Best Season of LOST

One - hardly remember it to be honest, it's the only season I watched in a single 3 day chunk instead of in real time.

Two - early ben linus/henry gale stuff was AMAZING, and so were the numbers, this is a proper contender.

Three - pretty great back half, but not great enough to make up for the terrible first half.

Four - Farraday! And The Constant. I think this is when I felt a proper sciency resoultion was most likely, and so I was properly locked in. So it gets my vote.

Five - Time travel ended up being a lot less interesting than it felt at the time. Dharma history not particularly interesting.

Six - too soon, still hurting.

Four - Farraday! And The Constant. I think this is when I felt a proper sciency resoultion was most likely, and so I was properly locked in. So it gets my vote.

By contrast, probably my least favourite, because they just introduced too many new people and new ideas all at once that I kind of suspected weren't going to go anywhere or resolve themselves in any way that I cared about. I found this season a real slog and stopped caring massively here, especially when anything to do with Faraday came up.

It's like you are Jacob and I am the other guy, or something.

they just introduced too many new people and new ideas all at once

i agree. there's a lot i like in series four but they didn't follow through to my satisfaction

case in point: the constant. this is a lot of people's favourite ep, but i don't think they really nailed it down.

granted im hazy about a lot of stuff, but things like the "rules" between ben and widmore were never resolved, were they?

s02e01 was so so good, kinda glad I stopped there to wait for the blu rays

Season two had by far the best finale.

s3 finale was killer

in the end i did not like the flashforwards

some of it was good -- sayid and sun

but the jack/kate stuff was not

and the whole "we need all six of you + 1x dead guy" thing... jacob's rules were such contrived bullshit

and at this point idk what it was all for, or if the writers knew, because in fact, i think im right in saying, by going back they were actually doing smokeys bidding, right? if they hadn't gone back smokey could not have had jacob killed iirc.

so this show was the longest rickroll in history right?

Season two introduced Desmond and Ben, the two best characters, and, like James Mitchell says, had the best finale.

Season One was great because every flashback was a massive revelation about someone or another, and the characterisation was so much better back then. They could do big reveals without everything having to be a WAU! reveal.

Season Two was even better - hatch! Weird shit everywhere! What's this Henry Gale guy's deal? Slow sense of creeping dread everywhere.

Season Three - rubbish for the first half, awesome for the second. Best season finale by a mile, all-out war between castaways and Others.

Season Four - the best, I think, Rambo dudes running all over the island, scientists of dubious motivation, the Constant, Sayid acting as Ben's contract killer, awesome finale, especially the boat blowing up.

Season Five - Yeah the Dharma stuff wasn't as interesting as it was cracked up to be, the time travel was used more to show us things we already had a good idea about, than as a plot device in its own way. Think the last episode was the shark jumping point.

Season Six - wank.

All the stuff I was invested in has been revealed to be irrelevant or pointless now :(

4 > 2 > 1 > 5 > 3 > 6

Might have gone for S2 if it hadn't been for the tailies, they were a whole bunch of dull wasted time though, in the end (which reminds me, what actually happened to Cindy and her kids?)

two

what actually happened to Cindy and her kids?

I would answer your question, but I feel it's better that I tell you you're a wonderful person, and that eventually, you'll meet your best friends again and go to an awesome party together in a bath of bright light.

<cries>

s2 i guess - ignoring the rubbish kate and charlie fb episodes

a hell of a lot of the flashbacks were ultimately without consequence

1 > 2 > 4 = 5 > 3 >>>>>>>>>> 6

fb's were mostly just to add body to the characters, attempts to make you care/invest in them more. a lot of the time this was fine.

i seriously want a fan edit of season 6 that's like 2 hours long. intercut "la x" purgatory scenes (with sunken island removed) with the key island plot points, then go to desmond pulling the plug and jack killing flocke, christian scene, end.

xp In season one, it was half the show, and it was great. Then, it actually WAS character-driven.

When you found out what Locke's Dad did to him... oh man. That was harsh. And well-written. And also really really harsh.

In retrospect, Jack's back-story was boring baloney from the get-go.

2 ftw

In retrospect, Jack's back-story was boring baloney from the get-go

not just in retrospect tbh. this is partly why it was v hard to get behind him as main character.

All the stuff I was invested in has been revealed to be irrelevant or pointless now :(

I know, it's disappointing.

s1 was pretty awesome

Season 2. All of the same excitement of discovery as S1, but weirder, as Dharma comes more into focus.

Remember this?
http://www.edhumphries.com/wp-content/uploads/lostmap1.jpg

Also, I loved interrupting the season a few episodes in to show the tailies' story.

4 > 8 > 15 > 16 > 23 > 42

fb's were mostly just to add body to the characters, attempts to make you care/invest in them more. a lot of the time this was fine.

― mdskltr (blueski), Tuesday, May 25, 2010 1:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

troo

in the early seasons, though, they seemed to point for a "reason" for every1 being on the plane, but the writers at that point hadn't decided on "jacob's lighthouse-based loser google". as a hard sci-fi guy, i wanted a more conspiratorial explanaish, which early seasons promised, e.g. with claire's story. in the end it turned out to be pure coincidence that x-person and y-person had almost crossed paths.

season 2 definitely my favourite -- with the preem, similarly, i thought desmond meeting jack was no accident. and the finale, especially penny tracking the island, was amaze. reckon they could have wrapped the whole series in four series if they'd really put their mind to it. no-one pays you to write a whole series, but how they fucked it up this badly -- because i really don't think they planned out season 6 very well -- i do not know.

Ultimately voted season 4, but it was close with seasons 1 and 2. Season 4 edges out just because there's so little filler, and it was the last time I felt like the show was great before it started to fizzle out.

Ultimately I think it goes:

4 > 1 > 2 > 3 > 5 > 6

As crappy as the first half of s3 was, in totality it is far better than the completely underwhelming season 5 and even the first half is better than most of season 6. Season 2 suffers a little because much as I love Desmond and all, I always thought typing in the numbers in the hatch was kind of a stupid storyline. It's easy to forget how amazing season 1 was though, because so much of what we consider awesome about the show wasn't introduced yet. But in the beginning they strang together about 12 or 13 great episodes in a row. That's a feat they would never again duplicate.

if I could vote for just the second half of season 3 I would vote for that. Season finale of 3 is still probably my favorite episode. Voted for season 4.

4 > 3 > 1 > 2 > 5 > 6

I guess, though seasons 1 and 2 are pretty much equal

1,2,4,5,3,6
Season Finales: 3,1,2,4,5,6

Season finale of 3 is still probably my favorite episode

mine too. season premier of 2 is probably in 2nd place. I voted for season 2.

if I could vote for just the second half of season 3 I would vote for that. Season finale of 3 is still probably my favorite episode. Voted for season 4.

As bad as the first half of season 3 was, the second half probably was the apex of the whole show.

yeah, and that's fitting

S1 and S3 finales were both all-time WTF genius.

I think I'm in the minority but for me S2 was the high point. The herky-jerkiness that some complain about was a dramatic strength imo. Like, Shannon's been shot, and Sayid's got that Wolverine look in his eyes, and it's pouring rain and all hell's about to break loose... and now let us tell you the there-but-for-the-grace-of-God story of the tail section survivors.

Plus: Des, Eko, Henry Gale, peanut butter and laundry service, "The Long Con," total paranoia and The Button.

Picking the best finales is super hard. I think it's something like:

season 3 = season 4 > (ever so slightly) season 1 = season 2 >> season 5 >>>> season 6.

I might be in the minority in liking the season 4 finale as much as I do. The only thing I didn't like was the contrivance of the oceanic 6 lie. But moving the island was awesome to me. Maybe killing Jin when it still would have been emotionally powerful. Introduction of suicidal bearded Jack (the only Jack I ever liked). Shit between Ben and Widmore was reaching a crescendo. Sawyer's sacrifice. "KATE WE HAFTA GO BACK!" There seemed to be so much potential at this point, and they walked away from all of it. If the show had ended here, I almost would've been happy. I probably would've been completely happy if they planned on ending it here and thus would have been able to tie up a few extra loose ends. Though in hindsight those loose ends never got tied up anyway, they were just dropped altogether.

But personally, and I may be wrong about this, but I think it would've been fucking great to end the whole show on "KATE WE HAFTA TO GO BACK!!"

half the stuff you mentioned was from the season 3 finale and half from season 4

lol. yeah I guess they run together in my head at this point.

firt ff was end of season 3 right.

im going to go there: end of season three was not that much of a mindfuck tbqh

i was whelmed, but not overly so

plus, as things panned out, they shouldn't have gone back

both finales did kind of end up back at the same point (the "we have to go back" scene) but the first time that scene played out (and the "introduction" of beardo jack) was at the end of season 3 ...

xpost firt ff was end of season 3 right.

yeah

plus, as things panned out, they shouldn't have gone back

I agree totally about this. Which is why I feel like beardo jack saying they need to go back should've been the show's end. But maybe that would've been too much of a downer for the mass audience. I don't know.

um, i think it would have been a downer for almost everybody if the show had ended there.

Nothing wrong with ending it on a downer though, imo.

better a downer than "and then they went to heaven"

I'm, uhh, starting a rewatch. A good friend of mine (and fellow Leftovers stan) has informed me that considering the series as a distended dry run for that series makes it go down considerably smoother. I am reserving the right to skip Jack and Kate flashbacks.

simon

simon

I know.

lol every time i think of this show i remember the cool parts and think hey might be kinda cool to rescreen until i remember OH RIGHT there are flashbacks to their lives NEVER AGAIN

I now have enough distance from this show to say season 1 was the best season. Every other season was a layer cake of missed opportunities and disappointing dead ends

I'm looking forward to embracing the dead ends.

season 5 underrated imo. loved 70s Sawyer, thought the time travel was handled very elegantly, and every mystery and plot point introduced during that season paid off down the line. the only dead end was that darn outrigger!

season 2 is prob my least favorite of the non-6 seasons, wtf mates

iirc from my first viewing, s3 is the weakest due to lack of momentum / having a "set length" in mind, but I will be testing this remembered thesis when I get there.

the first half of season 3 is brutal, that's true

last half of season 3-season 5 were pretty dang good though

The cliffhanger ending of season 5 led nowhere, though. Otherwise I would agree it's underrated. Lost is probably easier to like if you take the point from The Leftovers that it's ABOUT the lack of answers, but I don't think it sells that point very well :)

Fred, that's pretty much exactly my thinking with this rewatch. I feel like most of us watched it "wrong" the first time (not helped along my Lindelof/Cuse's weird grasp of managing audience expectation)

Caught the first three last night. What struck me most is how Jack feels like an over-the-top parody of the ubiquitous white male hero; looking forward to his almost endless cucking

I always saw Lost as an allegory on postmodernism and the lack of secure knowledge, but I also love Thomas Pynchon and sees everything through that lens. That's why I kinda liked the flashback episode in season six where we learned that the woman on the island got killed before she told either Jacob or his brother what was going on, so the knowledge was in the end simply lost. The problem was, though, that the characters rarely seemed that bothered by not knowing what was going on, while the creators kept on promising answers. Anyways, Lindelof got it absolutely right with The Leftovers, imo, so yeah, Lost now seems like a dry run. You're right.

It still can't salvage Prometheus, though...

thoughts on S1 rewatch (yes I plan to keep doing these, shut up)

the big emotional moments still land really well for the most part

there's a Locke dream sequence midway through that really hints at Lindelof's love of Twin Peaks (and maybe Cuse's idk)

the fact that Hurley gets all the "jokey" material is extremely cringeworthy, though his rush to get onto 815 is legitimately funny

everything involving women going baby-crazy is embarrassing (looking at you, danielle)

it's remarkable they were able to go a whole season without any configuration of jack/kate/sawyer boning

S1 flashback rankings: locke > sawyer > michael+walt > sun+jin > jack > sayid > charlie > boone > hurley > claire > kate

Simon, if you need our help in escaping from the people who are doing this to you, please just blink twice and we'll do all we can to end this nightmare before it's too late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXm_UcAeNc

I liked the hurley flashback in S1, though the Hurley episodes grew more tiresome the more they focused on his weight

I mean the focus is pretty implicit from the beginning, right down to the "lighter" wackier scoring from Giacchino

the rewatch continues.

the dregs of s3 were as bad as everyone here says. besides the bloated season length and general aimlessness, I think having to write in a hasty departure for Mr. Eko really messed up their action - they clearly had big plans for the character that just wound up going absolutely nowhere. effectively "replacing" him with Nikki and Paolo was even more ruinous, though I do kind of like the "who are these jerks?" meta-gags and their incredibly cruel demise

(incidentally, poor Kiele Sanchez was excellent on the MMA drama Kingdom, which ended recently)

the padded-out season lengths seemed to force them to take characters in directions that really didn't suit the performers, the worst example of which for me is that whole section of s2 where Charlie breaks bad. Charlie is just so much better as a comic foil for all the intrigue. he really helps the end of s3 sing, especially his no-fucks-given sense of humor when he embraces his demise (my favorite example of which is "tell him I said hi!" when the water station women get Ben on the line).

3 eps into s4 and it's already such a huge relief to be done with flashbacks, plus it's lovely to see the new faces (esp Jeremy Davies and Lance Reddick).

I just thought of 'You All Everybody' for the first time in a decade. And now I can't stop hearing 'You All Everybody' inside my brain. Wonderful.

yeah, I gotta say, that was a pretty believably mediocre-but-catchy Oasis pastiche that also did a fine job of touching on the "we're better off connected" thesis of the series

Haha, I was listening to the new Adam Scott/Scott Aukerman podcast on R.E.M. ("R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me?") and in the second episode they referenced "You All Everybody." First time I'd thought about it since the show went off the air.

the Hurley episodes grew more tiresome the more they focused on his weight

honestly, I think there was a heavy hand on the network side of things -- the original pitch for the show was basically "Survivor is a huge reality show hit, what can we do with the stranded on an island premise, but with fictional elements that couldn't happen irl" -- and they kept being subtly influenced by dumb reality show trends. Hurley's weight arc was around the time that Biggest Loser show got big on a competing network

Nikki and Paolo obviously came around the time good looking dummies got popular

xp it was annoying too because in the first season, Hurley was one of the few overweight characters on TV where it was just a fact of life, not the defining aspect of his character. the only real references people made to his weight came from sawyer's nicknames

good times...

Is Anyone Anticipating The New T.V. Show LOST? Come On, Anticipate LOST With Me! It's Made By The People Who Made Alias! You All Love Alias, Right? It's Like Lord Of The Flies Meets Survivor Meets Al

How I Met Your Mother debuted the same year, didn't it?

i went through lost years after it was on. it's a very binge-watch-inducing show. every episode is set up so that some huge plot event occurs right at the end so that every episode feels like a cliffhanger.

i enjoyed the entire thing but for me the magic was gone once they got kidnapped by the Others. when it got to the time skipping/dharma stuff i was a little more interested but overall it was the mysteries of the island that appealed to me rather than the Others vs. Flight 316 fighting each other on the island over and over.

"How I Met Your Mother debuted the same year, didn't it?"

i started the lost thread with too long thread title in 2004.

i started HIMYM thread with too long thread title in 2007. but i believe HIMYM started in 2005.

i know i'm one of the only people on ilx who watches *how i met your mother* on a regular basis, but did anyone else see the robin sparkles episode? where robin didn't want people to know that she had

Two shows I watched in their entirety (actually was a couple episodes behind when HIMYM ended and never returned to it after having the bummer denouement spoiled) and have basically zero desire to ever revisit.

I have a feeling that Barney Stinson has aged at least as poorly as LOST's reliance on poor interpersonal communication as a driver of plot.

HIMYM has def aged worse, I'd imagine. I still find the high points of Lost pretty effective, and I applaud its ridiculous ambition. Too many series playing it safe within predetermined genre/form boundaries of late.

Barney has aged pretty bad (well, at least until we inevitably regress post-#metoo) but the best of those first two-four seasons of HIMYM still hold up OK. it gets syndicated all the time

I do think about revisiting LOST sometimes, but yeah, it's too much. Same with BSG.

I could imagine rewatching the first few seasons of BSG plus the little mutiny arc in the final season, but there would def be a lot of pruning in that back half.

I guess this is the best thread for this? In any event:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/lost-tv-show-culture

dang

read it this morning, it’s def a LOT & awful sounding

Lindelof just seems to get better at mea culpa-ing while these stories emerge w his rooms idk

but bad writers rooms seem like such the norm that it’s depressing because there are really good ones that no one talks about like how do you spread that & reward that

Yikes

Disappointing but not surprising.

Oh, could some kind soul c&p that for me?

I bit the bullet recently and began an ill-advised rewatch (despite claiming that I would never ever do so, even itt). A whole lot of that article tracks with what I've seen onscreen. At this point, I'd say that the first season is most definitely the best and most consistent and even-handed with respect to giving a panoply of different characters equal time to breathe and that subsequent seasons suffer from an increasing level of perpetual fetch quest tunnel vision and ceaseless spectacle over actual plot or character development. As if, yeah, a tiny coterie of not particularly creative creatives had seized the reins without accepting much outside commentary or critique. And it's weird how the actual experiences in the article line up with my ponderings about what might've been transpiring behind the scenes. Like, it definitely felt like the exits of certain actors (e.g. Perrineau, Akinnuoye-Agbaje) translated into punishing actors of color. I had forgotten about but recently stumbled upon the news story about Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros getting arrested and totally assumed (apparently correctly) they got the boot as a result of that mishap.

Anyway, yeah. It's not hard to believe the allegations in that article. Cuse and Lindelof clearly and publicly got way too high on their own supply so it's not much of a stretch to assume that translated into shitty behavior and poor judgment in the workplace.

I find that archive.ph works well for paywalled articles. Here you go:

https://archive.ph/6dU93

Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who was a writer on the first two seasons, expands a bit more on what he said in the article here: http://okbjgm.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/5/0/31506003/final_statement.pdf

Thank you anagram!

not totally surprising, but still sad to read that article.

in one respect i guess it's vindicating to know that yes, the showrunners really WERE so petty as to retaliate against actors they didn't like in the show itself, as well as all the minority characters systematically getting less screen time wasn't a mere coincidence

watched 'getting lost,' the new documentary, which was fun, but i really just wanted to share damon lindelof's incredible joke: "on my tombstone it will read, 'here lies damon lindelof, he was dead the whole time'"

lmao