LOST: THE END

So...the ending...

I've got nothing intelligent to say about it.

I don't know, I'm not angry or happy or, well, anything, really. I'll say this: I didn't like it. the last season mostly just fizzled for me. I know a lot of people just went with it and enjoyed it and I wish I did, too. I'm just kind of ambivalent about it.

The thing that kept me from going mental at the end was this respect I have for the producers and writers. I don't believe them to be cookie-cutter hacks. When you look back at the story arcs of the last 5 seasons, and dig a little into the symbolism and the deeper questions asked by the show, you can see a real 'outside-the-box" approach. Anyone who appreciated the Watchmen book series (not the movie) can understand the respect I had for the show. Dense, intelligent, thought-provoking and enormously entertaining. I am going to wait patiently for all the unofficial books to come out, explaining all the deeper layers that I probably missed and needed to have to appreciate the show to its fullest. Or maybe not. But either way, I believe the writers made the show they wanted to make. They didn't run out of ideas and slap together a crap ending out of laziness. I truly believe they thought long and hard and agonized over every detail to make this the ending. I just didn't like it. But they are the storytellers and they tell the story. When the Sopranos ended, I was very unsatisfied, but I respected the bold artistic move by the creator. I have to say, I'm trying really hard to do that here, but the more I think of it, the more the ending just doesn't hold together for me.

There's nothing new to add at this point. I mean, people who are unhappy with the ending are unhappy because
A) The show abandoned several important storylines and left many important questions unanswered
and/or
B) It was, in many ways, hokey and cliché as hell.

Not much to add to that, really.

Now that I've said that, I did like some of it. The "awakenings" were lovely, and when the couples found each other (Jin and Sun, Sawyer and Juliet), I smiled. (Except Shannon and Sayid. I always hated that bitch. He deserved Nadia) Hurley taking on the role as keeper was awesome and I love the idea of Ben and Hugo working together for millennia on the side of good. I liked Juliet's "It worked." I liked the zoom down the hole. I rolled my eyes at Hurley's "I've got a bad feeling about this" but I still smiled. Jack's flying punch was also laughable yet enjoyable.

So yeah, I could sit here and say all the things they "should" have done (and hoo boy do I have a list!) but it's pointless because they didn't do that. They did this. And you know what? It's a goddamn TV show. Sure, I feel a little betrayed, but I enjoyed many hours watching most of it (for free I might add), so how can I really complain?

When the credits rolled, I had an overwhelming sense of ".........alright. I'm going to bed."

So I still consider myself a fan of the show overall, but I would have made a different ending, that's all. It's like every Stephen King book ever. Well, OK, maybe not Green Mile.