NOTE: There are NO Spoilers in this post, its safe to read.
As much as we fans of Lost cannot seem to shut up about it, and can generally agree that what we are watching is something special and ambitious that pushes the envelope of both science fiction and suspense, most of us are well aware of the show’s flaws, and bitch about them almost as much as we heap praise. Some people watch the show for the characters and the character development, while others, like myself, are really there for the island mythology and the mechanics of the show’s storytelling. Lost is a behemoth of a show, with one of the largest casts and one of the most convoluted narratives ever attempted on broadcast television. With so many balls being juggled it is no wonder the show trips up now and then, and it is almost miraculous that it has stayed this relatively coherent considering that Lostpedia counts over a hundred different mysteries posed by the show during its five season run. The following is a gripe list, and while it is mostly directed towards Lost, the observations are often general enough to apply to similar shows (i.e., Battlestar Galactica, for how great a show it is, still resorts to some of the same tropes). I am sure I have left something out so please add in the comment thread if you see an omission, or if you plain disagree with my choices.
Please remember to add spoiler warnings to your comments when needed. Nothing in my list is spoilerific.
1. Do not inventory the living characters on the front of dvd cases
2. Do not balk at killing someone when an episode ends with character being shot in chest
3. If you are going to have so many damn characters kill some off regularly
4. Do not stagger mythology episodes amongst character driven episodes, the show should flow without interruption
5. No more self-contained episodes that transgress the logic of the bigger story or the behavior of characters thus far established
6. Never have a character who is suspicious of a character turn their back mid-conversation
7. While some degree of miscommunication is necessary to keep intrigue alive, suppose that characters gossip outside of the mandates of plot
8. No guest star names in opening credits
9. Do not wait until last second to defuse detonation
10. Dead is dead (see #2)
11. Depict appropriate amount of shock and disbelief when characters exposed to reality-altering scenarios
12. While the Giacchino score is cool and all, sometimes silence is golden
13. Rather than resort to filler episodes, linger longer on reactions (not in a soap opera way but as to let the characters breathe)
14. Despite what most everyone else thinks, the beginning of season 3 is exactly the right balance of character and mythology. Keep to that.
15. Do not create mysteries without an organic exit strategy that goes beyond staggered out reveals (as much work put into thinking up the
mysteries, twice as much effort must be made to think of how to cover your tracks at every point of the storytelling)
16. Veil yourself in familiar myths but use only as a tactic to disarm audience
17. Resist archetypes when fleshing out character, we should not be able to anticipate responses so mechanically
18. More Jack Beard though.
19. No more red shirts, the characters you have need to be characters with stakes, all else should be scenery
20. Moratorium on starting episodes with a future event and the rest of episode working from past forward to that date
Comment by Andrew James — April 30, 2009
Amen on #2,3, and 10. It’s okay for people to die and not come back sometimes. Really. I promise. cc that to every sci-fi/fantasy type show in existence.
Comment by Jandy Stone — April 30, 2009
Comment by rot — April 30, 2009
A lot of you seem to think LOST is a frequent offender of not allowing characteers to stay dead. I don’t agree. There’s only a handful of times they’ve transgressed the curtain of death, and I think it’s been done well, the only exception I can think of is Jeremy Bentham. Although in fairness the explaination for that has yet to come, maybe it’ll be awesome.
Mike thinks they “balked” earlier this season, but that’s because he’s seriously misread the show.
Comment by Rusty James — April 30, 2009
Which were the two episodes?
Comment by Rusty James — April 30, 2009
and now having watched the Variable episode of Lost, it transgresses my #5 as well, in that Kate and Jack are not acting remotely as they should be considering their back stories. Without getting into spoilers here, why on Earth would they want to help Faraday, considering what he is proposing?
Comment by rot — May 1, 2009
I really dislike, and its not just Lost, its BSG, its virtually every similar show, where because an episode is on a particular character, all other characters are divorced from their complexity and behave like ragdolls to the whim of the immediate story arc… I think it is very challenging to tell a story as exposition-laden as Lost just as straight plot points but the extra difficulty is making it jive naturalisticaly with character behaviors and not feel shoehorned.
The Variable, contrary to what Ross says, is a bad episode, a poorly structured and executed episode that just wants to give you the bullet points you need to know, while paying only lipservice to character, and character logic.
Comment by rot — May 1, 2009
Comment by mikerot — May 2, 2009
Comment by mikerot — May 2, 2009
Comment by Andrew_James — May 2, 2009
Comment by mikerot — May 3, 2009
21) Moratorium on fat suits.
Comment by rot — May 5, 2009
Comment by Rusty James — May 5, 2009
and no Eye of the Tiger montage to show him getting fit.
Comment by rot — May 5, 2009
absolutely necessary? I don’t know, I thought it was a good way to visualize the deterioration of the fleet. And also the passage of time. Lee looked like shit, which was awesome.
Maybe it’s my different perspective from having seen the final seasons. The problem with BSG is not too many(1) fat suits.
Also, the episode that you complained about that begins with Lee floating in space… isn’t that the conclussion of the Admr. Kane storyline? That’s a great episode.
If you’ve seen the fat suit that means your into season 3. How far are you?
Comment by Rusty James — May 5, 2009
Comment by mikerot — May 5, 2009
Comment by Rusty James — May 5, 2009
Comment by mike rot — May 5, 2009
Comment by Rusty_James — May 5, 2009
Comment by mike rot — May 5, 2009
In my opinion it's season 4 that is terrible. And then there's season which will come a package called season 4.5 but was in fact shown on television a year after season 4 and is therefore a different season regardless of what everyone else says.
Season 5 is better than 4 but continues to suffer from some of the season 4 set backs.
Comment by Rusty_James — May 5, 2009
Comment by mike rot — May 6, 2009