Lost my religion

There are times when I envy people who have a firm conviction in their religious beliefs. While those convictions often lead to wars, the oppression of minorities, and a whole host of other things that often delightfully stand in stark contrast to the teachings of their respective religious tomes, I can only think what a relief it must be to be able to just take life as it is and not be on a constant search for some kind of meaning in this world.

While it is probably wrong headed, I have often sought that kind of meaning in pop art. The bands I listen to, the film and television I watch, and the books I read are less about entertaining myself for a few measly hours and more about setting out on a quest for, if not the meaning of life, than at least some kind of explanation for why we do what we do and what we can do to be better. I realize the folly in my quest, and it is never good when even Oasis is letting you know you’re going down a particularly twisted rabbit hole(“don’t put your life in the hands/of a rock ‘n’ roll ba-ya-and”).

As I write this, it occurs to me that it would not be surprising if the majority of people who watch dreck like Dancing with the Stars or Real Housewives of Whatthefuckever would consider themselves devoutly religious. Not because I feel they are dumb, but because they do not particularly ask for anything from their entertainment other than to be mindlessly diverting for an hour or so.

Despite the acknowledged folly of my ways, I do look to entertainment for some kind of meaning and one of the shows that had seemed particularly simpatico on this quest was the recently late, lamented Lost. It was just over a week ago that the last ever episode of Lost was aired and, while many people were not happy with the finale, it is hard not to appreciate what a unique show it was.

And when I say, “unique”, I am not necessarily talking about the weirdness that became the show’s hallmark- Polar bears, time travel, smoke monsters, immortality-these are things that made for some compelling fantasy and edge of your seat intensity, to be sure.

But it was the decision to toss around weighty themes such as fate, destiny, the nature of good and evil, the need for community, and the preservation of the self. These are issues that are not often tackled on American network television, yet Lost gleefully wore its philosophical and literary influences on its sleeves.

Yes, many fans were upset with season 6 and I must confess, I was too, until I decided to “let go” and experience the final adventure for what it was. When scouring the message boards (yes, I am sad nerd. Let’s keep it moving) for comments in the finale and what people thought of the overall arc of season six, one of the most often repeated complaints was that there weren’t enough answers. It is my feeling that if you step back a moment, more answers would have actually made this season worse(not that it was that bad, or at least not after the riveting finale revealed what the end game was).

It is true, there are a lot of dangling plot lines and questions that just weren’t answered and, it seems, never will be. To this I say, “Thank God(or Jacob or Hurley)!”.

Every time a lingering question was answered this season, I was inundated with a vague sense of disappointment. I call this the Anakin Effect. Remember back in the winter of 1997 when the prospect of a new Star Wars movie coming out didn’t make you seethe with anger? That’s because Darth Vader was still one of the great movie villain icons and The Force was a mystical energy that allowed you to levitate stuff and tell storm troopers that these are not the droids you are looking for when they so clearly are the droids they are looking for.

Now, fast forward to the summer of 1997 when you found out that Darth Vader was a really annoying kid who could fix stuff and that The Force was caused by a bunch of weird organisms called midi-chlorians.

Exactly.

I believe Lost was able to answer the lingering questions better than Star Wars (though, you would be pretty hard pressed to do it worse), but the answers they provided, never matched up with the answers I had formulated in my own mind. I had my own theories about Jacob, The Man in Black, and what exactly was going on in the sideways universe, and no answer that was given would have done justice to what I had imagined. About halfway through this season, I had to make the choice to “Let go”. Much like the characters were instructed to do so that they could move on.

Once I had decided to settle in for the journey and accept everything that happened in it’s own terms, I had to admit, it was a rollicking season. There was definite forward momentum, some wonderfully acted pieces, and an ending that was beautiful and elegiac.

The next day, I checked the internets and found that I was seemingly in the minority. The message boards were lit up with fanboy nerd rage and even the critics were howling for the scalps of Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cruse.

This threw me for a loop! Sure, going into the finale, I knew there would be some backlash. There is no way that the end of a show, which always divided viewers into love it or hate it type loyalties, would receive unanimous praise, but this was something all together different.

Words like betrayal were being thrown around. People who had been fans of the shows for its entire run claimed that it was all a waste of time. Some people even claimed they were disappointed that they felt the show creators had gone with a sappy, melodramatic ending to be please the middle of the road base, which struck me as ludicrous. Say what you will about the show, but it has never seemed to intent on playing things safe.

So, why the vitriol? Why such a venomous reaction?

Like me, I would assume that these people whether they are aware of it or not, also invest the pop culture they consume with some meaning-or at least-they are hungry to find some meaning in it. For most of the people who have complained about the ending of Lost, they have taken issue with the many answers they did not get from the show.

It seems as though this may be the most meta argument in television history. One of the running themes throughout the run of the series has been the clash between faith and science. While the last season has leaned very much in the former’s direction (I will admit that I was a bit disappointed in the show creator’s decision to go in that direction), it is fitting that in the end, the viewers most disappointed with Lost are the ones who demanded answers to the many lingering questions. The others, who decided to “let go”(a phrase heard often in the final season), and trust in whatever direction the creators decided to take the show, were the ones most rewarded.

As Lost came to a close, with the gorgeous scene where Jack takes his place in the bamboo, where we all started this journey, it is amazing that the show has left us with a story and mythology as deep, rich, and polarizing as any religion. In the end, it was about the characters. About how people form bonds, and about how we may be able to avoid many of life’s miseries, if we open ourselves up and communicate.

While there are still many questions left unanswered, it seems that, just as in life, the answers never live up to what we have built them to mean in our heads. It turns out the answers are not so important as the mystery and adventure of the questions.