A couple of years ago, J.J. Abrams gave an illuminating presentation for TED, where he spoke about a principle in storytelling that is riveting to watch unfold: opening the magic box. Here is a clip of it, if you be having curiosities.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching it, or if you’re just too lazy, the idea behind the magic box is simple. Sir Abrams speaks of how he bought a mystery box at a shop when he was a boy, and how he has never opened it his entire life. Mystery creates imagination, and that is where stories and characters live in their coolest places.
The danger of all of this mystique? What’s inside the box can never be as rad as what your imagination wanted it to be. Perhaps that’s why he’s kept it shut all these years.
Watching Lost in its final season is like seeing the magic box getting smashed to pieces in real time, with fans scrambling to find the pearl hidden inside. Only it’s not a pearl, it’s something else entirely, like a worm from outer space, or a velociraptor with a mullet. Or not. Anyway, this week’s episode, “Across the Sea”, dished out many things that fans have been waiting years to find out. It essentially gives you the dirty scoop on what’s so precious about the Island, what the stakes are in the struggle, and Why It All Matters. Of course, they did this in typical Lost fashion, sometimes with more questions, other times with a wry grin, sometimes a bit poorly, and sometimes in ways that take a bit to sink in.
The problem with opening this box for everyone is that not everyone is going to like what they find inside. Personally, I was OK with the way they handled most everything in this episode, even though it came with its own share of speed bumps; I’ve come to accept that’s how the rest of the series is going to play out. It made for a spellbinding hour of TV for me, in that we never see something in mainstream television that is so steeped in its own mythology, and it made me lament that we probably won’t see another show quite this rich in some time. The box is open, and I think I can live with what’s inside. But not everyone else will be able to.
It’s crazy how something can hit so many people in so many different ways. Honestly, it reminds me of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and how that final book was so hit or miss across the board. Once the mystery was laid bare, you’ve really only got two options. Everyone keeps screaming “What’s in the box?!” for so long, really, you’re setting yourself up for a Brad Pitt-ian revelation. Yes, sometimes it’s a noggin. Should I have spoiler alert-ed that?
As I said earlier, watching the box open in real time is something completely unique in our generation, due to the wonder of the Intertubes and Twitter. Looking at the responses of people that were watching the episode the other night is intriguing, to say the least. Well, if you consider thousands of shrill beasts crying out in unison “intriguing”. Which, I suppose I do. Seriously, it’s like digesting bytes of insanity in its rawest and most poisonous form. Here are some of the tweets I saw aimed at series co-creator Damon Lindelof…
Some thought the episode simply terrible:
@DamonLindelof you SUCK. You have 2 episodes left to redeem yourself, use them wisely.
@DamonLindelof is it possible for a TV series to jump the shark in the last few episodes? Cause you guys seem to be balancing on the teeth.
@DamonLindelof Wow; This season of LOST has been awful but nothing could prepare me for tonight’s TV abortion. Even the apologists hated it.
Others found the episode too mysterious:
@DamonLindelof I HOPE THERES A LOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR ALL THAT (SPOILER EDIT BY EDDY) BULLSHIT
@DamonLindelof You Missed your calling. Should have been a torturer. Because that is what your show is doing to me.
A few folks thought it covered too much:
@DamonLindelof I almost wish you guys never wrote this episode. Not jbc it wasnt the greatest, but bc, well, i miss the mystery now
@DamonLindelof was right, getting answers ISN’T FUN
And some just loved it:
For all of the episodes I spent doubting, I know believe that @DamonLindelof and @CarltonCuse have had a plan all along.
Looking at all of these responses, you have to wonder if these people are all watching the same show? I suppose it says something about just how invested Lost’s audience is in its outcome. However, it also may indicate that sometimes you can play up the magic box too much. You can make people want what’s inside more than they enjoy what the characters are doing, how they’re evolving, what they’re learning and who they will become by story’s end. So when it’s open, they don’t really know what to do with what they’ve been given.
And from there, they are only left with two possible reactions: love or loathing. White stones or black. It almost makes you wonder if that’s what the creators intended to begin with. Endings are hard things to pull off, it seems. I’m certainly not defending or apologizing for any of the missteps the series has had in the dissemination of information over the years, not at all. The show is often plagued with terrible pacing and really, this late in the game, they might be too deep in their own muck to ever truly climb out. But as I said earlier, I’ve resigned myself to that and I think I can live with it. It certainly doesn’t negate the fun I’ve had with the show for the last several years, or the great stories and characters it’s presented.
One thing is for sure: I am already preparing myself for the weeping and gnashing of teeth that is inevitable after the Lost finale.
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