Was Season 6 really that bad?

tok9

I'm just asking the question as a fan who enjoyed the last season when it aired and still hold the same opinon now.

I remember thinking at the time that people wouldn't be as disappointed if they watched the boxset as opposed to each week. Of course I am biased though.

Has anyone changed there opinion on the season since?

blue_steel

Apart from one or two episodes I thought Season 6 was lousy at the time and I haven't changed my mind. I've not re-watched it (making it the only season I haven't seen dozens of time - I just can't do it).

I find it interesting that with the benefit of time most commentators are agreeing S6 was a disappointment. Games of Thrones writer George RR Martin has actually coined the phrase "pulling a Lost" to describe screwing up the end of a story. It will be a sad epitaph to a great show if it goes down in TV history alongside Fonzie "jumping the shark".

What still angers me is that the writers did all the hard work; they spent five years setting up what should have been something amazing. And then blew it.

Dman001

At the time I really enjoyed Season 6. But looking back on it now, it was obvious that the writers had put themselves in a position where they didn't know how to answer some of the biggest questions on the show (like the whispers) so presented us with a very unimaginative, simple answer, or no answer at all in some cases. But I still enjoyed every minute of the show, and I thought the final scene of the final episode was just magnificent. I don't care what people say about the finale, I thought it was brilliant. Unfortunately re-watching the show won't have the same effect on me as it did when I first watched each episode. After watching an episode, you just wanted more.

Dempsey

blue_steel wrote: »

Apart from one or two episodes I thought Season 6 was lousy at the time and I haven't changed my mind. I've not re-watched it (making it the only season I haven't seen dozens of time - I just can't do it).

I find it interesting that with the benefit of time most commentators are agreeing S6 was a disappointment. Games of Thrones writer George RR Martin has actually coined the phrase "pulling a Lost" to describe screwing up the end of a story. It will be a sad epitaph to a great show if it goes down in TV history alongside Fonzie "jumping the shark".

What still angers me is that the writers did all the hard work; they spent five years setting up what should have been something amazing. And then blew it.

Thats exactly how it should be treated. The writers bullshítted the audience in one of the cleverest ways ever for 5 seasons, season 6 showed the scale of the bull****. Still though, through its success and failures it has definitely set the benchmark

Frank Black

There were some ok episodes in Season 6 and if they hadn't fecked up the ending it probably wouldn't seem so bad.
I can't imagine watching Season 6 again though knowing that the whole Flash Sideways thing is ultimately meaningless because they're all dead anyway.

uncleoswald

I wouldn't blame it all on Season 6. Economics dictated that the show went on too long and made it difficult to tie it all together. It was an awful lot to ask of the relatively inexperienced Lindelof, but I still think he could have done a better job. I believe if Abrams had stayed involved more to provide a steady hand it might have been different.

tok9 wrote: »

I remember thinking at the time that people wouldn't be as disappointed if they watched the boxset as opposed to each week. Of course I am biased

But the problem for me is the end completely killed any interested in watching Lost again. Since I didn't buy into the magic cave etc... it all seems so meaningless now.

charlieharper

For me Lost has too many characters & too many "Time Travels" therefore making it impossible to explain every single character & a proper ending in 6 seasons. I did enjoy the last season though for the sheer fact that they disguised the ending really really well to be fair. Unfortunately nobody wanted Jack to mutter "we're dead too" as that was the most obvious ending & far too many plotholes were left.

Dempsey

charlieharper wrote: »

For me Lost has too many characters & too many "Time Travels" therefore making it impossible to explain every single character & a proper ending in 6 seasons. I did enjoy the last season though for the sheer fact that they disguised the ending really really well to be fair. Unfortunately nobody wanted Jack to mutter "we're dead too" as that was the most obvious ending & far too many plotholes were left.

The characters and their back stories were interesting imo, probably only second to the science fiction/mysteries of the island but the time travel and everything since the crash gets debunked in final episode in season 6 because they were dead the whole time. Its right up there with nuke the fridge, jump the shark and it was a dream all along.

There were constant theories after the pilot that it was all purgatory and I believe that they were right but the writers wanted to use another plausible but unlikely reason to explain everything just so they could say that backup the initial bullshít of saying that it wasnt purgatory.

McLoughlin

Dempsey wrote: »

The characters and their back stories were interesting imo, probably only second to the science fiction/mysteries of the island but the time travel and everything since the crash gets debunked in final episode in season 6 because they were dead the whole time. Its right up there with nuke the fridge, jump the shark and it was a dream all along.

There were constant theories after the pilot that it was all purgatory and I believe that they were right but the writers wanted to use another plausible but unlikely reason to explain everything just so they could say that backup the initial bullshít of saying that it wasnt purgatory.

They weren't dead the whole time everything that happened to them on the island actually happened it amazes me that still a year later people still don't get the ending.

Dempsey

McLoughlin wrote: »

They weren't dead the whole time everything that happened to them on the island actually happened it amazes me that still a year later people still don't get the ending.

Do you believe that was how they originally intended the outcome?

McLoughlin

Dempsey wrote: »

Do you believe that was how they originally intended the outcome?

No i think they had a vague idea of what the wanted to do but over the years the kept adding things till they got to a point where there could have no resolution and threw the last year together in the hopes that it would work.

Dempsey

McLoughlin wrote: »

No i think they had a vague idea of what the wanted to do but over the years the kept adding things till they got to a point where there could have no resolution and threw the last year together in the hopes that it would work.

I'd say it was more than a vague idea but yes as alot of fans will say they introduced things without ever giving them proper thought and when the demand was on them for answers in season 6, their lack of imagination and conviction about those answers shone through, imo.

Season 6 really ruined the show for me and its 'rewatchability' completely.

Like what was the point of Dogen again?

Mr.Nice Guy

Season 6 was awful garbage that still leaves a bitter taste.

jimbob_jones

While I enjoyed the sixth season, I feel that after announcing that the show would end at the end of the sixth season the writers had painted themselves into a corner and left themselves with an awful lot to answer in such a short space of time. I am sure that the writers strike during the 4th season didn't help.

I don't subscribe to the belief that the 6th Season retrospectively ruined the entire series.

I enjoyed the show as a whole and was happy with the ending, I just hope that ABC/Disney don't try to turn this into a cash cow and milk it like so many franchises before it.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

about six episodes from the finale, i was really sick of lost.. i felt let down by the last season and had very little interest in where the show was going to take me in the finale.

So I stuck on season 1 again, and was reminded of how excellent the show was in its prime. In between two episodes of season six I rewatched seasons 1-5 and was once again an ultimate lost fanboy, ready to forgive the silliness of season 6 so far and ready to accept that the writers ultimately knew what they were doing.

two weeks later after two more episodes of season six I was back where I started, dissapointed and vaguely apathetic.

It doesn't take away from the first five seasons, but it does take away from the show as a whole and while my distaste for the way they ended it has weakened slightly since it aired I don't know if I'll ever bring myself to sit through season six again. On the plus side, the first five seasons are so strong that they can be enjoyed in and of themselves and the knowledge of the coming catastrophe doesn't take away from them.

Dman001

I would agree that they had some sort of vague idea of where they wanted to go with the finale. But I think a lot of the mysteries were introduced which the writers never intended to answer, but introduced them to add mystery to the show and to the island. Things like the whispers and the numbers became just few of the biggest mysteries, and people demanded an answer to them so they had to give some sort of explaination. I may be alone here, but I didn't really care if they did explain these small things, I was much more interested in what the island itself was, and answers on Jacob, MIB, Richard and Christian.

Cyndaquil

I've always liked season 6. This is an argument that has been done to death I know, but I honestly think some fans expected to much. For me the finale was satisfying. People blame the finale for not giving answers, but I feel some of these answers should have been given elsewhere, in earlier episodes. I mean, you could hardly have, in the middle of the whole final march to MIB thing, Hurley suddenly ask Ben "By the way, what was the deal with those pallet drops three years ago?", "what was Dharma station 1?", etc... It would have felt shoe-horned.

As a whole, I found the flash-sideways added a new bit of intrigue that the show needed. I wasn't a fan of the whole time-travel thing in season 5 and was sceptical at first but grew to like the Flash-sideways. The main storylines were engaging, maybe not exactly a tour de force but there was little if any stalling/filler. I enjoyed what flashbacks we got, Alpert's episode being a compelling story in itself. Not everyone was happy with the Jacob/MIB flashback episode and while it surprised me at first ultimately I was content with what was relvealed. I found that the ongoing MIB storyline engaging too, there was that feeling of suspense and possible danger that the show hadn't had in a long time; no one was safe; I actually found Sun & Jin's death had more of an emotional ressonance to it than Charlie's, for this time we didn't see it coming.

Anyway, that's just my take on it. I have rewatched some episodes on the DVD and despite knowing what the flashsideways are, it's still interesting to watch, you pick up on/read into things you wouldn't have first time.

SirDelboy18

Loved Season 6. I thought that it concluded the story in a great fashion.

Mr. Incognito

Yes,

It drained the mystery and excitement out of every season that went before where you suspended your disbelief and had faith in the writers.

Then you realised they were dropping in random crap, most of it for the sake of it.

It's like scoring a ladyboy I imagine, at the time it may have been fun but when you see that big hairy dick you feel cheap and disgusted that were were played and used.

uncleoswald

If anything Season 6 looks worse now.

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

It's like scoring a ladyboy I imagine, at the time it may have been fun but when you see that big hairy dick you feel cheap and disgusted that were were played and used.

It's ok, this is a safe place, you can share those painful memories here

I'd compare season 6 to watching a really sh*t magician. You know a really good magician is distracting you with one hand while they preform a slight of hand with the other, but you still can't spot it because they are so good. In fairness it's something that Lost pulled off very well a few times, in particular the season 3 finale. But by season 6 there was nothing up Lost's sleeves anymore and at the big moment they just shouted "LOOK BEHIND YOU" in the hope to distract us. To torture the analogy some more they pulled the table cloth off and everything came crashing down.

For me the problem was that while I was watching it I enjoyed the flash sideways as I felt they would provide meaning to the characters and what was happening on the island which was obviously just going through the motions killing time (remember the temple crap? and the illness crap?) and which I was caring less and less about because of the moronic magic cave stuff. But the finale made the sideways so utterly redundant you could skip it all on a re-watch and lose nothing. "So you are saying the time I miraculously survived a plane crash only to be marooned on a magic island where I fought monsters, traveled through time and saved the world was the most important time of my life? Well thank you Captain Obvious! I never would have figured that out on my own!" Jack should have punched his dad at that point. I genuinely have no idea how they all sat around a table coming up with that and deciding it was a good idea.

Shane St.

Was the biggest Lost fanboy going and I havn't been able to watch a single episode since
Still the 1st season was amazing

wonderfullife

Shane St. wrote: »

Was the biggest Lost fanboy going and I havn't been able to watch a single episode since
Still the 1st season was amazing

Personally i felt the pointlessness of it all the hardest thing to swallow. Charles Widmore, Benjamin Linus, dharma, the mysterious Eloise Hawking . . . all built into major protagonists over 5 seasons, all giving the impression they held some answers.......

In the end, all of them knew jack-diddly-squat and mattered even less in the overall picture. it was MIB v Jacob battling over some magic cave.

To this day it still doesnt make sense to me how Jacob was sworn to protect the Island as Guardian yet still went off-island to "touch" each of the Losties in some way. Good job watching the Island!

I think basically the show had an initial premise which was excellent and probably a bunch of ideas, the shows popularity meant the 6 season run which in effect, killed itself, they had to fill it somehow and they knew they really didnt have the ultimate answers. If it was a 1 season show i guarantee they were gonna go for the "they all died" approach (and not what actually happened, which is it was all real but hey none of it mattered coz they end up together in heaven)

LOSTfan57

McLoughlin wrote: »

They weren't dead the whole time everything that happened to them on the island actually happened it amazes me that still a year later people still don't get the ending.

Even still I've just faced a person claim that they were all dead the whole time..........its weird

Dempsey

People are indifferent to whether they were actually dead all along or not because season 6 was just a crock of shít! If all the fans had guessed the ending all the years before season 6, Lindelof would have puked something else up for season 6. Most of his work screams, "I cant write a 3rd act to save myself"

Kiith

I still loved how it ended.

And of course they weren't dead all along.

tok9

Me too... people can say what they want but it's as perfect an ending as it gets for me.

gnfnrhead

The ending was a let down, but it was far from being bad. I enjoyed it, not as much as previous seasons, but still a lot more than most other shows. It gets an unfair amount of stick for me.

mdwexford

Season 6 wasn't great but the finale was awesome.

I still have never watched another show that made me be absolutely dying for next week to see the next one as much as Lost did.

Niles

I actually thought it was quite well paced, preferred to season 5. The Jacob/MIN story line was interesting.

badger57

Absolutely dire stuff. That final scene in the church was cringeworthy!

ibFoxer

badger57 wrote: »

Absolutely dire stuff. That final scene in the church was cringeworthy!

Having just watched the finale again for the 5th time, it still reduces me to a blubbery mess. I was then, and still am, extremely happy with how it ended.

nc6000

So how should it have ended then?

kryogen

nc6000 wrote: »

So how should it have ended then?

After season 4.

tok9

Interesting. For me, Season 4 was the weakest ending imo.

Not that it was bad, just that Lost's season finales were always brilliant.

uncleoswald

tok9 wrote: »

Interesting. For me, Season 4 was the weakest ending imo.

Not that it was bad, just that Lost's season finales were always brilliant.

I don't think it's that the season 4 finale would have been a great way of finishing it but more that if they weren't made to drag it out for another number of seasons they could have ended the show in a more satisfactory manner before it ran out of steam and all the plot threads unravelled.

kryogen

It was supposed to go 3, 4 seasons at most but they dragged the cash cow out till it sucked balls unfortunately.