A Handy Guide to Dealing with LOST Haters

Let me begin with this explosive statement. Ready? LOST is one of the best TV shows ever.

That being said, I'm not writing this post to prove it. This post is for the people out there who already believe. You see, as all Lost fans know, Lost haters can pop up at any time, like cold sores. This post is to make those moments less painful.

However, if you are a Lost hater, I hope this post gives you pause and at least will prevent you from ever uttering the words, "they were dead the whole time", or "They just made it up as they went along" ever again.

Let's start by simply stating the real reason that there are so many Lost haters, although a lot of them come up with more creative and self-serving reasoning.

Lost requires more effort to understand, i.e. reading between the lines, than almost any show I can think of with the exception of Twin Peaks(people couldn't even handle two seasons of that until 10 years later). That puts it at a disadvantage. People don't like admitting they don't understand things, and that puts them on the defensive.

You can tell people It's more like a novel in that respect, and how many people do you know that say things like "I don't like to read", or "I don't have the patience to read". I guarantee it's more than the people you know who don't watch TV. I'd make you a Venn Diagram of people who like to read and people who like Lost but there's really no reason to is there.

So, now we know the main reason some people strongly dislike Lost. It's intimidating. Now, let's briefly look at what you'll typically hear from them.

1. "They were dead(or in purgatory) for the whole time" -no they weren't. Here's what you say: "Of 6 seasons, they were only dead in a purgatory-ish place during parts of the last season."

2. "The writers just made stuff up as they went along" - response: "How many writers have new ideas during the course writing? All of them. Star Wars, Dark Tower, Cat's Cradle, War and Peace, 100 years of Solitude, I mean those are all the books and Star Wars I know. Bottom line is that the outline and vision of the tone, story arc, and character development were planned from the beginning."

3. "The characters were annoying" - here's what you say: "Most people we know are annoying. That's realism."

4. "Lost is overated", "Lost sucks", "I just didn't get it" - here's what you say: "No, It's just challenging, and most people aren't used to being challenged by a TV show. What most people don't stick around long enough to find out is that the show is a celebration of life, and if you pay close attention, you'll enjoy it and the payoff is rewarding. You'll need to watch it twice though."

The idea of it being a celebration of life is important, because the message of Lost is a good, uplifting one.

So, here is a spiel about Lost that might make Lost haters question themselves, or at least shut up. Unfortunately Lost Haters will have to be told spoilers. Their preconceptions are so strong there is no way around it. So yeah, SPOILERS.

"Lost is at its core a story about the brotherhood of humanity, the goodness of life, accepting who we are including our flaws. It's a story about also accepting each other for who we are, loving ourselves, and never giving up.

The story is absolutely original, inspired, and brilliant. Here it is in a nutshell; listen closely and your misconceptions will be disproven.

The show's underlying truth is that there is a higher power, that life has an intelligence of it's own, you could say god but it's not named in the show. The story proposes that humanity is an expression of life and a means for life to sustain itself. To sustain life humanity must simply continue to exist, and to do this it must choose to exist, or choose to survive. After all, what is evil besides a hatred of life and a desire for destruction, in other words, death? Lost is about an island where a higher power tests humanity with this choice.

What is the the island? The island is the manifestation of the dominance of good in the world and the containment of evil. There is a light inside the island, it represents the good aspect of life. When the light is on, good is winning. If the light goes out, evil wins and life dies. This island/higher power is constantly measuring the balance of good and evil in the world to sustain itself. It does this by drawing people to the island and testing them. The people must choose to protect the light or extinguish it. It is a test of free will and love for each other, both of which the characters depend on throughout the show to survive. Again, these people triumphing over evil sustains the light and life itself. The light is the people and the people are the light.

How do a few people represent all life in the world? Well, the higher power is very thorough about who it brings. One beautiful part of the show is how the characters represent all the positive and negative characteristics of people and our society. Negatively, the pride in Jack, the anger in Sawyer, the insecurity in Ben, the jealousy in Jacob, the sadness in Richard, the self-loathing in Desmond. Positively, the bravery in Jack, the passion in Sawyer, the loyalty in Ben, the dedication in Jacob, the compassion in Richard, or selflessness of Desmond. There are themes of religion, politics, love, betrayal, sacrifice, failure, redemption, resignation, you name it it's in there somewhere. The effect is that we can relate and share the emotions of these characters like in any good fiction. All the characters in Lost, every single one, has good and evil inside them and it is clearly exhibited in the writing. Most TV doesn't bother with this kind of character development.

Two parts of the show that are especially confusing and turned off some people were the time traveling and the finale. For the former, I think the inclusion of physics was a cool and bold choice from the writers. Most people don't have much exposure to advanced theories of relativity, multiple dimensions, and cosmology that the story hints at. But the theory of time as an illusion has roots not just in science but in ancient religion as well. In the belief that life is eternal and circular. The show uses time travel to exhibit the power and importance of the island(we can talk more about that in the comments. If there are any).

Understanding the ending means that you must have paid close attention throughout the show. Many people who liked the show didn't get the last season. I didn't until I watched a second time, and my mom says I'm special. The last season is mostly catharsis. Our beloved characters who have suffered and suffered save the day and deserve a break. The purgatory like epilogue stories in the last season are a reward from the higher power for the suffering they endured. They all live for awhile with the lives they wanted rather than the ones they got. It doesn't go into whether all people get this kind of reward or "heaven" but it's a nice thought. And in the end, they walk into the light, becoming light, becoming the higher power themselves you might say.

As for the many subplots and mysteries that you don't think were answered, many explanations were implied and not explicitly stated. To me that makes in more fun because you have to think about it. But there it is, you have to think about it.

Damon Lindelof, J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, and others involved put a lot of effort into writing an original story that made us laugh, cry, think, and consider that everyone's life can have meaning. Maybe it's true, maybe not, but I respect their vision.

There you have it! If anyone wants to ask questions about something they didn't understand in the show or corrections, or just to call me pretentious smoke monster have at it in the comments.