LOST (Spoiler Free)

Didn't want to go into the other thread for fear of spoilers.
I have never watched an episode of Lost.
Is it worth watching? Or should I not waste my time? Was the ending better than BSGs crappy one?

No spoilers please.

I haven't seen it myself, but most of my friends - avid TV watchers, all - got tired of it pretty quickly.

1st season was awesome. After that it was up and down in quality.

I was rabidly into the first season. After the second season I gave up. I may have watched an episode or two of the third, then just bailed.

It started out awesome, then it just became Gilligan's Island crossed with X-Files. Well, X-Files sort of held to a narrative sometimes...

The people that love it will tell you they're really attached to the characters. I thought the characters were generally idiots who did horror-movie style dumb shit to keep the show rolling along.

The first season was epic. As Dan said, and I agree, it bounced up and down after that. The finale was ok.

If I recall correctly, seasons two and four were the low points, with season four nearly losing me for good. Season 5 was very good and season 6 was good.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Was the ending better than BSGs crappy one?

No.

I haven't watched the final season yet, but I've loved the show from the first episode. It mixes some great storytelling, good characters, solid sci-fi elements and touching moments.

I quit watching BSG after Season 2, but Lost is the better show hands down.

Watched the first four episodes, severely disappointed. Normally I wouldn't let 4 episodes be enough to judge a show, but supposedly that fourth episode is one of the best of the series, and supposedly the first season is the best. The writing sucked, it was a bunch of character sketches about a bunch of cliche characters (where the episodes just unknowingly added to the cliche by basically repeatedly doing "she might seem like a cliche hooker...but there's a twist: she's got a HEART OF GOLD!"). I felt like the show was constantly patronizing: points were repeated and underlined multiple times to MAKE SURE YOU GET IT.

Some of the flaws were actually similar to BSG's flaws, I felt, except that BSG was better and I actually wanted to watch it for more than 4 episodes. Watching THE WIRE (third season) now and it's fucking amazing and makes me glad I don't waste my time with garbage like LOST.

dragonstout wrote:

Watching THE WIRE (third season) now and it's fucking amazing and makes me glad I don't waste my time with garbage like LOST.

I haven't seen Lost, and have no opinion on it, but anyone who hasn't seen The Wire yet should make that their first priority, television-wise.

Well, I'd put SOPRANOS far above it myself, but yeah, it's pretty great.

I just remembered another thing about those LOST episodes I saw: the third episode ended, no kidding, with a slo-mo montage to soft acoustic guitar music of the people on the island just gettin' along. Awwwww.

I don't watch TV but I read Lord of the Flies while listening to Wire, so I hope that counts.

The first season is okay, early second season is boring, then it picks up speed only slowing down early third season. The rest of the third, fourth, and fifth seasons are gold. The last season is more like the first season just not as great as the 3,4,5th. I thought the ending was on par with BSG's in some ways, but also felt everything I wanted answered was.

Juniper wrote:

dragonstout wrote:

Watching THE WIRE (third season) now and it's fucking amazing and makes me glad I don't waste my time with garbage like LOST.

I haven't seen Lost, and have no opinion on it, but anyone who hasn't seen The Wire yet should make that their first priority, television-wise.

I'm nearly finished with the first season of The Wire, and it might just be the best television shown that I've ever watched. I've generally been a fan of police procedural shows, and I used to think that Homicide was the best ever, though it faltered in the later seasons. Then I saw The Wire, and that took it to a new level.

The first three seasons are much slower, though still very good. The low point is the first six or so episodes of season 3 (serious Losties will agree with me). At that point, it looks like the series has run out of gas. It really picks up after that, particularly in the last 5-6 episodes of season 3. Seasons 4 and 5 are pretty much relentless, and that represents the show at its best, I'd say. Season 6 was also very good, but it had a teensy bit more wheel-spinning, if you ask me. It's hard to say until I've seen them on DVD.

The ending was sort of like BSG's in the sense that it wraps up character arcs more than plot ones. It didn't feel as rushed to me though, which is a plus. Also, it didn't end with the lame "be nice to robots" moral. Still, if you didn't like the more spiritual moments of BSG, the last season of Lost (and the finale) would probably drive you crazy.

For my money, Lost was much better as pure entertainment than BSG was. It never tackled major themes (well, not political ones anyway) in the same way, but it did give us more sympathetic characters, and it was generally a more suspenseful series. Think of it as a comic book, and it suddenly becomes forgivable that it is essentially an entire TV show of cliffhangers.

I loved the show, it's one of my favorites. It wasn't perfect, but I left much more satisfied than I ever expected I would when I started watching it.

Ups and downs, but I'm really happy I watched it.