People seem to either love or hate the latest season of Lost. I fall into the group of people who like it so far, but I know many (including Qian) who are really irritated by it.
I can’t help but feel that whether you like or dislike the show at this point starts to say something about your personality.
I like shows that are complex, that have non-obvious storylines with multiple interwoven plots. I like shows where it’s obvious that the producers have paid a lot of attention to the little details, where stories are consistent, and where stories aren’t just laid out in a cliche’ed arrangement.
The number one complaint I hear from those who dislike the show is that each new episode doesn’t answer any questions but only asks new ones. What’s wrong with that? In a complex world, there are plenty more questions to ask than there are answers. If the show had an episode that just came out and explained everything, then there would be no show left, and at this point in the story, would make the show disappointingly shallow.
I still have faith that the writers are going somewhere interesting. Sure, it’s a little frustrating that there are so many open questions, but at the same time, I relish the idea that there are many more layers of complexity behind what has been presented thus far. Every episode that further deepens the mystery of the plot line only gives me more hope for a fantastically complex explanation behind it all. It may be that in the end that we are all really disappointed as the show tries to explain itself in some lame way, but I surely can’t make that judgement until things are over.
It seems like a lot of people speculate that the writers are just making this stuff up as they go. Just like any lie that’s told in the spur of the moment, incosistencies are sure to develop quickly when a continuous story line is written on-the-fly. I can’t recall any part of the show that has still been inconsistent, so that only makes me think that at least a large portion of it is written according to a grand storyline that was pre-determined.
Anyways, back to the original point. Whether you like or dislike the current state of the show says something about what you expect from a TV show (or maybe your attention span/patience?), and how much you trust the writers. Lost is certainly very unique among TV shows (at least out of the ones that I know) in that there are so many open questions and unresolved plot lines even into the third season. Maybe three seasons is too much, and the producers are taking a huge risk by potentially alienating a large part of their viewership who are either frustrated or too impatient to see how it all comes together, but I’m still up for the journey, as long as the destination is worthwhile.