'Lost' finale defies lazy criticism

This column discusses the series finale of the ABC series "Lost," which aired this past Sunday. Stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled. Mere hours after the "Lost" series finale, Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara wrote about the episode as if she had never seen the show before. She especially criticized the final 10 minutes, even though she didn't seem to pay attention to what actually happened.

This column discusses the series finale of the ABC series "Lost," which aired this past Sunday. Stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled.

Mere hours after the "Lost" series finale, Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara wrote about the episode as if she had never seen the show before. She especially criticized the final 10 minutes, even though she didn't seem to pay attention to what actually happened.

In a nutshell, McNamara dismissed the six-year story as a tropical "purgatory," where the fated passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 never survived the plane crash in the first place. She came to this conclusion despite three specific moments in the finale that explicitly refuted this theory.

McNamara wasn't the only viewer to make the mistake. Message boards were flooded with similar confusion, and some viewers (not the die-hards, obviously) hooted and hollered about being confused and cheated. It didn't help that ABC aired footage of the Season 1 plane wreckage during the final credits. The network later admitted that the producers and writers of the show never intended that footage to be part of the finale telecast.

Even if there was some confusing imagery, the thoughtless critique by the Los Angeles Times shouldn't be excused. At what point did one of the country's most authoritative critical outlets start rushing reviews to publication without taking the time to understand and report even the basic story?

I'm guessing it was around the time people started getting their news from personal blogs and message boards.

The LA Times review especially irked me because it further propelled a criticism about the show that I never believed: That the writers of the show made the story up as they went along.

In fact, the writers of "Lost" never strayed off course, at least not too far. Nevermind the polar bears, time travel and Dharma beer, "Lost" was always about the characters, and how a group of broken, damaged souls came together to find redemption.

In the days leading up to the finale, so much of the media hype surrounded the show's longstanding mysteries. What is the island? What's with those cursed lottery numbers? And where are Walt and all his special powers?

But these questions weren't really relevant to the final episode. The audience learned as much about the island as the characters did, and to expect anything more was unrealistic.

"Lost" already answered most of these so-called burning questions, anyway. The island, the Dharma Initiative, the numbers-all of these were explained enough in previous episodes that a reasonably intelligent person could draw general conclusions (Just e-mail me, and I'll give you the entire breakdown in 30,000 words or less).

Now, onto those controversial final minutes of the series, in which the polarizing "flash-sideways" storyline of season six was revealed to be a purgatory-like place where all the castaways were reconnected. Jack was the last person to realize the truth, although it was clear that several other characters died long after the on-island storyline ended.

The island was real. The castaways really survived the crash. And all of them played an instrumental role in saving the world from an evil black smoke thingie. Seriously, how did the L.A. Times miss all that?

While many viewers dismissed the finale as a bunch of pseudo-religious hogwash, I was moved by how the characters came together again in death. While I don't consider myself a particularly religious person, I've always been captivated by the show's exploration of faith. Throughout the course of the show, these characters were constantly tested with the unknown, and their faith was what ultimately brought them peace.

And the show's final images of Jack in the jungle alongside that adorable pooch? Perfect. All the best things end with dogs.

Now if only I can get all the doubters and L.A. Times critics to agree. Perhaps they should, I don't know, wait a few days before making judgments about things they have trouble understanding. Maybe an enlightened Super-Desmond can help them see the truth.

The finale may not have been the greatest series finale of all-time, but for the legacy of "Lost," it was as close to perfect as these things get.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com. Read more reviews and pop culture commentaries at www.NormdogEntertainment.com.