Lost: Initial Thoughts

So I'm going to watch the finale again in a day or two, try to really get into the details. However, like everybody else, I've got my knee-jerk reaction to the finale.

First of all, I liked it. It was a nice send-off to the series, and I dug everybody being happy in the Alterna-verse, especially the reunions of the characters that were killed off and hadn't returned in a while. Just nice visuals and a good way to go out. The drama of the Light in the Cave was a little iffy...I see how there had to be one final problem to fix, and it was a good way for Jack to go out, but it was a little out of the blue, and fixed a little too easily. The final Jack/Locke confrontation had the potential to be really epic, and it was over too soon. Keeping the two of them apart until that scene would have been a better deal too, really build it up. I like the idea of Hurley and Ben taking care of the Island, I'd watch that series. I liked how they were able to set up those iconic Island moments and parallel them to the Alterna-verse methods of "waking up" the Island memories. I wonder if the bomb created the Alterna-verse, or if it just trapped them there. I wonder if the Alterna-verse was Purgatory, or an actual afterlife. I'd like to have seen Jacob taken to task more for the crap he pulled. I'd have liked more resolution on the Dharma Initiative. On the whole though, it was a satisfying end.

It's like a Stephen King novel: He creates deep characters, brings in an interesting supernatural situation, then sets them loose. The resolution of the supernatural stuff always seems a little disappointing (see: Under the Dome), but the journey is worth the slightly disappointing destination. Getting hung up on some of the minutia prevents you from taking in the big picture. Lost was a hell of a ride, and I'll miss it. Hopefully, it provides the template for another show like it, but one that plots out the whole story in advance. Well done Lost. Well done.