Bubba's Life Of Movies: June 2010

So after taking a significant time off I found it only fitting to start the blog back up again to speak about something that meant a lot to me….LOST.

Here is why I think it succeeded in what it set out to do so screw all you haters.

Each of my friends know that when I get obsessed about something that I push myself to the extreme where I’m not satisfied filling up on everything the show/movie has to offer until after it’s over. With the Lost mythology, there was almost too much to handle but spread over 6 years made it doable. Leading up to the finale of LOST, I read every message board, every article and interview with “Darlton”, saw the NY Times Interview in the movie theatre, rewatched all the past seasons with commentary and every bonus material on the Blu-Rays. So I thought I was prepared. But now that’s over, I realize that for all effort I took into guessing how it would end and completely immersing myself in the story aspect, I forgot to prepare myself for the emotional punch of the ending and the reality of losing a show that really was one of the most important staples of my entertainment filled life.

When I think back about why I loved LOST so much, the first thing that comes to mind is that it was unpredictable. With the mass amount of multi-tasking, internet filled spoilers and procedural drama cookie-cutter shows that we see every week, I could never have imagined that I would be taken on a ride like LOST where it was so original and dense that I could never predict what might happen to these people, I just had to go along for the adventure. And what a thrill it was. From the flashbacks to the flashforwards, the unraveling mystery of why each characters on LOST was there turned out to be the most important aspect of the show and just when I thought I knew who these characters were, they did something amazingly heroic or sad that turned the show on its head. Like. Real. People.

It seems with movies and TV shows today, the writers and directors map out every little detail of the script, concept art, staging, cast and pace of the piece that it almost becomes a paint-by-numbers approach where you could swap anyone in and they could basically come up with the same finished project. Not LOST. Every once in a while a piece of entertainment and creativity comes along that takes on a life of its own. I love that Darlton planned out the outline of the show and knew where it was headed but along the way accepted that the show was not perfect and had to evolve to the fans concerns and that they actually listened to the audience so that it could be the best show possible. By giving the fans little bits of information over the course of the 6 seasons, it could have been frustrating but to me it was actually a relief to not get them all at once because it felt like it was a slow release of the details of the show so that it never diminished what had already come before but built upon what I already knew. Even though each season had its own theme of time travel or reason for uncovering the mysteries of the show, that wasn’t the most important part. It was using this big unexplainable setting of an island to show the true nature of people and that in the end we are geared more toward good than bad.

The reason that I continue to argue LOST worked was because it gave us a simple but very important formula and stuck to it. What would normal people do in extraordinary situations? The decisions they made on the show I felt like I was making with them and would have done if I was in that position. With each struggle for survival and meaning they were faced with, I was so emotionally invested in the outcome that as events unraveled I was not only worried that it adhered to the answers we had already been given but seemed like it opened up a bunch of new ones that seemed even more important. The theme of redemption and “live together, die alone” is something I hope exists in a world constantly at war where I wish to learn from my mistakes and move forward by being around people I trust and treating others like I would want to be treated. It seems a lot of people were so caught up arguing how implausible the whole scenario was or how they thought the creators were just making it up as they went along that they forgot to appreciate the contrast of human emotions and connections that surfaced in a supernatural and otherworldly setting which reinforced a positive view of humanity.

Besides the emotional payoff LOST gave me by seeing a happy ending to the connections and “constants” that were created, the show also needs to be praised for the phenomenal production aspect of it as well. As we all know, sight AND sound are crucial to a full TV show/movie experience. With the perfect setting of taking place on Hawaii, the locations were a character of their own to the show and gave it a much needed dose of realism so that I never questioned the setting each these extraordinary events took place. On top of the scenery, Michael Giacchino is currently my favorite composer and his work on LOST’s soundtrack stood out as the backbone and core of the emotional rollercoaster I went on and I couldn’t be more thankful. I still listen to the scores when they come on and believe he found a true revelation that scoring it with a live orchestra brought even more credibility and inspiration to it.

For some reason I keep going back to JJ Abrams’ interview where he talked about his childhood “Mystery Box” as a fitting idea to a show which he started and then let loose. In his speech he said that the power of not knowing what’s inside the box was even more powerful than knowing what was in it because then it wouldn’t be as special to him anymore. LOST was a special show to me in that it truly had all the aspects I would want in a series. Humor, action, sci-fi, love and social commentary. It kept it’s answers so close to its chest that it became even more powerful by allowing me to stretch my mind and accept that once everything is explained, I would stop using my greatest gift: imagination. To me, my imagination of what was happening was so much more powerful than anything I can read or see on TV and I see a lot. As much as I like to know who is directing a movie or show, who wrote the script or who is the DP so I can prepare to understand the “language” they use, I still believe that uncovering something for the first time as it is occurring is crucial to the enjoyment and respect it deserves.

LOST will always be THAT show that I will remember and tell my kids about when I think back about this time in my life not only because it made me a better person by appreciating TV as art but because it taught me that I don’t need to know everything in this world and that the most important things in life like Love can’t be explained, you just have to believe in it. LOST was profound for the way it didn’t just give us the answers but made us talk with others around the watercooler or with my twin brother who was just as obsessed as I was. This idea that there are bigger forces at work in the universe bringing us all together is something I firmly believe in. So with LOST, it was like a show was speaking to me directly, taking the core themes we all want to accept as true in the world and made me ponder what everything means and if we truly are content not knowing all the answers but just living for the moment.

There are people who are pissed at the ending because it seemed too “metaphysical” and “afterlifey”. I respectfully disagree. After all the polar bear cages, food drops, hydrogen bombs, button pushing, submarines and everything else that was so crucial to understanding the history of the island and why these characters were brought there, in the end none of it truly mattered if they didn’t all end up together to be able to remember their character arcs and internal change they accomplished together. I absolutely loved the flash-sideways revelation because these characters who had been through so much together seemed to be meeting again for the first time, their emotions and memories flooding with all the heartbreak and sacrifice that was needed to get them to where they were so they could move on. By reintroducing each person’s “constant” in the finale, it made everything else that had happened on the island that much more important because I knew who these people were even though they didn’t. I for one cried like a baby at the ending but it was only because the characters on LOST were so good at sticking to who they were through it all and confirming the hopes that we had from the beginning that they would come out better for crashing on the island than they would of if they lived their lives without one another.

In the end, LOST proved to be something that was more rewarding the more you were into it. Anytime we put in an effort to embrace a form of entertainment, we do so in hopes that it will be worthwhile. That LOST become a bridge to making my life happier, being creative, or just thinking that everything happens for a reason is something that will stick with me until I hopefully meet everyone who has meant something to me in the afterlife as well. I doubt any show will be able to make me care about something as deeply as I cared about LOST but in thinking positively, I think there will.

To some LOST was just another TV show trying to be edgy by giving tons of mystical questions and playing with an audience by not answering them when we wanted them. That’s a shame. To me, LOST will always be in a league of its own for the way it encapsulated the very themes of storytelling and character that are found in even the most ancient tales. When something unexplainable occurs, we tend to get so caught up in trying to figure out why it happened and what I did to deserve this that we never stop to appreciate who we get to go on the adventure with and how these obstacles occur for a reason in order to shape us for the better so that we can truly appreciate what we have and how lucky we are to live in a world with such great entertainment.

I look forward to introducing as many people as possible to LOST and I hope you do too.

Bubba's Life Of Movies

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

6/28 - Jeunet's always impresses

Thursday, June 24, 2010

6/23 - Toy Story IMAX3D The Sequel

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

6/22 - A Knight of a Day

Monday, June 21, 2010

6/21 - Just another Monday

What LOST meant to me.....

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