Let me start off with this: I do not regret watching Lost. And the finale did not suck. Much like the whole series, it was in turn touching and fun and exciting and hilarious. There was good acting, compelling stories, big questions, challenging narrative. It was good goddamn TV.
That said, I'm sticking with my feelings that the end (I can't call it a resolution) was unbelievably cheap.
There seems to be some debate about whether the show was plot- or character-driven. Here's my contention: it was both plot- and character-driven. Until the last 15 minutes of the series when the show patted us all on the head and said "shhh, honey, it's ok. The plot's not important."
I'm all for a macguffin or two, a cool unanswered question that you can ponder for the ages (I think it was Marcellus' soul in the briefcase). But it's just not cool to take all that awesome sci-fi PLOT stuff and toss it out the window with a "this doesn't matter."
The numbers, the island's glowing vagina of electromagnetic power, the super specialness of Walt and Aaron and Desmond, THE NUMBERS, the temple, the fertility stuff, the dharma initiative, the donkey wheel, have I mentioned the numbers?... in the end, none of that mattered? Not cool, Lost. Not cool.
Because you know what, bitches? It mattered to me. I'll give you some unanswered questions - but not all of them. Only The Sopranos can do that.
I believed the writers that they'd had it all mapped out and knew what it all meant. And instead, it was all just tricks and manipulation.
They were fun tricks and manipulation. I enjoyed the hell out of the tricks and the manipulation. But the next scifi/mysticism show that I watch had BETTER pay some expository, resolution-oriented attention to the sci-fucking-fi part of it. Or else, by golly, I'll be writing an angry letter or something.
I will miss those characters. And I'm glad they're up in their inter-religious heaven having been led there by someone named Christian Shepard (sheesh - I mean, why not Desmond leading them? Was it because it didn't matter that he wasn't super special after all? God.). I'll miss all of them. Even Waaaaalt. Who doesn't get to go. Why? It doesn't matter. And Penny, who was never on the island. Why? It doesn't matter. Shhh. It was a character-driven show. Plot doesn't matter.
Actually, I won't miss Shannon. I never bought her backstory anyway.
*Edited - My friend, Shanon (not to be confused with Shannon of the unbelievable backstory who was also most definitely NOT Sayid's great love because, duh, that was Nadia. God), pointed out that the Lost finale was a very effective finale for the last season of Lost. But not the full six seasons. I think that's hitting the nail right on the head.
