LOST: Camps Divided Over "The End"

Still processing the LOST series finale?  Don't worry, even folks who make a living writing about, reacting to and theorizing about the metaphysical Rubik's Cube of a television show are still struggling to piece it all together.  Many LOST heavy hitters, like Doc Arzt and EW's Doc Jensen are apparently still composing their much anticipated post-finale reviews.  Here at UGO, we're a bit divided over the end of Darlton's magnum opus.  How about the rest of the world?  Here's a running list of where our comrades fall on the great divide of what may - or may not be - the greatest/worst series finale ever.

"'The End' was an emotionally draining epic that had me crying with almost every single 'awakening.'" - Jeff Jensen, EW

"LOST, arguably the most important genre show of the past decade, ended with a fizzle. People will tell you it was fine until the last 15 minutes, but they're wrong." - Charlie Jane Anders, io9

"With every episode now out there to be analyzed, I don't know how "LOST" hangs together as a large narrative, but as a series of moments, it was often incredible, right up until 'The End.'" - Alan Sepinwall, Hit Fix

"LOST created a Gordian knot of ethical, moral, and philosophical questions and then cut through it with gooey sentimentality and maudlin faux-spirituality. There could have been no more disappointing ending."- Devin Faraci, CHUD (from a review titled "LOST's Big Gnostic Wet Fart Ending")

"Here's what I think. I was, like you, utterly rocked by this finale. We were gifted with 2.5 hours of utterly cathartic, satisfying emotional release as we watched characters we've come to love over the past six seasons find closure." - Liz, Washington Post's Celebritology 2.0

"You have to think that the gauzy, vaguely religious, more than a little mawkish ending of 'Lost’ – “Touched by a Desmond” — will not sit well with a lot of the show’s fans." - Mike Hale, New York Times' Arts Beat

"I didn't hate the Lost series finale, but I didn't love it either. However, I did love every moment within the two-and-a-half-hours that was set on the island with the characters we knew and loved by by taking it--and the Lost-X storyline to such a sentimental place, to an afterlife of rewards and happiness didn't make me feel good in the end. It made me feel sad that something Lindelof and Cuse clearly intended to be lyrical and magical felt to me instead like it had fallen to earth with a deafening thud." - Jace, Televisionary

"I respect the position of the dissenters, but I wish they’d respect the position of the defenders, which is that for all of Lost’s imperfections—and they are myriad, I’ll grant—the show still offered an experience like no other in the history of television." - Noel Murray, The AV Club

"Big, giant answers about what the Island was or its place in the world's cosmology or why it had Egyptian stuff all over it or anything like that were probably bound to be disappointing, as most of the answers dispensed this season were, only even more so. Saying what the Island is is like saying what the meaning of life is; it's a question you can ask but never receive a really satisfying answer to." - Todd VanDerWerff, The LA Times

"It was actively unpredictable. There were nice performances, plus the value-added nostalgia of everyone's breakthrough flashbacks. And after a season of corny and frustrating missteps, from Tina Fey to the entire Temple arc, punctuated by one fun Desmond episode, I didn't expect it to make sense, I just wanted it to be interesting enough to talk about with people." - Emily Nussbaum, New York Magazine

"Lost had a finale that suited our troubled times: It was comforting, reassuring. It even had a dog that made me, for one, wipe away a tear." - Ken Tucker, EW

"As someone who has admittedly kept the faith all along, this was a tremendous way to experience the end of an amazing series, although I’d imagine those who have wandered off in the past or who “lost faith” were likely in a different place than I was – however, in the spirit of the series and the wonderful critical culture surrounding Lost, I look forward to meeting on common ground in the weeks, months and years ahead to discuss the ways we experienced this television “event.”" - Cultural Learnings

"LOST's finale, like the rest of the series, was a Rorschach test. What you think it means says more about you than it does about what 'Lost' masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse actually put on the screen." - Gary Susman, TV Squad