Lostianity

I have refrained from commenting on the Lost series, ever so popular in Blogistan. I have reserved judgment because I sensed that the philosophical themes that everyone raves about were baked in from the beginning and therefore may prove well-thought out. Inspite of being disappointed by every movie or TV show featuring time-travel I held out hope that Lost might transcend the rabble. After all, a number of people whom I consider thoughful and discriminating follow the show.

Well, I am refraining no more. Posts here and here relate the details of the finale of the penultimate season, setting up the last season in which all will be revealed. First, let me state that until proven otherwise, mathematically, time-travel always ruins a plot. Lost shows no sign of overturning this axiom. Characters are bouncing around changing the past in order to "save" the present. This always leads to arbitrary plot twists that sound interesting to philosophers but make poor story telling. The nail inthe coffin for Lost is, however, the revelation that one of the characters actually died and is being impersonated by someone else who is attempting to manipulate events. So now we have, essentially, an Evil Twin, that bugaboo of really bad who-dun-its.

Of course, I should have seen the signs. When they name the characters John Locke and Christian Shepherd one shouldn't expect subtilty or cleverness. Hell, they slapping you in the face with the names! It was all a little too clever - like the Matrix with out the gratuitous violence.