Lost Season 6 = Well of Ascension (Possible Spoilers)

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I call BS on their claim. It's incredibly clear that they've been making the thing up as they go. Disappointing, since the first season showed so much potential and had great execution for much of it. But the show jumped the shark pretty early in the second season.

[Shivertongue]

I dunno... just because you have a beginning, middle, and end in mind from the start, doesn't mean you can't make stuff up as you go along between those points.  Probably not entirely the best idea when writing television, though...

Then again, I've never seen Lost. I really have no idea what I'm talking about ^_^

[Comatose]

The dark god thing made out of dark smoke in the latest episode instantly reminded of ruin in his dark smokiness.  Both also turn into their smokie forms when they get angry, and take on the appearance of dead people

[Cynewulf]

I call BS on their claim. It's incredibly clear that they've been making the thing up as they go. Disappointing, since the first season showed so much potential and had great execution for much of it. But the show jumped the shark pretty early in the second season.

I, on the other hand, call BS on those claims. I do not think you have much foundation for the things you say here. The show demonstrates quite good planning on most fronts. The mythology - the Dharma initiative, history of the island, the smoke monster, the cosmic conflict, the false visions - is consistent, both on first and subsequent viewings. The quality of plotting and dialogue is high, for an entertainment show. There may be one or two slips of continuity, but that is the worst they may be accused of.

However, if you would rather believe they had read an advance copy of HoA when they planned the final 48 episodes back in 2007, be my guest...

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I never said anything about HoA or WoA. I think it highly unlikely they read Brandon's books.

My foundation is that I watched the show from the beginning and loved it until it became unbearable. The characterization really started to suck. When people learned and grew too much, the writers either killed them or hit the reset button and made them start acting like they had never learned that stuff or grew from it. (Not as bad as Heroes was with this, but still bad.)

If you never had any problems with that, great for you.

[little wilson]

Hmm. Now I'll be looking for Mistborn comparisons as I watch Lost. And at the rate I'm cruising through the episodes (before Wednesday evening, I'd only seen 3 episodes of the show, and I saw those about 2 1/2 years ago) I'll probably be up to S6 in a month. Started on Wed at 7pm and as of midnight last night, I hit ep 14 of S2....It's a rather addicting show, although I am very easily entertained.

Chris, if you wanted to watch the show, hulu has all the episodes of all the seasons up right now....This is how I'm watching it.

[jdowntown]

I never said anything about HoA or WoA. I think it highly unlikely they read Brandon's books.

My foundation is that I watched the show from the beginning and loved it until it became unbearable. The characterization really started to suck. When people learned and grew too much, the writers either killed them or hit the reset button and made them start acting like they had never learned that stuff or grew from it. (Not as bad as Heroes was with this, but still bad.)

If you never had any problems with that, great for you.

I agree with this.  My wife and I quit watching Heroes for this reason.

Perhaps my title was a little strong.  I did not mean to indicate that the Lost writers straight up stole their plot (I too would be surprised if they had read the Mistborn books).  I was just trying to point out that there are similarities.
The last thing I would claim would be to have an understanding of what the Lost mythology really is or attempt to say with any certainty what will happen in the rest of the the series.  Much like everyone does with the WoT, I try to look at what we do know and find any patterns to give an indication of what could come.
That said, if the rest of Lost goes something like: Jack becomes Jacob's replacement, fights with SmokeMan/ Man-in-Black, they kill each other in the final battle and Hurley ultimately becomes the total overseer of the island, I will have to say there is more than a passing similarity (btw, I think the odds of this happening are about 0.001%)
Of course, that is the odds I would give any prediction on the end to Lost that does not have any insider information...

[Pogi Dave]

Are television shows fully written ahead of time? 

If they are, then why did the writers strike a couple years ago bring so many shows to an immediate halt?

[Comfortable Madness]

Are television shows fully written ahead of time? 

If they are, then why did the writers strike a couple years ago bring so many shows to an immediate halt?

They usually are not written ahead of time. However, Abrams and Lindelhof mentioned before season 4 that they already knew the ending of the show. They also said season 6 would be the last after season 4 ended.

[jdowntown]

I never said anything about HoA or WoA. I think it highly unlikely they read Brandon's books.

My foundation is that I watched the show from the beginning and loved it until it became unbearable. The characterization really started to suck. When people learned and grew too much, the writers either killed them or hit the reset button and made them start acting like they had never learned that stuff or grew from it. (Not as bad as Heroes was with this, but still bad.)

If you never had any problems with that, great for you.

I agree with this.  My wife and I quit watching Heroes for this reason.

Perhaps my title was a little strong.  I did not mean to indicate that the Lost writers straight up stole their plot (I too would be surprised if they had read the Mistborn books).  I was just trying to point out that there are similarities.
The last thing I would claim would be to have an understanding of what the Lost mythology really is or attempt to say with any certainty what will happen in the rest of the the series.  Much like everyone does with the WoT, I try to look at what we do know and find any patterns to give an indication of what could come.
That said, if the rest of Lost goes something like: Jack becomes Jacob's replacement, fights with SmokeMan/ Man-in-Black, they kill each other in the final battle and Hurley ultimately becomes the total overseer of the island, I will have to say there is more than a passing similarity (btw, I think the odds of this happening are about 0.001%)
Of course, that is the odds I would give any prediction on the end to Lost that does not have any insider information...

Well having seen the end now, I still have no idea what actually happened, all I do know is that my prediction was pretty accurate.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

That's hilarious.

[Omelethead]

I think it's pretty clear the writers did have the mythology and all the island related mysteries planned out from the start. There is way too much symbolism and foreshadowing in the early seasons to argue otherwise.

Character wise? Not so much. Back in the third season (I think, it may have been the second), the writers didn't know where they were going, and made up a lot of characters' backstory and whatnot, just to fill time. Once they set an end date, they stopped all of the fluff and the show improved. Characters' storylines still changed, and they adapted parts to the actors, but it was all moving towards the end at that point.


I don't know when you stopped watching Peter, but you might want to think about retrying the series. The last couple seasons have been fantastic.

[EndOfDiscOne]

That said, if the rest of Lost goes something like: Jack becomes Jacob's replacement, fights with SmokeMan/ Man-in-Black, they kill each other in the final battle and Hurley ultimately becomes the total overseer of the island, I will have to say there is more than a passing similarity (btw, I think the odds of this happening are about 0.001%)
Of course, that is the odds I would give any prediction on the end to Lost that does not have any insider information...

Whoa...

Anyway I never understood why so many people bash the show because they "make it up as they go along."  Who cares if there are no real inconsistencies (I guess that's debatable with the last season though)?  I think Damon and Carlton just said they had it all planned because people make such a big deal out of it.  Sure the show changed dramatically each season, but saying it jumped the shark early in season 2 is just not being open to change.  Most of the best ideas and twists came after.

That being said, the final scene was definitely something that was planned from the beginning.

[Comatose]

I found many inconsistencies or things that they obviously changed their minds on in lost, I still enjoyed it, but for that reason, the first season is still my favorite: no inconsistencies yet.
I could list them, but since people who have not watched it are reading this, I will not... I can think of at least five just off the top of my head.

My taiwanese friend says this is what he doesn't like about american television: it's planned season by season.  The Lost creators planning out the last few seasons together was something different.

It's why I like books better, there's always a planned ending (at least in the good ones), none of this, let's see how long we can keep going and still be in popular opinion (except for in the bad ones).

That's why I really liked the cartoon avatar, there's three seasons, there was always going to be three seasons, there's continuity between all three, and as a side not the world building is excellent.