Lost Again

We are nearing the end of the final season of Lost and I have to admit, this season sucks.

I absolutely loved the previous five seasons and would go so far as to say they're the best TV I've ever seen. And I knew I couldn't get my hopes up about this ending because so many great stories have been tarnished by their endings. Some examples:


A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

This movie should have ended when David was trapped underwater with the Blue Fairy. The whole aliens in the future thing was a waste.


A Series of Unfortunate Events

13 books in all. The first 12 were amazing, especially because they were dark, unconventional, and mysterious. A number of the mysteries were resolved in the 12th book so I was looking forward to the finale of the series with the 13th book. Little did I realize the 12th book was essentially the denouement and could have ended the series right there. The 13th book revealed nothing new and was just an extremely long epilogue.


Seinfeld

Seinfeld changed American humor and television forever. The finale was one of the most anticipated in history and was absolutely disappointing. I'm happy Larry David redeemed the series by creating a faux reunion on the latest series of Curb Your Enthusiasm.


Heroes (Season 1)

When Heroes broke it was a huge success and that was for good reason. Great character development and a compelling story. It all pointed to the finale, and we all wondered what would happen with the prophesied explosion that would destroy New York. Well turns out all those great characters and plot points were a waste. The ending of the first season was unsatisfying to say the least.


Signs

I love the movies of M. Night Shyamalan, but I have to admit Signs train-wrecked at the end. All the suspense built up throughout the movie was so well done, but the final reveal left us all wondering, "Was that really it?!?" The aliens are allergic to water? Water???? 71% of the freaking planet is covered by water!!! It rains all over the place on this planet. Everything has water in it. How could the aliens not have figured that out before they invaded?


So before I say all the things that annoy me about this season I would like to say once again, I absolutely love Lost! Even if this season ends miserably I can't deny how amazing the first 5 seasons were, and there have been some highlights from this season that I also thoroughly enjoy.

And now that I've said that, what are the elements of Lost this season that really make it suck?


Bringing back old characters

It's nice every once in awhile to see old characters, but when each episode is filled with random characters from throughout the series, you've gone too far. This is so kitschy! I don't care about so many minor characters and personally I don't want to see dead characters again, unless they really are integral to the plot. It just feels like they're doing this for no reason other than to try and impress fans.


Alternate universes

This is connected with the previous element. TV shows and sequels have this idea that people want to see their characters acting completely opposite to how they normally would act. So now we've got Ben Linus as a timid high school teacher and Hurley as a successful entrepreneur that everyone respects. Seriously, this insults me. All these characters have been developed over 5 seasons and now it's like that is all thrown out the window and we're expected to care or be interested in what happens to them in this alternate reality. They might someone justify all this in upcoming episodes but it's going to have to be really good.


Completely altering characters

The change that has happened in some of the characters on the island has been too dramatic. Claire is back but it's not Claire anymore. It's some implausibly crazy girl that no one cares about anymore. Same with Sayid. Now he's emotionless and does whatever "Locke" says. They should have just killed these characters off, because their actions are so ridiculous now.


Mysteries revealed

I know we've all wanted these mysteries revealed since they began, but people forget the main reason why magicians don't reveal their secrets. It's because questioning and debating the mystery is much more interesting than learning the truth behind it. Some mystery reveals are cool, such as what we've learned about the smoke monster so far, but other mysteries I think should be left secret unless the reveal is mind-blowing. Finding out what the whispers are wasn't mind-blowing. It was meh. I hope the remainder of this season won't be as meh.


Strained romances

Up until this season, the love stories have connected with people. They were touching and well done. This season, however, has felt so forced. No one cares anymore about Jack and Kate and Sawyer. Hurley and Libby was a waste of an episode. Richard and his girl was unnecessary. No one cares. I do still like Desmond and Penny but that's it.


And I guess I'll wrap this up now. This season seems to me like it's taking on more than it can chew. At this point people just want it to end so there's no reason to drag things out and introduce new characters. They should have just kept it simpler. It's hard to care about Jacob and the Man in Black when we've only just met them. Maybe the remaining episodes will blow my mind and justify all I've just said. We'll see.