v42.8: Lost in Lost

Howdy folks,

I recently started and finished watching the TV series Lost on Netflix.  I had heard good things about the show so I decided to spend some time watching it.  I must say, the first few seasons were really good.  The story is excellent and the idea of a bunch of strangers involved in a plane crash and being stranded on an island peaked my interest.  Of course nothing (and I mean NOTHING) could have prepared me for seasons 4 and 5 (especially seasons 5).

If you've seen Lost you'll know that the show has a lot of flashbacks.  The writers did this (I suspect) to help with character building.  Every so often the show would flash back to a character's life before they came to the island; usually to explain why a character behaves a certain way or has the issues they do.  Of course every single character on the show has some kind of "baggage" (and no, not the kind you bring on a plane).

As if flashing back to the past wasn't enough to lose you, around season 4 or 5, they decide to throw the island into a state of temporal flux where the characters are somehow jumping through time on the island.  One minute it's 30 years in the past, the next it's 3 months in the future.  All the while this is going on, there are flashbacks which really confuse the watcher.  I think this was intended, because by the end of all the time jumps and flashbacks, you have no sweet clue where they are in time.  In fact, one of the characters makes mention of this in the last season by stating they have no idea "when" in the hell they are.

I did start to lose interest in the show during this, but I stuck with it to the end and was a little disappointed with the ending.  If you've never seen it, I won't spoil it for you, but I think they could have done much better with the ending than they did.  That's not to say the ending wasn't good, it just didn't provide the closure I was looking for and I still had a lot of questions at the end.  If you've seen the show before, you probably feel the same way since everyone I've talked to about the show seems to have the same impression of the last episode.

So now I'm looking for the next series to get hooked on.  If anyone has any suggestions I'd really like to hear them.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

Cheers,

Al