When I first heard about Lost I was excited, who wouldn't be? An interesting premise and the potential to be truly amazing. I remember sitting down and watching the premiere episodes, to say the least I was impressed. It had its hook that would reel me in: "Guys Where are we?" It was with this line that I said "Hell YEAH! This will be awesome." I spoke too soon. Well, its clear Lost is popular, very popular, and strangely enough critically acclaimed. For a show that prides itself on character development and sustaining an interesting and involving mystery it fails in almost every regard. The first season moves along at a staggeringly slow pace, the writers reveal little tidbits of information, leaving the viewer wanting more. It works to a degree because it whets the viewers appetite for a good mystery but the primary problem is, it becomes progressively obvious the writers have barely any idea as to where the story is headed, highlighted by the season 1 cliffhanger, and just about every other "cliffhanger" the show has ever produced. They simply make it up as they go along and even for regular viewers it progressively becomes glaringly obvious.
The flashbacks were a good idea in theory but so far they have failed in developing, fleshing out or even progressing the characters motivations and arcs. It's disappointing because I think they are an accessible and simple idea of doing this, but alas it all comes down to writing and so far only about four of the episodes with flashbacks were actually interesting and kept me enthralled. They at times add depth to the island story and provide insight into the characters before the island, but are they really needed? Why cant we simply get to know the characters as they are, instead of as they were? Especially when the flashbacks are so terribly written, enough so, that when I hear the little sound that comes with the opening of a flashback I instantly tune out. I've spent two seasons of this mediocre show, tuning out during a flashback, I believe it has become second nature, almost a subconscious message that "you are going to bored just tune out now so you don't have to sit through the painfully bad dialogue and inanely stupid side stories".
The huge cast is a major flaw in the shows structure. There is so many problems with an ensemble this large and it's honestly annoying. They added another three people into the cast in the second season and even more in the third season....it's just too many people. I still don't understand why they can't just focus on a smaller group of people, flesh out those characters instead of adding new ones for the novelty of it. I realize new characters are introduced to serve the plot (see: plot devices) but when the current characters aren't fleshed out or developed as well as they should be, you don't just introduce new characters to keep people interested, instead you develop the characters you have, by making them fully 3 dimensional. I haven't seen that happen yet, instead the writers have decided that the flashbacks are a cheap way of quickly developing them as much as they can...That is lazy. To add to this the characters are very boring and mostly uninteresting, there are a couple of exceptions but they're continually pushed to the side so we can all enjoy another ego trip by the "amazing doctor who can do no wrong and just wishes his daddy would love him," Jack or as i like to call him "SHUT UP". The show continues to pile unsatisfying faux-answers on top of annoying characters that don't develop so much as stagnate, I find it hard to believe that there are people that actually believe there is an ounce of true character development in this show. They're only interested in giving us flashbacks that tell us nothing, giving us answers that don't answer anything, showing us unlikable, humorless, and uninteresting people, and that are just overwhelming boring in general. Wow, I haven't even gotten to the anvils yet. Lost heavily utilizes biblical allusions and symbolism. This can be a good thing if it's subtly done but Lost hammers the message of the episode into your brain with a 47kg jack hammer and then it's pretentious enough to believe that it's intelligent. Or should I say the writers are? They'll even pat themselves on the back continually flaunting their "intelligence" like they are the smartest people in the world. Demon (Damon) and Curse (Cuse), some people just aren't buying it.
I've completely lost interest in Lost. The conflicts are often contrived, the characters are not believable, there are no issues being tackled in an intelligent way, and the plot is made up as they go along. I could fast forward through most of an episode without missing anything. I think people just don't get what an intelligently written, character driven show is, I can tell you one thing, Lost isn't. Its all in the hype and maybe, just maybe if Lost wasn't hyped as the "best show EVER!!!11" or "A character driven masterpiece" by critics and viewers alike, then maybe, just maybe i wouldn't be as bitter as i am. But I am bitter, very bitter.
If you believe Lost is anything more than a dumb entertaining show, with an inconsequential, made-up-as-they-go-along mystery and characters that aren't really characters, then;
You've been fooled.
I'll say this much: Lost is the best one-hour drama, set on an island, featuring flashbacks, with a sinister undertone of mystery and soap-opera like character developments ever to air on television.
The flashbacks were a good idea in theory but so far they have failed in developing, fleshing out or even progressing the characters motivations and arcs. It's disappointing because I think they are an accessible and simple idea of doing this, but alas it all comes down to writing and so far only about four of the episodes with flashbacks were actually interesting and kept me enthralled. They at times add depth to the island story and provide insight into the characters before the island, but are they really needed? Why cant we simply get to know the characters as they are, instead of as they were? Especially when the flashbacks are so terribly written, enough so, that when I hear the little sound that comes with the opening of a flashback I instantly tune out. I've spent two seasons of this mediocre show, tuning out during a flashback, I believe it has become second nature, almost a subconscious message that "you are going to bored just tune out now so you don't have to sit through the painfully bad dialogue and inanely stupid side stories".
The huge cast is a major flaw in the shows structure. There is so many problems with an ensemble this large and it's honestly annoying. They added another three people into the cast in the second season and even more in the third season....it's just too many people. I still don't understand why they can't just focus on a smaller group of people, flesh out those characters instead of adding new ones for the novelty of it. I realize new characters are introduced to serve the plot (see: plot devices) but when the current characters aren't fleshed out or developed as well as they should be, you don't just introduce new characters to keep people interested, instead you develop the characters you have, by making them fully 3 dimensional. I haven't seen that happen yet, instead the writers have decided that the flashbacks are a cheap way of quickly developing them as much as they can...That is lazy. To add to this the characters are very boring and mostly uninteresting, there are a couple of exceptions but they're continually pushed to the side so we can all enjoy another ego trip by the "amazing doctor who can do no wrong and just wishes his daddy would love him," Jack or as i like to call him "SHUT UP". The show continues to pile unsatisfying faux-answers on top of annoying characters that don't develop so much as stagnate, I find it hard to believe that there are people that actually believe there is an ounce of true character development in this show. They're only interested in giving us flashbacks that tell us nothing, giving us answers that don't answer anything, showing us unlikable, humorless, and uninteresting people, and that are just overwhelming boring in general. Wow, I haven't even gotten to the anvils yet. Lost heavily utilizes biblical allusions and symbolism. This can be a good thing if it's subtly done but Lost hammers the message of the episode into your brain with a 47kg jack hammer and then it's pretentious enough to believe that it's intelligent. Or should I say the writers are? They'll even pat themselves on the back continually flaunting their "intelligence" like they are the smartest people in the world. Demon (Damon) and Curse (Cuse), some people just aren't buying it.
I've completely lost interest in Lost. The conflicts are often contrived, the characters are not believable, there are no issues being tackled in an intelligent way, and the plot is made up as they go along. I could fast forward through most of an episode without missing anything. I think people just don't get what an intelligently written, character driven show is, I can tell you one thing, Lost isn't. Its all in the hype and maybe, just maybe if Lost wasn't hyped as the "best show EVER!!!11" or "A character driven masterpiece" by critics and viewers alike, then maybe, just maybe i wouldn't be as bitter as i am. But I am bitter, very bitter.
If you believe Lost is anything more than a dumb entertaining show, with an inconsequential, made-up-as-they-go-along mystery and characters that aren't really characters, then;
You've been fooled.
I'll say this much: Lost is the best one-hour drama, set on an island, featuring flashbacks, with a sinister undertone of mystery and soap-opera like character developments ever to air on television.