Regarding LOST:
During the heyday of the show, I'd check out the forums to get ideas on what could potentially be happening and to review the episodes after watching them.
The show is ground-breaking because it mimics a movie format of opening with the inciting event and throwing the viewer into the thick of things along with the characters. Very little if anything is revealed to the viewer without it being known by the characters. (For instance, we never see the smoke just hanging out in its lair plotting out how to chase down Mr. Eko. It just happens.)
Also, the non-linear story-telling is really hard for television audiences who (present company excluded obviously) tend to forget week to week who is whose friend or enemy and who really aren't interested in their adventure shows having some kind of deep meaning.
The show mixes drama, comedy, mystery, adventure in a sort of fun ride sort of presentation (OMG, look at that giant foot with four toes!) but the writers (for whatever reasons) have steadfastly refused to just hand over answers (I doubt we'll ever see an episode of Benjamin Linus just sitting in front of the cross-legged castaways with their chins on their fists, smiling as he recounts the history of the island from it's four-toed alien founders to the day the Oceaniac 8 returned).
It annoys me that they never finish anything. It has this sort of spinning out and out like my music professor used to describe Baroque music. The story is very convoluted. So much so that the wife and I will have our memories sparked during episodes and one of us will whistfully state, "Aaaawww, remember when we didn't know who Desmond was and he was this wild-eyed guy in the hatch who listened to Mama Cass and rode his exercycle?"
And there are gaping holes and gigantic question marks in the whole story. What the hell with that statue foot? Did the computer actually stop the effect that happened when Locke destroyed said computer or was that a co-incidental "moving" of the island? How did Locke's "father" get to the island? Just on and on, and I really don't know how they are going to tie all these things up.
And if they do tie them up, will it satisfy?
There are intangible (so to speak) facets of the show that I love. I don't care how unlikely the coincidences are, I love it that Desmond saw Charlie playing guitar on the street. I love it that Jack is Aaron's uncle. I love that the one chick who was a tailie and was in love with Hurley on the island may have actually been in the boobyhatch with him.
I love the interconnectivity of the show.
Even more, I love the emotional payoffs. The only one from the season finale a coupleof weeks ago that worked (and not to the level that I think it should have) was the reunion of Desmond and Pinay (I know her name is Penny/Penelope but I love how Desmond says it and so...). That scene could have been really even more powerful if the director had had Desmond have a complete wild-eyed breakdown then sucked it up and been the "man" that he had been trying to be for Penny.
And the whole thing with Sun and Jin, I just didn't buy. A) I don't think for a second that he nor Michael are actually dead. Michael had been shown trying to kill himself before only to see the gun misfire. So, when Jack's dad appears and says, "You can go now, Michael," I'm thinking that he was magically transported to the island or he was luckily blown into the air whilst holding hands with Jin and they landed on a floating mattress from the boat which was then blown to the island.
My understanding is they filmed several versions of the ending with different people in the coffin at the end. If they did, it was because they didn't know which of the different threads they were going to weave in. I doubt it was because they wanted it to be a secret.
Anyhoo, that's my two-cents worth.
