this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
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I watched Lost when it aired and Leftovers during the pandemic. I won't post spoilers, but I think Lindelof has a unique brand of writing intentionally disappointing stories that's not for me. Like most people, my partner and i didn't like how Lost ended, but the internet would have me believe that we are the only people in the world who didn't like Leftovers.
I like how the ride starts, I just don't think he's even trying to write an ending that satisfies all the questions he takes the time to ask.
That's fair. Lost had trouble because they were building the track as they went. I still loved the ride though. For me, I don't think every question needs an answer as long as what it creates feeds into the themes of the show. Like on Lost, I wish they never explained the Smoke Monster, it just wasn't necessary.
With Leftovers, I'd say it's ending is the perfect summation of the show and anything else would betray what it was going for.
spoiler
It's a show about logic vs belief and that's where it leaves us, do you believe Nora? What happened to the 2% ultimately doesn't matter because the show is about how people deal with the unexplainable. There's no satisfying answer to that mystery.You're not alone in not liking the ending though. I've had this conversation before and it's totally ok not to.
I appreciate what he says he's going for, which is that it's a story about the characters, not the sci-fi/magic. If you've watched Tales from the Loop, I think it does a much better job at this. You always want to know more about the tech, but you're never lead to believe that that's what the story is about.
I would liken good story writing to a magic trick. The writer has to create a bunch of threads, and weave them together in such a way that are interesting, but just opaque enough that you can't predict how they all tie together in the end. And once you reach the end, like a magic trick, your mind is blown at how well everything fits together.
But Lost and Leftovers feel like they're keeping a bunch of threads going, only to drop 90% of them on the floor, tie two together, and say "it was never about those other threads". And I feel like I'm still standing there like, "um...aren't you going to guess my card?"
Lindelof thinks that's his gimmick, but to me just feels like he's just decided he's not going to do the actual difficult part of story writing.
This snippet is my favorite review of Lost.