Lost

First I watched four seasons “week after week" and then, years later, I watched all six seasons all at once. Although Lost can be faulted for many things (mostly rightly), it can also be praised to the heavens for a lot of other things (mostly rightly). The evolution of each season in terms of narrative methods, style, genre, topic, form... Simply everything is done in a way that nobody has attempted before; especially not for a non-cable station that relies heavily on viewer figures. Each season is completely different, not always necessarily good, but Lost doesn’t suffer from the “same thing over and over, just in a different jacket" syndrome. Where the first series made do with a few characters and their struggle for survival somewhere on a beach in the South Pacific, a couple of acres of jungle, slow storytelling and flashbacks, a couple of seasons later it continues with an almost unbearable number of characters, global scale, breakneck pace, no flashbacks, several time levels of storytelling (Nolan must love it) etc. It is evident that the first two seasons are completely separate from the others, as if, after their success, the creators came up with an integrated concept for “how it is ALL going to be from now on", so they knew what to put where “so that it would all fit together", while before that this wasn’t the case at all. So the separate events (especially during season five) work faultlessly in terms of episodes as of season three, but in the context of the first two seasons, in places they are pretty hard to come to terms with as far as logic is concerned. The series suffered some rather weak interludes (filler episodes during season three, the first half of season five and a considerable section of season six), as well as enjoying some stronger periods (season one, a period comprising four episodes in season three and the entire season four and the end of season five). In the first half, it was often needlessly dragged out, while in the second half an episode or so on top would have benefited things. It should have ended after season four which, with a couple of changes, would have made a satisfying end (season five as well), or conversely it should have had an extra season, because the finale leaves a lot of unsuitable loose ends. It’s just full of contradictions. Why it works and what carries it along despite some weaker periods are the characters. It is the characters that make this worth watching at all and all of the most powerful moments are thanks to them. Because these moments aren’t a matter of twists or revelations, but they are simply emotional passages. Primarily it isn’t an action adventure mystery sci-fi series, that is all secondary, but it’s about the characters. And they are the reason why I kept watching for so many years, even though more than once it got on my nerves; the characters are the reason why I plan to watch it again in the future. Purely objectively I should give it four stars, but... I just have a weakness for Lost and for Giacchino and his top notch six years of toil on this series, and I can think of nothing but praise for it. _____ Season one (5/5): At first sight it might seem that another variation on the theme of “survivors on a desert island" has nothing to offer, but that would be a mistake in this case. It’s like if you describe Twin Peaks as simply twenty episodes about the investigation of a murder in a small town; who would want to watch something like that, huh? Season two (4/5): To start off with, the creators turn everything upside down and so this season has a completely different feeling than the one before it... But still, underneath everything this is still good old Lost. Season three (4/5): Right from the very start the creators show you that this is going to be in a different spirit. But that’s not really how it works here. It’s still good, but you’ve seen it all before and it’s almost a waste of screen space. It’s not actually boring, but clearly yesterday’s warmed up porridge full of pointless flashbacks. You even start thinking that maybe it’s not worth your valuable time. But sometime around episode eight it kicks off from the bottom and the quality begins to rise, at first slowly, but then pretty fast, with the last few episodes of the season turning into the very best that the creators have given us so far. But at times it seems that they should have condensed the story down from three episodes into one. At times. Season four (5/5): ... and, lo and behold, that’s what they did. Fewer episodes per season meant unusually perfect episodes, because they got rid of the filler. Breakneck pacing, that is what season four is about. No need to mention the change in concept and style, that would be repeating myself, so I’ll shorten things to saying that this is the best season after season one. This one is so good that if it answered a couple more questions, this would have made a respectable and mainly absolute ending to the series. Season five (4/5): Not at all bad, but somewhere completely different than I wanted it to be. There are many unforgettable sequences here, but the pace is so relaxed that many of the episodes could be much shorter. But it’s nice that the creators stuck to the motto “what happened happened, and it happened like it always did" which is pretty rare (and never on such a scale, and never before did it make sense). The final quartet of episodes is first rate - something we have never seen in Lost before, which improves the overall impression. Season six (3/5): "I promise I'll tell you everything." When I said I didn’t like the direction taken in the preceding season, while having some qualities, this season the same applies twofold. Developments on the island are rather confused (although they have their moments, as usual in the second half of the season) and this season drags on by the inclusion of countless flashbacks; this is an elegant way of getting out of the problems, although it only works if you care about the characters at all. But if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be watching season six, would you? The problem of this season is the duality of good and evil, because the “good" is represented here by an all-powerful elite that doesn’t hesitate to wreck lives, while the “bad" is presented as quite understandable free will pushed into being evil, preventing any steps of “good" from being taken, which is bad for everybody else. In terms of story, the finale is similar to what I wrote somewhere before, but the aim here isn’t to resolve everything (although I think that everything has already been explained; here it is less about being necessary and meaningful and logical, but more about feelings instead). This season is centered around respectful farewell to the characters, which works perfectly all the way to the finale. But then along something happened that shouldn’t have... The events on the island itself are decently wrapped up, but the second storyline not at all. And the events captured on the bonus, spoof episode on the DVD Epilogue: The New Man in Charge (5/5)? I’ll just say this: if ABC gets around to it, I want to be there to see it. (12.10.2005) (minder) (meer)