I am not a big TV show fan, because I prefer book reading. But “Lost” is the first ever TV dramas that got me glued to the TV screen.
I started watching Lost during this year March, at the time when the disaster of MH 370 struck. Everywhere on the Internet forum that I frequented, everyone was talking about MH370… and how similar it was to a decade old TV show named Lost. If you had a bit of time, you can read on the unfortunate parallels between the fateful Oceanic 815 and MH370. What is even more coincidental, Lost’s crew 10-year-reunion took place only days after 8/3/2014, the day when MH370 went missing. And the fans were reminded not to ask anything about MH370 because “they won’t be in a good taste”.
My interest was piqued, so I went to Netflix on my FireTV to start watching. Boy, I got hooked the moment I start seeing season 1 premiere. A plane crashed on an island, and there were a few survivors who somehow survived the crash. Don’t ask me how— I still don’t know despite having finished the series. I’ll leave it to you to explore the plot yourself, but it is suffice to say that this is a very addicting show. Each episode mixes the story on the island with the character backstories, giving us a glimpse of each character’s development and how that influences the decision they make on the island. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen to them at the island, and how eventually they would get rescued.
I vow to watch only one episode a day because I don’t want to be seen as someone addicted to TVs, but it’s pretty hard to keep coming back for more after finishing an episode.
As the story unfolds, the plot just keep bigger and more convoluted. By the time I reached the last season, the story got so messy that I didn’t know how can the story writers tied up everything. But then I was having complete faith in JJ Abrams and his co. to deliver the a grand wrap up to everything… after all, he is a Hollywood big star writer and I’m not. Right?
So I watched the 2.5 hour finale of season 6 with grand expectation, when I finished watching, I sat at my sofa.
Drowned. Beaten. “Lost” had just lost me.
The ending really sucks. It doesn’t explain anything. It doesn’t tie up everything. It is a very disappointing ending because it doesn’t get us closer to the mystery of the Island, the place of where and why and when everything happens.
There is no answer at all. I felt like I have watched Lost for nothing. I had wasted my precious 120 waking hours.
And I was not alone in this feeling. Lost fans were dismayed as much as I did when the show was finally over; the most prominent one is the Game of Thrones author, George RR Martin, who said that he wouldn’t want to do a Lost for his epic series “A song of fire and Ice”.
What if I do a Lost? Then they’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches.
FYI, Game of Thrones is currently the biggest TV show in HBO, and possibly the biggest TV show in history. And oh yes, you won’t be able to get it in Malaysia because it has just too much sex, violence and everything mixed in an otherwise grand, detailed fantasy that our government deemed inappropriate. However if you buy it at Amazon store, no one will be able to stop you from watching.
So, George Martin has taught me a new lexicon, “do a lost”. Every time I see how someone screwed up an otherwise a bright prospect, he “does a lost”; every time I see how our government misuses our fund, the government is “doing a lost”; every time I see a smart kid going astrayed, he “does a lost”; every time I see another young promising soccer kid gets ruined by drugs, he “does a lost”…… you get the idea.
So yes, I hate Lost, because it does a lost on me.
