Lost Series Finale

I'm sorry... was that Lost or Battlestar Galactica I was watching?

*******SPOILER ALERT******

If you haven't watched the entire series of LOST and intend to, you're not going to want to read this.

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<em>Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
MacBeth Act 5 Scene 5
</em>

I know I'm a little behind the times here but I just watched the final episode of LOST.  Holy Christian metaphor, batman.  Could the writers have laid that on any thicker?

I'm not saying that that is necessarily a bad thing.  I will say that it did not entirely work for me.  Why?  Mainly because it took me out of the story.  And I believe that when you're telling a story, unless you're doing it deliberately and are really, really smart about it, it's usually a mistake to take your audience out of the story.  As soon as I realized that the final episode was going to hammer the Christian metaphor into the ground I was no longer completely absorbed in the story.  Instead I was watching for further evidence that that was what they were doing.  And sure enough, churches, wounds in the side, "I believe in you"s, religious statuary, it just kept on coming.      To the point of inducing groans.

Apparently the writers threw references to a few other religions in there too, but if so they were too subtle for this viewer.

It's too bad.  Up until they went over the top with the religion they pretty much had me.  When Charlie and Claire recognized one another I was willing to forgive every other flaw and plothole in the entire story.

Of course, it's easy for me to sit back and criticize, I didn't have to write the damned thing.  I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to make a story like that up as they were going along and have it remain consistent.  And really, for me, there is much more to praise than to criticize.  They did keep me hooked for the entire six seasons, and during the final season I pretty much couldn't wait to watch the next episode.

It's just that it came so close I wish they could have nailed it.  It is possible to nail it.  Both seasons of Rome nailed it.  Still, they came close enough to have left me with a significant feeling of angst in the hours since watching the last episode.  The idea of being reunited with someone from whom you've long been tragically separated -- someone who feels the same way as you do -- what powerful feelings that evokes.  Charlie and Claire, Kate and Jack, Sawyer and what's her name (sorry), even Hurley and Charlie.

I did learn a thing or two from the series.  That tension trumps plausibility.  So do emotion and effective character development.

And that those elements combined can compensate for (if not completely make up for) heavy-handed metaphor.

LOST was a tale told not by idiots but by talented, intellectually shallow writers.  Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, it was, curiously, entertaining just the same.