This is How You Wrap a Series, People
Mar. 25th, 2010 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfold_xI am almost incoherent in my love for the latest season of Lost. Seeing the face of my favorite character worn by the big bad is fairly wigsome, but other than that, it's been complete awesomesauce. Lindelof, Cruse, and their team are walking a fine line, managing to genuinely answer questions, without answering everything (and so keeping it interesting), and managing to make it all hang together in a coherent whole. The characters we love have grown, but the growth is natural and not merely to service a plot or entertain bored writers (like, say, angelic Starbuck, or Angel S5 magic mindwipe).
Though I doubt everything was planned from the beginning, they are paying meticulous attention to continuity (essential when you're asking folks to suspend as much disbelief as a fantasy/scifi series typically does), rewarding long-time fans with resolution to even comparatively trivial plot threads, while moving toward a larger resolution that is a natural outgrowth of the story thus far. Characters have authentic, realistic, often deeply affecting motivations, that play directly into the larger plot and themes. (I about lept from the couch in joy when Jacob explained the nature of the island as a sort of testing ground for different theories of human nature. This has been implicit through the series--most strongly in the themes of redemption and sacrifice, though also though small but obvious things like naming major characters after philosophers--but it was wonderful to have the answer plainly revealed.) And besides that, it's just excellent, well-acted drama, from a cast that was mostly selected because of their skill rather than their surgical enhancements.
I'm certain setting a specific time limit on the show, then taking months to write a discrete set of focused arcs was central to achieving the quality of the final season. The Lost team should send Ronald D. Moore, Russ Davies, Chris Carter, et al. an instruction manual.
Though I doubt everything was planned from the beginning, they are paying meticulous attention to continuity (essential when you're asking folks to suspend as much disbelief as a fantasy/scifi series typically does), rewarding long-time fans with resolution to even comparatively trivial plot threads, while moving toward a larger resolution that is a natural outgrowth of the story thus far. Characters have authentic, realistic, often deeply affecting motivations, that play directly into the larger plot and themes. (I about lept from the couch in joy when Jacob explained the nature of the island as a sort of testing ground for different theories of human nature. This has been implicit through the series--most strongly in the themes of redemption and sacrifice, though also though small but obvious things like naming major characters after philosophers--but it was wonderful to have the answer plainly revealed.) And besides that, it's just excellent, well-acted drama, from a cast that was mostly selected because of their skill rather than their surgical enhancements.
I'm certain setting a specific time limit on the show, then taking months to write a discrete set of focused arcs was central to achieving the quality of the final season. The Lost team should send Ronald D. Moore, Russ Davies, Chris Carter, et al. an instruction manual.
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Date: 2010-03-25 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-25 11:35 pm (UTC)I wandered a way from lost in the second and third seasons, but by the end of the third they had really righted their course and it was back to being an interesting show. The flashback season really rocked, and since then I've been loving it. BTW, I'm ecstatic that Claire is back. I assumed she was dead.