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Originally Posted by rapidacid
The idea that it's primarily about characters is pretty laughable IMO. Well, it may have intended to be that way, and it absolutely was a huge part. Characters shedding their demons and dealing with their pasts mainly. And I can understand being satisfied with the development of the characters from start to finish with all the inner demons they had, and finally coming to acceptance with everything as they end up dead at the end. But that's not what I'd consider a character driven show.
I'd consider something like Seinfeld, King of the Hill, or Friends to be a character driven show. Those are shows where what happened on the show really was just a way to feature each character and their personalities and quirks, and really the plot didn't matter at all. And those are all fine shows in their own regard. They didn't try to be an all encompassing world with all these mysteries and adventure. There was just too many random stuff thrown in just for the sake of throwing it in and making us think WTF!! with no purpose. Everyone's pasts interacting with each other seemed like a HUUGE hint to something big. Nope, it's nothing. Just a way to mess with us. The entire flash sideways is the absolute worst for this. There was absolutely no point to it other than to mess with us. The whole idea of bringing everyone together seemed to be cosmically important, but really was just a trick. Empty tricks are not clever writing.
On the other hand, they did a lot of clever stuff along the way which made us think that everything else that seemed empty was going to be clever. For example, the flash forward finale episode was absolutely brilliant. There were hints along the way, things I even caught. "Why is Jack using a cell phone that didn't exist in 2003? Must be a production error" is something I thought while watching. Turns out that was 100% intentional. It was mindblowing, clever, hinted at, and drove the story and characters. I was certain at this point that the rest of the show was going to be just like this, just fed to us slowly at a pace we could enjoy.
The main point is, if you want to have a character driven show, that's fine and dandy, but don't try to be something you aren't. It really comes across as a way of covering their ass once they realize they were screwed. The jig was up, the man behind the curtain was about to be revealed, and they wanted to save face. The show was littered with empty gimmicks meant to keep people watching that did not really develop the characters, drive the plot, or provide any value to the series. As I've said before, there are many cases where this is forgivable (Mr Eko wanting to leave Hawaii, for example). There is absolutely no way they should not have anticipating Walt growing up, though.
I am highly interested in learning how things went down behind the scenes, though. The show is a fantastic lesson in what to do and what not to do, and learning from it certainly does interest me. I'm wondering if their plan did change or was altered, or how they had to adjust or how it could have otherwise been better. What were the plans for Eko? What did they have figured out when. This would all be very intriguing. However, I do expect silence, so each time this thread is bumped, I think maybe there is something that will come out to shed some light on things.
But yeah, Charlie is way off base pretty much always, so of course it's hilarious how mean-spirited he gets for something as simple as someones opinion and tastes. If you loved Lost, great. I have no problem with it. I have a problem with people thinking the plot was somehow meaningful and not just thrown together as they went along. It's obvious this wasn't the case. If you enjoyed the characters and their development, more power to you. I personally did not care about most of them other than their dialogue which was quite good for some of them. There were many enjoyable moments from Lost at the time, even with the way it ended that were very high quality moments in television. There are a few episodes that are absolutely fantastic. The music and visuals were always outstanding. The show itself was an incredible feat just to pull off. I just think the whole "we have it all planned out" stuff was a complete sham and the storytelling devices used were almost entirely gimmicks and thrown together. If you can understand that and forgive it and still enjoy it (which I do expect many people to do), that's fine.
If the writers would have said that statement early on, there is a 0% chance I watch it. Trouble is, neither would a lot of other people, and they needed us for ratings and $$. Better to just fool us and tell us after it's too late.