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If there was any doubt, it's clear to me now that after watching the third-season finale of Lost, there's no better show on TV. Lost has even surpassed my former favorite, 24, the real-time thriller that I've been hooked on since Day One. But there's a new king in the jungle.
I'm not a TV guru, but I'd be hard-pressed to find another show that successfully blends the amount of layers that Lost does. Themes of fate and redemption along with literary and philosophic references are woven with elements of mystery, drama, humor, adventure, suspense, romance, and a mythology as deep as the Pacific Ocean. Lost has it all.
But most of all, Lost has people. People from all walks of life working together to survive. People whose names you remember. People who all have a past. And through the use of flashbacks, we not only witness the skeletons in their closets, but we see how these people are all connected to each other indirectly, in some supernatural way.
In a move as unprecedented as the show itself, ABC recently announced that Lost will conclude after its sixth season in 2010. As an all-around great call, it's refreshing to know that there's one network show out there whose story is so good that its executive producers won't compromise it by dragging it out longer than it should. And after watching the landmark Season 3 finale with an end in sight, it's not hard to foresee the epic buildup that will result in the final seasons, or get the sense that Lost could go down as the best TV drama of all time.
STOP READING NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LOST (SPOILERS AHEAD).
Season 3 Finale
Onto the two-part Season 3 finale, "Through The Looking Glass," which was everything a season finale should be. Between the firefight on the beach, Locke's resurrection, Hurley's heroics, the showdown at the Radio Tower, the poignant, poetic death of Charlie, and of course the game-changing flash forward, it was undoubtedly some of Lost's finest hours.
But more than anything, it was another outstanding performance from Matthew Fox as Dr. Jack Shephard, one well deserving of an Emmy nomination for the sheer range of acting. There was Jack's sweet profession of love for Kate, his unleashing of rage on Ben (with bleeding knuckles to show for it), and his stubborn refusal to hand over the satellite phone, all in the name of sacrificing a few for the many. And finally, after leading the Losties to the heretofore-seen Radio Tower and initiating a long-awaited rescue, Jack finally experienced a joyous moment of relief and triumph. For a character who grew to not be trusted by his people, and one often maligned by fans for his pomposity and arrogance, Jack became our likable leader again.
However, in what proved to be a flash-forward throughout the finale, we ultimately saw the repercussions of Jack's rescue efforts in a dark, post-island future. Broken, fully bearded, and depressed, Jack becomes a painkiller-popping shell of his former self on the edge of suicide. Why? Because something went wrong on the island in his exit from it. Something so wrong that the former Man of Science routinely flies every Friday night and prays that his plane once again crashes on the island. Something so wrong that the once-esteemed doctor who previously committed himself to saving lives admits to not caring about anyone on board who would die in his desperately insane attempt to return to the island. "We weren't supposed to leave," he insists to Kate in the future at LAX. In his weak, haunted state, he pleads "We have to go back!" as an upset Kate drives away. Then, once again, the man who "walks amongst us, but is not one of us" is alone as a plane flies overhead and the screen goes dark.
Chilling, unsettling, and mind-racing, the best show on TV couldn't have ended its season any better.
June 7 2007, 22:39:28 UTC 4 years ago
I really like this show a lot. It's one of those that I avoided because I just never got into it, and it obviously seemed like the kind of show you couldn't just start watching in the middle.
Then I was sick one weekend and downloaded the first season. I was hooked. As soon as I'm able to fix my computer, I'm going to download the rest of the most recent season and give it a whirl.
I kind of like watching this kind of show in big chunks (I do the same with Heroes). It's less frustrating, plus it's great to spend a rainy saturday inside watching five straight hours of good TV. The only downside is that sometimes you accidentally overhear a spoiler. I was so mad when people at work were discussing Lost and asked if I had seen the latest episode because they didn't want to ruin it for me. I said "no" but they went right into talking about how one of the main characters died. Dammit!