Lost - TV Fanatic

Lost Ranked on IMDB as Top Series of Last 10 Years

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:53:38 EST

Debates over its conclusion may continue forever, but let there be no mistaking its popularity throughout its six season run: Lost left quite an impression on viewers.

The biggest impression of any series in the 10 years of IMDB's existence, in fact, as that database has released a list of the 10 most-viewed shows in site history, based on their average ranking over the previous decade. And they are...

Lost
House M.D.
Grey’s Anatomy
Heroes
How I Met Your Mother
24
Glee
True Blood
Dexter
Gossip Girl

Nothing too shocking there, but perhaps a more intriguing question is this: What shows will be included on that list over the next 10 years?

Lost DVD Clip: A Burning Question Answered?

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:18:04 EST

Nope, we're not done writing about Lost.

On August 24, the season six DVD will be released and, as previously reported, it will feature footage from Hurley's days as the protector of the island and Ben's time as his number-two.

Producers and cast members have also promised a few answers to remaining questions, but will they be enough to satisfy fans disappointed in the May finale?

Decide for yourself below, as this DVD clip plops us down inside a Dharma warehouse, where two employees are packing up food for an island drop. Look who surprises them with a visit...

Lost DVD Clip

Lost DVD to Shed Light on "The New Man in Charge"

steve@iscribelimited.com (Steve Marsi) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:09:13 EST

With a sideways world conclusion that left many fans unsatisfied and open-ended issues, the Lost finale will go down as one of the most debated, analyzed events in TV history.

The answers to so many island mysteries may only exist in our imaginations, but a 12-minute extra on the Season 6 DVD will shed at least some light on post-finale Island life.

Starring Michael Emerson and Jorge Garcia, ''The New Man in Charge'' will show us what Hurley and Ben do with Jack and fake Locke dead and the rest of the survivors gone.

''Ben is going around to Dharma installations and closing some down,'' Emerson tells EW. ''There are some good surprises.'' And believe it or not, ''it does answer questions.''

What do you think those answers might be?

Jorge Garcia Confirms Lost DVD Epilogue, Extended Scenes, More Answers

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:31:21 EST

Jorge Garcia has confirmed what co-star Michael Emerson said last month about the Lost: The Complete Collection: it will include an epilogue that tells the tale of Ben and Hurley as island protectors.

"It will address some of the issues, like the food drops, and it will deal with what happened on the island after Hurley took over and how he handled things," Garcia told E! News of the DVD bonus features. "It will give you a taste of what took place after Hurley took over as the new number one."

What else can we expect from this box set, which will also be available on Blu-ray on August 24? In a word: WAAAALLLLLT!

"We'll find out what happens to Walt," said an insider, only adding: "There are other people in it, but I'm not going to tell you who."

As for Garcia's take on the Lost finale? It differs from most of the TV Fanatic staff.

"I loved it. When I first got the finale script, it didn't have the final act in it yet. But I got to the part where Hurley takes over and there was a kind of a sigh of relief. I thought OK, this ending is a satisfying ending for me. Everything I invested in this show does pay off. And so I'm good, the ending is good, and I don't have to worry about it."

Lost Season Six DVD: Bloopers, Commentary and A New Chapter in Island History

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:23:46 EST

Lost fans will likely debate this show's finale for years to come.

But there's no controversy when it comes to Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season. It comes to DVD on August 24 and is a must-have for viewers, containing an epilogue that focuses on Ben and Hurley's time as island protectors.

Based on an ABC press release, here's a look at what else the box set will include:

All sixth season episodes
Bloopers and deleted scenes
Audio commentaries for four episodes (LA X, Dr. Linus, Ab Aeterno and Across The Sea)
The End: Crafting A Final Season - Producers and crew members examine the challenges of ending a landmark series.
A Hero's Journey - Questions that are explored include: What makes a hero? Which survivors of Oceanic 815 are true heroes?
See You In Another Life, Brotha - This feature unlocks the mysteries of this season's flash sideways.
LOST on Location - Behind-the-scenes feature showcasing stories from the set, including all-new interviews with actors and crew.
PLUS: A LOST Blu-ray & DVD exclusive - Go deeper into the world of LOST with a much-anticipated new chapter of the island's story from Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

Lost Epilogue to Be Included on DVD Box Set

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:52:25 EST

Lost may be over, but the debate regarding its series finale isn't the only thing that lives on.

When the DVD box set Lost: The Complete Collection hits stores on August 24, viewers will have a chance to watch an epilogue of sorts. The extended footage will focus on Hurley and Ben's reign as island protectors.

"It's a lot." said Michael Emerson. "It's 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley becoming number one and the end of the series. It's self-contained, although it's a rich period in the show's mythology that's never been explored, so who knows what will come of it."

Based on the final exchange between Hurley and Ben, we know these two got along pretty well in their important island roles. But what, exactly, did those entail?

The DVD set is meant to provide that answer.

Lost Round Table: Special Finale Edition

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:16:59 EST

With opinions on the Lost series finale ranging from ever-lasting love to outright hate, we asked our TV Fanatic Round Table panel just one question this week:

What did you think of the conclusion to Lost?

Their detailed viewpoints are below. Whose do you come closest to sharing?

M.L. House: Viewer reaction seems to be divided into two camps: Answers vs. Characters. Those in the former hated how many questions were left unresolved; while those in the latter were thrilled because the finale brought the focus back to the characters.

But there's a third side to this debate, one on which I fall: Storytelling. I disagree with those that whine because we didn't learn more about Walt; and I also think it's a cop-out to say the conclusion was satisfactory simply because it provided closure to the castaways' journey. Instead, I look at the bigger season six picture and wonder what Jack meant when he said "all of this matters."

Perhaps that's true on some grand scale, in regard to his redemption. But the sixth season teased a set-up in which on-island events would play a major role in off-island revelations. I can't be the only person that expected the Jacob/MIB/good/evil war to be resolved with some vital tie-in to the Sideways universe. But we didn't get that. We didn't get anything that would make us return to an earlier Sideways scene and understand it better in the context of that universe as a type of Purgatory.

The lack of specific answers doesn't bother me; but the frustrating lack of storyline development does. David Shepard was a Sideways concoction? Sun was never really pregnant in that world? These now feel like cheap gimmicks, depicted on screen just to make us believe we were watching another reality play out.

I still love Lost and would watch all six seasons again in a heartbeat. One episode should never define any show. But I felt disengaged watcing the finale because the Sideways events were purposely kept mysterious until the final moments, and because the island events felt like I was watching a sport whose rules I didn't understand.

LJ Gibbs: The more I think about it, I'm satisfied with the conclusion of Lost and the final episode itself ... mostly. Some aspects could have been much better, such as the confrontation between Jack and MIB/Locke which basically amounted to "Desmond will destroy the island." "No he won't." "Okay, let's go together, lower him down and see who's right!"

That and Jack's Rush Hour 2 style slo-mo running punch of his adversary felt beneath what I consider the greatest show of our time. I didn't mind the revelation of what the Sideways World is, save one caveat - if the point was to bring the characters so they can ascend to a better place, why introduce us to David Shepard then? Why have Sayid pine for Nadia for years, including this season, only to reunite him with Shannon?

Previous Sideways World scenes now feel like wasted time to me, despite how poignant the season finale was, and a conclusion/explanation I actually enjoyed a lot. This has always been a show about character connections, so going out this way was true to form. The acting and directing was so amazing that I was moved by every island enlightenment took place - even after I began to see them coming. This was a show with so many themes and perspectives, a program so unique in its appeal that any ending was sure to be a huge disappointment.

Simply because it was ending, but furthermore, because there were so many overarching and intertwining themes, a resolution to all of them would be impossible. No, the finale wasn't perfect, but it was pretty solid, and I'm just thrilled to have gone along for this ride Sunday and for six seasons. What we saw was as little of a letdown as possible ... almost.

Mr. Probst: My reaction while watching the two and a half hour finale of Lost was one of boredom. For a show that had frequently been able to provide me with countless "whoa" moments, the finale lacked a single instance where something unexpected happened. Instead, we were treated to a very long episode where the action was forced and the suspense was predictable.

A show that was intellectually based for six seasons and relied on the viewer making the connection themselves did an about face and spelled out everything. As such, the show could have been wrapped up in one hour instead of two-and-a-half - and saved me an hour and a half of my life.

Perhaps most disappointing, however, was the ending. Turning the sideways world into purgatory discredited any of the sideways world story lines in season six and eliminated the significance of most of the show. A viewer could watched seasons one, five and six and completely understand the finale. How is that a good ending?

From a story telling stand point, using purgatory and the afterlife as the ending was a very curious choice to me. Why spend six seasons crafting an elaborate science fiction world of magical islands, immortal beings and smoke monsters when the ending is not science fiction at all? The same ending could have worked for a story crafted entirely in a normal world.

The Barnacle: Whatever you thought of "The End" and where it brought the Lost story arc, the episode itself was a reflection of what the show has always been about: its characters.

I am not saying that Lost was a purely character-driven show and that the overall story shouldn't matter; to me, Lost has always been a cool, thoughtful, sometimes funny, sometimes spooky mystery and I have loved watching that mystery unfold over the past six years. But in that time, there have been weak episodes, tangents that go no where, and big questions that were never answered.

But even at its story's weakest moments - and this final season had its fair share - the show has always been salvaged by its characters and the tremendous actors who embody them. That was the case in "The End", as it was throughout the whole final season (it is no mere coincidence that "Across the Sea", the generally accepted worst episode of the season, and perhaps the series, did not feature a single actor/character we'd come to enjoy over the past six seasons).

For me, what I will remember most about "The End" was the little moment when Hurley, now in his role as Island Protector, asked Ben if he would like to be his right hand man. This was the acceptance and responsibility Ben had been looking for his entire life and the emotion that played, however quick and subtle, across Michael Emerson's face was the best acting the show has ever given us. Ben's two brief interactions outside the church, with Locke and then Hurley, further drove home that the acting, and the deep, complex and so very real (even when living among fantasy) characters it created, was what was at the core of the show.

Just as Ben needed to wait a little longer outside the church for his redemption, perhaps Lost needs to sit in our critical Purgatory a bit longer, too. In time, when we have exhausted every question that went unanswered, when we have stated every complaint about how we wanted the show to end, we will realize that Lost gave us exactly what it set out to: years of entertainment, driven by tremendous performances.

What I Loved About the Lost Finale

eric@tvfanatic.com (Eric Hochberger) — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:58:22 EST

My TV Fanatic cohorts, M.L. House and Mr. Probst make decent points about the Lost finale:

Yes, action on the island was difficult to care about because the rules and developments felt so arbitrary. And, yes, the reveal of the Sideways World as a form of Purgatory felt disconnected from storylines that were the main focus of season six. Or the entire show in general, for that matter.

But why be negative? Lost was never a perfect show, merely an ambitious one, unlike anything seen on television before. The finale continued this tradition. Consider these positives from it:

Amazing acting. Even when I knew when island enlightenment was about to take place, I was moved to tears. First, Sun and Jin got me. Then, Kate and Claire. Finally, Sawyer and Juliet. Elizabeth Mitchell and Josh Holloway formed such chemistry over such a short period of time that even when I knew exactly what Juliet was gonna say about meeting for coffee, I reached for Kleenex.
Incredible direction. The final scene, where Lost interspersed Jack's greeting of dead friends with his death on the island, should be shown in every Directing 101 class around the world.
Character connections. Admit it, you feel silly wondering about the Dharma food drops and other minute details now, don't you? Lost created a universe of layered, complicated characters unlike any depicted on TV. We went on a ride with these individuals for six rich seasons, culminating in scenes many of us will be rewinding on our DVR for weeks to come: an enlightened Locke telling Jack “I hope that somebody does for you what you just did for me;" Jack finally embracing his father; Locke forgiving Ben. Great moments, well-earned all around.
The show spoke to us. More than anything, Lost rose to prominence because fans loved to debate it and discuss it online, at work, in restaurants. In many ways, we're responsible for its success; not just because we watched, but because we became immersed in it. In this way, the finale didn't just speak to Jack, it spoke to all of us: we aren't dead, but we are part of a community that relied on each other and had an incredible, memorable experience with a group of strangers.

That's what I'll take with me. I look forward to hearing your comments and to meeting my friends tonight to discuss the finale, some of whom I didn't know when Lost premiered.

We might not be moving toward any light together, but we are moving toward a life without Lost - and if we don't relive it together, well, we're gonna drink alone.

Lost Finale Review, Take Two: What About the Storylines?

tiaradio@hotmail.com (Luke Dwyer) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:39:26 EST

My TV Fanatic colleague, M.L. House, stayed up half the night and wrote an in-depth, interesting review of the Lost series finale. I recommend all readers check it out and I agree with many of his takes on various characters and developments.

But this is final episode ever of Lost! It requires multiple critiques from multiple points of view. That's why I must chime in and that's why I must focus my negative review on storyline inconsistencies from season six.

Let me start by saying: I'm not an answers guy. I've been hooked on Lost ever since the pilot due to the incredibly layered characters created by the show. I tuned in to the finale interested in their journey above all else. My problem with the final 10 minutes and the resolution of the Sideways World is not that it ignored certain aspects of Lost mythology (I don't care who Alvar Hanso is, do you?).

It's that it had nothing to do with the plot of season six.

Yes, on a grand scale, everything we witnessed on the island mattered. The actions and decisions by these survivors helped them arrive in an after-life community that allowed them to "remember and let go," as Christian put it. They can move on now. Relationships formed and lessons learned have made it possible for Jack and company to see the light. I can get behind that overall message. I believe in it.

But the final season sold us a battle between good and evil. It seemed awfully ambitious, but Lost set up a scenario in which the individual journeys of these characters would play a role in an ongoing struggle between humanity's light and dark sides, as represented by Jacob and The Man in Black (MIB). In this sense, the castaways mattered above all else... but we were also invested in the mythology that played out each week.

Now, though? All that feels like a waste. Think about a couple specific storylines that got us to the finale, and then ponder their resolutions:

MIB is pure evil. He cannot get off the island or else all will perish. This storyline came to an end when MIB was made human and gunned down by Kate. Would mankind truly have ceased to exist if he got off the island? We'll never know, and we never really had any basis for believing it would, considering the Sideways World was in existence this whole time and made it obvious that something existed outside of life on the island.
Desmond is special. Was he, really? In the Sideways World, it was actually Charlie that pushed Desmond toward enlightenment. On the island, we were led to believe that Desmond would hold the key toward stopping MIB. But he was lowered randomly into the light cave, and didn't actually know what to do. His actions didn't save anyone at all.

These were major focuses of season six. Do you feel like they had a point, though? Or were they just plot devices meant to kill time until everyone could assemble at the church?

Clearly, an ending that brings up issues such as the after-life will be left open-ended and full of mystery. That's fine. That's not my issue. I simply take exception to the fact that Lost baited us with a sixth season dichotomy between Jacob and MIB... and then switched it up at the end to essentially say: taken as a whole, events mattered. But individually? Eh, don't worry about what Eloise Hawking's role in the Sideways World meant.

There's a difference between mythology and storytelling. I was happy to not know many details of the former; but any quality TV show must first and foremost tell stories each week in which viewers are invested. Lost accomplished this, but it failed to pay them off.

Looking back on the season, I now feel duped by stories that didn't go anywhere. Take David Shepard, for example. He wasn't even real. The show made us care about a relationship that didn't exist, just to get us to Jack's eventual revelation.

It's too easy to say the show was all about its characters all along, as the producers and many fans (myself included) have done, and, therefore, an ending that focused on their grand journey paid off six seasons perfectly well.

That's as much of a narrow-minded cop-out as those that believed only a list of answers would bring the show to a satisfactory conclusion. There is a middle ground, or at least there should be. I wasn't going into the finale hoping for tiny bits of island mythology to be revealed. But I was going in expecting my investment in specific storylines (Jacob, MIB, Desmond) to be made worthwhile.

I left it with a message about community and love and relationships and letting go. But also with this nagging complaint: Does a positive, emotional message make up for a season's worth of dead-end storytelling?

I say no.

Lost Finale Review: Let There Be Light...

matt@mediavine.com (Matt Richenthal) — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:12:13 EST

All of this matters.

Throughout season six of Lost, fans had wondered about what they were seeing. Would our beloved characters end up in a seemingly random Sideways World, thereby negating all we'd watched for five years, rendering life on the island meaningless?

In the end, as Jack's four words above to Desmond sum up nicely: no. It mattered. What happened happened. We'd been told this many times and the final 10 minutes of this series finale explained why: everything we saw on the island was real. These were the real lives of real people with seriously real problems.

At some point, they died. We witnessed many of these deaths. Others occurred at later dates. But, in the end, the castaways could only move on to a light-filled world beyond this one if they tweaked Jack's season one advice: after-live together, or die alone.

See you in another life, brutha? How right Desmond has been all along.

The final message of Lost is an interesting one, a profound one and the mythology surrounding it will be debated among viewers for as long as the series ran. But let's start with events on the island during these two-and-a-half hours - because they were a major clusterf%$k!

Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have spent season six telling us the show is about characters, not jaw-dropping answers. We've been on board with this assessment. However, "The End" sacrificed logical, suspenseful storytelling in the name of delayed character development/resolution.

Every development on the island felt arbitrary, something cooked up by the writers as an after-thought just to get individuals in place for the series-concluding revelation. To wit:

Rose and Bernard pulled Desmond to safety?!? Jack and Locke met in a field, and the new Jacob had no actual plan? He was on board with simply hoisting Desmond down a cave and seeing what his actions produced?

We understand Jack is a man of faith now, but it wasn't clear what viewers were supposed to be waiting for as all this went down. In the past, each season's end game was clear: get into the hatch... get off the island... get back to the island... But this sort of focus was missing from this finale (heck, from the season) because Lost purposely kept us in the dark about the Sideways World.

MIB wanted to destroy the island, and we were told this was bad. Everyone would perish. But Sideways Desmond was around, enlightening folks left and right, causing on-island events to lack a sense of urgency.

Clearly, everyone was not going to die, no matter what MIB threatened or did. Almost as obviously, they'd all be awoken to their experiences on the island. The past few weeks were building to that. What would this mean in the battle of good vs. evil? Where would the characters go from there? Those were the questions on my mind during the finale, all of which were tackled in the final few minutes - but all of which also made the preceding two hours and twenty minutes feel anticlimactic.

I found myself almost bored, anxious to get everyone enlightened so we could get to the show's overarching resolution.

I was especially disappointed when Kate killed MIB. After creating such a mysterious, indestructible force of evil, the show made him human again with the removal of a stone by Desmond, and then killed him off via a gun shot to the back? It wasn't the ending Smokey deserved. It also served as a bait-and-switch, as previous episodes hyped a looming showdown between good and evil. We never really got that. Instead, we got a story about Jack and his tussle with a light-plugging rock.

The Jack/Smokey climax was also just hokey. The driving rainstorm. Jack's slow-motion jump/punch. Kate's line about saving one bullet for Locke. I expect such levels of cheese from bad action movies, not iconic TV shows.

Of course, these aren't the developments fans will be debating and discussing in the hours, weeks and months to come. Did everything on the island feel sloppy and arbitrary? Yes. But it was what we learned about the characters' off-island lives that will be lighting up our Comments section below (be opinionated there, but please be respectful of each other).

The Sideways World is a form of purgatory, a place the castaways unknowingly created because they could not "move on" without one another's support and love. In order to remember and let go, they needed to be reminded of what they experienced on the island, of who they met, of how they came together.

Did Jacob help them create this world? Was that the significance of his touch? He may have been a proponent of free will, but Jacob was also fond of pushing people in a certain direction. He didn't simply bring individuals to the island to find a successor; he brought them to prove his message: It only ends once. Everything else is just progress. Viewers were led to believe he meant his struggle with his brother.

But what better way to sum up a human life? Lost concluded its ambitious run by telling us: this world is filled with mistakes and regrets, but it's all a lesson. Learn from it. Rely on other people ("I can't do it without you," Kate told Claire during the latter's labor) and strive for progress in all you do. You'll never truly know any kind of higher power, so stop focusing on it (we've seen what happens to those that do. Sorry, pals of MIB and purged Dharma folk... and, really, viewers that craved answers above all else).

Want to achieve a happy after-life? Simply love your fellow man in this life.

That was the message, but getting there required twists, turns, questions and answers. We stopped wondering a long time ago about the Dharma Initiative, or what made Walt special, or any number of issues related to mundane island facts. Instead, when faced with this new information on the Sideways World, the following inquiries, points and observations come to mind:

What is Eloise Hawking's role in it? She didn't want Desmond to enlighten his friends... simply because she didn't want her son to move on and move away? She was made out to be all-knowing throughout Lost, but her motives were never clear.
Same for Charles Widmore. What did he know about the island and what was his end game?
Where did Jughead fit into all this? Did its explosion create the Sideways World? Having a specific event create it would seem to run counter to the concept that the castaways themselves created this place via their formed bond/community on the island.
Simply amazing acting all around. Every awakening scene was played perfectly by those involved.
On the season premiere, Rose told Jack it was okay. He could "let go." Guess he just needed about 18 more hours to come to that same conclusion.
David Shepard doesn't actually exist, right? That's always a frustrating type of cop-out: when a show focuses on a character and then reveals this was just an imaginary plot device.
The finale was filled with self-aware winks at the audience: Sawyer described Jack's plan as a "long con," Kate laughed at the name "Christian Shepard," Hurley might as well have been channeling Lindelof and Cuse when he responded to Sayid's questions about "rules" with the response: "Trust me."
In the end, one could interpret the arbitrary events on the island (as outlined above) as part of a grander message about the island and/or religion itself: it's all arbitrary! Jack caught on to this when he went along with the water con for Hurley's appointment. It was a made-up ceremony, as were the rules that governed this special place. After all, who can possibly say for sure what is right and wrong when it comes to such higher powers?
Sayid and Shannon?!? Barf! Somewhere, Nadia lovers are outraged that Sayid's enlightenment came at the hands (and lips) of this woman, as opposed to the one most of us believed was his soulmate.
Absolutely loved the fact that Ben didn't believe he had earned a place inside the church, as well as Hurley's nod to him making a great number-two. Ben truly had done everything in the name of the island, in the name of what he thought was best for mankind. After learning that MIB played him, and watching Jack's sacrifice, he apparently started his road to redemption as soon as Hurley's asked for his assistance - but he still didn't believe that was enough to warrant him a spot with the other survivors.

This won't be my final say on the show or the episode. Not by a long shot. There's a lot to analyze, critique and praise. It's been a pleasure to have taken the Lost ride with you this season, and I'd love to hear from readers now.

Many characters on the finale said "it worked." So therein lies the question: Did the conclusion of Lost work for you?