I was going to explain everything about "Lost"...

... in my first post today, but I first need to re-watch all of the episodes. So it might be a while.

But this post by Henry Hanks (ht: Sandra M.) does a fine job of articulating my basic reaction to last night's big finale: excellent, even if (or because?) there are several questions left unanswered. Most shows, I reckon, try to explain too much; "Lost" took the chance of leaving open many questions, and I think, overall, it worked very well.

Besides, it's not too often that a television show takes on big questions and themes such as fate, free will, redemption, purgation, and sacrifice with a non-didactic seriousness, combined with memorable characters, excellent story lines, and good humor. Pop culture can often be a moronic cesspool of formulaic nonsense and bombastic crud, but "Lost" is one of the happy and notable exceptions.

Meanwhile, I'm putting together an Ignatius Insight e-letter to be sent out later today (sign up here if you aren't already on the list), and I will also be posting, on Insight, a new essay by Fr. Schall titled, "Government: Too Much, Too Little?"

Comments

[Sandra Miesel]

You're quite welcome, Carl. There will be lots of commentaries, but I think the best analogy to the finale is the climax of the Narnia series, where our characters from different times enter Aslan's country. I also recommend a modest little made for TV movie, PURGATORY (available on DVD.

Everything that rises did converge.

[Augustine]

I HATED the silly parallel story line that turned out to be a mere Deus ex machina to stretch the series by a season. Had we been spared this cheap trick, it would be a pretty good conclusion.

But why am I surprised, when art has quit TV a month after it was invented?

[Sawyer]

I was extremely disappointed by the series finale. Lame.

[John Herreid]

I didn't mind the parallel story line much. What bothered me was how much of the show's mythology was jettisoned this season.

As for the finale--I thought it was a mixed bag. Some great bits, like Jack telling the Man in Black that he disrespected the memory of Locke by wearing his face, or Ben outside the church at the end. But some less than great bits, like the "I'm ok, you're ok" talk from Christian.

We should have an internet fight about it.

[Mark Brumley]

I keep my expectations low when it comes to substantive writing on commercial TV. LOST did well within my rather limited paradigm of quality TV. More on this later.

[Paul H]

I've never seen an episode of Lost, but I have to say that it is interesting (and very confusing!) reading reviews of it. :-)

[Brian J. Schuettler]

Paul H

You should see how how confusing it can be just watching it!

[Paul H]

:-)

[Kevin C.]

It seems to me that most people who watched the show primarily for the sci-fi/mystery/whats-going-to-happen-next elements were fairly disappointed with the finale. While those who watched it to see how the themes of fate, destiny, free will, sin, redemption, etc were resolved all seem to be reasonably pleased with the ending.

In terms of Lost answering every last question we have, I think that all too often now with the quality of special effects Hollywood is capable of, we tend to want everything explicitly shown, explained and detailed. In my opinion, it completely takes the excitement and imagination out of it. For example, I think that Davey Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean would have been a much more fearsome character if we had been limited to seeing a food or hand, profile shadow, etc instead of seeing his face and body. The mind will always make the character out to be larger, more fearsome, etc, than what is possible through Hollywood actually explicitly explaining it.