Off Topic II

[fatlever]

lucky for me i still look 10 years younger than i am... i may look like a nintendo kid but i am really an atari kid.

[Diop]

I finished watching Jersey Shore last night. Bloody hilarious.

They were all crazy in their own special way, not sure I would want them as friends but they would be entertaining to be around.

I've asked my wife to call me "the situation" from now on, but I don't think she's keen.

[fatlever]

sachmo - it was lightning in a bottle. they found magic with pauly d, situation and snookie. i dont think they will ever be able to duplicate the chemistry captured in that first season. everything has changed now that they are all tv whores now.

[fatlever]

check out this story
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/0 ... onned.html

crazy.

[fatlever]

the new nets owner doesnt own a cell phone or a computer and loves banging hot chicks. sounds like an interesting fella.

[Walt Cronkite]

Yea, Mutant Russian Mark Cuban is awesome.

[amcoolio]

Has there ever been such a disappointing, awful series finale than LOST's was tonight? For such a strong and great show LOST was the first 3 seasons, and the hype that the finale got, it turned out to be a complete dud and further doomed its once legendary status.

[BigSlam]

My wife is a big Lost fan and she was still pretty furious this morning about last nights closer.

Still a zillion unanswered questions in her opinion. Seems like they took the easy way out and rather than explaining everything they just went with an all encompassing solution - which was pretty soft.

[fatlever]

so what was the ending (in terms a person that doesnt watch the show can understand)?

[chrbal]

Has there ever been such a disappointing, awful series finale than LOST's was tonight?

Hi, my name is Seinfeld.

[amcoolio]

Being a huge Seinfeld fan as well, their ending wasn't strong but at least was funny and pretty witty and tied all the seasons together.

LOST, its like the writers just gave up. They took two of the most powerful, creative, and best TV characters of all time, Ben and Locke, and made them out to be pathetic.

For fatlever, there are many analysis, but the common one is that the ending is that Jack, the show's main character, dies and when he does he is greeted by his dead father in the alternate reality timeline that has been going on for 3 seasons now and all his friends are there, and they have a reunion. And thats it. The island means nothing.

Lots of people are furious. The point of the show was explaining the mysteriousness of the island and its effect on people. They took that out of play and focused just on the people and made up this "the island is make believe" type explanation at the end.

[chrbal]

It was a clip show spliced into a lazy effort. Lets take these New York characters, put them in the midwest and then see what happens.

The Island is real for that universe. What gave you the idea that the Island is make believe?

[fatlever]

sounds like the Dallas JR episode.

[Benjamin Linus]

Long post, prepare yourself...

Well I thought the finale was phenomenal, well done, and just a great resolution to the show. However, I can see why some people were a bit underwhelmed with it's ending and I think it's either because... they were expecting answers to things that didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, or with so much of the show being a mystery / left up to the imagination they built up so many ideas and theories that it would have been impossible for the show to execute an ending that met that incredibly high level of expectation, or they just simply didn't understand it.

I'll take a shot at summing it up. Obviously if you don't want to know what happens don't read any further...

Essentially, what we saw throughout the span of the show was the tail end of the Jacob era. Jacob was a guy that basically manipulated events and protected the island. He also brought in, what are the main characters of the show, to the island as his replacement. In the second to last episode, he ends up passing the torch to Jack, the main character of the show, and in his short time as the 'protector' of the island he kills the evil (or the smoke monster) and then sacrifices himself to save the island. Before he does the latter, he passes the torch to Hurley, the heavy guy, and it's assumed that him and Ben run the island for who knows how long - as the show ends with Jack dying. Also in the finale, we learn the alternate reality that was introduced at the beginning of the season is really purgatory/limbo and none of the characters can move on until they encounter their past and let go.

There really is just so much that's happened on the show that it's difficult to come up with a decent explanation without going into great detail, and if you've never seen LOST that summation probably sounds awful.

But anyway, I thought they did a great job bringing the show to an end. The story fulfilled it's purpose, a replacement for Jacob was found and the antagonist was defeated. Not to mention, the finale had some of the best moments of the series, IMO. Just about every one of the encounters in the alternate reality were incredibly moving, especially Juliet and Sawyer's; Hurley embracing Ben as his sidekick on the island, and of course the final scene where after Jack puts all of his faith into the island and sacrifices himself, he lays dying in the same spot where the show began as he watches the one he loves fly off the island.

It was a great conclusion. You're left still wandering about the origin and the full extent of the island's 'powers', the future of the island (how well Hurley and Ben end up running the island and for how long), and about the lives the remaining survivors go on to live. There are still quite a few other unanswered questions, but at this point they seem so irrelevant and out of context that they would have totally ruined the flow of the story had they tried to tie them in with the last few episodes. Just like most good books, and what has made this show so great over the years, a lot of what has happened is probably best left open-ended.

[Walt Cronkite]

There on an island, right? Why does the fat guy never lose weight?

Edit: OH, BECAUSE THE ISLAND IS MAKE BELIEVE. Were they in vegetative states? I'm angry and I haven't seen a single episode.

2nd edit: Benjamin Linus swoops in to ruin my post. The Island is not make believe, it is something that must be overcome to escape limbo and now Chunk has an excuse.

[amcoolio]

Its dumb either way. I know that the island was "real" and that they were all there. The "you have to overcome your flaws to escape the island" storyline is dumb and should have never even been in the show. So I guess if you loved that storyline, and enjoyed having it crammed down your throat then you really loved this finale.

My point is that after six years, that is what they chose as the main story? Go and rewatch seasons 1-3.... this storyline has absolutely nothing to do with the show to that point and the island being purgatory was only speculation. Its like the writers copped out once they realized the story they were focusing on, which is what this finale was 100% about, was going nowhere.

It wasn't moving at all, sorry. I'm a hardcore fan and I never once was moved, but more wanted to puke at the cliche ending they picked. How can you be moved by Sawyer and Juliette being reuinted in the alternate universe, when you could see the cliche storybook ending coming from a mile away? Not to mention the Sawyer/Juliette story arc wasn't the main defining point in either Juliette or Sawyer's time on LOST. It lasted what, maybe 5 episodes at the end of season 5? There were some 80+ episodes before then where Sawyer could give a rats ass about Juliette.

[Benjamin Linus]

Dude, just sit back and think about it all. The whole series, since the beginning, revolved around protecting the island's mysterious resources. That's basically it in a nutshell. Plus, how could you have not found the Juliet-Sawyer reuniting scene moving? They only fell in love and lived together for over three years as part of the Dharma Initiative, at least up until she DIED IN HIS ARMS, do you not have a heart!!!

[Walt Cronkite]

I left my heart in Hamsterdam.

[e4Nf6]

Lost finale was great....I don't know what all the complainers are talking about....

What was left unanswered? I honestly think that many of the people complaining about the ending simply didn't follow the show closely enough to understand it. (not necessarily including amcoolio or Slams wife in that) I've talked to multiple people who told me the ending sucked because "the island wasn't real" which is flatly incorrect.

Some of coolio's objections I just don't understand...

- Sawyer spent YEARS with Juliette in the 70's, I don't see what is so strange about the two of them being happy to see each other again.
- I don't know what you mean when you say "people have to overcome their flaws" to get off the island. Lost of people got off the island without experiencing any significant personal growth, Widmore/Ben/Michael etc.
- How did "the island mean nothing?"

btw, Walt. At one point there is a whole story arc about why Hurley doesn't lose weight. It turns out there are a group of people on the island called the Dharma Initiative and they get food parachuted in on big pallets. The Losties have been using the food drops for themselves and Hurley was taking more than his fair share of the food.

Also, The wire is the greatest television show ever.....

[Walt Cronkite]

Damn Lost writers, makin me look foolish. Ain't THAT a bitch.

MJ is going to be on the cover of NBA2k11, dude must be desperate for dough!