Occasional death of someone we care about, ok. Occasional civilian death, ok. Evey the bad guys who are shooting at you in an action-adventure movie, I guess. But this is ghoulish. Innocent people being mowed down by the dozens -- sorry, by the hundreds.

Everyone on the Oceanic Flight, picked off one by one by the Others, flaming arrows, or Widmore's men.

Everyone on the Ajira Flight, killed en mass by Widmore's men.

Everyone in the Dharma initiative, killed by the Others

All of the Others, killed by the Smoke Monster or Widmore's men

Everyone on the Black Rock, killed by the Smoke Monster

All of the Roman shipwreck survivors, killed by Mother

And I'm sure I missed a few massacres.

"Lost" is probably winning viewers in the mass murderer demographic.

Such is the nature of man, unfortunately. History is full of examples...

Just as the 815ers represent a microcosm of society, with people having been drawn from all walks of life, so the series as a whole shows us who we are. Lost is a mirror for our society. Sometimes it's hard to be shown who and what we can be and do as a species (be it violence, selfishness, murder) and yet there remains the capacity for great good in all of us.

Occasional death of someone we care about, ok. Occasional civilian death, ok. Evey the bad guys who are shooting at you in an action-adventure movie, I guess. But this is ghoulish. Innocent people being mowed down by the dozens -- sorry, by the hundreds.

Everyone on the Oceanic Flight, picked off one by one by the Others, flaming arrows, or Widmore's men.

Everyone on the Ajira Flight, killed en mass by Widmore's men.

Everyone in the Dharma initiative, killed by the Others

All of the Others, killed by the Smoke Monster or Widmore's men

Everyone on the Black Rock, killed by the Smoke Monster

All of the Roman shipwreck survivors, killed by Mother

And I'm sure I missed a few massacres.

"Lost" is probably winning viewers in the mass murderer demographic.


Well, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

Well, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

What a terrible metaphor for this. That's one massive disgusting omelet of death :rolleyes:

It's simple. Killing off people is easier than writing stories for them or having them explain things.

But yeah.. Baileysdad brings this up in nearly every Didn't Like It thread. This show seems to be disturbingly obsessed with murder. Killing seems to be their solution to everything.

I agree that it's a ridiculous bloodbath. Every time I see extras. I know that they were hired to die horribly in some harsh way. This from a show that I thought was going to be somewhat more cerebral when it started. I'd say the death toll on this show is higher than any other regular show on tv. I think it may even trump Tour of Duty in it's heyday

Shakespeare was content with only throwing entire nations into chaos with the murder of their leaders. He's still held to high regard. I say...LOST HASN'T KILLED ENOUGH!

I kid. Sort of. We seem to, as a species, have a fixation on tragedy. It seems the more tragic something is, the higher the pedestal it is placed on. Unless it crosses an arbitrary line into grotesquerie.

The use of death on Lost is at LEAST two fold, if not more. First and foremost is the obvious. Loss and the possibility of loss in a story creates tension. Tension is a necessary ingredient for any good story. The higher the scale of the story, local, regional, worldwide, the higher the stakes must be. Lost is painting a portrait of a world wide threat, judging by everything we have seen. Possibly even beyond that, possibly the threat of everything. That brings us to the second use of death in lost. What cost is too high when everything is at stake? I don't even have time to go into the idea that they are pushing that luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

Occasional death of someone we care about, ok. Occasional civilian death, ok. Evey the bad guys who are shooting at you in an action-adventure movie, I guess. But this is ghoulish. Innocent people being mowed down by the dozens -- sorry, by the hundreds.

Everyone on the Oceanic Flight, picked off one by one by the Others, flaming arrows, or Widmore's men.

Everyone on the Ajira Flight, killed en mass by Widmore's men.

Everyone in the Dharma initiative, killed by the Others

All of the Others, killed by the Smoke Monster or Widmore's men

Everyone on the Black Rock, killed by the Smoke Monster

All of the Roman shipwreck survivors, killed by Mother

And I'm sure I missed a few massacres.

"Lost" is probably winning viewers in the mass murderer demographic.

I think there was something that happened with a nuclear bomb at some point too. :blowup:

They come, they destroy, they corrupt... OR something.

This show seems to be disturbingly obsessed with murder. Killing seems to be their solution to everything.

I think it is one of the MAIN points... this is a show discussing the fallen nature of man - it's self-destruction, it's obsession with death... all the deaths add up to matter, even if we don't know their stories, and we get glimpses of the point when characters we have grown to love get killed or murdered too

I find it strange how it seems like so many viewers miss the deeper meanings, as if this was like any other show or movie, very frustrating and exhausting... this a post-911 text meant to cause us to look at and question the evil patterns of society, that would include mass murder... Nameless talked about this very thing, last night

on the upside, it is good that we are disturbed about it, it would be more alarming if we weren't... I think it is supposed to lead us to a state of discomfort, a dissatisfaction with "the way it is" so that we are inspired to create positive change! :)

*edit*

During Season 1, I used to joke that Lost was 'Survivor with better dialogue' and I think that somehow Survivor created the environment where Lost could exist. Lost has developed so much, integrating supernatural monsters, time travel, ghosts, shadowy corporations, electromagnetism and whatnot, that the comparison seemed ludicrous. Until this season, where it really seems like the show is heading toward having a 'sole survivor'.

I'm generally sympathetic with the OP in general terms about TV as a whole, but to focus on LOST is rather unfair, I think. However, as an aside, lots of people were just loving "The Incident" (as did I, to be clear), but I kept thinking "all time-travel theories and re-starts aside, isn't the most likely outcome here pretty much just the detonation of a nuclear device and the horrible death of every man, woman, and child on the island?" And moreover, didn't they mow down about a dozen Dharma red-shirts in that shoot out?

But LOST is not the only, or the worst, offender in this regard. Anyways, the death of clearly fictional characters in clearly fictional situations disturbs me, on a moral level, much less than people becoming emotionally engaged in a show about celebrities ballroom dancing.

but that's just me.

I don't think it has anything to do with a reflection on society because Darlton have proven that they are not that deep when it comes to story telling. It's just a device they are using for shock value, but unfortunately they have used it too much. Killing off characters is just an easy cop-out to avoid answering questions and providing any kind of character development.

In defense of the makers of LOST ... on the one hand, you're right, there's a lot of massacres, BUT ... most of the time we are never shown it (at least, not until afterwards), which is probably the best way to do it.

Okay...

Everyone has the right to put forth their displeasure about the episode.

What is not going to get you far (you may or may not notice the many deleted posts) is saying such helpful things like "Change the channel if you don't like it" as it is not a debate but rather an order.

At least you didn't see me do it so it makes it a little better...:)

DL: The more curious you become about why the island has its properties, inevitably the protector of the island feels the need to engage in some form of mass genocide.

That was from Lindelof in this "great" interview about the episode.
So... am I the only one rather disturbed by that comment?
Why is it "inevitable" that a supposedly benevolent leader would think of genocide as the answer?
I have to believe that this is somewhat of a reflection of Darlton's own beliefs, and frankly it's pretty frightening to think that the people who created this show, on some level, believe that people who question authority should be killed.

I'm generally sympathetic with the OP in general terms about TV as a whole, but to focus on LOST is rather unfair, I think. However, as an aside, lots of people were just loving "The Incident" (as did I, to be clear), but I kept thinking "all time-travel theories and re-starts aside, isn't the most likely outcome here pretty much just the detonation of a nuclear device and the horrible death of every man, woman, and child on the island?" And moreover, didn't they mow down about a dozen Dharma red-shirts in that shoot out?

but that's just me.
I agree with you 100%!!
But Bro, you just painted a bullseye on your head with the 'Jack does no wrong' crowd. I know, I've been there. Jack is a suicidal bomber at the Incident, IMO. I have taken tons of heat for that stance. My question has always been the same.
" I am red shirt guard at Dharma 1977. I am a good man with a happy family just doing a job here. I just got killed by a man who shot me & then dropped a nuclear bomb, blowing up the Island & my family.

What gave him the right?
100%
That was from Lindelof in this "great" interview about the episode.
So... am I the only one rather disturbed by that comment?
Why is it "inevitable" that a supposedly benevolent leader would think of genocide as the answer?
I have to believe that this is somewhat of a reflection of Darlton's own beliefs, and frankly it's pretty frightening to think that the people who created this show, on some level, believe that people who question authority should be killed.

it's not that they are questioning it's authority. They are abusing it's powers & gifts & threaten to destroy it by doing so.
by using science to corrupt & control it's abilities to do what they selfishly want, instead of serving a greater good. Remember when Locke talks about the chicken in the refrigerator with Ben?

You serve the island, the Island doesn't serve you. or allow you to enslave it. As young MIB-Smokey & Dharma has tried.

exiled.... here we go again?? It's a LOOP! LOL.

exiled.... here we go again?? It's a LOOP! LOL.

I'm just gonna sit back & enjoy this one. :angel: LOL!! at last, I found someone who shares my views!!

While perhaps a little over done during the course of the show, it's obviously supposed to be a recurring theme in the telling of this story. I believe it has more of a purpose than just a gimmicky shock value thing. I mean, come on... flaming arrows? :rolleyes: Seems almost like the writers poking fun at themselves in the context of this very topic.

Don't think of it as death. Just think of it as pieces being removed from the playing board, like Stratego or Hungry Hungry Hippo and that other game... back-something-or-other, you know, that one that has the black and white pieces and that board with all the tall triangles on it.... darn, what in the heck is that called again....?

"Stra-Te-Goooooooooooo!"