I ask myself that nearly every episode that isn't wholly or in large part dedicated to flashbacks of characters who are eventually revealed to be inconsequential.

However... I do keep watching. There is something riveting about it, even if I can't quite figure out whether they really do know where they're going, or if they have just painted themselves into an (admittedly) prettily-colored corner.

Maybe they are brilliant drunks.

or drunk brilliants

Yeah true, true... Now TELL US when Deathspank is comming out!

Soonerisher.

Soonerisher is not soonerish enough. Make it soonerisher.

That's not the soonerishest either. So make it soonerisherer.

I dunno about you, but sometime early next week is good for me... sound sonnerishererish enough for you?

The Island almost reminds me of Dinky Island, what with the endless jungle, castaway attracting beaches, and surreal underground metal chambers.

now here is a true MI fan.

You can't match my witty repartee!

ok, give me a minute while I search for my MI3 cds and startup the vm... mounting images... loading savegame...  

AHA!!!

I could, if you would use some breath spray.

Uhh... Uhh... Panics

Hey, look over there!

?and so poor Guybrush spend his whole live on Melee Island searching for the answer by dueling anything in sight and mysteriously winning every one of them, before shortly before his death he muttered ?It?s not fair, you are using insults from the Swordmaster, err.. I mean MI4?

Four toed statue!~

For A show about time travel, this show is really going nowhere.

We'll only know for sure at the end of the last episodes - when either everything ties up in a beautiful n-dimensional Moebius loop, or reveals itself as a tangle of loose ends.

Or something else entirely unexpected.

On current evidence I'm very optimistic.

I have to say I'm enjoying this season a lot more than most, although this weeks ending did leave me with a bit of a wtf taste in my mouth.

Personally I think its all a dream inside the polar bears head :D

Hmm, I have to say, I'm finally at the point where everything is starting to make sense. You can see they are really starting to move towards the endgame, and it's less and less about new mysteries getting added, and more and more about old mysteries getting solved. Although, I have to admit I'm a pretty big Lost-nerd, who spends way to much time on Lostpedia (those guys are crazy with the details they see in the background), and I wonder how much sense the show makes to the casual viewer.

And damn you, Gilbert, with your sneaky Deathspank-art-teasing. We found the weird rune-things on the Deathspank-site, is there more to uncover?

I'd like to (death) spank that lady.
Huhuhuhurish

They are running after a clever ending that I suspect they have not found out yet. As the deadline comes closer, they need to pile up narrative junk either to make the puzzle fit together, or to feed fans with something.

I expect that a huge Deus Ex Machina will eventually manage to put it all together...

The more I watch lost, the more I realize I am happier with questions than with the answers. A finished puzzle is not fun anymore.

I loved Matrix 1 for the unanswered questions. The 2 other brought dull answers that acrtually ruined the beauty of the mystery. Star wars had a brilliant transcending concept, the Force, but ruined it by giving it the most stupid and uninteresting explanation - the Midichloreans. That threw the whole 6 episodes to the bin in 15 minutes.

How easy of you Ron, taking advantage of a prime time show to keep up your visitors flow. Not that yor aren't excused, Deathspank deserves your full attention SO GET TO WORK AND STOP WATCHING TV.

I've asked myself the same question several times, but either way this show has kept me hooked to it as no other before.

It's a great idea for an episodic adventure game too: put a bunch of interesting characters in a place where anything can happen and you can start to build up all sort of weird stories and scenarios. If people don't enjoy one, just cut it, kill some guys, introduce a few new ones and start another subplot.

Is Deathspank influenced by LOST? Cuz if it is, I'm so buying it!

... oh well, if not I'm still going for it.

The bit about going to the beach, saying 'this is boring!' and going to the orchid, then the beach, ad infinitum was pretty funny.

Those are the bits I come back for. They used to be Hurley's job.

Dunno, I stopped watching around the 3rd season. Got pissed off that Ben kept lying and those idiots kept listening to him. By the time the 3rd person dies because of listening to Ben's crap, you'd think they'd put a couple of bullets in his head and be done with that issue.

Anyway, the only show I regularly watch right now is Battlestar Galactica. Hands down the best series I've seen in a long time.

This is what I dashed over here for, desperately in need of Death Spank related news?

Stupid Lost is stupid. :<

You can tell that they are making it up as they go because of the lack of real foreshadowing. Sure, they rewrite the past A LOT and have a lot of obfuscated shadowy elements, but these things are very different from showing a plan. Seriously, their explanation for the polar bears is so lame that they have to keep bringing it up in an effort to convince themselves as much as the audience.

Still, it is riveting television for no other reason than those writers have carefully honed the cliffhanger into a weapon of mass destruction. And once you are past the second/third season, they really do start answering more questions to a satisfactory level of competence - and given the absurdity of some of the things that have happened, that requires some serious skill indeed!

I tend to think that Lost is the perfect merging between a classic tv-show and a soap-opera. If you think about it, soap-operas follow the same routine: nothing ever ends.
I think now they're trying to cap a soap-opera. That's tough.
I don't care, since I stopped watching Lost after one or two episodes of the second season. Too random for my tastes, I thought it was dishonest.

I don't even care any more, I am so lost. I don't care what happens to them or the island. Yet I continue to tune in every week.

I have invested a lot of time watching this show over the years, I can't walk away from it now. I need to finish the story even though I think the ending will be bad. I just need the completion. Feels like playing an MMORPG for 5 years and not liking it any more but you keep playing because of all the time invested in your character.

I just hope they blow me away.

Paraphrasing Napoleon Bonaparte: Never ascribe to brilliance that which is adequately explained by incompetent drunk writers.

I saw one episode of lost, it was the one with the polar bear. i threw my hands up and said 'nope, not  gonna do it'. I never saw another episode again and juding by how all the people that have seen it only complain about how it makes no sense, i'm glad.

How the hell did they fit a polar bear into that show? Was it walking around the island?

The polar bear just... is. No need for questioning everything.

this is the kind of useless stuff that people usually writes in their twitter accounts. don't you have one?

Its like watching  a crash accident. At the end there will be blood, fire, people crying, confussion and lots of both angry and happy nerds running into colission (uh..if the thing that crash was a bus heading to a comicon, that is..)

Anyway, i think it ll be worth to watch, just for the sick fun of it.

To me, Lost is right up there with Battlestar Galactica. There's no story arc. None at all. Somewhere along the road, "writers" (note the quotation marks) figured out that if you just keep throwing in crazy events and plot turns and twists people will get the illusion that you have a story arc. I think this is especially true for people who have invested a lot of time watching these shows. Sub-consciously, they refuse to believe it's all just chaos for ratings. They await end times, because damn if they haven't spent a lot of time and money at church.

Babylon 5. Now there was a show with a real story arc!

clap clap Toryn!!

And don't worry Mr. Gilbert, we will find you... mwehehe
(?)

I think you mis-underestimated the writers.

It's called mystery. If you understood everything that's going on in Lost, the writers and directors wouldn't be doing a good job. If you want a straight-forward show watch Discovery Channel or MIT's physics lectures on iTunes U.

Now please tell me when DeathSpank is coming out, because I have to make a budget of my allowance money for the near future.

I think you'll reach an answer when you realize they're still dont have a single idea of how the end's gonna be. In the meantime they just throw random stuff on the episodes and make it look like its ALL ACCORDING TO THE PLAN.

I think the Lost writers are simply digging their grave by every new season they write.

I think it's rather easy to come up with an ending that's plausible.

INT. BEDROOM. SUNDAY MORNING. 11:00 AM.

Long haired dude wakes up with a confused expression in his face.

Dude: "Whoa, man. What a crazy dream. Maybe I shouldn't have drunken all that Absynthe last night."

WIN!

Lost is brilliant and it's a pitty that are not understanding...

Lost is brilliant and it's a pitty that you are not understanding...

You, sir, are a moron.

if they are brilliant and everything falls in place in the end we wont be able to see any other show ever again.
I bet they are kinda drunk, there is too much to answers and so few hours left
I would love to see most things answered, and not fall in a "spin-off" sorta thing in a few years

PS: Bring Back Firefly !

Here's an excellent question that backs up your theory:

?You know who did come see me? Jeremy Bentham,? Walt told Hurley in last May?s fourth-season finale.

Where did Walt get ?Jeremy Bentham?? And why didn?t Hurley reply, ?Who?s Jeremy Bentham?? And how did Walt know Hurley would know that name? Locke never used the name ?Jeremy Bentham? when he spoke to Walt OR Hurley. And Walt apparently hadn?t spoken to Hurley since Ben showed Michael how to sail back to civilization back at the end of season two...

Quite a clunker considering how close those two episodes were... How will the questions from Season 1 fare? I have a horrible feeling that it's all going to come down to a Heroes-style finale, where all the of the questions and events you've been so closely keeping an eye on have absolutely nothing to do with the resolution of the story.

So, it could well be that the cracks are already beginning to show. Time will tell...

But one thing is for sure, the idiotic way Network television works means that it's impossible for writers (no matter how good they are) to be able to plan in advance what's going to happen: A few weeks of low ratings and you're cancelled. (Just ask Push, Nevada.)

*Note: Push, Nevada had a supposedly water-tight story that was carefully constructed to slowly give away clues to a real-life cash prize... I wasn't saying that was the pinnacle of TV writing, or anything.

Actually, it turns out the clues weren't even part of the story, but that's besides the point: TV shows are mostly written on a week-to-week basis, completely made up as they go along with no idea of where they're headed. Especially 24 (seriously).

Shut up.

Please don't be spouting so much shit, Johnny boy.

Don't shoot the messenger (try pointing the gun at your own head).

(spoilers, I guess)

Locke was traveling under that name, and presumably, when he died and showed up in the paper's obituaries, was listed under that name as well. I think it is a reasonable assumption that, in an effort to be obtuse and secretive, they spoke of the alias rather than using Locke's name.

(end spoilers)

They are absolutely making up as they go, more so in the first two or three seasons, and given the complex seeds that have been liberally strewn throughout, there are bound to be missteps here and there. That being said, Lost has one of the most obsessive compulsive fanbases on the planet. They have the opportunity to correct those missteps because I'll bet dollars to donuts that the fans repeatedly let them know what they've missed.

Both of them (Hurley and Walt) were introduced to "jeremy Bentham". Hurley was asked by a nurse to attend a visitor named J. Bentham, and Walt had a chat in fron of his schol

Locke never used the name ?Jeremy Bentham? when he spoke to Walt OR Hurley.

Since Heroes is the most brilliantly constructed and crafted TV show in all of history it can't be the first. Therefore, by your premise, it must be the second.

heroes is far from the best, season 2 has no direction, adding characters that will we eliminated with no porpuse on season 3 or 4 shows it.
Firing producers after season 1 was a poor choice, and it was reflected on the rest of the series, now on season 4 is picking up a bit... and some of the original producers are back.. coincidence?

I'm still enjoying it, too, and haven't been put off by the time travel plot. It did seem from the beginning, however, that they were just making it up on the fly and certainly as Johnny W points out, they are probably working from week to week. It is a shame about the lack of real foreshadowing, as Sqorgar points out. I don't recall any characters who knew James LeFleur or recognized any of the characters during the first season-- that would have been a heck of a coup where the plot's concerned. Still, I love the mythology they have created and aside from some of the schmaltzy soap opera elements the characters are fairly compelling, or at least very pretty to look at... especially Hurley. Yes, Hurley. Back to the plot, I myself would have preferred they didn't drag it out over the seasons and just ended the Island plot in the first season-- leaving successive seasons to being "Lost" in other weird places.

At the very least it's a cleverly written show with believable characters and ingenious plot devices that they throw in just when it's starting to get bored. I'm halfway through season 3 and I'm still enjoying it a lot.

THERE IS NO DOUBT that it was all planned since the first season: 6 seasons , the third one beeing the axis on where the other 5 stand. The first ones talk about the PAST of the characters, an the last ones talk about they future or "destiny". That big idea among some other ones are there since the begginig. That said THERE IS ALSO NO DOUBT that they write new plots  on a week to week focus group shit basis; like AAALL NETWORKS

Guys i think this statue thing might be related to Atlantis stuff. I'm just assuming, i have no solid proof about that. But just keep in mind, ok ;)

Ron, you big tease. Release the game already. I don't care about the bugs.

You say that now...After the third time the game crashes deleting all your savegames, you will be chasing mr. Gilbert to the windmill.

Dear Mr Gilbert,

please release DeathSpank, I cannot wait any longer.
My days are dull without DeathSpank.

Also, will you sign copies of the game in a limited collector's edition for long-time readers of this blog?

Sincerely,
Thomas Jefferson

That's the second biggest statue of a 4-toed humanoid I've ever seen!

Let me give you the inside scoop people -- They just got a bunch of other screenplays (Jason and the Argonauts/Gilligan's island/24/ER/Party of Five, etc.), then cut them all up and pasted them on the chalkboard, then ease back with their coffees and legs crossed, and where like: I'm telling you boys, that god damn Burroughs was on to something . . .

"But Sir, how do we end this? I mean its a tangled mess of plot-lines, and characters --- I mean Sir, what the hell was that black mist doing there?"

(turning to the other screenwriters wryly) "JJ was pretty quick when he bet me half a K I could not get that into there. Wasn't he boys."

"He's not laughing now Frank."

"You bet his ass he's not." (arms folded.)

"Sir, but the ending Sir, how are you going to end it?"

"Jimmy. My young intern. By the time we ride this steakhorse out, the polar ice caps would have melted, and that damn island will be under ten feet of water. Ask me how we'll end it then . . ."

"If the Island is going to end submerged boss. We could be thinking spinoff. Maybe we could do somekind of Aquaman rehash but with a Seaquest DSV takeoff."

"Always on the ball George, I like that."

"We could make the water around the island radioactive boss. That way we can make the Lost cast mutants with super powers. The teen demographic is big into super heroes right now. We could make one of the mutants also able to transform into the black mist. Link it in with a time travel flashback to the island with Jack."

"Are you taking notes Jimmy. Right now George is feeding you gold."

You, sir, just won the game.

Get this man a Hollywood agent.

EPIC WIN

The Secret of Monkey Island is equally confusing, Ron. Maybe it's a secret because you don't know how else to end it? You brilliant grog drunk, you.

I'm sorry but Lost doesn't make any sense. Mysteriously senseless, i suppose some magic behind that!

Not a fan of Lost but I do like Numb3rs awesome show.

The new iPhone OS has copy & paste. Just thought I'd let you guys know, since Ron isn't making much of an effort releasing news about SpankDeath.

Ooooh SpankDeath! Is that like a sequel to DeathSpank or something? RON why haven't you mentioned this "SpankDeath" before?????

No, SpankDeath is actually the prequel to DeathSpank. It's about a guy who ensuffers death by spanking... only to be revealed in the end that he comes back as an undead hero! Who is called DeathSpank! And thus, the saga begins...

Someone register spankdeath.com before Ron does. You can sell it back to him for a free copy of DeathSpank, because else some lost souls will type in spankdeath.com and not land on the game site.... but somewhere else! Muahahahahaha!!

I can already see the porn version of DeathSpank, as in porn movies that mock Hollywood movies... The Legend of DeathSpank, the Undead Hero Who Spanks Womens Buttocks Until They Are Red! The thong of justice would be easily adapted as well...

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! That hurts Mr. DeathSpank!  Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Mmmmm... Mr. DeathSpank...!!

DeathSpank is about as much a mystery to me as the Secret of Monkey Island.

Lost episodes are created by numerous elephants with laptops.

I heard the episodes are written by an endless amount of monkeys with typewriters and an infinite amount of time... just halfway through on the way before they write Shakespeare.

Oh, and did you know Chuck Norris counted to infinity... twice?

too bad chuck norris is a bitch! -hic

touché

I think Ron will have a hard time writing funnier lines than present in these comments.

He can just steal em then! Just like how the shamwow man stole my heart....

What I'm failing to grasp is why Ron answers to some comments, and to some comments not. There's no logic behind that either, which makes Ron a hypocrite.

Lost is the gods angry revenge on you for not revealing the secret of monkey island

think of the xfiles