Very vague commentary on the end of LOST.

Note: Contains NO spoilers. This isn't really about LOST, more about my reaction to LOST.

I guess I'm an optimist.

Some people (see Cousin Brandon for one) have said that regarding the end of LOST, nothing would satisfy them fully: any thing the show did would leave them wanting more- more answers, different answers, a (different?) "point" to the show, etc.

Looking back at my thoughts up to this point, I realize that I had a much more optimistic viewpoint: Nothing the show could do would keep me from being absolutely delighted with it. Any ending they could give would be just another part of this thing that I love - even if it turned out to all be some kind of strange sneaky attempt by fringe(ha ha, get it?) groups to get us all to convert to Scientology, to abandon technology and live in the wild, who knows. I even said on several occasions that if they just came out and said "Well, we're going to cut it off here, we're not going to do an ending, because we don't feel like it or because we don't have one or because we just don't care," I would still always appreciate and love the show.

In any circumstance, LOST is a major part of my life and has been for four years. Yes, I am sorry to say that I didn't get interested in LOST until the middle of the second season, but since watching the first 40 or so episodes in about a week and then jumping wildly onto the train of weekly addiction, it's been one hell of a journey. I have spent countless hours watching this show with a lot of people I cared about - and honestly, I feel it's made me closer to some of them. I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this show - at this point, several times over. Nothing could have taken that away from me.

Some people, if they watch a movie, they will base their opinion of that movie on only the last 5 or 10 minutes of it. It doesn't matter if they absolutely LOVED the first 2 hours of it, if something happens in the very end that pisses them off, the whole thing was a complete waste of their time and they'll wish they'd never bothered to show up to see it.

I think this is a very flawed way of looking at things. I mean, for one - how many times have you read a book or seen a movie that you thought was slow getting started, boring at first, etc,. that you ended up liking a lot in the end? It's okay to forget about the parts you don't like as long as they're in the beginning, not the end?

Does a "bad ending" negate the importance of something's entire existence?

If I lie on my deathbed and look back and think "Wow, there really was no point to this life," does that mean it would have been better for me never to have existed at all?

No. Absolutely not.
One thing I like to think about (specifically in terms of LOST) is the HBO series Carnivàle. It was a GREAT show which, sadly, ended on a huge cliffhanger, with much of the story untold. It was great until the very end - it wasn't cancelled due to low quality, simply due to the high production cost.
So: We didn't get ANY answers, we didn't even get an ending - the story was bluntly severed right in the middle.
Does this mean it wasn't worth watching? I don't think so.
In fact, I plan on re-watching Carnivàle fairly soon - the end of LOST has reminded me of several elements the two shows share, and I remembered how much I really did love Carnivàle. Sure, I'm pissed that I didn't get answers, that the full story wasn't really told, but hey - it aired for two seasons, and those two seasons were AWESOME. I enjoyed the hell out of the show when I first watched it in 2005, and when I revisited in 2008 still loved it. When I watch it again, say, next month, I'll continue to love it - maybe noticing things I hadn't noticed before, maybe not seeing anything new but recalling things I'd forgotten.

I think now is not really the best time to reflect on the LOST season finale because most of us are not seeing it as the end of a television show, but as the end of a large part of our lives - a show like LOST did not garner any viewers casually. People who were into it were REALLY into it, and it's hard to think about this episode as "just" an episode of a TV show.

One of the main things that made this show notable was that the producers of the show had the incredible luck to end it on their own terms - when you look at shows like Carnivàle or Twin Peaks you see that problems arise from networks ending shows prematurely or allowing them to meander for far too long (see also: The X Files). Honestly, I can't think of a show ending on a better note - simply in terms of timing. The show went out with a bang, before it got stale, and I see it as being likely to have a long post-broadcast "shelf life". I hope a lot of people watch the show - sure, they'll miss out on the fun that was the communal aspect of enjoying the show, the collective unknown whose time is now forever past, but it's still a great show.

I don't know.

I guess looking at all of this I feel pretty lame for caring so much about a TV show, but this is not regular TV. This is not gimmicky "dancing with the stars" or any other cheap attempt to get money, this is (was) a real story being told by people who cared about it. Not something you see very often anymore.

I think I want to bring it down to this:

"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds.The pessimist fears it is true."

Could I have come up with a better ending for the show? Could anyone? I don't think so. I am completely happy with the way everything played out, and I'm very pleased I had the opportunity to be a part of it. Sure, people are free to think whatever they want about it - it's subjective, like everything in life. People can choose to enjoy life if they want to; sadly a lot of people choose to look only at the negative. I wish I could make everyone love everything and be happy, but that's just not possible. So for now I'm just going to go along on my merry way and enjoy things myself, and try not to be bothered by what other people think… Why should I stop having fun to slow down and be unhappy?

(Note: This comes after a night with very little sleep. I know there is a lot of balance to life, and this post doesn't really acknowledge that.)

In closing: LOST is great. LOST was great. LOST will always be great. I am very grateful LOST is/was/will always be a part of my life.

My new favorite website.

WormSpit.com

I never knew I cared about silk worms or moths or anything like that, but this stuff is incredible. I love it!

I spent most of today going through every page of this website, and I'm still working on it now.

Very photo-intensive, and not too flashy. To the point!

Anyway, Blogger is apparently getting rid of FTP access next month, which is ridiculous. BOO!

I will have to figure out what to do.

Funny, though, because I actually "programmed" my own PHP posting-type-thing back in high school... now we're on HTML5 and I'm sure a 6 year old could hack the thing I made (if I could even find it...)

booooo blogger.

Also LOST is amazing as ever.

That's it for now. Really I just came here to post that worm thing.

CHECK IT OUT!

WormSpit.com

peace.

Spent a lot of time writing and thinking (same thing). I concluded that my life could not progress any further on the rickety precepts that functioned as crutches for so many years. I wallowed in despair and hopelessness until I discovered that this is not a terminus, but a transition. Where I once saw the end, I now see the beginning. A burden has been lifted. I can do anything, and I will.