US Airdate: February 2nd – May 23rd 2010
It’s The End: But the moment has been prepared for? Okay, wrong show but the truth of the matter is that the moment in some ways had been prepared for. We always knew that the show would end with a sixth year and after the previous two seasons; this one certainly proved that it was time for the show to part ways with TV land.
I don’t mean that in a negative but the series transition from flashbacks to flash forwards and in this year alone, flash sideways, it has proved that the writers were running out of steam with storylines for the characters off the island as well as on the wretched thing as well. Don’t get me wrong, there are amusing alternatives given to us here – Jack and Juliet have a son together, Ben’s a teacher, Kate’s still on the run, Sawyer and Miles are both cops, Sayid murders Keamy and rescues Jin and Hurley after a series of mishaps reunites with Libby but at the same time, they’re padding in a way too.
Throughout the 18 episodes on offer here, you have these sideways being a distraction and for the most part, an amusing one because much as I hate to grumble, the stuff on the island isn’t as great as it used to be I’m afraid.
Locke’s death in particular feels like a nasty rub and it made sense for the Smoke Monster to permanently take his guise from “LAX” onwards but as a result, the monster in some ways loses his effect than when he was just smoke. With a human body, he’s able to be nasty and manipulate the likes of Sayid and Claire when he isn’t destroying Dogen’s camp by “Sundown” but he also becomes rather annoying in the process.
Similarly, the stuff involving Dogen’s camp for the first few episodes isn’t all that great either and then the arrival of Widmore’s people in the latter half of the season is just more fodder to be killed off by the Smoke Monster. There’s a rather odd ball scene where the criminally underdeveloped Illana is blown to smithereens in “Everybody Hates Hugo” as well but the deaths of Jin, Sun and Sayid in “The Candidate” certainly packed an emotional wallop.
As for the characters themselves, Jacob might have manipulated everyone on the island but he’s given a short shrift during the season (probably because Mark Pellegrino was on another extremely popular show at the time) and it’s also a year that sees everyone nearly cropping up all at once.
Claire’s finally back and spent most of the time on the island being crazy, Juliet’s death is prolonged throughout the first two episodes, we finally learn Richard’s back story and it’s predictable, Michael’s unable to move on in the afterlife while Boone, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Charlie, Daniel and Charlotte are cropping up in flash sideways and Desmond is having the misfortune of being an experiment for Widmore. Bitching aside though, he’s also instrumental in getting everyone together at “The End”.
That finale was always going to be a tough one to pull off. Some viewers would be satisfied, others would freaking hate it but as for me, it was a divisive. Emotionally, it was incredibly satisfying and I got a kick out of seeing nearly every main character from the show’s beginning reunited but logically, it was kind of all over the place and the less that’s said to do with the resolution of the island nearly going kaboom, the better to be honest, even if it was disappointing.
Still though, “The End” did make up for a series of meandering episodes and a few pointless ones too (“Across The Sea” being the biggest offender) and it was hard not to sit through it without a tear in my eye. So what if they’re all dead? Most of us had guessed that would be the outcome since the first season and while the show has had it’s ups and down as a series, it was still a sad day when it ended, especially that it’s only in a small handful of truly definitive sci-fi/fantasy programming from the 21st century.
DVD EXTRAS: The one thing I’ve always loved about this show was the extras and for a final season, there’s a good selection. The commentaries are fine, the location features are interesting and the bloopers amusing but it’s the other stuff that really hits the spot. “The New Man In Charge” does it’s best to tie up some loose ends with the island stuff while “The End: Creating A Final Season” more or less lives up to it’s title as the producers and cast discuss what went into crafting the last year. The other features “A Hero’s Journey” and “See You In Another Life, Brotha” covers the mysteries of which characters are genuinely heroic and the antics of the sideways stuff this year.
EPISODE RATINGS FROM 1 TO 10
6x01: LAX Part 1 = 8/10, 6x02: LAX Part 2 = 8/10,
6x03: What Kate Does = 7/10, 6x04: The Substitute = 6/10,
6x05: Lighthouse = 8/10, 6x06: Sundown = 9/10,
6x07: Dr Linus = 7/10, 6x08: Recon = 8/10,
6x09: Ab Aeterno = 7/10, 6x10: The Package = 7/10,
6x11: Happily Ever After = 8/10, 6x12: Everybody Loves Hugo = 9/10,
6x13: The Last Recruit = 7/10, 6x14: The Candidate = 9/10,
6x15: Across The Sea = 5/10, 6x16: What They Died For = 7/10,
6x17: The End Part 1 = 9/10, 6x18: The End Part 2 = 9/10.
Season Six is currently available on DVD.
It’s The End: But the moment has been prepared for? Okay, wrong show but the truth of the matter is that the moment in some ways had been prepared for. We always knew that the show would end with a sixth year and after the previous two seasons; this one certainly proved that it was time for the show to part ways with TV land.
I don’t mean that in a negative but the series transition from flashbacks to flash forwards and in this year alone, flash sideways, it has proved that the writers were running out of steam with storylines for the characters off the island as well as on the wretched thing as well. Don’t get me wrong, there are amusing alternatives given to us here – Jack and Juliet have a son together, Ben’s a teacher, Kate’s still on the run, Sawyer and Miles are both cops, Sayid murders Keamy and rescues Jin and Hurley after a series of mishaps reunites with Libby but at the same time, they’re padding in a way too.
Throughout the 18 episodes on offer here, you have these sideways being a distraction and for the most part, an amusing one because much as I hate to grumble, the stuff on the island isn’t as great as it used to be I’m afraid.
Locke’s death in particular feels like a nasty rub and it made sense for the Smoke Monster to permanently take his guise from “LAX” onwards but as a result, the monster in some ways loses his effect than when he was just smoke. With a human body, he’s able to be nasty and manipulate the likes of Sayid and Claire when he isn’t destroying Dogen’s camp by “Sundown” but he also becomes rather annoying in the process.
Similarly, the stuff involving Dogen’s camp for the first few episodes isn’t all that great either and then the arrival of Widmore’s people in the latter half of the season is just more fodder to be killed off by the Smoke Monster. There’s a rather odd ball scene where the criminally underdeveloped Illana is blown to smithereens in “Everybody Hates Hugo” as well but the deaths of Jin, Sun and Sayid in “The Candidate” certainly packed an emotional wallop.
As for the characters themselves, Jacob might have manipulated everyone on the island but he’s given a short shrift during the season (probably because Mark Pellegrino was on another extremely popular show at the time) and it’s also a year that sees everyone nearly cropping up all at once.
Claire’s finally back and spent most of the time on the island being crazy, Juliet’s death is prolonged throughout the first two episodes, we finally learn Richard’s back story and it’s predictable, Michael’s unable to move on in the afterlife while Boone, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Charlie, Daniel and Charlotte are cropping up in flash sideways and Desmond is having the misfortune of being an experiment for Widmore. Bitching aside though, he’s also instrumental in getting everyone together at “The End”.
That finale was always going to be a tough one to pull off. Some viewers would be satisfied, others would freaking hate it but as for me, it was a divisive. Emotionally, it was incredibly satisfying and I got a kick out of seeing nearly every main character from the show’s beginning reunited but logically, it was kind of all over the place and the less that’s said to do with the resolution of the island nearly going kaboom, the better to be honest, even if it was disappointing.
Still though, “The End” did make up for a series of meandering episodes and a few pointless ones too (“Across The Sea” being the biggest offender) and it was hard not to sit through it without a tear in my eye. So what if they’re all dead? Most of us had guessed that would be the outcome since the first season and while the show has had it’s ups and down as a series, it was still a sad day when it ended, especially that it’s only in a small handful of truly definitive sci-fi/fantasy programming from the 21st century.
DVD EXTRAS: The one thing I’ve always loved about this show was the extras and for a final season, there’s a good selection. The commentaries are fine, the location features are interesting and the bloopers amusing but it’s the other stuff that really hits the spot. “The New Man In Charge” does it’s best to tie up some loose ends with the island stuff while “The End: Creating A Final Season” more or less lives up to it’s title as the producers and cast discuss what went into crafting the last year. The other features “A Hero’s Journey” and “See You In Another Life, Brotha” covers the mysteries of which characters are genuinely heroic and the antics of the sideways stuff this year.
EPISODE RATINGS FROM 1 TO 10
6x01: LAX Part 1 = 8/10, 6x02: LAX Part 2 = 8/10,
6x03: What Kate Does = 7/10, 6x04: The Substitute = 6/10,
6x05: Lighthouse = 8/10, 6x06: Sundown = 9/10,
6x07: Dr Linus = 7/10, 6x08: Recon = 8/10,
6x09: Ab Aeterno = 7/10, 6x10: The Package = 7/10,
6x11: Happily Ever After = 8/10, 6x12: Everybody Loves Hugo = 9/10,
6x13: The Last Recruit = 7/10, 6x14: The Candidate = 9/10,
6x15: Across The Sea = 5/10, 6x16: What They Died For = 7/10,
6x17: The End Part 1 = 9/10, 6x18: The End Part 2 = 9/10.
Season Six is currently available on DVD.
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