The Gospel Coalition

And I’m not the only.  I think I probably watched one full episode over the entire six year run.  So, you can see how much I cared.  But tons of people watched the series avidly, only to arrive at widely divergent conclusions.  Here are two rival conclusions about the TV show following it’s season finale.

Books and Culture has a positive take.  An excerpt:

LOST was truly great. Throughout its six-year run, the show’s ambitious storyline was not only groundbreaking, but transcendent.  The scope of the show, the production budget, the extensive and diverse cast, the commitment to character development, and cult-like obsession it evoked from its fans—these are elements that are unlikely to be reproduced by another network television show.

So what if we never learned all the answers? We don’t fully understand the significance of “the numbers.” We don’t know why Claire’s child was not supposed to be “raised by another.” Many details about the island’s history, from the hieroglyphics to the Dharma Initiative’s origins to the infertility issues, will remain shrouded. But the story presented to us was, if not perfect, certainly sensational. From the moment when Jack’s eye opened to the moment when it closed, LOST has been one of the most entertaining and compelling stories ever told.

As for all the mysteries that remain, consider them incentive to go back to the beginning and start watching again. Because we’re not going to find anything on television as worthy of our time. Not anymore.

That’s one view.  Parchment and Pen offers another view.  An excerpt:

We worked under the valid assumption that all of these questions had answers. Of course, this does not mean that we will like the answers, but it was the risk we were willing to take. Whether it be aliens, God, the lost city of Atlantis, heaven, purgatory, hell, or even all a dream, we did not care. We just wanted answers. That is why we watched the show. And we were trusting enough to wait six years to be satisfied.

But such was not the case. At the conclusion of last night’s episode the horrible reality surfaced. That which we all fear in places we don’t like to go became a reality: The writers did not know the answers either.

Oh, and don’t you try to spin this. Don’t you dare. I have already heard it from dozens of well-meaning naive people. I have already seen people try to redeem the finale and make it out to be some sort of martyr. I know your time is precious to you and I know your hopes for something better will drive your conclusion. But I will not allow you to go there. For your own sake, don’t go there. Don’t say that it was a brilliant “open ended” finale. Don’t say, “Well, they are just allowing us to fill in the blanks” as if that is something that satisfies. My questions are not quenched with my own imagination. If they were, I would have stopped watching in season 1 and filled in the blanks. Oh no. We are not letting ABC and the writers of LOST off the hook for the greatest entertainment swindle since The Matrix. The “brilliant-fill-in-the-blank card” is a terrible way to cope. The first step to recovery is to admit the problem. The second step is to file a class action law suit against the writers (for incompetence), then ABC (for not properly interrogating the writers end game).

The arc we thought was there was an illusion. This series took a risk. It was only as good as the resolution and there was none. The writers did not know what they were doing. Hence concluded the greatest hoax in American television history. Hence the realization that the writers of LOST were just as lost as all of us.

Okay, all you LOST fans, what do you think?  Was LOST fabulous or a flop?