(1) I was talking to Cindy Jo earlier after a group dinner, and I made a revelation that I don't think I had admitted before. LOST is quite simply my favorite show. Of all time.
Of. All. Time.
I don't say that lightly. I don't use the words "of all time" just, well, all the time. Thus my reluctance to discuss my favorite movie of all time, listed on The Dave100, without a proper buildup. Thus my favorite song of all time being a song from the mid-90s, not some cool song I heard a year ago. Oh, I might say, "That's one of my favorites of all time", with the phrase "one of my favorites" encompassing anything from a few to a dozen of whatever we are talking about.
But to point out a single something as my favorite of all time? That's big.
Yet, I can say that comfortably about LOST. For years, for almost two decades even, my favorite show of all time was "The Wonder Years", discussing this in a post from almost five years ago, during the first year of Clouds in My Coffee.
(2) The Lovely Steph Leann and I spend the better part of the last 5 or 6 months going through the episodes of LOST on DVD. Though I pride myself on being there at the beginning (when NO ONE was discussing this show), I can ashamedly admit that I lost it somewhere around Season 3 (the reasons are here). I even tried to start again last year, but was unable to do so, until The Lovely Steph Leann and I just made it a commitment. Last week, we caught up, and watched the latest episode of LOST this week the actual night it came on, for the first time in years. And it was awesome. And when Jack drank from Jacob's cup of life, and the revelation was made that the island must be saved and Fake Locke must be destroyed, when it ended, The Lovely Steph Leann and I looked at each other with a "NOOOO!!!!!" look on our face... this was a cliffhanger.
We had not experienced a LOST cliffhanger in a long, long time, because we just had Seasons 1-5 on DVD, and all episodes of Season 6 on our DVR. Now... we had to wait for the Series Finale on Sunday night.
(3) And I will mourn the loss of LOST, but I'm glad its ending. I am relieved that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the producers/creators, were given an end date a few years back, and were able to wrap up their story in a finite amount of time. I am mad at Fake Locke, I am happy the Desmond is back, and I am sadden by the loss of Jin and Sun, and Sayid Jarrah.
(4)
(5) I've heard it said that there will never be another show like LOST. I'm not sure I fully agree with that... in the mid-80s, it was said that "The sitcom was dead". Not long after, we were treated to "The Cosby Show", the prime years of "Cheers", "Seinfeld" and eventually "Friends". The procureal drama was also dead by the early 2000s, which gave us "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", "The West Wing", "Alias" and stellar years of "Law and Order"... and of course, LOST.
So to say that there will never be another show like LOST is misleading. After LOST premiered, what happened was what usually happens when a hit show premieres--numerous similar shows will pop up around it. Anyone remember "Coupling" and "Boston Common" during the run of "Friends"? Or how about "Threat Matrix" when "CSI" came on? Yeah, me neither.
And with LOST, you had "Surface", "Threshold", "Invasion" and others that wanted the same type audience and showed the same type story, one that you had to watch every week to keep up with. All fizzled before the season was up. People had their LOST, and one show to watch, absorb and remember was enough. Perhaps their will be another show like LOST, one that relies on its audiences keeping up with the story. With the advent of TV-on-DVD, NetFlix, iTunes, Hulu, the interweb's technology and instant viewing, there's no reason someone can't catch up and keep up with a show... its all about the commitment.
That being said, there will never be another LOST. Survivor meets Cast Away meets The Real World meets The X-Files makes for an incredible adventure, one that we are in love with, one that we follow to the very end, one that we get angry with (didja really have to kill Libby, just when Hurley was happy?), one that we almost gave up on (Seriously? Did we care how Jack got his tattoos via Bai Ling?) but one that we kept coming back to for good reason ("Penny?" "Desmond?" "I love you!").
It's with this thought in mind that I tip my hat to the writers of LOST, for giving me six wonderful, frustrating, glorious, maddening, amazing, confusing, patience testing, inventive, creative, aimless, purposeful years of television.
My Favorite LOST Characters, in No Particular Order:
(6) Sayid Jarrah... a torturer by trade, yet you could tell that the time on the island helped him forgive himself for all the things he'd done
(7) Daniel Faraday... twitchy as Elmo Blatch, he was the one who told all of us how this time travel stuff worked. He seemed to answer (some) of the questions we were all trying to figure out the moment everything flash-forwarded
(8) Hugo "Hurley" Reyes... Everyone loves Hugo
(9) Jin Kwon... All he ever wanted was to love and protect his wife. Sometimes he took the wrong way around (see Season One), but in the end, at the very end, he was there for her.
(10) Juliet Burke... really only because I thought she was the hottest thing on the entire show's run
(11) Desmond Hume... another transformation within the show, he went from confused, almost mental guy who's lot in life is to push a button and miss his woman to Brothah.
(12) The Lovely Steph Leann says some of her favorites are, "Hurley... Sawyer... Jack and Kate (better that Sawyer and Kate)... Desmond." She goes on to say that she likes how Jack is always trying to fix things, and she wonders how Sawyer would have been different if his parents hadn't died like they did.
Some of My Favorite LOST Moments
(13) From the Very Beginning... The moment Jack opens his eyes and sits up, looks around and sees Vincent running by him. He stands, walks out of the woods and the camera pans, sound growing louder to suddenly see a wrecked airplane sitting on the shore, people screaming all around, things blowing up everywhere, metal and shrapnel flying through the air, and that guy who gets sucked into the engine making the whole thing explode. It's on.
(15) "The Constant"... the whole episode kinda put things in perspective. Sort of. When Desmond finally gets through to Penny, its unbelievably awesome.
(16) Charlie's Redemption... Another death, at the end of Season Three. Charlie Pace, another character I just loved, started as a heroin addict and ending as a heroic martyr.
(17) Hurley Builds a Golf Course... right after Jack and Sayid torture Sawyer, Hurley goes and builds a golf course. And it was a perfect bit of comic relief amidst all the drama and building confusion
(18) Sayid vs Keamy... Big Keamy was one of the coolest cats on the show, but when he and Sayid finally went toe to toe in a fist fight, it was darn near awesome. The rolled, they tumbled and they kicked and punched for what seemed like five minutes before Sayid finally got the win... but it was awesome.
(19) Charlie and Claire Share Peanut Butter... Well, it was invisible, but still... Charlie, still getting close to Claire, knows she wants some PB more than anything. So after a fruitless search, he gets an empty jar, scoops his fingers inside, and licks off invisible peanut butter off of his fingers. Then he offers it to Claire, who hesitates at first... but then gives in, hungry and charmed at the same time.
(20) Hurley Takes Down Sawyer... After so many "fat jokes" at Hurley's expense, he snaps. He runs over and tackles Sawyer through his tent, pounding him in the sand until he's pulled off. He also gets the better of Sawyer in later seasons, when he hustles him in a game of ping pong for medical supplies and the agreement to not use any nicknames for a week
(21) Miles and Hurley Discuss Time Travel... One of the reasons The Lovely Steph Leann likes Hurley so much is "He's us". And this was never more true than the conversation between Miles and Hurley, as Miles tried in vain to explain what was going on with the time shifting, the time travel and the rules that can and cannot be broken. Hurley asked the questions we were asking, as we kept wanting Miles to dumb it down for all of us.
(23) Sawyer Talks to Jack's Dad... After the entire first season puts Jack and Sawyer at odds, Sawyer is set to leave with Michael, Walt and Jin on the boat to find rescue. They say a quick goodbye, but Sawyer turns to Jack and tells him of a conversation he'd had in Australia. With man who Jack knew... because it was Jack's father.
(24) The Writing on the Wall... The wall comes down on Locke, trapping him under the door. Locke screams for help, and then... the lights go out. When the emergency lights come on. there's a huge map on the wall, a Dharma map with notes and stations and other fun things. If we didn't know there was secrets on the island by then, we certainly did now.
(25) Mr. Eko Stares Down Smokey... When Smokey zips through the jungle and runs across John Locke, Locke stands motionless, but is petrified, later describing it as "I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful." When Smokey runs into Eko, the fake priest seeking repentance stands strong, looking more bewildered and amazed than anything else. That is what you call a bad-a**.
(26)
Things I'll Remember About LOST:
(27-39) Oceanic Flight 815... Ajira Flight 316... "DUDE!"... "You got some Arzt on you"... The jar of invisible peanut butter... "Freckles"... The numbers... Dharma... Hanso Foundation... The caves... flashbacks... flash-forwards... flash... sideways??...
(40) KATE: Are you serious?
SAWYER: Baby, I am tied to a tree in the jungle of mystery. I just got tortured by a damn spinal surgeon and a genuine Iraqi. Of course I’m serious.
(41-52)The Flame Station... the Swan Station... the Hydra Station... the Temptest Station... the Lamppost Station... the Orchid Station... Penny... "Not Penny's Boat"... the hatch... Mr. Cluck's Chicken... Smokey... the sound Smokey makes before he arrives...
(53) "A 12 year old Ben Linus just brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I'm doing?"
(54-73) Henry Gale... Cassidy... Clementine... Turnip Head... Ethan Rom... Santa Rosa Mental Institution... that glowing cave... that big foot statue... Dogen & Lennon... The Others... The Tailies... The Freighter... enter the numbers... Expose!, starring Billy Dee Williams... Richard Alpert's agelessness... Richard Alpert's guyliner... Some Like it Hoth... press the button... DriveShaft... "You All Everybody"...
(74) Jeff Fahey has a career again! No more "Lawnmower Man" sequels for you... at least, not yet...
(75) RIP Juliet... Charlie... Shannon, Boone, Danielle, Alex, Karl, Sayid, Jin, Sun, Widmore, Frogert, Ana Lucia, Eko, Libby, Lapidus, Charlotte, Daniel, Michael, Nikki, Paolo, The Real Locke...
(76)
(77-87) The Oceanic 6... "Bad Twin"... "Watership Down"... Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite being Ben's dad!... I Heart My Shih-Tzu... "if anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant"... Dharma ranch dressing... "You and me ain't done, Zeke"... bear cages... getting it on in those bear cages... Fish Biscuits..
(88) "Face it dude... Ewoks suck"
(89-106) Greg Grunberg getting snatched out of the cockpit in a tree... Geronimo Jackson... The Man in Black... Mr. Eko's Jesus stick... Bernard to Eko: "I think I liked you better when you were just hitting people with your stick"... Jughead... Fake Locke... white rock... black rock... Black Rock... polar bears... backgammon... Locke's orange-eating smile... "Good Vibrations" in the Looking Glass... Vincent the Eternally Surviving Lab... the Lighthouse... Locke's knives... Finding out Bernard was white!
and, of course...
(107) SHANNON: I’m alone now. On the island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they’re … they’re dead. It killed them. It killed them all.
BOONE: That was good.
SAYID: Sixteen years.
SAWYER: What?
SAYID: Sixteen years. And five months. That’s the count.
BOONE: What the hell are you talking about?
SAYID: The iterations. It’s a distress call. A plea for help. A mayday. If the count is right … It’s been playing over … and over … for sixteen years.
BOONE: Someone else? Was stranded here?
KATE: Maybe they came for them.
SAWYER: If someone came, why is it still playing?
CHARLIE: Guys…where are we?
Oh yeah... what better way to end this post than to shout:
(108) BAD ROBOT!!
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