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111 Comments
- Jackmoe, on 04/20/2009, -0/+29Dugg for Shamwow reference.
- drachemorder, on 04/21/2009, -3/+23This guy's really got his finger on the pulse of what makes good popular culture. He's absolutely right --- it's the mystery that makes us keep coming back to watch the next episode, or read the next chapter, or play the next level, or whatever. The journey is at least as important as the destination.
- xsecretfiles, on 04/21/2009, -0/+19So guys, what lies in the shadow of the statue??
- scottmbeggs, on 04/21/2009, -1/+18But it's really just good characters that get people interested. When the show relies too much on mystery - it gets bland. People go crazy to figure out what the smoke monster is, but they wouldn't really care if they hadn't invested in who Jack, Kate, etc were.
- PizzaEagle, on 04/21/2009, -1/+16JJ Abrams is my constant.
- inactive, on 04/21/2009, -0/+14ShamWow
- cromulent742, on 04/21/2009, -0/+13Thou shalt not speak ill of the X-Files.
- danwallace, on 04/21/2009, -1/+13And yet I, and millions of others, flock to their televisions every Wednesday night to find out what happens next, completely enamored with the story and characters he's created. Everyone's always in such a rush. Just relax and enjoy the damn story. It's probably the best one being told on television today.
- Xkers, on 04/21/2009, -1/+11Would it be better to explain something like the 4-toed statue, which seems to be a important part of the overall mythology of Lost, when the writers had no clue when Lost was going to end? Since they've got the end date, things have been moving forward at a good pace and I think they're doing a fantastic job of not answering things too early.
If you complain about introducing something without knowing when you can reveal the mystery, that's a valid point. I can understand where you're coming from but I love how they've managed to keep big parts of the mythology (statue, Richard, the monster and Jacob) interesting and each season reveal a little bit more about it. I'm confident that, when all is said and done, we have a good amount of information about each of these things. - TEDChris, on 04/21/2009, -0/+10...and here he talks live about the magic of mystery... the TED talk that allegedly inspired this issue of Wired. http://tr.im/jlX3
- Egroh08, on 04/21/2009, -0/+9"Look at this puddle of blood from this hooker. Shamwow cleans it up in seconds!"
- shutaro, on 04/20/2009, -0/+8No mystery: It's made of Win.
- joel8x, on 04/21/2009, -4/+12I liked JJ Abrams better when he was Chris Carter.
- takamalak, on 04/21/2009, -0/+8Hulu is not illegal, retard.
- j3ff86, on 04/21/2009, -0/+8Smells like carrots?
- artemis1, on 04/21/2009, -2/+10Benjamin Linus *LIES* in the shadow and everywhere else.
- airwalke, on 04/21/2009, -1/+8That was a brilliant article, and aimed directly at the diggers in this thread demanding an answer to everything right here, right now. In an age of immediacy, we've lost the ability of delayed gratification. People rack up insane debts on their credit cards to "pay it off later" so they can have stuff NOW. They read spoilers, as pointed out in this article, so they can say "I know something you don't know".
Think of it as playing a game. The Sims comes to mind. Now, you could play the game as intended and get your Sim a job, grow a social network, and play the game as it was meant to -- or you could look up the cheats and give your Sim so much money that a job is unnecessary, social networks are redundant, but yet, you have every item in your home that the game has to offer. The game loses its value because you've barely spent an hour playing and you've seen everything.
Cloverfield was a masterful approach to this idea of mystery, and I'm not surprised people didn't get it in today's day and age. This is not an attempt to look down my nose at everyone, but to remind those who may have forgotten what an integral part mystery played in how we enjoyed the cinema, TV, and everything else in between. Those who watched Cloverfield with disdain claiming there wasn't a "plot" or that it made them motion sick didn't are used to Michael Bay-type disaster films where there's a montage of said catastrophic event, usually narrated by a Weather Channel-reject declaring how they can't believe what they see. And I'm pretty sure the President of the United States gets involved at some point, usually played by Harrison Ford or Bill Pullman type who paces around the military strategic room pondering the use of nuclear weapons to combat the invasion of global warming causing bacteria from outer space.
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse put it perfectly when answering a fan question as to whether or not the smoke monster or Jacob will be explained in Lost. They brought up Star Wars and the nature of the Force, and felt that The Phantom Menace "ruined" the mystery of the force by explaining that those who had a high midichlorian count were the ones most receptive to the Force's powers. Much in the same way, if Jacob or the smoke monster are COMPLETELY dissected, then it ruins the meaning and puts the focus on the definition.
Without some mystery left behind for fans to chew on long after the series expired, there's no substance left to fondly remember. - stephenhage, on 04/21/2009, -1/+7Abrams is right. It's the journey not the destination that ultimately counts. The problem with spoilers is that they're double sided: They end up spoiling not only the movie, story, game...and they spoil you.
I understand the desire to find and use the information in a spoiler. Part of the problem is that few understand the damage doing so does to what has been spoiled and to the experience(s) that might have been enjoyed had you opted not to access the spoiler.
Such is life.
Stephen J. Hage - jpeg91, on 04/22/2009, -1/+7You missed the point of that article completly.
- danwallace, on 04/21/2009, -0/+6The problem is the X-Files had no direction or intention of ever completing the mythology. Lost does. It had a lot of unexplained ***** going on, but it was all necessary and now we'll see just how well they can do with bringing it all together.
- petebot, on 04/21/2009, -2/+8Yeah, i guess you didn't read the article, did you?
- Xkers, on 04/21/2009, -0/+6It's a mystery.
- zip000, on 04/21/2009, -0/+5I haven't seen Felicity, but Alias was pretty good, Lost is great (though Abrams isn't involved in that really apparently), Cloverfield was surprisingly good actually, Fringe is pretty good, and I'm very excited about Star Trek.
No one cares. - petebot, on 04/21/2009, -1/+6Ok, digg commenter, i'll trust you instead. That was close--I was just about to let him watch my house!
- theberlindoctor, on 04/20/2009, -18/+23Mystery is only interesting to a point. If you take 4 seasons to get to the point, it gets boring.
- petebot, on 04/21/2009, -0/+5And by the way, everybody, he hasn't written a lost episode since like the first season.
- norman619, on 04/21/2009, -1/+6That is called foreshadowing and it's used pretty often in books and TV shows. Take a few writing classes.
- tjallen, on 04/21/2009, -0/+5No save? I used to leave my NES on for days, if not longer for some games.
- danwallace, on 04/21/2009, -1/+6What lies in the shadow of the statue?
Seriously, how is "not yet explained" the same as "not explained at all" to you? Are you impatient or just stupid? You realize the show's still on the air, right? - danwallace, on 04/21/2009, -0/+5So what you're saying is, he's made some of the most succesful and profitable shows on television, but since you're a bitter trekkie he's a hack?
- danwallace, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4Hulu is also not available in Canada, so I'm not sure what the hell he's talking about.
- efice32, on 04/22/2009, -0/+4You know they planned out the outline for what would happen in Lost from the beginning, right? They mention it in an interview in the Season 1 DVD Features.
- ASfinkterSezWut, on 04/21/2009, -5/+9I totally disagree... Fringe dropped it's drawers and bent over in the first 20 minutes to show you the conspiracy, and the persistent overacting, forced characters and poor sets just make it fell like a cheap knock-off of a cheap X-Files knock-off.
- kmcHMG, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4A great example of creative thinking and leaving people wanting more.
- zip000, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4The monster never really interested me - at least not after the first season or so - and basically the same with the statue - I'm curious but not that curious.
...but Jacob and to a (very) slightly lesser extent Richard just have me hugely curious. If there were a spoiler, I'd probably click on it. Even though I know I'd regret it. - danwallace, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4I'll lay it out straight for you: Lost > Star Trek.
Better mythology, better acting, better character development, better story-telling. - zip000, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4I never knew that - I always assumed that he was like an executive producer or something - somehow involved with the show even if he wasn't directing or writing. Oh well.
I like Fringe, but it frustratingly stays away from the more interesting aspects of the story and just does one-off episodes. - Barr08, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4Darkness
- Xkers, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3Well, he wrote the season three premiere with Lindelof. But you're right, Abrams is basically gone from the show since the Pilot.
- PittPanthersFan, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4I really want to read and digg this, but I can't get past the spoiler warning! Damn you, Lost!
- airwalke, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4Tell my sister I love her.
Much like that, it's a code. The way the other 316 passengers asked it was like asking "are you one of us, or one of them?" - effinboy, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3along with their secret of gummyberry juice?
- pathouston22, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3Speak for yourself on digital music, I value my music collection of over 75Gb - of only music that I enjoy. I have 3 copies on hardrives of my entire collection, with one at work just in case my house burns down. I've been collecting since the mid 90s when I was about 10 years old with CDs. I no longer have any physical media, but that doesn't mean you can't cherish your collection.
- petebot, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4tropical plants
- norman619, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4No the biggest mystery of all is where do all those socks go when they disappear on laundry day?
- norman619, on 04/21/2009, -3/+6Sorry but X-files wan't an original show either. There were other shows like it in the past. X-files did not create this genre. It was just the most recent example of a successful show IN this genre. There was TV long before you were born.
- lolipop99, on 04/21/2009, -3/+6SMB2 was/is freak'n hard!
- fuse13, on 04/22/2009, -0/+3when they were travelling back in time, someone saw the whole statue from the back for a short moment before jumping again.
i think they are going to tie all this together. -
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