Friday 4 June 2010

Poll Result: Which was the best season of Lost?

Friday 4 June 2010

Last week I asked you to vote for the best season of Lost, in honour of the mystery drama completing its run by splitting fan reaction rather painfully. The results are below, in ascending order of popularity:

6th place:
Season 6
Only 5% of voters thought the final year of Lost was its pinnacle, rather depressingly. Not that I disagree, but it's a shame the final chapter of the series appears to be very unpopular (with good reason). I guess it was always more fun asking questions than having them answered. Well, some questions.

5th place:
Season 3
A widely-hated season of Lost, but more accurately it was the first six episode "mini-season" (where half the cast were stuck in cages) that was memorably bad. The latter half was actually very strong, but this was undoubtedly the season where the diehard fans and casual viewers parted company. Just 10% of you voted this Lost's best year.

4th place:
Season 5
The "time travel season" was popular with 14% of you, although in retrospect I think this was the year when cracks started to appear more noticeably. But it was still a decent season with some great moments. In fact, when you-know-who is rolled out of that coffin, is it best to imagine that was The End?

3rd place:
Season 2
The second season is a curious beast that split audiences at the time, with some enjoying the way Lost spreads its wings and created a deeper mythology, while others disliked the move away from the simpler castaway scenario. Personally, I always really enjoyed season 2, although it would certainly benefit from being a half-dozen episodes shorter. 15% of you seem to agree.

2nd place:
Season 4
My personal favourite, so I was glad to see it do well in this poll. Season 4 attracted 16% of the total vote, probably because its flashforward plot-device was the best post-season 1 method to tie Island events with off-Island events. It was also a mid-series year when the mix of questions and answers was more balaced. This was the year when it really felt possible, even likely, that the writers knew what they were doing and we were in safe hands.

1st place:
Season 1
I was surprised to read anti-season 1 sentiments in comments, but that didn't carry over into the actual voting. The season deemed Lost's greatest by 37% of voters was the debut year from 2004. This was Lost at its simplest, tackling the core concept of strangers stuck on a spooky island, at a time when the flashback-device wasn't irritating, and they could afford to ask lots of compelling questions (What are the whispers? Who's the French Lady? What are the numbers? Is there a monster? What's the Black Rock? Why are people kidnapping children? What's down the hatch?) without needing to provide answers.

And that's it. The first season was the best, the last season was the worse, according to you guys. Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.