Lost - General Discussion

[Lillybee]

I just started binging on thiis show and it is better than I remembered.

[Kalliste]

I really don't think Sun was ever 'good' she just liked people to think she was.

 

I was so sad over their reunion but also happy that they got the chance to see each other again. I don't mind them being killed off though, the stupider thing for me is Juliet getting jealous over Kate after being with Sawyer for years.

[EternallyCharmed]

I have a lot of these! 

 

I only liked Jack in the sideways universe, when they traveled back in time in the fifth season and around Juliet in the third season and think Jack and Juliet would have been much happier and just better than Jack and Kate. I always laugh at the part in the seaosn 5 finale when Jack says their relationship was almost all misery. That sums it up! 

 

I never understood the big deal about Sawyer and Juliet. They were too different to me and felt like a way of clearing the way for Jack and Kate to end up together instead of a couple that was really meant to be. I agree with whoever said somewhere that the best thing about them is that we hardly saw them so the writers couldn't mess them up too much on screen. 

 

Kate and Sawyer belonged together but I didn't like either one very much. 

 

I think Season 5 is the best season of the show and the time travel was done much better than I thought it would be! 

 

Ben is one of the best antagonists I've ever seen and I enjoyed him a lot more than a lot of the good guys we were supposed to root for. 

 

Locke annoyed me for almost the entire series. 

 

Miles is so underrated and added a lot of humor that she show really needed. 

 

I don't care about Hurley as much as I'm supposed to care about Hurley. 

 

The Tailies season felt like a waste but I love the third season. It's my favorite other than season 5. I could watch a whole show on just The Others lol. 

 

The scenery on this show is so beautiful that I would watch it just for that reason alone. Sometimes I do! 

[blueray]

 

I could watch a whole show on just The Others lol.

I would totally would watch that.

[EternallyCharmed]

I could watch videos of Others footage all day long! I want to know more about them. I also think it says something that Jack seemed happier most of the time with The Others than at any time except maybe parts of the sideways universe and the very end of the series.   

 

Now that I'm thinking about the series I think I may love season 3 even more than season 5 while in my original post I flipped that order. The Ben scenes are perfect and like I said above I love the Others. I like Jack around Juliet and The Others a lot more than watching him be the embattled leader of the losties over and over and even liked him a little more when he first came back. Also, like I said I think Kate and Sawyer were the right match because they have so much in common and don't try to change each other even when at times they probably should lol. It would have been a relief to me if the love square had ended then in S3. Jack and Juliet could do medical and scientific research together because god knows the island had a lot of mysteries and eventually start dating. I just see them connecting emotionally and intellectually and she's almost the only person he smiles around. They even look right together to me. Meanwhile Sawyer and Kate could be impulsive and daring adventurers on and off the island. I loved how Sawyer was a cop in the sideways universe because I always think there can be a thin line between breaking and enforcing the law. You can probably tell that English isn't my first language, so please forgive me. I'm just trying to say that I think those four characters could have been great if the square had been resolved for good by the end of S3 and they had gotten more interesting storylines than just who was going to date who and who was jealous that day. I also love the idea someone had about Juliet and Kate eventually becoming friends because they're opposite in some ways and very much the same in others.

 

Speaking of S3 I have another unpopular opinion about it. I love Expose, the episode with Nikki and Paolo. I know why everyone thinks they're annoying but the episode itself is written in a way that makes it interesting and fun to watch. 

Edited March 31, 2016 by EternallyCharmed

[ByTor]

I LOVED Sun's flashback scenes from Korea, mainly because I coveted her clothes/shoes!

[eskimo]

Speaking of S3 I have another unpopular opinion about it. I love Expose, the episode with Nikki and Paolo. I know why everyone thinks they're annoying but the episode itself is written in a way that makes it interesting and fun to watch. 

That has to be thee most unpopular, of all the unpopular opinions!  Lol  I think part of the reason people disliked Nikki and Paolo so much is because they were introduced quite a bit after the rest of the main cast.  I personally thought 'Who the F are these people?'  I felt like the dynamics of the main Losties were already well established. It seemed weird to me that they were introducing new characters, who had supposedly been there the entire time, that we had not seen and who were worthy of a flashback.  Also, IMO, I don't feel they had nearly the same on-screen chemistry with the rest of the cast that the cast had with each other.  However they did a good job with the way they added most of the rest of the later characters, the majority of them fit in very well.  Except Naomi, I was glad when she died.

 

I have wondered what would have happened to Nikki and Paolo if they had been introduced to us with the rest of them.  There would have been a much better chance of them being accepted.  S3 was too late to say 'Here are these people you've never seen but have been here the whole time." 

 

I also thought Kate and Sawyer were better together, but she did have chemistry with both.  I also would have loved to see Juliet and Kate as good friends!  I've heard they were IRL. 

 

PS  Your English is excellent, I would have never known it wasn't your first language!

[Babalu]

I liked the episode with Nikki and Paolo, too. I didn't like Nikki and Paolo themselves and agreed with everyone else who said they came out of nowhere, but the episode had a lot of callbacks to earlier events and tied things together nicely. It reinforced my opinion that the show runners had a tight master plan (an opinion that, unfortunately, didn't hold up through the series finale).

[MyAimIsTrue]

My love for Rose knows no bounds.  I realize that due to some sort of time constraints L. Scott Caldwell couldn't appear often on the show but she certainly made the most of the character when she did.  The silent (no dialogue) scene where Rose and Bernard were first reunited on the beach remains quite possible my favorite scene of the entire series as it was beautiful and perfect, and gives me goose bumps even now just thinking about it.

[myname2use4now]

So I finally binge watched but only made it to season four. There were 120 episodes in all and it was just too much of the same drama over and over without a lot of reasons as to why things were happening. Although, I did manage to fast forward to the last episode to see how it all ended. All in all, I think it was a good show but I think that it just ran on too long and the side flashes or whatever they call them kinda ruined it for me. But I can see why it was such a hit.

[NorthangerAbby]

1) Who were your 5-7 favorite characters?

This is hard because I actually didn't like many of the characters consistently. They all had moments where I loved them and many where I didn't. I'll pick Sawyer, Kate, Ben, Farraday, Sun, Richard Alpert. I hope we can also count Vincent. 

These are not really the most likable, but I picked the ones I connect with or am just most interested in. I feel like I should defend why I like Kate but can't do so very effectively. I laughed when Claire deduced in a Season 1 episode that Kate must be a Gemini, because I am too, and even though I'm not a big believer in astrology I think some of what she said about that explaining why Kate is restless, passionate and a well meaning, spirited but impulsive and indecisive disaster, that last descriptor being mine rather than Claire's, also explains why I feel like I can identify with her. I'm sure guys who look like Jack and Sawyer will be fighting over me any day now, LOL.  

2) Who were your 5-7 LEAST favorite characters? 

Charlie, Claire, who I didn't hate but found so boring and she was stuck either having to be protected by everyone else or in scenes with Charlie, Ana Lucia, Nikki and Juliet. I respect that Juliet is so popular and wish I loved her too. I felt like the actress always had the same expression on her face in every scene and that in trying to keep us guessing about her motives they made her flat and robotic. I also agree with whoever said she seemed smug and like she really felt she was above the others. Not to be confused with being above The Others. I like her in her flashbacks but not on the island. I've read interesting arguments about why her becoming so withdrawn and calculating makes sense, but I just don't like her much and have trouble relating to her.

3) How would you rank the seasons from favorite to least favorite? FOUR. I love that fourth season and am always excited when I find other people who like that one! It's definitely the one I've seen the most. I'm answering all these based on how often I would rewatch them now because I can't even recall my initial reactions to them. 4, 3, 2, 5, 1 and 6. 

4) What were your 10(ish!) favorite episodes?

I'm not good at recalling titles but will look later on. I'm predicting that at least four of my 10 will come from Season 4. 

5) What were your favorite actual/would-be romantic relationships? Sawyer and Kate, Libby and Hurley, Sun and Jin, Desmond and Penny. 

6) What were your LEAST favorite romantic relationships? Jack and Kate, because they kept clashing, never seemed happy with each other as is and had the same arguments for the whole series, Sayid and Nadia, because his fixation with her was too big a part of his otherwise interesting story, Charlie and Claire because Charlie, Boone and Shannon because it's creepy.

7) What were your favorite friendships/frenemyships/non-romantic relationships? Sun and Kate, Sawyer and Jin, Jack and Juliet, who I possibly might have liked romantically too because I liked them more around each other than almost anyone else, Sawyer and Miles.  

I just found this site yesterday and this was one of the first shows I looked for. Even though I don't rewatch it a lot, Lost had a big effect on my life, really consuming me for a while. Part of me is still on that island! I'm excited to read this whole section and see how other people view the show. 

Edited May 2, 2016 by NorthangerAbby

[pawneerangers]

I think it's so cool that almost no one ever perceives this show exactly the same way, and that's evident even on this thread! 

1) Who were your 5-7 favorite characters?

Desmond: My sweet, passionate, somewhat crazy lost/Lost soul and searcher

Penny: I know we don't know her that well so maybe it's just the Penny I've built up in my head who I love, but the little we saw of her gave me a good sense of what she's like: kind, candid, clever, loyal, brave, pragmatic but romantic, a little blunt and direct which is a nice contrast to Desmond, determined and driven to get what she wants, a little stubborn but not so much that she won't forgive Desmond or use her awful family's money to her advantage when she needs to find him. Maybe it's that I love her relationship with Desmond enough to love her more by association or that I like the actress, but Penny just felt more real to me and easy to connect with than most of the other female characters. 

Sawyer: The type of character I usually hate and might not have liked much at all if I were on the island, but I can't take my eyes off him, and not just because of his looks. I can't imagine the show without him 

Ben: Another character who I can't ever imagine the show without 

With others it's qualified, like I grew to love Juliet but mostly just in Season 5, and I grew to really like Jack, but primarily in Season 6, and I really enjoy Miles' snark but wouldn't say I care deeply enough about him to include him here, and there are some characters I usually like either on or off the island but not both. I might pick Jin or Hurley for the fifth spot. 

2) Who were your 5-7 LEAST favorite characters? 

Can I list Charlie five times? It made me laugh that disliking Charlie seems to be the one thing that nearly all of us agree on. 

Charlie, Michael, Ana Lucia, Nikki and Paolo and Kate, though it's more like I hated the role she played as a catalyst for romantic drama and so much purposeless conflict rather than because I hate her as an individual. I don't think she would be on this list if the hideous triangle hadn't existed or been resolved after one or two seasons because I think that she had potential. I don't feel right putting John Locke on this list because of how essential he was to not just plots but the show's overall themes about science vs faith, but I found him very annoying at times. 

3) How would you rank the seasons from favorite to least favorite?

3, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 1. This order seems way out of whack with everyone else's, so now I'm wondering if I'm even crazier than I think I am!

I am such a big fan of Desmond, Penny and Ben that Season 1 feels lacking to me now. I also felt like Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lily became better actors as the series progressed and are noticeably bad in parts of that first season.

Like some of you, I really love the focus on The Others. Season 3 has a few very bad episodes, but it's got a lot of the best ones too and is still the one that takes my breath away even though I already know everything that happens.  

I don't know why I like the second season so much and understand why it's at the bottom of many of your lists, but it just has some of my favorite individual episodes and ones that I find I love rewatching a lot, which isn't a given with Lost. I also liked how things expanded with the Tailies because I was already getting a little sick of focusing purely on the original characters by then. Desmond and Penny appear in Season 2, and this is when I start to like Sawyer. I actually don't like him in Season 1 at all. 

Season 4 is as great like many of you have said, but once I got over the thrill of seeing that we'd now be getting flash forwards instead of more flashbacks, I didn't like the flash forwards themselves as much as I had hoped. I could easily see ranking Season 4 the best, but I guess I just have more of a sentimental attachment to Season 2 and 3.  

Season 5 is one of those seasons I always think I'll love more than I do. Time travel fascinates me but I don't always love how they worked it into the show. At times the fifth season felt like it was trying to do too much and therefore not doing some of it as well as they could have. I really like parts of it and will always appreciate this season for making me like Juliet and for showing how effective Sawyer could be as a leader, but I don't love it as much as many of the others. For some reason Kate and Jack annoy me more this season than in almost any other one. 

4) What were your 10(ish!) favorite episodes?

I can't limit myself to 10! All I know is that the season finales would all rank very high on my list.  

5) What were your favorite actual/would-be romantic relationships?

Desmond and Penny! Sawyer and Juliet because even though part of me still doesn't think they have enough in common to work off the island, they did make each other's lives better and seemed happy together, which is a lot more than can be said for many other relationships on this show. I wish we had seen a little more of them and that the show didn't throw in the idea that even in Season 5 Sawyer might still have strong feelings for Kate, who seemed to represent who he used to be rather than the better man he was now. Libby and Hurley were sweet and, luckily for them, not a thing for long enough for the writers to make them insufferable. I like moments from most of the other relationships but was mostly either a little annoyed by them, especially when it involved the quadrangle, or just didn't care all that much one way or the other, like with Sayid and Nadia and Locke and Helen. By the middle of the series I had even stopped caring about Sun and Jin's relationship, but I did really like them for the first few seasons.  

6) What were your LEAST favorite romantic relationships? Charlie and Claire, at times Jack and Kate and Sawyer and Kate

[amensisterfriend]

It's fun to see that this place is still active! S4 and S5 are 'bests' to me (I always loved S4, though never thought I could love S5 as much as I've come to!), and I also agree that the show's finales tended to be among the very best episodes. How would you guys rank the finales from your favorite to least favorite?! 

[Katherine]

I think this might be my first time discussing Lost online. I should've done this ages ago! 

1) Favorite characters: 

• Desmond: I think this is a pretty common one. How could anyone not love Desmond?
• John Locke: What's the general audience's stance towards John? I never followed Lost when it was on air so I'm very curious! I find him to be the most interesting character. He's obviously very flawed but I can't help but feel sorry for him; he was so alone in life (the Helen stuff was of course his own fault, but no wonder the poor guy had issues!), and even in death, he didn't have anyone to sit next to him in the church! I'll always be Team John. Oh, and something that further cemented my love for him: I tweeted Terry O'Quinn and asked him to tweet my brother (who introduced me to Lost and to the greatness of John Locke) and say "Don't tell me what I can't do!" and he did it. He even added a "dammit!!!" I thought that was pretty awesome of him.
• Sawyer: He was really fun to watch, even though, as has been pointed out, his behaviour was actually pretty awful. I remember he was my very favorite when I first watched the show (about 5 years ago), but I wonder if I would love him as much if I were to rewatch now that I'm older and wiser ;)
• Ben: Such a great villain.
• Sayid: I feel like the show lost touch with this character in the later seasons and I really wanted more for him.
• Daniel Faraday: What's the fan consensus on Daniel? I think he's a pretty interesting character who was killed off too soon.

2) Least favorite characters:

• Kate: By far my least favorite. I found her to be entitled and rude and not at all rootable. Something about the combination of the writing and the acting choices really rubbed me the wrong way.
• Jack: Arrogant and pretty boring. It took six seasons for me to start to like the guy.
• Ana Lucia: I was cheering when she got shot. It was of course completely evil of Michael, but I will always be a little grateful to him for getting this terrible character off my screen. Sorry.
• Boone: His death was sad but I was never a fan of the character.

One thing that always struck me about this show was how indifferent I was to the female characters. With the exception of Sun and Rose, there were few female characters I enjoyed. I really liked Penny but she wasn't fleshed out outside of her relationship with Desmond. With Juliet, I ranged from dislike to indifference. There were moments I liked Claire but for the most part I was pretty neutral about her; same with Shannon. With characters like Kate and Ana Lucia, it seemed like the writers were aiming for depicting tough women, which is great, but these particular characters ended up coming across as completely unsympathetic. I'm not sure if this is a popular opinion or if it's just something about the female characters that didn't click for me personally. 

3) Seasons from favorite to least favorite:

• 4: Loved the flash forwards.
• 3: Some filler but also some of my favorite moments.
• 2: I really liked the Hatch stuff, and I was on the edge of my seat through a lot of this season.
• 1: I was intrigued.
• 5: Started out strong but gradually lost its way.
• 6: I'm always torn about this season; I think I could've really liked it if it had turned out to be what I thought it was: an alternate reality. But the idea that it was the characters working through their issues post-death just doesn't fit in my mind.

4) Favorite episodes:

• Walkabout: This was the episode that hooked me. Poor John.
• The Constant: I love Desmond Hume.
• The finales (particularly seasons 2-4). 

5) Favorite romantic relationships:

• Sawyer and Kate: This is an odd one because I dislike Kate and really like Sawyer, but I feel like they had the best chemistry on the show, and Kate was much more tolerable in Sawyer's presence.
• Desmond and Penny: Obviously.
• Sun and Jin: It amazes me how Jin won me over after his initial awfulness.

6) Least favorite romantic relationships:

• Jack and Kate: I guess it's not surprising that my least favorite characters made for my least favorite relationship. Plus, I never really understood what they saw in each other. In my opinion, they had nothing in common and very little chemistry.
• Ana Lucia and anyone: Because Ana Lucia.
• Sawyer and Juliet: This is most likely an unpopular opinion. I go back and forth on this one. I can understand why many fans like them, and I do appreciate that Sawyer finally stopped pining over Kate. I just never saw much chemistry here, and I never thought they had much in common. YMMV, of course.

7) These may seem random and the show ended up dropping a lot of them, but on my first rewatch I remember being most interested in:

• Sawyer and Sayid: IIRC, the two of them as enemies got a decent amount of focus in the first part of season 1, with the torture and whatnot, and I would've liked to see that continue throughout the series. I thought they were interesting foils.
• Sawyer and Jack: Definitely more enemies than friends but still an interesting dynamic.
• Sawyer and Michael: I liked the stuff with the raft.
• Okay, basically Sawyer and anyone: I find pretty much all of Sawyer's interactions to be a lot of fun.
• Michael and Jin: I'm disappointed Michael's story ended the way it did. He wasn't my favorite character but I did like the mutual respect he and Jin developed.
• Jack and John: This relationship did get a lot of focus and I'm glad. I loved John and Jack's argument where Jack asked John why he found it so easy to believe and John yelled, "it's never been easy!" I also liked that Jack eventually embraced John's beliefs; it was a refreshing change from his arrogant, know-it-all ways. I wish we'd seen more between these two characters in the final Church scene.
• Ben and John: Love the final scene between these two (even though Ben *probably* doesn't deserve John's forgiveness).

Honestly, one of my biggest problems with the series finale was its emphasis on romantic relationships. For the most part, I found the friendships/frenemyships much more compelling. The first few seasons did a nice job of showing some of these dynamics, but I feel like they were forgotten somewhere along the way. For example, I would've liked to see more of Sawyer's reaction to Sayid's heroic death, given his original, horribly racist opinion of Sayid. I would've liked to see more than a handshake and a thank you between Sawyer and Jack in the finale. I appreciate that they gave Kate and Claire some moments together, but I wanted more moments for the other characters as well. While I love some of the Flash Sideways reunions (particularly Claire and Charlie's, even though I was never a huge fan of that relationship), I think they came at the expense of some of the other relationships that made me fall in love with the show in the first place.

8) It's been a while since I've done a re-watch but based on memory, I would rank the finales from favorite to least favorite:

• 4: I loved the flash forwards and the finale did such a nice job of showing how our characters ended up where they did. Plus, DESMOND AND PENNY!
• 3: Charlie had his ups and downs as a character, but his death still makes me feel lots of feelings. And the flash forwards were a nice twist (although I was unfortunately spoiled for them).
• 2: I love Desmond.
• 6: I still have a soft spot for this finale, basically for the flash forwards alone.
• 1: I just don't remember a lot about this finale, other than being disappointed about not finding out what's in the hatch. Is this the episode where it shows them all in the airport before the flight? Because I did really love that.
• 5: Again, just not quite as memorable for me, but still a good finale. This show did finales so well, it's hard to rank them!

Edited May 7, 2016 by Katherine

[amensisterfriend]

One thing that always struck me about this show was how indifferent I was to the female characters. With the exception of Sun and Rose, there were few female characters I enjoyed. I really liked Penny but she wasn't fleshed out outside of her relationship with Desmond. With Juliet, I ranged from dislike to indifference. There were moments I liked Claire but for the most part I was pretty neutral about her; same with Shannon. With characters like Kate and Ana Lucia, it seemed like the writers were aiming for depicting tough women, which is great, but these particular characters ended up coming across as completely unsympathetic. I'm not sure if this is a popular opinion or if it's just something about the female characters that didn't click for me personally.

Not being able to really love and connect with the female characters is a definite 'worst' for me as well. I like Kate more than I used to, or maybe just dislike her less than I used to, but she spent way too much of the series as the central part of a love triangle that did nobody any favors and was so often just stuck in that exact same "I'm coming along with you guys!!"/"No, Kate, it's better if---"/"I'M COMING ALONG WITH YOU GUYS!" exchange with other characters over and over that I guess we're supposed to think shows admirable courage and resolve but more often just made her seem tiresome, especially since the writers so often had it turn out that the men were right and that she SHOULDN'T have come along, which kind of undercuts the girl power feminism I always hope to see in her character. 

As for Juliet, I've read some amazing analysis about how layered and complex she is and always come away thinking about how much I should love her, but then I rewatch her scenes and find myself struggling with her all over again. I did like her more in S5, but even then the quality in Juliet that I think many understandably perceive as admirable composure and even a soothing calm can seem so annoyingly condescending, smug and just emotionally flat to me. And Elizabeth Mitchell is one of those actors who seems to smirk her way through almost every scene to me, which, to no fault of EM, happens to be major pet peeve of mine :) I do like her during the few times when she seems genuinely passionate and emotional rather than detached and a little 'above it all', and maybe those rare moments wouldn't be as effective for me if they weren't a departure from her usual manner, but most of the time I agree with Katherine about hovering somewhere between indifference and vague dislike.  

Sun was far too often reduced to being defined by her relationship with Jin---overcoming their never ending marital problems for the first part of the series and devoting her life to searching for him during later seasons.  

Charlotte had potential, but I ended up having no real idea of what her personality was supposed to be. 

I agree that Penny seemed likable and I was actually thinking during a recent rewatch that I wish she had been one of the main female characters throughout the series, but we never got to see enough of her to get a grasp of who she really was outside of Desmond's amazing wife, at least IMO. 

You could argue that the male characters weren't always that well defined either, but I felt like they had more consistent personality traits and weren't used quite as often as mere plot devices. 

Jack: Arrogant and pretty boring. It took six seasons for me to start to like the guy.

Ha! Honestly, I find Jack (and even Jack/Kate) a million times more likable in S6 than any other season as well, which is one reason why I've always had the UO of ranking S6 higher on my list of favorite seasons than nearly anyone else does :) And somehow liking and rooting for Jack as much as I did in that final season now makes me retrospectively like him more when I rewatch earlier seasons, but the writers sure do make that a challenge at times, don't they?! :) As others have said, giving him even a LITTLE more humor and less of that 'woe is me for having to be a leader! I don't want to be a leader and---wait, I'm your LEADER, I have to be your leader and you better not make anyone else your leader, so why are you all not listening to me and obeying my orders at every turn?!' would have gone a long way.

I do have a grudging respect for the writers for showing just how detrimental a flaw extreme stubbornness can be, though. I feel like in a lot of what I read and watch, stubbornness is depicted as kind of a cute non-flaw, something couched as a problem but really just indicative of how wonderfully determined, strong etc the character in question is. With Jack, they showed repeatedly how extreme stubbornness was seriously detrimental to himself and others, closing his mind and leading to far more conflict, poor decision making and general angst. 

Daniel Faraday: What's the fan consensus on Daniel? I think he's a pretty interesting character who was killed off too soon.

The actor has this kind of exaggerated style that understandably seems to rub many the wrong way, but I love Farraday and wish he'd been there all along. I'm always an admitted sucker for brilliant 'geeks', though :) 

 One character I've changed my mind on for the better: Desmond. I used to be surprisingly meh on him and felt like they overplayed what a special snowflake he is. Now with my latest rewatch I finally get why my fellow Lost fans love him so much. Can we petition for an alternative version of the show with Desmond and Penny replacing Jack and Kate as the male and female leads? ;)

one of my biggest problems with the series finale was its emphasis on romantic relationships

I LOVE the finale, but whenever I rewatch the show I do find myself resenting how so much of nearly all of the characters' lives and motivations came down to romantic love (and often the inevitable daddy issues, of course!) and how everyone's happy ending had to involve being paired off a la Noah's Ark because apparently romantic love is all that ultimately matters, which...no. It really bugs me. 

As for ranking the finales, I'll go with The End (because despite the above rant it still affects me emotionally like no hour of TV ever!), The Incident, Through the Looking Glass, There's No PLace Like Home, Exodus, Live Together Die Alone...but that was REALLY hard, because I really love all of the finales to a ridiculous degree :) 

[Katherine]

7 hours ago, amensisterfriend said:

 

Not being able to really love and connect with the female characters is a definite 'worst' for me as well. I like Kate more than I used to, or maybe just dislike her less than I used to, but she spent way too much of the series as the central part of a love triangle that did nobody any favors and was so often just stuck in that exact same "I'm coming along with you guys!!"/"No, Kate, it's better if---"/"I'M COMING ALONG WITH YOU GUYS!" exchange with other characters over and over that I guess we're supposed to think shows admirable courage and resolve but more often just made her seem tiresome, especially since the writers so often had it turn out that the men were right and that she SHOULDN'T have come along, which kind of undercuts the girl power feminism I always hope to see in her character. 

As for Juliet, I've read some amazing analysis about how layered and complex she is and always come away thinking about how much I should love her, but then I rewatch her scenes and find myself struggling with her all over again. I did like her more in S5, but even then the quality in Juliet that I think many understandably perceive as admirable composure and even a soothing calm can seem so annoyingly condescending, smug and just emotionally flat to me. And Elizabeth Mitchell is one of those actors who seems to smirk her way through almost every scene to me, which, to no fault of EM, happens to be major pet peeve of mine :) I do like her during the few times when she seems genuinely passionate and emotional rather than detached and a little 'above it all', and maybe those rare moments wouldn't be as effective for me if they weren't a departure from her usual manner, but most of the time I agree with Katherine about hovering somewhere between indifference and vague dislike.  

Sun was far too often reduced to being defined by her relationship with Jin---overcoming their never ending marital problems for the first part of the series and devoting her life to searching for him during later seasons.  

Charlotte had potential, but I ended up having no real idea of what her personality was supposed to be. 

I agree that Penny seemed likable and I was actually thinking during a recent rewatch that I wish she had been one of the main female characters throughout the series, but we never got to see enough of her to get a grasp of who she really was outside of Desmond's amazing wife, at least IMO. 

You could argue that the male characters weren't always that well defined either, but I felt like they had more consistent personality traits and weren't used quite as often as mere plot devices. 

 

 

Ha! Honestly, I find Jack (and even Jack/Kate) a million times more likable in S6 than any other season as well, which is one reason why I've always had the UO of ranking S6 higher on my list of favorite seasons than nearly anyone else does :) And somehow liking and rooting for Jack as much as I did in that final season now makes me retrospectively like him more when I rewatch earlier seasons, but the writers sure do make that a challenge at times, don't they?! :) As others have said, giving him even a LITTLE more humor and less of that 'woe is me for having to be a leader! I don't want to be a leader and---wait, I'm your LEADER, I have to be your leader and you better not make anyone else your leader, so why are you all not listening to me and obeying my orders at every turn?!' would have gone a long way.

I do have a grudging respect for the writers for showing just how detrimental a flaw extreme stubbornness can be, though. I feel like in a lot of what I read and watch, stubbornness is depicted as kind of a cute non-flaw, something couched as a problem but really just indicative of how wonderfully determined, strong etc the character in question is. With Jack, they showed repeatedly how extreme stubbornness was seriously detrimental to himself and others, closing his mind and leading to far more conflict, poor decision making and general angst. 

 

 

 

ITA with your whole post--well said! Your analysis of the female characters is exactly how I feel, particularly regarding Juliet. I was never quite sure what the writers were going for with her. And that's a really good point about Jack's stubbornness; it was definitely realistic in a lot of ways. I also agree that season 6 was by far the best for both Kate and Jack's characters. By the end of the show, I was a little sorry to see Jack go--well, not that sorry, but I wasn't actively rooting for it like I was earlier in the series ;). 

I binge watched this show after it all aired so I feel like I missed out on a lot, especially bonding over it with other fans. I also feel like I missed out on what I'm sure were killer cliffhangers, since I could just keep watching instead of having to wait a whole week or a whole summer to see what happened next.

[joelene]

Spot on, amensisterfriend. I did really like Juliet, though, and I thought Charlotte was awesome but I think that for me it had a lot to do with loving Rebecca Mader from the first frame. They clearly didn't know what to do with most of the women if they weren't involved in a romance. Sun and Claire could've had a great last season that differed from they're previous personas but instead they just wasted them.

I liked Faraday a lot even when his tone of voice annoyed the hell out of me, so good on that character. Can't say I missed him during the last season but I appreciated him while he was there. 

[amensisterfriend]

After the latest round of rewatches and fun discussions here, I have some unpopular opinions on LOST's romantic relationships: 

1) They weren't very good overall and I really resent just how much of their lives and ideas of happiness ended up being tied to romantic love. That said...

2) If Jack had to be with someone, I actually liked him with Ana Lucia.

3) I would rather have seen Kate with Sayid than either Jack or Sawyer. I know that sounds bizarre, but they have some great scenes together---and ones in which Kate comes off genuinely likable! 

4) If they had given Charlotte more definition and development, she and Faraday could have been my favorite romance on the show 

5) Loved Libby and Hurley (that second season has really grown on me!) and could even argue that Libby ended up the most likable female character on the show other than Penny, though that's a fairly low bar :) 

6) Desmond and Penny should have both somehow been on the island or at least a bigger part of the show the entire time, in part so that we could see more of them and in part so that we could see Penny form relationships with the other Losties and get development outside of being Desmond's awesome significant other 

7) I hate Charlie and Claire. It's not logical, but I just have to fast forward through their scenes. 

8) Every time I rewatch, my opinions on the dreaded triangle/quadrangle changes. Sawyer was a better version of himself around Juliet, but that was also because he was literally in a different era then, had matured a lot on his own, etc. I love them occasionally but see them as too different to work off the island, and as much as I don't especially want to see it, I've come around more and more to see Sawyer/Kate as just getting each other and having this incredibly strong passion and connection...then again, they also 'get' each other's darker sides and could very well bring out the worst in each other, and...I'm rambling. Bottom line: every quadrangle combination has issues for me and took up way too much of this otherwise awesome show's time and energy. 

9) I've actually come around to like the understandably unpopular Shannon/Sayid pairing. (*ducks*) :) 

[joelene]

Ah, Shannon.... "Let's kill off one of our four female regulars who has promise to develop and grow into something really interesting in service of one of our seemingly infinite supply of male character's angst."

[Kalliste]

On 5/8/2016 at 1:38 AM, amensisterfriend said:

 

7) I hate Charlie and Claire. It's not logical, but I just have to fast forward through their scenes. 

 

It is logical, they're terrible :P

[MyAimIsTrue]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 2:12 AM, Katherine said:

Daniel Faraday: What's the fan consensus on Daniel? I think he's a pretty interesting character who was killed off too soon.

To me Faraday never fit in with the show but that's because every time I saw him I'd think to myself "hey, it's Jeremy Davies from "Saving Private Ryan."

[Writing Wrongs]

I just re-watched Season 4. I still have questions (of course). I still don't really understand the test Richard gave boy Locke and why he failed it. Who was it who was appearing to Jack and Michael as Christian? And to Hurley as Charlie? Not MiB, right? Because he couldn't leave the island.

[joelene]

On 23 maj 2016 at 3:42 PM, Writing Wrongs said:

I just re-watched Season 4. I still have questions (of course). I still don't really understand the test Richard gave boy Locke and why he failed it. Who was it who was appearing to Jack and Michael as Christian? And to Hurley as Charlie? Not MiB, right? Because he couldn't leave the island.

I could be wrong, but I think the reason Richard tested Young Locke is because Old Locke told him to do so when they met in the 50's. Or if he didn't explicitly tell him to, Richard did so of his own volition because of them meeting. Why he failed is because Locke was never actually special or never meant to be their leader, or something. 

As for Christian appearing all over the place, I think it was MiB, we're just supposed to ignore it was off the island. Or maybe he could astral project (or something!) even if he couldn't physically leave. 

[blueray]

I'm doing a rewatch with my boyfriend (who hasn't seen it) and I am confused about the whole Christian thing. I know the one that was talking on the island is MIB. But what did happen to the real Christian's body? I know there are a lot of theories about that, but I don't think they ever said in the show.

[grandemocha]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this...but man oh man, I was just doing a LOST re-watch recently and I somehow forgot how much I LOVED Sawyer (James) and Juliet together. Favorite couple and it pretty much came out of nowhere I guess. The actors sold the fuck out of that relationship. Their reunion scene in the Season 6 finale was so damn good.

[DigitalCount]

I think the moment I was sold on Sawyer/Juliet was when they woke up to the phone ringing and he used her back as a table to answer it. Something about that (besides the hotness) just locked me in on them forever.

[ByTor]

On 5/7/2016 at 7:09 PM, Katherine said:

ITA with your whole post--well said! Your analysis of the female characters is exactly how I feel, particularly regarding Juliet. I was never quite sure what the writers were going for with her.

I was never sure either.  Did she care about the pregnant women on the island or doing evil on behalf of The Others?  Did she really hate Ben & want to get away, or was she faking that?  She played both sides so much, I never knew what side she was supposed to be on.

[NutMeg]

On 8/19/2016 at 5:00 AM, ByTor said:

I was never sure either.  Did she care about the pregnant women on the island or doing evil on behalf of The Others?  Did she really hate Ben & want to get away, or was she faking that?  She played both sides so much, I never knew what side she was supposed to be on.

I never knew who she really was either. To me, she translated as the ultimate turncoat, always going where the wind was going and giving people (other characters) what they wanted to get. Granted, I haven't watched the last (probably?) two seasons, so maybe my opinion would have changed if I had. (I'm thinking of watching what I missed, but no idea where I stopped exactly, hence my being here in order to gather clues...)

[blueray]

Juliet wanted to leave the island she made that very clear. She did not like Ben (probably an understatement) and openly objected what he was doing. She pretended to go along with it but by season 4 her loyalty was to the survivors not the others (also shown as she is the only other to go back in time). That being said she did care about the pregnant woman and was really trying to help them. She was unable to find a cure for their situation and Ben refused to let her take the woman off the island to give birth.

She continues to want to leave until Sawyer convinces her to stay and of course falls for him :). And sadly never gets to leave :(

[amensisterfriend]

For me part of the issue is that the actress who played Juliet used this whispery, emotionless voice and the same blandly condescending smirk in virtually every single scene, so it was nearly impossible to tell what her actual thoughts and feelings were. I think they deliberately wanted her to seem enigmatic and intriguing, especially at first, but instead she came off weirdly robotic and just somehow never REAL to me even once we were supposed to know her better.

And, as with most characters (especially the female ones), the Lost writers were pretty all over the place with Juliet, like they were never quite sure from one episode to the next what they wanted her personality and motivations to be.  I felt like they vacillated as to whether she was insecure/jealous/secretly guilty about things she had done or borderline arrogant and remorseless. (Did she feel at all badly about having an affair with Harper's husband, by the way? I don't get the point of that story unless it was to show that she was once again 'the other woman' on the island since Jack had stronger feelings for Kate or...something, but either way it didn't illuminate anything about Juliet's personality to me other than she seemed weirdly entitled and insensitive about the whole thing). Ironically, pre-island flashbacks Juliet was my favorite---I know we were supposed to view her as too 'meek' and sensitive back then and feel like she grew stronger or tougher or something, but honestly, it's only the Juliet we saw in flashbacks who seemed like a genuinely kind, emotional, relatable woman to me. 

And I know people adored the Sawyer/Juliet pairing and can in theory definitely get how the Sawyer/Kate pairing represented the restless, impulsive, unhealthily passionate and unstable selves both Sawyer and Kate were meant to leave in the past while Juliet supposedly gave Sawyer the stability and maturity he needed to be a happier and better man. (And, to digress for just a second, I guess we're supposed to think Jack gave perpetual runaway Kate roots and security too, but the writers kind of made a mess of that as well!) The problem is that Sawyer/Juliet felt sort of rushed and forced to me. I have an admitted bias against the 'opposites attract/people who have absolutely nothing in common are clearly meant to be!' trope that's so popular in fiction, and I just don't see Juliet and Sawyer connecting on any level. Not that I can say who Juliet WOULD connect with, because, again, she was kind of a cipher at times and the writing and acting combined to keep me from feeling like she was a real person. Whenever I rewatch I actually feel like the widely despised Kate was a (however slightly!) better defined and developed character than the vastly more popular Juliet, and the actress actually made Kate a little more likable for me as well. 

But, yeah, the writing of Lost's female characters is near the very top of my 'worsts' list---as are the vast majority of the show's romantic relationships and the fact that the show ended up (unintentionally?!) sending the message that SO much of (nearly all of?!) what makes us happy, fulfilled and even human comes down specifically to romantic love and hooking up with that one soulmate a la Noah's Ark :)  

[AndySmith]

Quote

the comments section inevitably fills with fans who decry those who criticized the show as not understanding the ending or having not paid attention to the answers.

And when you ask them to explain any plot points, they either ignore your question or just huff and puff and restate "You just wouldn't get it!"

I'm surprised this thread isn't 3 or 4 pages long...

[FormerMod-a1]

13 minutes ago, AndySmith said:

I'm surprised this thread isn't 3 or 4 pages long...

Maybe if we added something about "Unsatisfactory Answers" to the title, it'd get more play.  

"Dropped Plots, Unanswered or Unsatisfactorily Answered Questions"

[AndySmith]

My UO: I hated Ben. Both the character and actor.

And I wasn't that fond of Hurley either.

[slf]

Honestly I thought Juliet was an inexplicably smug idiot for pretty much all of her run. It didn't help that Elizabeth Mitchell could barely move her face except to smirk, either. (I had to Google her because I couldn't remember her name and ffs in the first picture that comes up she's making that face. Gah.) She had no chemistry with anyone that I can recall, and not just romantically. (She seemed sexless almost.) Never will I buy her and Sawyer as a couple; poor Josh Holloway did his best to convey that Sawyer was genuinely in love with her but Mitchell could only muster mild interest in their scenes. Her reaction to Sawyer looking at Kate...I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh God, just let her die." I thought she was an incredibly weird choice for the show and was mystified they chose to keep her for the rest of the series when characters with far more potential were killed off. 

[amensisterfriend]

slf, a few of us were saying similar things about Juliet's condescending smugness, weird detachment and perpetual smirk in the 'bests and worsts' thread, so you're definitely not alone! I really don't get who she was supposed to be---or why the actress always had that same insufferable, 'I know far more than you silly mortals do' smirk in nearly every single scene. I'm guessing they were trying to make her an intriguing, enigmatic mystery woman, but it definitely didn't work for me, and this is coming from someone who usually LOVES more introverted characters. I even expressed the very UO that I've come to prefer the widely disliked Kate to the generally adored Juliet, who I only enjoyed in a couple of her off-island flashbacks :) 

And I wasn't that fond of Hurley either.

I never felt as much love for Hurley as we're supposed to, either. 

Honestly, I'm starting to realize that Lost is one of the very few shows ever that I cared about *despite* my feelings about most of the characters than because of them :) I love the themes and ideas, the structure/format, the gorgeous setting and camera work etc., but I genuinely like and relate to surprisingly few of the show's many characters, and am pretty much indifferent (or worse!) to the majority of them. 

[slf]

52 minutes ago, amensisterfriend said:

slf, a few of us were saying similar things about Juliet's condescending smugness, weird detachment and perpetual smirk in the 'bests and worsts' thread, so you're definitely not alone! I really don't get who she was supposed to be---or why the actress always had that same insufferable, 'I know far more than you silly mortals do' smirk in nearly every single scene. I'm guessing they were trying to make her an intriguing, enigmatic mystery woman, but it definitely didn't work for me, and this is coming from someone who usually LOVES more introverted characters. I even expressed the very UO that I've come to prefer the widely disliked Kate to the generally adored Juliet, who I only enjoyed in a couple of her off-island flashbacks :)

For over a decade EM's been rumored to have had Botox and I believe it, especially above her upper lip/around her mouth, her forehead, and sometimes alongside her nose. There are times when she smiles and her mouth/cheek area is just straining. If you find pictures of her when she's younger she's doing that damn smirk even then. I wonder if she was cast because her inability to move her face much just fit with the "intriguing, enigmatic mystery woman" angle I agree they were (unsuccessfully) going for or if they went that route to account for EM's weakness as an actress. I generally like introverted characters as well, and even like some rude ones, but that can't be the total personality; I need humor, or intelligence, or badassery. Juliet was wooden, pretentious, and in the end self-pitying.

[slf]

On 5/5/2015 at 8:07 AM, amensisterfriend said:

7) What were your favorite friendships/frenemyships/non-romantic relationships?

1) Who were your 5-7 favorite characters?
Kate, Sayid, Sun, Sawyer, Danielle (sue me).

2) Who were your 5-7 LEAST favorite characters? 
Jack, Juliet, Ben, Charlie, Boone.

3) How would you rank the seasons from favorite to least favorite?
Basically I lost patience after season 4, so my favorites are seasons 1 and 2.

4) What were your 10(ish!) favorite episodes?
Outside of the pilot no one episode stands out to me as being solid all on it's own. That moment when Jack's been running panicked through the jungle and then bursts onto the beach and how the sound explodes? Bloodied people crawling through the sand, a guy getting sucked into an engine, Shannon screaming her head off. God, I remember how cool I thought the premiere was. Oh, to be so naive again. After that it's more like "I liked this character's story in this episode."

5) What were your favorite actual/would-be romantic relationships?
Kate/Sawyer, Kate/Sayid, Sayid/Shannon, Sun/Jin, Rose/Bernard.

6) What were your LEAST favorite romantic relationships?
Kate/Jack, Jack/Juliet, Juliet/Sawyer, Shannon/Boone.

7) What were your favorite friendships/frenemyships/non-romantic relationships?
The friendship between Sayid and Kate was a favorite, especially early on, and I wish they'd utilized them more. Kate and Claire also has a wonderful dynamic in the early seasons, with Kate trying to protect Claire. I also liked when Kate and Sun worked together and that's another friendship they should've developed more. The interactions between Danielle and Kate made me wish they were setting Kate up to go off into the jungle by herself and become an intense and slightly frightening survivalist lady and I was bitterly disappointed when that didn't happen. Sawyer's friendships with Hurley, Jin, and Miles yielded a lot of good scenes and lines.

[joelene]

On 2 september 2016 at 8:03 PM, AndySmith said:

My UO: I hated Ben. Both the character and actor.

And I wasn't that fond of Hurley either.

Dude. Hurley is annoyed the hell out of me. Dude. 

I did like Juliet though! But saying that I still see where you guys are coming from.

What amensisterfriend said about liking the show despite most characters instead of because of is definitely true, though. It's why I have a hard time rewatching the first two season. Most of them annoy the hell out of me so the last few times I've rewatched it's been mid-season three and onwards (for the rollercoaster story). I started season 2 a while back but after episode four I couldn't keep going. 

[AndySmith]

I liked Juliet too. With and without Sawyer :)

As for the characters...I did like most of them, but that may have more to do with the cast than with the writing of the show. Overall, this show had one of the better casts, and the chemistry between most of them is what kept me going till the end. Lord knows it wasn't the shitty writing, non-existent long term plotting, and nonsensical "answers" (when they bothered to answer something, that is).

Edited September 4, 2016 by AndySmith

[amensisterfriend]

What amensisterfriend said about liking the show despite most characters instead of because of is definitely true, though. It's why I have a hard time rewatching the first two season. Most of them annoy the hell out of me so the last few times I've rewatched it's been mid-season three and onwards (for the rollercoaster story). I started season 2 a while back but after episode four I couldn't keep going.

S1-S2 are incredibly slow going for me for the same reasons! I just don't like most of these people enough to spend the comparatively slower paced time with them that was S1-S2 :) I used to think S3 was my least favorite season, but now it's become arguably my favorite, which I assume is unpopular...?! The love triangle/quadrangle stuff is annoying, but not all that much more so than in other seasons, and there are just so many awesomely thrilling, fascinating, borderline 'trippy' episodes in S3 that, unlike some of the show's other highly regarded episodes, actually still hold up really well for me despite knowing what does (and doesn't!) end up happening throughout the series. And I'm just really fascinated by the whole idea of the Others, like to the point that by then I'd rather have seen a lot more of the weird history and day to day functions of the Others than of 'our' characters, most of whom I was pretty weary of by then or not even all that interested in to begin with. I've also come to the supremely unpopular (and different from what I used to think!) opinion that I wish they'd just stuck with S3's Sawyer/Kate pairing and budding Jack/Juliet pairing for the remainder of the series, both because I have the UO of thinking those pairings were better suited and more compatiblethan Jack/Kate and Sawyer/Juliet and, more to the point, because then we could have been spared any additional back and fourth triangle/quadrangle-related nonsense for the rest of the series!  

S4 doesn't hold up as well for me as I keep hoping it will, but I do really like parts of it and hold the unpopular opinion that I liked the freighter folks more than many of our original characters. 

[AndySmith]

I still like season 1. The dynamics between the characters was interesting, and the flashbacks were still (mostly) fresh and revealing, before they repeated the same stuff over and over again season 2 and onwards. Honestly, I think the main reason we got the flashforwards was because there were only so many ways the writers could keep rehashing the same themed backstory over and over again ("Hey y'all know Jack likes to fix things, right?").

[joelene]

I'd suppose I'd still rewatch some of the episodes, because of course there are still many great ones. Pilot, Walkabout, Solitary, Raised By Another, Numbers, Deux Ex Machina, Exodus. I suppose I should do the same for season 2 one of these days. I just need to skip the Jack/Kate/Charlie/JinSun flashback episodes. 

[Craphole Island]

I think my biggest unpopular opinion is I love Shannon. She was one of my favorites and I'm still upset they killed her off as soon as they did bc I think they could have really developed her into something interesting. I would've loved to see her interact with more characters, specifically Sawyer (not romantically) and the other female characters. And I thought Maggie Grace was great in the role.

 

Hell my username is thanks to her!

[BeatrixK]

Just started a rewatch over the weekend, since it's crappy time for standard fare TV, since everyone is out Holiday-ing.

It's like getting back with old friends.

1) Who were your 5-7 favorite characters?

Gotta go with Hurley, Ben, Sawyer, Rose, and Sayid and Mr. Echo, and MiB.  Maybe throw non-stir-crazy Desmond in there.

2) Who were your 5-7 LEAST favorite characters? 

Ana-Lucia, Ana-Lucia...then Ana-Lucia.  Oh, and Michael. 

3) How would you rank the seasons from favorite to least favorite?
2 - 4.

4) What were your 10(ish!) favorite episodes?

S.O.S., Walkabout, The Constant, The Cost of Living, Greatest Hits, LaFleur

5) What were your favorite actual/would-be romantic relationships?

Juliet/Sawyer, Rose/Bernard, Sun/Jin, Hurley/Libby, Sayid/Shannon

6) What were your LEAST favorite romantic relationships?

Jack/Kate, Boone/Shannon

7) What were your favorite friendships/frenemyships/non-romantic relationships?

Charlie/Hurley, Ben/Locke, Kate/Sun

[Blandings]

I love that this thread is so accepting and respectful of everybody's perspectives! 

I enjoyed Shannon too. She added humor and personality and showed capacity for growth. As someone else noted, she was also one of the most clearly and consistently written female characters. 

Season 5 is my favorite season and possibly the only one I'd rewatch more than a couple of times. 

I didn't like Sawyer much until late season 4, and now he's one of my favorite characters.

I see a lot of dislike for Juliet and can understand where everyone's coming from, but she's one of my favorite characters; not just on Lost, but in general. I can blather on about why if anyone is interested, although I would never try to change anyone's mind! I just think it's interesting to see different takes on characters, especially one as open to multiple valid interpretations as Juliet.  

Juliet and Sawyer are one of the only TV romances I ever really loved.

I've come to like Kate much more than I ever expected to, just not with or in relation to either Jack or Sawyer. I liked her bond with Aaron a lot. It's cliche to add in a kid as a way of giving characters perspective and showing them how to love, but for Kate it actually made sense; she was never rooted anywhere and kept acting impulsively based on her own whims and fears, and having a kid forces you to have a little stability and structure in your life while not acting as selfishly or recklessly.  

I read that the writers thought of killing off Jack in the pilot, and on balance I wish they had. Jack himself is difficult for me to like or care about, although I agree that he was easier to enjoy in the last season. The main reason I would have liked to see the series without Jack isn't about my dislike for Jack or his relationship with Kate - it's because I think the group dynamics in the first few seasons would have been a lot more interesting without Jack there. He was the almost universally acknowledged leader, and it would have been enjoyable to see how they functioned without one person clearly in charge.

I disagree with the most common criticism of the show, which is that we didn't get any answers to the questions raised throughout the series. I felt like the majority of questions were answered, even if not exactly in the ways many of us would have liked. 

I think Claire could have been a great character and an asset to the show. It's a shame she was saddled with Charlie.  

Hurley annoys me. Maybe it's because he too was around Charlie a lot so I like him less by association. I really detest Charlie, but that doesn't seem very unpopular here. But even after Charlie died, Hurley just isn't a character who I like that much. It felt as if the writers tried too hard to make him the adorable fan favorite.

I almost never rewatch this show like I do my other favorites, but it's always with me and affected me more than almost any other series I've ever seen. 

[Blandings]

Quote

Just started a rewatch over the weekend, since it's crappy time for standard fare TV, since everyone is out Holiday-ing.

It's like getting back with old friends.

There's something about the holidays that makes me think of Lost too. It might be because too much time with relatives has me wishing I too could find myself on an isolated island! 

1) Who were your 5-7 favorite characters?

Juliet, Sawyer, Desmond, Ben, Daniel Farraday, Sayid, Miles

2) Who were your 5-7 LEAST favorite characters? 

CHARLIE, Ana Lucia, Jack until the final season, Michael, Locke 

3) How would you rank the seasons from favorite to least favorite?

5 is my favorite, 1 and 2 are my least favorites, and 3, 4 and 6 fall somewhere in between 

4) What were your 10(ish!) favorite episodes?

I'll come back to this one after I study the episode list. Be forewarned that at least four of mine will be from the fifth season. 

5) What were your favorite actual/would-be romantic relationships?

Juliet/Sawyer are the kind of couple that inspires me to write terribly cheesy fanfic, which is my way of saying I love this relationship more than almost any other on TV.  I like Desmond/Penny and I agree with people who said  Sayid/Kate had very interesting potential that of course the show squandered in favor of one of the most annoying love triangles I've ever seen. I liked Daniel/Charlotte as well and Sayid/Shannon appealed to me more than I would have expected. 

6) What were your LEAST favorite romantic relationships?

Jack/Kate, Sawyer/Kate, Charlie/Claire, Shannon/Boone.  All these relationships made the characters, and especially the female characters, less likeable to me than they were otherwise.  

7) What were your favorite friendships/frenemyships/non-romantic relationships?

Like many of you, the lack of strong female character development and female friendships on this show was a disappointment to me. I liked the relationship between Kate and Sun and like to believe that under different circumstances Juliet could have had interesting friendships with both of those women too. A Juliet/Claire friendship could have been a fun study in contrasts; warm, open, intuitive, free spirited Claire and the carefully clinical, reserved, book smart, scared to be hopeful Juliet. I love the friendship between Sawyer and Miles. Sawyer and Farraday could have had a sweet, funny and interesting unexpected friendship too. The Jack/Claire bond was underdeveloped but nice, and I liked them both more in scenes with each other than with most other characters.  

Edited November 23, 2016 by Blandings

[basiltherat]

I loved Benry,  the pilot (Frank?), Miles, Guyliner and above all, Sayid. 

No love for Ana-Lucia, Michael, WAAAALT, Eloise, Kate, Jack, and, above all, Jacob.

Felt pity for Man in Black, aka Esau.

Hated anything that happened on Fishbiscuit Island.

I am a sucker for the dramatic and lyrical love of Penny and Desmond.

If I were stuck on Craphole Island with any of the men (except Charlie, he's a whining boy), I would be a very happy woman, but I would choose Sayid because He Gets Things Done! (Yes, yes, I know it didn't do poor Shannon any damn good.)

[morgankobi]

When Kate came back to the island, after fulfilling Sawyer's wish to make sure Clementine was OK, was there no "holy cow, I had actually met Clementine's mother before the plane crash, isn't that odd" discussion? Since Sawyer was pretty much the only person to realize he had a connection to one of these stranger's (Jack's dad in the bar), it might have been interesting.

[blueray]

8 hours ago, morgankobi said:

When Kate came back to the island, after fulfilling Sawyer's wish to make sure Clementine was OK, was there no "holy cow, I had actually met Clementine's mother before the plane crash, isn't that odd" discussion? Since Sawyer was pretty much the only person to realize he had a connection to one of these stranger's (Jack's dad in the bar), it might have been interesting.

They never did discuss it on the show, but I feel like that would have come up after they left at the end. Seeing as they both know her ;).

[hypnotoad]

Hurley's lack of weight loss. I mean seriously. All they did was run around that damn island. I realize they were only there like 4 months or something, but he should have lost weight.

There was a lot that didn't get answered, but I still love this show. It is practically the only show (in recent years) that I have watched live. I never DVR'ed it, I always watched live. I loved it from beginning to end. The thing is I never expected to learn all the answers (no matter what the writers etc said), I had learned bitter lessons from The X-Files and Alias. I was here for the characters - maddening though they could be.