As a sci-fi fan, I am a little disappointed in the ending of LOST. Since the first season I have wished that the show was more sci-fi. But that is not LOST. For every geek who watched the show for the sci-fi (and got a love story), there was a housewife who watched the show for the love story (and got some sci-fi). Well, the show had a love story ending and I am okay with that.
The producers had repeatedly mentioned M*A*S*H as an influence and we got a similar ending-the characters went their separate ways, but their time on the island will always be the most important time in their lives.
Contemporary long-form television is difficult to wrap-up. They have too many subplots, too much complexity much a nice ending. The Sopranos, The Wire and Battlestar Galactica (to name a few) all did less-than-spectacular jobs. So, it should not be surprising that LOST's finale was not perfect.
From a sci-fi point of view, the show had been following a very predictable trajectory the whole sixth season. And I am relieved that they did not introduce some new sci-fi element as an explainer or, worse, introduce some "theory of everything" that explains... well, everything that happened on the island.
It is one thing to give a simple explanation for everything or give a total mindfuck ending after a two-hour film (M. Night Shyamalan is so fond of doing both of these). But, after over 100 hours, I think we need something more than a mindfuck.
Yeah, LOST did not explain a lot of things, but I think over-explaining would have hurt the show (think "The Matrix" series) and any explanation that would have encompassed everything would be so complicated as to be ridiculous. The overall explanation is that the island is a strange place where strange things happen. BAM! Explanation enough.
Desmond survived a electrical discharge and could see the past, present and future (and the afterlife apparently). Does it make sense scientifically? No. (And there is a ton of other examples like that). But, I do not think the show needs to explain it anymore than that. To paraphrase the show "Whatever weird stuff happened, happened".
For example, does faster-than-light speed travel make sense? Does teleporting make sense? No and no. But these are accepted parts of those respective franchises and they work in service of the story and are not the story itself.
Lastly, Americans love love, so in American television, the two lead characters will inevitably find themselves in a romantic relationship (think Friends, Moonlighting, Cheers, Will and Grace, Who's The Boss?) and yes LOST ends reaffirming all of the romantic relationships (Jack and Kate, Sawyer and Juliet, Charlie and Claire, Rose and Bernard, even digging deep to bring back Shannon and Sayid)
However, in a strange way, in addition to the one-on-one romantic love, there is the affirmation of a group platonic love that the people on the island experienced. To me, this group affirmation is more heartwarming that any single relationship. This group relationship mirrors not only that of the relationship of viewers to each other (who met around watercoolers and chat rooms to discuss the show) but also the viewers' relationship with the show itself and the love they we have for LOST.
And, yes, I loved LOST.
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