One of the Best....Could Have Been THE Greatest Ever by Slaughterhouse

I was and remain a huge fan of the show and the writing/producing team. Overall, I loved the acting, the characters, and their story lines. I especially loved the island mysteries and mythology. Although, I was very nervous about how the team was going to tie together or resolve the myriad of character arcs, key island mythology issues (what is the island, where is the island, why/how is it special, etc) and plot spider webs (Dharma, time travel, polar bears, the Economist, button pushing, Gale, Walt, pregnancy, etc. not to mention the bad-guy plot shifts including Jack vs Locke then Ben vs Wid then MIB vs Jacob then back to Jack vs MIB), I willingly and gladly went along for the ride - and what a great ride it was. I knew full well that other great shows of the past (such as X-Files) rarely could pull it all together, answer it all, or satisfy me or everybody else by the end - and it did not mean the show was anything less than amazing. With respect to LOST, I guess I would say I was hoping for the best but prepared for something else.

My expectations changed when LOST did something no other successful show in recent memory had done (at least that I know of). Unlike most other great shows, such as the X-Files, that did not know when or how to end, Cuse and Lindelof hand-picked LOST’s end date three years in advance – a revolutionary idea!! Well, I don't know about you, but my expectation level, based on the genius of these guys, shot through the roof. I simply believed that these guys were going to get their white boards out the day of this announcement and figure out how to connect as many of the emotional, mythological, and spider web dots as possible. My hope was that these guys were going to do what all the other great shows had failed to do - and that was to do it all, get it all right, raise the bar to a writing level that no other show could even try to compete with because of the complexity involved in the planning and execution of the character arc, island mythology, and spider web story lines. History was waiting for the LOST writing team, IMO.

In the end, I felt as if they hit tape measure grand slam after tape measure grand slam emotionally (character arcs), hit a ground rule double regarding island mythology (learned some very broad and basic facts), and hit a single with regard to the spider webs (there were just too many to cover). I believe the team put the emphasis in the right places, though I would have liked more island mythology explained and, of course, would have enjoyed more of the spider webs explained.

In the end, I have to separate my personal feelings and crazy, high expectations about the finale from my overall feelings about the show. I loved the series, loved the writing, loved the finale as a one-off show, and – historical expectations aside - will put LOST in the discussion as one of the absolute best series I have ever seen in my 40+ years on this planet. Thanks to Cuse and Lindelof for setting the bar and my expectations so high.

See ya in another life!