WARNING: Lost spoilers
Me and Mr. Lacer were way behind on Lost, we used to watch it faithfully when it was on terrestrial and then Murdoch got his hands on it (ggrrrhh) and we had to wait until we got cable (note: cable, not satellite, so we’re only paying indirectly into that man’s pocket) and then we had to wait for Sky to show repeats. Luckily Sky have been showing repeats (they had a ‘box set’ showing of season 6 on Christmas Eve), so we recorded all of them and have been watching them non-stop since Christmas and now we know what finally happened and I really did not expect to blub and/or have a lump in my throat from right at the point where Sun and Jin die to the end.
I have said before on here I think about how much I love the writing on Lost, I love how there were pretty much no loose ends (even if the episode where they explained Jacob and the Monster’s back story was a little boring) and the characterisation of the main cast was so good, I can watch plenty of ‘sad’ TV and not blub but if the characters are that believable, of course I will. I think there were very few moments (but there were some, it wasn’t flawless) when I thought “hang on, why is the character doing that?” and I think those moments stood out more because the rest of it was so good. The bits I didn’t like (and this is me being picky) is, like I say the Jacob and Monster back story episode, now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I know the back story, but to take us away from the main cast who were such well fleshed out characters to devote an episode to characters who were a little bit more 2D in comparison, seemed ‘off’ in the tone of the season as a whole. I also thought the choice of Jack as the new Jacob was a little too obvious and Benjamin Linus’ rapid switch back to Locke at the end also seemed a little off even for him. Benjamin Linus has to be one of my favourite fictional ‘bad guys’ ever, as to quote I think Neil Gaiman, ‘every bad guy should be the hero of their own story’ and you could truly believe Ben Linus thought he was doing right (most of the time). But other than those minor groans I loved the final season and I’m not quite sure why a lot of people were moaning about the ending, but then again, a show like Lost, something so many people have invested so much energy into just watching, they probably wouldn’t be satisfied with any ending. I, personally thought the ending was sweet, I loved how the characters were finding each other in the ‘reality’ off the island and lost loves were reunited before moving on, yes it was a bit sentimental, but what’s wrong with sentiment? It was also so like Ashes to Ashes (another TV series ending I love). As for the ending on the island, I thought the ending was quite ‘simple’ but in a way it was a classic good versus bad story and those often end simply, with a final confrontation, a final task performed.
For me personally I think Lost is up there with Twin Peaks (excluding the episodes after they discovered who killed Laura Palmer of course) and The X Files (before it got bad) and when you compare it to those two other iconic examples of TV I think it did such a good job at finishing where it needed to be finished and to resist being dragged on like the two aforementioned shows did. I wish I could write and create characters and plots a quarter as good, I will just have to keep working at it.
, so I could resist no more. And actually I’m quite glad that I managed to delay buying them because as much as they are incredibly lovely books, I doubt looking at them now I would have quite appreciated them in the same way as I do now as a new allotment owner, as I would have with just a few pots on my patio. The Tender books really are for the gardener cook, with lots of advice on how to grow the plants you’re cooking (although in less detail than say some of my actual allotment books) and a deep love for each fruit or vegetable that I think can only come from (in most cases) having grown it yourself. These will be books I can imagine I will go to time and time again when I have a glut of, say for example leeks and I have no idea what to do with them that is different, I will be able to just turn to a chapter full of leek recipes and problem solved.
