LOST Producers Promise to Reward Fans' Faith Within Final Season

Fans of the ABC show LOST must possess many qualities. They must possess a sense of patience. They most possess an open mind. But above all, they must possess faith. And in 2010, Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse promise that that faith will be rewarded.

For this fan, that faith has already been rewarded...immensely. LOST is a show unlike any other show that has ever graced network television. It is more of an extended miniseries than a show. Its dense, complicated story has had several important landmarks throughout its five seasons that have either widened the spectrum of complicated issues, or connected everything that has happened. Each seasons' end has marked a new growth in the show, a widening of the playing field, and the most recent season finale has turned the show on its axis, allowing us to see and interpret just about everything that has happened thus far...and it's looking pretty.

In fairness, it is understandable why such a large number of people gave up on the show successively through the first three seasons. The show prompts many questions and mysteries, and the first three seasons of the show spent a lot of time further developing these mysteries rather than answering them. The average viewer might become very frustrated with this method of storytelling, and therefore give up on the show.

Another issue some viewers initially had with the show was the nature of the mysteries. The mysteries LOST range from personal unknowns about the characters, all the way down to the mythology of the island. For this reason, the show is far more dense and far less serialized than other shows, like the "CSI" franchise and the just-about-run-its-course "24".

Because of the seemingly endless density, viewers became frustrated with the show, and accused the creators of making it up as they go along and not having an end game in mind, even though Cuse and Lindeloff, as well as JJ Abrams, one of the creators, have time and time again denied this. Regardless of the producers promise for an end game, the show trudged along at times, refusing to answer the questions it conceived so often.

And then season five happened.

Season five has shown viewers that not only is everything in LOST tied together, but it's all going somewhere, and it's sprinting there with unstoppable fierceness. Without giving anything away, I can safely say that season five of this show has channeled all of the shows themes into one venue. Fate vs. Free will, Good vs. Evil, Man vs. Self, even Black vs. White are all extremely prominent themes within the show. For a while, these themes would show up, do their deeds, and then disappear. But now every theme has been channeled into one purpose, one giant story arc that is about to sprint itself through the finish line.

Nearly all of the show's aforementioned initial weaknesses have now become its greatest strengths. LOST is the kind of show that is so incredibly interactive with its viewer. It challenges the viewer to debate the possibility of certain scientific anomalies. It asks the viewer to take a stand on complex moral situations. It pushes the viewer to read, be it classic literature, old philosophy, or something more modern. And it knows where it stands in the good old fashioned game of suspense, prompting the viewer to ponder and debate the most fun and exciting of all arguments in modern entertainment: "What happens next?"

This show has brought the magic of storytelling and mystery to a whole new level. It's a mosaic of everything we look for in a story: mystery, romance, drama, intrigue, intelligence, and even a little bit of comedy. The show has the caliber of a modern epic. It stands alone as one of the more cinematic shows we will ever see, and its depth will most likely be studied years after its exit.

Viewers who gave up early should be writing apology letters at this point. Luckily for all of us, we have one more season of untold story and mystery to go, and things are looking more than promising. If you gave up early, we would love to have you back, and perhaps you'll find that giving it a second chance was a good idea. If you've yet to start on the show, you better get going. But as the most mysterious new addition of characters to the show would say..."The choice is yours."