LOST (I feel cheated)

Many people I know and respect have blogged their thoughts on the final season and the final episode of "Lost." For the most part, they are all satisfied with the ending of the ABC series.

I'm in a distinct minority, and though I continue to read links and posts and essays and opinions, I still feel gypped.

I love mysteries, and the mysteries in "Lost" are what hooked me into watching the show. Steve and I were latecomers to the TV sensation, buying and watching the DVDs of the first four seasons when the fifth season was in progress. Then we bought and watched DVDs of the fifth season in time to catch the sixth season as it aired.

We were so excited! At last, there would be answers! All the neat mysteries and questions and puzzles would be solved!

But they weren't. And as this final season progressed, our response each week became more cynical, and began edging towards bitter. "They aren't answering questions. They're posing more." "They are not tying up ends." "They're introducing more complexities and ambiguity."

Our post-episode conversations became crankier. "Those writers need to hire a stable of hack mystery writers - at least they know how to solve a mystery at the end of a story." "They should get a professor that teaches freshman introductory writing courses to remind them that a story needs a beginning and an end."

Tonight my dad (who has never watched "Lost" but who has shaken his head in bewilderment at his wife, son, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson-in-law who would and did rearrange schedules and obligations in order to watch the show) shared with me a piece by John Podhoretz that was printed in The Weekly Standard. It's called We Wuz Robbed. I am so glad to know that I'm not alone.