How Lost Changed TV Shows Forever

Enjoyed the show, even the ending. I don’t know why people were so confused by it when time travel and supernatural beings exist. Some of the flashbacks could’ve been shorter though. I got tired of seeing the Korean couple’s past strife and even got tired of Sawyer’s.

Lost perfectly encapsulates a lot of what's wrong with modern storytelling. Writers throwing stuff in, when even they don't know what it means, and it all ending up meaning nothing. Just throwing in stuff to be 'mysterious'. There's no mystery if the writers don't even know what it means. It's just stuff happening!

Damn, I thought this was going to be an article with content. Instead, it's just an advertisement for a slideshow...

@timmyp1982:

Totally. I was over on Lostpedia forums a lot back then, and aside from the diverse community and the fun speculation;

one of my favorite things was a weekly graphics contest, making themed banners with screen caps/etc.

No other TV show surrounded itself with such a full experience like LOST did. At least for those who sought it out.

Lost is one of my favorite ever TV shows despite its abysmal ending.

Say what you want about LOST, the journey was so good, it overshadowed the finale.

The best shows in the world have loveable characters and LOST had a plethora of loveable characters.

All i remember from Lost was the script writers admitting they added stuff for the "rule of cool" and for "shock and awe" and thus they had a great difficulty of making up the ending and connecting all the loose plots.

If you dont know the Mystery Box Technique (search it on Youtube) in loose terms, it is the journey and not the destination, meaning the writer invents plot threads that may or may not be solved in the next episodes or sequels (if it is a movie).

IMO Lost is the case that should be avoided as a a show and the complete failure of the Abrams "Mystery box technique/and mentality (he was producer). In Lost there was almost a new "mystery" or "unexplained thing" that defied expectations in almost every episode. And forget about the show actually explaining most of these meaningfully.

That is not to say that Lost was a very good show (in some ways like cinematography, actors and so on) or that the Mystery Box technique isnt a good technique (provided you know its big limitations).

The problem is that the Mystery Box technique is unsustainable in the long run if you just keep adding unexplained stuff. Because in the end these stuff have to make sense. It may work on a fantasy or sci-fi setting (where deus-ex magic/science can explain the unexplainable) but too much and it bloats.

And for the maximum level of problems lets see Star Wars: New Trilogy.

Star Wars: Force Awakens had Abram's Mystery Box technique. Too many mysteries were introduced.

StarWars: The Last Jedi had Johnson's Essential Technique. (Only keep what is needed in the plot). I dont remember the real name of the technique so i call it "essential" for this article. Nevertheless it is quite an old technique from the early days of theater/cinema/and so on.

This technique has very few mysteries because the essence is you if there is no point to show plot threads that will no happen. It is the opposite of the Mystery Box technique and its limitations is that there is no room for unexpected plot threads that may arise naturally. Example if your actors have good chemistry, there is no real room to have a plot thread expanding that good chemistry.

IMO the Mystery Box Technique is better than the Essential Technique (which lacks flexibility) because it sets up more plot threads that may or may not be followed further in sequels/other episodes etc.

However if the Mystery Box technique is not kept in check we have phenomena as the Lost.

PS1: Also the Fringe (despite not as bloated with unexplained plot threads as Lost) could follow a similar example, but a final season that was very different in style and approach saved the show (which had a much stronger foundation) admirably.

Lost had much worse foundations (every episode had one mystery) and as such was doomed from the beginning.

PS2: In case you didnt know G.R.R. Martin greatest fear for Game of Thrones was “What if I do a ‘Lost’?” So yeas Lost has become an example to avoid by writers.

In that sense Lost really did change the TV shows. But not as a good example.

The Sopranos - enough said.

how Lost suck in every way?

Lost sucks. End thread

First season was amazing, the whole survival thing, then the flash forwards just killed it for me. It went from being amazing to being the worst show I have ever seen.

Well after what Abrams did in Alias, I didn't have much faith in a good ending and it was a mess too. A smoke monster who was a bitter man and a plug in a cave to contain all evil? Please.

'Lost' describes the plot for the show.

I can't imagine watching this show all at once, binging it.

The slow burn of watching it during the seasons, and between seasons...that was an era of my life for sure.

Sure there were a lot of convoluted loose ends, but I loved it.

a good bit of woven mystery. Everything /felt/ like it had a double meaning or alternate perspective. The show was a lot of fun to try and figure out with friends or in the forums.

Lost did not change TV forever, Twin Peaks did. Without Twin Peaks there would be no Lost.

I watched the show and enjoyed it. Not the very best writing, or plots, and it had some very very convenient plot mechanisms... I liked it mostly for the characters, the story telling, and probably most importantly the location.

How lost ruined tv forever. It launched the carrot-on-a-stick model in which the viewer is the donkey.

Lost was the show I blame for making me very cautious about watching this type of show. For example, I wont watch Stranger Things. I think it's put together very well, love the actors, like the dialogue, but I wont spent years wondering about a show just to find out the creators have been stringing me along and making it up as they go.

Lost proved to me it's worth it to wait a few years, then check it out when it's over.

Ugh... Yes, let's celebrate a show who's writers were told to write any insane garbage they could think of and not worry a bit about validating any of it.

Lost is how you do TV wrong in the long term. Good gods...

The feels. So many feels. LOST truly was a masterpiece of television. For me it was all about the characters, yes it is a shame some things were not answered, but the the mystery of not knowing is what made LOST what it was.

Oh, wow. They're letting Tamoor post his blogs. It must be a slow non news day.

"but it's important to note that this was the very first show to capture the hearts and minds of TV audiences living in the internet age."

WTF is this shit? No, it wasn't. Not even close. Technically Babylon 5 was. And there was more forum discussions about Trek shows then there ever was about Lost. I know, because I posted in a majority of the Lost forums, which were slow as shit honestly. How old are you Tamoor? Early 20s? Because you just butchered TV history in one article.

Oh... and Lost was a crappy show that deceived its audience and Lindelof should have been blacklisted from Hollywood.

"If you'd like to read instead of watch, well it's still an annoyingly-formatted multi-page clickthrough."

One of the best TV Pilots ever. Loved the series but specifically think that the first episode does a great job of hooking the audience.

Next to the X Files, this was my favorite TV series ever, ending and all, (which I actually thought was pretty great).

Funny. Just watched season 1 again 2 weeks ago out of boredom.

Lost had a great start, but ended up raising more questions than answers in the end. Just like The Walking Dead (which is a drivel and and a drag to watch these days) it ended up to be shit in the end.

For me, Lost changed my willingness to jump on to a series from the beginning. As such, I didn't have to suffer the disappointment of the Dexter finale. Thanks JJ!

Wah wah wah! Dear god, everyone loves to cry about this show. The point of this show for me was the journey, not the destination. And it was a great journey.

Lost is garbage.

Abrams and Lindelof are HACKS. Simple as that.

Hell the very insulting fact that at the end, they were all dead from minute 1 and that the flash foward is purgatory really is insulting. Don't give me that crap that the Island was real, NO it wasn't. Stop lying to yourself.

It was a crappy melodrama with a premise and no payoff.