How Lost Changed Television

At long last: Lost comes to a close on Sunday and we’ll no longer have to listen to its fans obsess over its silly mysteries. Writing for The New York Times, Mike Hale says the show inspired “a kind of populist biblical commentary, and the logical gymnastics performed to read authorial intention into every word and image and in-joke began to feel religious in nature.” He goes on to groan that the show “has encouraged fans, and critics who should know better, to celebrate the mythology—the least important element of the show, from a dramatic standpoint—while glossing over things like pacing, structure, camerawork and acting … Among the best evidence that something new is happening with Lost is the fact that so many people, if their online comments are true, will be willing to change their judgment of the entire series based solely on how well the final two-and-a-half-hour episode satisfies their need for answers. Forget the first 119 hours—if you don’t tell me what happened to Walt, none of it will have mattered.”