sent to work on Jacob’s desired runway, which the second plane lands on. They sent one back in time to the place where you chronologically first see adult Charlotte, digging in the desert for a collar. This is the same place Ben teleports to after moving the island. The polar bears escaped or were let free after the Others chemical attack on the Dharma Initiative.!<
That was such a great part of LOST
It’s not even the waiting week to week that was frustrating with lost. It was the fact that they kept fucking with the release schedule. It’s really hard to follow a show when they release three episodes then takes six weeks off release two more and then take another 13 weeks off. It was legitimately hard to keep up in a time where DVRs were available, but not adopted by the masses yet. Plus they would market recap episodes as being brand new. It’s a miracle it’s stayed as popular as it was.
Not a chance. Spending a week coming up with theories was half the fun of the show. The only benefit to watching it now is not having to wait months between seasons.
I wouldn’t say the show is better now because you can bing it. It was a show made to be watched weekly and imo will leave a bigger mark if you take your time instead of binging.
i understood the ending as it has been explained but it still makes no sense and ties up zero loose ends
I watched the show as it aired and rewatched the show on Hulu a couple years ago. I remember the theories and trying to figure out what happened and I think we just built it up more than it was. When I finished my rewatch everything that was important felt answered. There’s always gonna be some lose ends.
So a magic traveling island with a smoke monster makes sense but not fatefully intertwined people having a shared purgatory?
I for one am not someone who shits on the ending although it could have been better. I think a larger portion of general audience will accept fantastical elements, especially when introduced early, compared to religious nonsense.
Partly the same reason Battlestar Galacticas ending isn't generally liked. For the majority of GoT I refused to believe the red lady's powers were anything to do with a God and were just random magic powers since in the real world its all just sky fairy bs. Why should I accept this other world fictional or based on ours has real gods
Considering how many fans of the show who watched it all intently, still to this day, don't understand the blatantly clear final season astounds me. There is actually a good chance you have no idea what the real ending is since it's incorrectly summarised a majority of the time.
Turns out a lot of people aren't great at story analysis or like... the tv-watching equivalent of reading comprehension.
When Lost's finale first aired, I might have blamed the scattershot release schedule, or confused post-finale water-cooler conversations. Nowadays, I wonder if half the problem is that people are "watching" while dicking around on their phones.
>Nowadays, I wonder if half the problem is that people are "watching" while dicking around on their phones.
That's almost certainly the issue a lot of the time. I recently learned that a friend of mine watches shows on a side TV that sits next to his main TV while he plays video games. People can do what they want but that is insane to me.
Part of this I think was due to the schedule that last season which ABC majorly dropped the ball on. You'd have 2 episodes, then 4 repeats, then a random new episode, then a break of 3 weeks. I think a lot of people missed the plot like this. Streaming wasn't a thing at the time (save for pirate streaming) so a lot of people couldn't catch up on what they missed.
I'm going to Join you on this adventure. I too have never seen Lost, but heard from many sources it's a great show.
Happy binging!
Enjoy! I wish I could go back and watch it for the first time again
LOST is an interesting show in that the people who don’t like it turn incredibly bitter and rude in these threads
Like calm down, it’s a freaking TV show. Let others enjoy it lol
What I’d recommend is paying close attention to each and every character’s flashbacks. Not just to the stories themselves but the characters that appear. You’ll notice familiar faces the more you watch. Probably one of my favorite things about Lost.
Prolly actually the best television show in history.
The Wire and Sopranos are better written, better acted and have endings that actually make sense and tied up loose ends
It's not even top 10 of all time
Not even top 20
Well that’s like your opinion man
Easily one of my favorite shows ever. No other TV show has come close to capturing the sense of intrigue and mystery during those first 4 seasons.
It also alphas, in my opinion, the best ensemble cast to ever hit TV. Just outstanding character development.
Man I wish I could relive those first couple seasons for the first time again
Additionally, most people you see talking about the ending, didn’t even understand the final season, so make sure to watch it without preconceptions
Probably one of the best shows to binge. I would suggest giving a day in between seasons. There’s a lot to digest and fun to theorize on your own before diving into a new season.
Don’t worry about the ending or the dialogue around it, enjoy the stories surrounding the cast and the mysteries as they untangle.
I really liked I think it was season 1 and 2. Or just the start was mad dog. It did drift of later on into crazyness tho but still not bad.
When you get to the end make sure you have enough tissue for your tears
Dude, me too!! Just started it last week and already in season 6
I watched it again after watching it when it was brand new. I'm amazed at how much I completely forgot..entire seasons it would seem. REALLY enjoyed it; one of the best binges you can undertake, with all the WTF moments etc..
hell yes
please update this thread as you watch
Just watched it this past summer and Im glad I did. Its really good show. It was a struggle to get through the first 2 seasons cause I could not find a character I liked but I was really interested in the mystery part. Two episodes in season 3 changed that for me. I don’t understand how people hate the ending. I loved it, cried like a baby. Might actually be my favorite ending to a show ever!
Funny to see this - I just started rewatching it after years of not seeing it (though this is not my first rewatch, probably 4th).
Great decision!
I wish I could watch Lost for the first time again.
I watch it every other year because I enjoy it that much.
And the ending is one of the best episodes of the series.
I recommend you watch Dark (Netflix). 3 seasons, German show (dubbed and Dubbed in English) critically acclaimed. It's good start to end.
I’ve watched it
The ending is better than the memes etc will have you believe. Overall it’s an amazing tv show, and probably one of the best of its kind. Enjoy!
and i bet the ending you think you know isnt even the correct one because so many, even to this day, get it completely wrong.
I admit I got it wrong back in 2010 and that stuck with me until a couple of weeks ago when I finished a complete rewatch. I am at peace now lol.
I still say Fringe was his better show but Lost is still a damn good watch.
Play with your speakers set to loud! The soundtrack his amazing.
Life and Death is the best song
truly some of the best episodes of television ever made. Also, a LOT of filler and non-sensical garbage too. All in all, well worth a watch but sadly, you can't quite get how big a show it was or appreciate how epic it was unless you were watching it live and involved with all the discussions surrounding it back then.
Welcome to the club, there will be a sequence of 6 numbers that will now repeat in your head for the rest of your life
I recently got done a rewatch and it solidified for me this is the greatest tv show ever made. I am much more at peace with the ending than I was back in 2010. It's a great binge watch show. You won't have to wait weeks or months to find out what happened like we had to back then.
PENNEH!!!!!
Gave up on LOST for the same reason as Game of Thrones...too much treachery, treason, secret alliances, and double crossing. I can take two hours of that but not 50 hours.
As someone who was originally in love with this show -- up until the end that is -- I applaud you for watching it. But yes, there are a lot of great actors and excitement. You will be confused one minute and then elated the next. Up until the end. But still...watch it.
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😅 that’s accurate
Just throwing it out there that I actually liked the ending for the most part. You might too! It’s possible that the legend of its terrible ending is exaggerated. It’s also possible that the show holds up better when you’re binging it (because that’s also how I watched it). Or you might still hate it, who knows.
The ending had plenty of solid reviews at the time.
It's just one of those things were 1) people who disliked it have been so loud about it that they created a myth that nobody likes it, and 2) online publications are incentivized to "go along" with this kind of thing even though many of them reviewed it positively.
Game of Thrones took the worst - pointless ending crown from Lost. Enjoy it, 20+ episode seasons. If you like it, there's lots for you.
save your time. The ending makes absolutely no sense no matter how much horseshit explanations you read here you will be upset
I cant even give you any spoilers bc theres no there there. in the end you will know LESS than in episode 1
most overrated show of all time
I watched it for the first time 2 years ago, knowing that the ending was super controversial and preparing for the inevitable downward spiral.
What I actually got was, like…a slight decrease in quality for the last couple seasons? But overall it was still quite compelling, it DID explain almost all of its mysteries despite what people say, and I liked the ending. Go figure. Maybe let OP experience it for themself.
It made perfect sense to me, and apparently a lot of other people judging by these comments. I think it’s a “you” problem if you didn’t understand the ending.
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Does talking about a television show not meet your standards of what belongs on r/television?
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BurstSloth t1_ja9aye6 wrote
Lost is a very VERY good show to binge, definitely mysterious and interesting the whole way through