I'm not sure either. I have recently began to think that they are making it up as they go. Not really episode to episode but more like season 1st half to season 2nd half. In season 2, it didn't seem that anything was really progressing but the second half really took off. I feel that they know what they want to happen by the end of the season, but not really how they want to get there. I also think that they intentionally throw in bizarre things that they don't really have an explanation for, and later on down the road, decide what the explanation is and do an episode about it. I feel this is the reason why the 'monster' is gone for long lengths of time (because they haven't really decided what they want it to be).
I also think they they leave plots a little open ended intentionally so they can extrapolate(sp?), and build on it if need be. For instance, I am fairly sure that they didn't already have in their storyline that Mr. Ecko's brother was on the Nigerian drug smuggling plane back when they first introduced the plane plot device in order to play off Charlie's drug problem episode. BUT, they obviously knew that they had the tailsection people in mind because that was who they(Boone) talked to on the radio when he climbed up there. Or maybe they didn't. Who knows.
I haven't really formed an opinion of this season yet. The 1st episode's first 5 minutes were awesome, but the rest didn't really do it for me. I'm pretty sure that they didn't have the 3rd season 3rd episode (Locke/Polar Bear) planned out when they put the polar bear into the episode waaay back in the 1st season. I think they changed their mind from Walt being some kind of supernatural/gifted kid (polar bear in his comic) to the whole Dharma Zoo escaped polar bears plot. I'm tending to agree with your wife. If you would have asked me back at the end of season 1 though, I would have said that they had everything planned out.
I am still really digging the show though. How was tonight's episode? The preview really looked brutal (for Sawyer).
Chief Technical Officer
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I suspect that the creators of Lost have a plan in the same sense that I suspect the Cylons have a plan, which is to say that different ones have different plans that may not agree or even possibly coexist, and many of said plans will not be implemented.
But I also think that that's more of a plan than Chris Carter ever had with X-Files.
-Vic.
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I'm in total agreement with you about your X-Files comment. Man, I didn't like how that whole thing turned out. BTW, what is Chris Carter up to nowadays?
Regardless of what the plans are for Lost, I'm still going to watch it every week. I guess whatever they are doing, they are doing it right!
I'm a late comer to BG (due to the fact that I'm old enough to have seen the original and didn't think it would be good) but, thanks to Netflix, I'll be caught up soon. I'm really looking forward to it.
LOST is like a playing in a game of D&D where the DM had a great basic set up and a number of cool ideas for a campaign world with lots of cool secrets and mysteries for the players to unravel but the DM never actually ties up any loose ends or ever gives the players a pay-off for all their adventuring trouble.
By the this point in the campaign/series the DM is struggling and hasn’t been preparing at all, he just keeps coming up with new mysteries to confound the players, pouring yet more and more dangling teases on top of those that have gone before and he is digging himself into a very deep hole.
The whole time at the table the players have been shouting out what they think are the answers to the many mysteries of the campaign (guessing many correctly) and in order to save face the DM alters the campaign so even if the players have ‘guessed right’ they still end up LOST.
I can’t be bothered with this show, I LOST interest by the second series. Why do they all look so good all the time? Why don’t the characters ask questions more, why are the characters content to sit around and not say anything about the entire set up and all the weird goings on? The sky went crazy and yet they don’t seem that bothered! I want to see scenes where a group of people are sat around talking excitedly about all their theories like real life people would do. It’s completely stupid.
I think I hate this show now.
You absolutely have a valid theory, R-type. There are days that I sometimes agree with you. I guess I just hope that it isn't the case and keep watching.
Unfortunately, I think that no matter what the ending is, it won't provide the satisfaction/answers that people are hoping for. If the show drags out too long it will become convoluted and messy. If the show gets a short notice cancellation in a couple more seasons (budgets, people lose interest, actors move on) they won't be able to tie everything up in a believable and well written way. I guess I'm just preparing myself for disappointment, which is actually pretty crappy outlook if you think about.
This has been discussed on another message board I follow. The basic idea is, when they were writing the first season, they were making it up as they went along and didn't do any long-term plans because they really didn't expect it to be as successful as it was; they never expected to make it to a second season, and wouldn't have been surprised if the networks pulled a Firefly and cancelled it mid-season. So, they didn't structure their writing to support a long-term plan or continuity.
Their writing goals were:
1. There's a big picture of what's going on, and it's scientifically plausible (no outer-space aliens, no dinosaurs). They have stated there is a believeable reason for everything we have seen. They stated this before people started having conversations with dead people, however.
2. They have also said numerous times that this series isn't about surviving, or the island, or the anomalies, or the Others. It's about the characters and how they interact and react to what happens. Continuity and details were not part of the bible when they began writing it.
Once they got to the second season, however, they tried to change their tune and retcon a long-term plan. "Oh, sure, we've got plans. Everything's all plotted out and makes perfect sense; you'll see!" while somebody in the back of the room waves storyboards around to dry the fresh ink...
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My wife and I were talking about this tonight.
She thinks they're just making stuff up as they go along, and they have no idea where they're going.
I don't know.
Is there an overall adventure path, or just random weirdness?
My friends and i are in agreement with your wife...they are just making things up as they go along. They tried this garbage with the short run series "Earth2?" and it flopped.
Thoth- Amon