Finished up Lost - let me say, Netflix Instant Watch is bitchen for plowing through a television series. It's the tits, man.
I don't know how people watching this show on television, because the 43 minute run time episodes answer as few questions as humanly possible. Part of that run time is associated with "Previously on Lost...", so the amount of actual show is less than that. I had heard people either hated the end of the series, or loved it. There was no in between. Oddly enough, I'd say I fall in the "in between" zone. Here goes, Seasons 4 through 6.
Season 4
14 episodes, and broken up by the Writer's Strike. To recap, Season 1 they get on the island, Season 2 is about the DHARMA hatches/stations, and Season 3 is the group and the Others. Season 4 starts with the freighter that was approaching the island at the end of the 3rd season, and goes into a long drawn out story of Charles Whidmore versus Benjamin Linus. This season is the least successful, in my opinion. The additions of characters from the freighter take away from the established characters. The coolest part of the season is that it's the "flash-forward" season. While events are taking place ON the island, there is the alternate story of the future where the Oceanic Six have made it off the island, all the while knowing Jack comes to the realization that "We have to go back!" Because you know they're ultimately going to get off the island and want to get back, I spent most of my time hoping that the future we were watching was an alternate reality that would be averted. SPOILER: Nope. "Whatever happened, happened" is a common theme in Lost beginning in Season 4. The flash-forwarding instead of flashbacks was interesting, but begins the series on an interesting viewpoint of time itself - still, this season was the weakest.
Season 5
This season is the "getting back to the island" and the "lost in time" season. SPOILER ALERT, the island is moved and some of the group gets off the island, but the ones left are now time flashing because the island wasn't moved correctly, or by the correct person - the interpretation is up for grabs as is much of the storyline. Some of the group end up in 1974, by way of 2004, and 1954. Once corrected, some of the group is in the incorrect time, the 70's. They regroup in 1977 and attempt to get back to their own time, which is now 2007. Highlight of the season is seeing the French expedition and a pregnant Rousseau. The problem with this season is similar to the problem I had with Season 4 - you are moving closer and closer to the events of "The Incident" which trigger the button pushing of the Swan station, and eventually Desmond to not push the button which results in Oceanic 815 arriving on the island. Will the group succeed in undoing everything that's already been done, one season before the series conclusion? SPOILER ALERT - you can't have a very good Season 6 if you negate Season's 1 through 5, no. What happens is what always happened. Hoisted on their own petard.
Season 5 has the most infuriating season finale - ending in a white light. BULLSHIT! Fortunately, I had to take an extra 10 seconds to search for Lost Season 6 on my Neftlix and press the Play button, but I can't imagine how people who were watching live felt. Busch League.
Season 6
Other than concluding the series, this is the "flash-sideways" season*. This is also the Jacob season. You've only heard of Jacob before now, but you'll see a few hundred years of his influence on the island. There are a few really great things about Season 6, a few fantastic additions, but they're not all tied up. There are explanations that the island is like a cork on a bottle of wine, to keep the evil (the wine) at bay. There is also the idea that the island is the location of the "Source" or "The Light" and that it needs protecting. SPOILER ALERT - the "light" is what creates the "darkness" that is referenced to be kept in. Also, there is a character who wants nothing more than to leave the island, but from watching the previous seasons you know that Charles Whidmore and Benjamin Linus spend an assload of time off-island. The DHARMA crew came and went as they pleased. You'd think that the Man in Black would have worked his way to get off at some other point.
Further Comments (Spoiler mine field)
The worst decision was killing off the true character of John Locke. I get it, I understand why it was done, and in the end what it did, but I still think it's stupid. The job Jack agrees to at the end was built for John Locke. Yes, that's the whole thing, with Locke gone, Jack somehow regains his faith and was only able to do so after Locke's death, so he becomes a Jack-Locke hybrid and the inevitable protector of the island. I get it, I do. But I don't have to like it.
Also, it's referenced that the Man in Black can only take someones form after they've died, and there are other references that he cannot revert to other forms once his new forms taken. I know this can't be the correct interpretation, but he uses the guise of Christian Shepard, then John Locke. While as John Locke's doppelganger, he appears to Benjamin Linus as his adopted daughter Alex, and then shortly thereafter reappears as John Locke. He never reappears as Christian Shepard, and it's not clear whether he can't or whether he simply doesn't need to.
The idea of time travel and time flashing through eras (as Desmond does upon the Kahana) is interesting, but is a paradox in and of itself. On the Kahana he is flashing between 1996 and 2004, attempting to find his constant, while still aware of his state in the year 2004. In his linear time spent in 1996 through to 2001 when he started on the island, he should have a recollection of these flashing episodes. Meeting Faraday on the island and having no recollection of his time spent with him in Oxford in 1996, TIME PARADOX!** That said, the idea of time having things happen and not creating alternate futures is an interesting one, the anti-Back to the Future time travel. That's interesting, but they never really delve into the variables Faraday was talking about that should be able to cause "Paradoxical Negation". In one sense, the variables in the equation and by human choice were always present and always made - which is why Jack doesn't help save young Ben Linus, and proceeds to complete the events of The Incident - so paradoxical negation is never achievable. Crazy.
Finally, I really liked the finale. I think any good series/movie should end with (SPOILER) the main character dying. I also called the final scenes of the show - lying down in the bamboo, the zooming into the eye and it closing, boom, nailed it - like ten minutes before it happened. I was a little bummed out that you don't get to see the Ajira group AFTER they land safely off-island, and what happens after the events of the island. What does Richard Alpert do? Who takes care of Ji Yeon and Bpo Bpo? Does Sawyer marry Kate? Does he take an active role in his daughters life? I never saw the epilogue or the Missing Pieces, so I don't have all that stuff, but I do want to see how Hugo runs shit.
Overall I really liked the season, and my wife bought the official Lost Encyclopedia, which is very informative. I just think the Man in Black could have had a better motive over so many years. Like, okay, maybe he wants to take control of the island to use for himself to control the world, and then get off the island and use that power. Who knows. But just to get off to get off. Could have been better than that. It's impressive that Desmond and Benjamin came in during Season 2 and latest throughout the entire series, there aren't too many characters that can say that - I'm looking at you Ana Lucia and Libby!
*I know after watching it wasn't actually flashing sideways, but rather flashing to the "in between place". In the in between place, Kate was still a fugitive and Sayid wasn't with the love of his life? For real? What a waste of an afterlife.
**Benjamin Linus gets tortured as Henry Gale by Sayid Jarrah in Season 2, and in Season 5 it's revealed that Sayid shoots young Ben in 1977. You'd think he'd remember who almost killed him, especially when he broke him out of jail.
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