Thinky-Thoughts About Freaky Finales And Unanswered Issues
So, I've been thinking a little more about the Lost finale. Or, more accurately, I haven't been thinking about the finale itself, but about my reaction to the finale, and it occurs to me that there are a few other shows I have to thank for that reaction.
And, OK, I'm not getting into anything specifically spoilery here, for Lost or anything ( Read more... )
And, OK, I'm not getting into anything specifically spoilery here, for Lost or anything ( Read more... )
Another series that was really a stuff you ending because it was canned was Twin Peaks. I loved that series and was left feeling so pissed off and betrayed. At least it wasn't all a dream like I heard St Elsewhere was: now that wouldn't have made sense, a young autistic boy creating that whole complex and adult universe in his head.
Compared to all those, Lost did a really good, if frustrating job.
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The ending of The Prisoner annoyed me so much I've never bothered to watch it again
I can totally understand that. I found it kind of crazy-making, myself, although in a way that also fascinates me, so that the "I want to poke around in this weirdness and see what I can make of it!" impulse ultimately mostly wins out over the "God damn it, this doesn't make sense!" reaction.
I read an interesting guide to The Prisoner a couple of weeks ago -- by the same folks that wrote Liberated, in fact -- and one of the points they made was that most of the time these days when people start watching The Prisoner, it's with the idea in mind that it's science fiction, or that it's a weird cult show, or that it's this surreal, metaphorical thing. I know that was my idea of it when I started, and it did make the finale easier to go along with, if not any less brain-breaking. But, they pointed out, when it first aired, people expected it to ( ... )
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Interestingly, the pilot was the only episode I watched; I watched it when it first aired. I enjoyed it, it impressed me, but I could tell that it was one of those things where you would have to watch every episode religiously in order to pick up the clues, and I decided I didn't have it in me, at that time, to invest the amount of dedication required to do so.
It doesn't surprise me at all that Twin Peaks was influential - it was the complete opposite to the "reset button" that was standard fare at that time. Without Twin Peaks, not only would we not have had Lost, but we wouldn't have ( ... )
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Twin Peaks was a great series full of interesting and weird characters, but they subverted one of them at the end and therefore made a nonsense of a lot of what went on earlier. It just didn't make sense. But when I was watching it, it was he highlight of my viewing week, rather like Lost was at times.
I mentioned B7 because it upset so many people. I mean, touted as a kids' show with a huge following among children (which was heavily encouraged), and they apparently kill everyone? I say "apparently" because they did intend to make another series at that point, and it was a good way of letting only the actors who wanted to, come back. But I've read that it caused a lot of depression and outrage just a week before Christmas during a bad recession.
What is the general reaction to the Lost ending? I know almost no one online who watches it.
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It will never, ever make sense to me how anybody could possibly regard B7 as a kids' show. The only thing I can figure is that there's this weird mentality that automatically assumes that SF = kids' stuff. Sure, B7 was cheesy as a Saturday morning cartoon sometimes, but, man, the first episode had torture, massacre, and child molestation! You'd think that would have dispelled that impression. :)
What is the general reaction to the Lost ending? I know almost no one online who watches it.
All the Lost fans on my flist seem to have really liked it, overall. Apparently there's bit a lot of negative reaction online, too, but aside from one blog post registering slightly bitter but mostly resigned disappointment at the lack of answers, I haven't seen much of it first-hand. Which kind of surprises me. But maybe it shouldn't so much. The general observation seems to be that people who were interested ( ... )
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I wasn't expecting many answers, not in two hours, but I did expect more from the not-sideways-after-all universe, like some sort of merging with the original timeline.
Fandom does lean towards character and shippiness, and the end was very shippy. I suspect that my preference for gen made it less satisfying to me, but I'm happy they all ended up happy. :-)
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It boggles me. It seriously boggles me. The British are just weird. :)
but I did expect more from the not-sideways-after-all universe, like some sort of merging with the original timeline.
I think that was most people's guess as to what would happen. It was never quite clear to me how that could possible work, I guess because the answer is that it wasn't going to, exactly. :) I'm still not entirely sure how well the whole "sideways universe" thing works for me. I still go back and forth on in, and I really think I'm going to need a rewatch to make up my mind about whether it ultimately works for me or not.
Fandom does lean towards character and shippiness, and the end was very shippy. I suspect that my preference for gen made it less satisfying to me, but I'm happy they all ended up happy. :-)The relationships I care about were mostly non-shippy ones, and it did deliver on those, too. That scene with Locke forgiving Ben is almost enough in itself to make me overlook any problems I might have. And, ( ... )
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I'm glad it wasn't all pairings but also other relationships like Kate's and Claire's. Also it seems that Shannon was Sayid's constant rather than Nadia, which didn't make sense. Why, because she was touched by the island?
I'm definitely going to watch it again with more attention and less emotion. :-)
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That did kind of bug me, but then Shannon/Sayid always bugged me.
I'm definitely going to watch it again with more attention and less emotion. :-)
I'll be curious to know how that affects your experience of it. :) Me, I think if I watched it more attention and less emotion, I'd like it less. But I do kind of wonder...
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I'll still never know why some people chose less than happy afterlives, and I'd have liked to see Sawyer meet Locke's father and let that one go. I suppose that sort of thing could be filled in with fanfic, but I'm not sure I want to write it as the characters don't need it, and I think that's what basically drives me.
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And as far as choosing less than happy afterlives go, I think that may be slightly the wrong way of looking at it. Like, that wasn't their afterlife; that was just the stage they had to go through to get to their real afterlife. The stage of working out the issues they had in their lives.
I'm actually feeling a vague urge towards fic, myself, because it seems to me there are interesting character-related things to explore, still. Hurley and Ben's life on the Island, the details of Jacob and his brother's backstory... I kind of doubt I'll write any, but I might. I'm definitely interested in reading it. But then, my fic-writing impulses have always come more from a desire to explore the characters more than to make things right for them.
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Maybe the unanswered limbo questions will make me write. I'll have to wait and let it all percolate. :-)
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Anyway, if you ever do decide you feel like writing something for it, I will read it!
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I have three Multiverse prompts I'm considering and I still haven't figured out what I'd do with any of them. With Lost (as with my recent Temeraire fic) I think I'll wait to see if an idea hits me. Forcing one doesn't seem to work.
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What are you thinking about doing for Multiverse? I signed up for a Doctor Who/HHGTG prompt. I'm still not entirely sure what I was thinking. :)
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