Why I Don’t Want More LOST

Most of my friends who know me, especially those who follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter, know just how obsessed I am with LOST — a series that went off the air two years ago today. Several times throughout the week, I’ll post quotes from the show or minor theories or just random thoughts about events depicted on the show. Yet despite that, there are certain things that you’ll never hear me say, which I’ve seen expressed by several other die-hard LOST fans: “I miss LOST!” “I want more LOST!” “Damon and Carlton, please bring back LOST!”

Sure, I understand the sentiment behind these expressions. LOST was such a great show, and we thoroughly enjoyed the excitement of watching a new episode every week, and we miss having that excitement to look forward to. For me, though, that doesn’t automatically translate to, “Bring LOST back on the air!” That’s because I know that LOST was always meant to be a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Damon and Carlton have stated that they’ve told the story that they wanted to tell. That means that any attempts to add to that story just to satisfy the fans’ thirst for more would just result in pointless and uninteresting material. How do I know this? We’ve seen it happen before.

Back in the first half of Season 3, the writers were running out of story ideas, and the result was a drawn-out story arc with three of the characters being held in polar bear cages by the Others, while the rest were back at their camp just bumbling around with their own isolated struggles. Flashbacks gave us insights into Sawyer’s time in prison, Kate’s short-lived marriage, and the all-important mystery of Jack’s tattoo. Meanwhile, the overall story was going absolutely nowhere. That is, until the producers were able to negotiate an end-date with the network, thus finally giving the writers the freedom they needed to move the story forward toward its intended conclusion. The series picked up momentum again and remained riveting all the way through the finale.

So if anyone, whether it be J.J. Abrams, or Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, or anybody else deciding to take it on, were to continue writing new episodes of LOST, perhaps following the adventures of the characters who remained on the Island, and the charaters who left suddenly have some reason why they “have to go back”, it would likely be similar to the first half of Season 3, with a bunch of episodes just dragging on an aimless storyline to fill time. Or it would be a different series altogether, with a new story and a new set of characters, like much of the fan-fiction that’s been posted on the internet. It is very unlikely that such a series would be anywhere near as good as LOST was, especially if it’s done just to meet viewer demands.

I’ve heard quite a few people complain that too many questions about the series were left unanswered and that new episodes could address those questions. I would say that most of the important mysteries were answered to my satisfaction, and the unanswered questions are actually a good thing, because that’s what kept the most dedicated fans talking about the show and forming theories! I think it would be very unsatisfying to watch one episode after another of nothing but spoon-fed answers. The answers would feel very anti-climactic and pointless, there’d be nothing left to talk about, and LOST would soon fade into a distant memory.

So yes, LOST was one of my favorite TV shows of all time (if not the favorite), but I’m glad that it ended when it did. Do I “miss” it? Not really, because I can just pop in a DVD and watch any episode whenever I want. Besides, I think I’ve actually had more fun talking about LOST in the two years since it ended than I did when it was still on! To this day, I enjoy forming new theories about the characters and the Island, without waiting to see if those theories are true or if they’ll even be answered. When you’re working on a puzzle, and you know you have all the pieces, it doesn’t make sense to scream, “I want more pieces!” The writers of LOST have given us all the puzzle pieces that we’re ever going to get, so we can now enjoy the process of piecing them together, which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the past two years and will continue to do for however long it holds my interest. So yes, I’m still obsessed with LOST, but no, I don’t want more.

My Thoughts on the Multiple Personality Woman on Dr. Phil

I’m mostly assuming that the people reading this have seen the Dr. Phil episode with Tracy, the multiple personality woman, but before I continue, I’ll just quickly recap Tracy’s alternate identities, or “alters”:

• Becky: cuts, bruises, chokes and has threatened to kill Tracy.

• Emily: a frightened 5-year-old child.
• Susie: an innocent 10-year-old child.
• Samantha: the “CEO”.
• Miss Anne: “the caretaker”.

(For the full episode synopsis with video clips, click here.)

Okay, first, I’m not saying that I believe that Tracy’s multiple personalities are even real, and I’m not convinced that Dr. Phil bought into it either, but he treated them as though they were real, so I’m talking about them as though they were. Plus it makes it more interesting.

I’m glad that Tracy agreed to go to that treatment center for help, but did anyone else realize that nobody asked Becky if she wanted to go? Or Samantha or Miss Anne, for that matter? Who’s to say that the personality that identifies herself as Tracy is even the real Tracy? All Tracy knows is that she’s got these other personalities inside of her that she wants to get rid of. The other five have their own agendas.

What I did find interesting was that Becky was completely willing to engage in a civilized conversation with Dr. Phil and to explain what she needed, as opposed to some out-of-control angry freak beating herself up on stage. So I would think Becky certainly deserves to receive help from the treatment center to deal with her emotional trauma that she claims Tracy is ignoring, and it seems like Becky was willing to get help as much as Tracy was. But Sam sounds like she could potentially become an obstacle, if her refusal to take her medication is an indication that she doesn’t believe she needs any help. What happens if Sam decides to take over and sign Tracy out of the treatment center, against the will of the other personalities? I wish Dr. Phil had had the time to let Tracy introduce us to Sam and Miss Anne, because I would’ve been interested to get to know them a bit more, like we did Becky.

Furthermore, what happens after Becky learns how to deal with her anger issues? Does Becky just simply go away, or does she become a new person with a positive outlook on life, but still having to share the same body with Tracy?

One question that I had hoped Tracy would’ve answered was, who named all the alters? Did she name them, or did they all name themselves? I thought it was weird that Becky identified herself as Becky, but she wrote into the show and signed her name as Tracy. Tracy knew Becky’s writing style, and Becky certainly had strong opinions about the way Tracy was managing her life.

(WARNING: The next paragraph contains a spoiler for the movie “Identity”.)

That brings up another question I thought of, which is, to what lengths have Tracy and her alters gone to try to communicate with each other? I somehow doubt it’s possible to induce a dreamworld like in the movie “Identity” where all the personalities get to meet each other face-to-face. (Actually, this image just popped into my head of the six versions of Tracy (the original Tracy and her five alters) all sitting around a round table, bickering at each other, with Dr. Phil moderating the discussion, like the Dr. Phil Housewives.) But I wonder if Tracy could do something like create different user accounts on her computer for each of her alters, and then the alters can choose their own passwords. I mean, if the alters don’t remember each others’ experiences, then they theoretically wouldn’t know each other’s passwords, right? Then they could just e-mail each other, or leave each other video messages. Or they could each create their own Facebook accounts and then friend each other.

Okay, I think I’m having too much fun with this. So I’ll just conclude by saying… GO TEAM BECKY!!!

My thoughts on the Ultra-Cult episode of Dr. Phil

From what I’ve heard and observed, Dr. Phil’s staff works really hard in preparation for each episode, finding and interviewing potential guests, and gathering all of the relevant information for the topic at hand. But with the complexities of many of these topics and the guests’ situations, they are bound to make mistakes. And after watching Friday’s episode with the woman who broke away from a supposed Jewish cult, I’ve concluded that Dr. Phil’s staff basically made one critical error that turned the whole episode into a train wreck. I suspect now that through some kind of miscommunication during pre-show interviews, they got the impression that the woman, Pearl, was labeling all of Orthodox Judaism as a cult and claiming that her horrible oppressive experiences are common throughout the entire Orthodox Jewish community. But as Pearl indicated during the show, she clearly didn’t think that, and she stated multiple times that she thinks Orthodox Judaism is a beautiful religion, and she blames her experiences on one particular isolated community. Unfortunately, due to the staff’s misperceptions that I’m guessing happened in the days leading up to the show, the Jewish guests came onto the show fully prepared to do nothing except defend Judaism, particularly the rabbi that kept hijacking the discussion and only seemed to care about defending a faith that wasn’t even being attacked. And that’s a shame, because it detracted from the real issue, which was Pearl’s custody battle for her kids.

Pearl consistently referred to the community that she grew up in, the one she now considers a cult, as “Ultra-Orthodox Judaism”. Because of the name, I can see how it’s easy for an outsider to confuse that with standard traditional Orthodox Judaism, or to at least assume that it’s a branch of or similar enough to Orthodox Judaism. Even Dr. Phil kept referring to Pearl’s religion as Orthodox Judaism and turned to the experts of Orthodox Judaism for their take on Pearl’s experiences. About halfway through the show, Dr. Phil finally seemed to catch on that Pearl WASN’T referring to Judaism as a whole and was talking about a completely separate religious community. The rabbi, unfortunately, did not. Every chance he got, the rabbi would criticize Pearl for defaming the entire Jewish community, even after she clarified that she wasn’t. He apparently had a preconceived notion that the woman was going to attack the Jewish faith on the show, so his brain was in a full-on defensive mode the entire time. Naturally, it was very frustrating for Pearl, who was invited onto the show to talk about and get help for her situation, and the rabbi was being anything but helpful.

The ironic part about all of this is that Dr. Phil said that he himself had very little knowledge about Judaism, so he’d invited the rabbi and the other Jewish guests onto the show to offer their expertise. Yet in the end, the only person that understood what they were really dealing with, and who offered any helpful advice to Pearl, was Dr. Phil. He and the rest of his staff probably realized after the fact that they’d made a huge mistake with the facts about Pearl’s story in preparation for the show.

The thing that puzzles me, though, is that none of the Jewish guests, who were supposed to be the ones providing the insights that Dr. Phil and his staff didn’t have, were able to recognize the nature of the misunderstanding, while I, as a non-Jewish viewer, recognized it right away. As a Christian, I’m well-aware of organizations which operate under the guise of Christianity, and may even claim to be following Christ and his teachings, but which clearly exhibit cult-like behaviors that any smart Bible-believing Christian would disapprove of. It seems pretty obvious to me that Pearl grew up in a Jewish equivalent of that, and that she knew that she did. Why didn’t the rabbi and the other Jewish guests pick up on that? Does the name “Ultra-Orthodox” not signal any red flags that this group might not be in line with traditional Orthodox Judaism? Are these types of cults simply not known amongst the Jewish community? Or was it simply because they were far too defensive to hear anything Pearl had to say? In any case, I’m glad that she got out of the ultra-cult and got her story told to the public, and I hope that she’s able to receive support to help her in her custody battle for her kids.

Yeah… I’m crazy.

Swamp Guy finally gets his wish!

One year ago, after Alexandra from the Dr. Phil Family wondered what would “emerge from the swamp next”, this guy “emerged from the swamp” and proclaimed, “Alex must go to rehab!” This is the update, one year later!

My brief thoughts on the “Chore Wars” episode of Dr. Phil

If the recent “Marriage Meltdown” series wasn’t enough to deter me away from marriage, this “Chore Wars” episode definitely was. I could actually relate to the three husbands on the show whose wives complained about their laziness at home. Not so much the husbands’ expectations of women’s roles in the home (which I definitely disagreed with), but just their ideas of how and when certain chores should be done. I’m sure that their wives and most of the women in Dr. Phil’s audience would consider me a slob, if they saw how I normally live at home. Yes, I often throw my dirty clothes on the floor, with the intention of picking them up later when it’s more convenient for me to do so, and I eventually do. I let dishes pile up in the sink, until I decide it’s a good time to put them in the dishwasher. I don’t take the trash out until the morning of trash pickup. If a wastebasket fills up before then, I close up the bag and put it by the door, and then I take it out the next time I actually GO out. And I know I would absolutely hate for somebody to tell me to do something RIGHT NOW while I’m watching TV or doing something equally important. But I also know that the only reason I can get away with all this is because I’m single, and there’s no one around to complain about my habits.

Apparently, the guys on the show were clueless enough to believe they could carry their single-guy habits into marriage and not be criticized for it by their wives. I don’t know if they still would’ve gotten married if they’d known about the expected lifestyle changes beforehand, but I’d say the lack of such knowledge was what got them where they are now. As for me, I do know that I most likely would have to make some drastic changes about the way I live if I ever got married, and watching this show has made it an even scarier prospect than it was before. I suppose it’s still possible that it would be worth it if I were to meet the right woman. But unless and until that happens, I’m perfectly comfortable living the way I’m living now.

Dr. Phil: “Marriage Meltdown, part 3″ As Seen By a Fascinated Single Guy

Obi-Wan Kenobi explained the Jedi mind-trick to Luke Skywalker in these words: “The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded.” Apparently, the same can be said for the techniques that Dr. Phil used on those three boneheaded husbands in the Dr. Phil House. From what I remember seeing at the beginning of this three-part series, those guys seemed so set in their cocky, chauvinistic ways and ready to call their marriages quits, I thought there was no way they would ever be motivated to change. And it turns out I was wrong on all three counts! In fact, in this final episode, Dr. Phil uncovered things about all three of these couples’ pasts that I never would’ve guessed, but it explained why the men behaved the way they did and apparently made lightbulbs go on inside their heads. I guess I should’ve realized that even Darth Vader could be turned from the dark side. Okay, that’s enough with the Star Wars references.

The Doc dealt with each couple separately this time. Number Two and Demon Hunter were first. The Doc pointed out to Demon Hunter that while she seeks to focus on her relationship with God, dissing her husband is not in the service of God. (The Doc probably could’ve quoted Ephesians 5:22, but that probably would’ve freaked her out.) He also pointed out that Number Two feels rejected by her, despite reacting to those feelings in really stupid ways. I do recall that Number Two had tried to tell Demon Hunter the same thing himself earlier, but she immediately accused him of being a liar. I was hoping the Doc would point that out, but at least Demon Hunter got the main message this time. She said she was willing to forgive him and start fresh. Then the Doc invited their two teenage daughters into the room, and Number Two and Demon Hunter both apologized to them, and Number Two promised them that they’d get their dad back. Number Two now realizes that the Doc was cheering him on the whole time. I’m almost worried that he’ll soon be starting his own Dr. Phil cult, the way he seemed to be worshipping the Doc at the end.

Next up, Mr. and Mrs. Pancake. But first, a bunch of people from Dr. Phil’s staff came in and confronted Mr. Pancake about some offensive remarks he’d made about the show while the cameras were rolling the previous day. Basically he’d claimed that the show was all about ratings and that the Doc’s people didn’t know what they were doing. Okay, he’s not the first person to say stuff like that about the show, but he’s one of the few guests who’s been stupid enough to say it while he’s actually on the show, particularly when he knows he’s going to be there for a while and the staff has plenty of time to confront him! Mr. Pancake realized his mistake and apologized, since there was really nothing else he could do, and then all those staff members left. The rest of the session with Mr. and Mrs. Pancake seemed like quite a few conversations with previous guests on the Dr. Phil Show, even down to the meddling mother-in-law that the wife always runs to when things get bad. The Doc told Mrs. Pancake that she needs to invite her mother out of the marriage, so she did. Because Mrs. Pancake had told her mom so many bad things about Mr. Pancake, the mom had pretty much been programmed to hate Mr. Pancake, so she voiced a lot of concerns for her daughter. But eventually she accepted the Doc’s advice to step back, be quiet and watch and see what happens. As Yoda might say to her, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” (Okay, seriously, I don’t know why I’m so fixated on Star Wars right now!) Later, as the mom was leaving, she stopped to give Mr. Pancake a hug. In the background, Number Two’s daughters were making the most use of that pool table out of anyone we’ve seen on the show. But what I’m wondering is, what exactly was Mr. Pancake doing in that room with Number Two’s daughters? I couldn’t really tell, since that scene was edited out of context, but I imagine Number Two would’ve had the same question on his mind when he watched the show!

Last but not least, it’s Caveman time. Now this is yet another case where I learned that my initial assessments were completely wrong. I totally assumed that Caveman’s chauvinistic attitude was just something he grew up with. It turns out that it actually began when Modern Woman made a couple of bad choices that Caveman resented, so Caveman felt like he had to have complete control over her from that point on. This was all news to me. Those realizations must’ve been either off camera or edited out. So anyway, that’s why they both said in the first episode that they weren’t like that when they got married! They really weren’t! So after that part got resolved, the Doc suddenly brought up his concerns for Caveman’s health because of his weight, and he offered him the 17 Day Diet plan and the Bistro MD service. In other words, the Doc was basically calling Caveman a fat slob. I mean, sure, I can see that he’s overweight, but it’s not like he’s Jabba the Hutt or something. (Yeah, yeah, I know.) But Caveman seemed to appreciate the offer, and Modern Woman accepted the offer as well.

The Doc brought all three couples back together for some parting words and goodbyes. Mrs. Pancake mentioned that it was the first time she’d seen Number Two and Demon Hunter sitting so close together. If sitting close together on a couch is supposed to be an indicator of how successful the marriage will be, then that’s not really good news for Caveman and Modern Woman, who were sitting as far apart on the couch as they could and even had a big pillow wedged between them horizontally. But it did seem that everybody left on a positive note and confident that the Doc had saved their marriages. I totally never would’ve predicted this outcome after watching the first episode! But then again, I didn’t expect Princess Leia to fall in love with Han Solo, either. Okay, that’s it, I’m outta here! To Number Two, Demon Hunter, Caveman, Modern Woman, Mr. Pancake and Mrs. Pancake… may the Force be with you!