I am – Hercules!!
Ratings were big but not super-big. With a preliminary 5.6 in adults 18-49 it beat every episode of “Desperate Housewives” this season, it beat Thursday’s season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy,” it beat every non-Super Bowl episode of “Undercover Boss” and it beat all but one episode of “Glee.” But it was still well below all episodes of “American Idol” and below a handful of recent “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” episodes.
Critics didn’t get to review “Lost” in advance, but they’re sure going to it after the fact.
The New York Times says:
… I was by turns moved, engrossed, and deeply irritated. But mainly I was irritated, because in the end I’m a plot-centric person, and “Lost” was a densely plotted show, and the macro-plot turned out to be … well, a big nothing seems like an awfully strong way of putting it, but it was certainly close to that.…
The Los Angeles Times says:
Well, it could have been worse. It could have all been a dream. … the sound you heard 'round about 10 Sunday night was thousands of nonromantics wishing for a time slip that would give them those 2 1/2 hours and possibly six seasons back. …
The Chicago Tribune says:
… The first two hours were exciting and emotionally engaging, especially when the island castaways in the Sideways world began remembering their "real" lives. Those "flashes" were powerful and many cast members did some of their best work in those scenes. I got chills as I saw Juliet and Sawyer talk about that coffee date. Sun and Jin, Charlie, Kate and Claire -- all their recollection moments were moving and powerful. … But the last half hour or so took the finale to another level.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
I loved watching "Lost." I embraced the characters. The ending pandered to my tastes in that way. But it failed on so many levels to answer questions that were important to people who invested time in them. It went out making about as much sense as it did coming in, which will undoubtedly be a disappointment. As a series finale it overjoyed the heart and annoyed the brain. But if I had to do it all over again, knowing how it all plays out, I'd still watch. …
Hitfix says:
… Even keeping in mind Darlton's pre-season warning about not answering every question, we end season six, and the series, with an awful lot left perfectly muddled, with a lot of story resting on the golden well of souls we were introduced to only two weeks ago, and with the sideways universe revealed to have no relation to the plot of the series, except in the sense that death is the end to every story. …
The Newark Star Ledger says:
… a conclusion that delivered gratifying codas for beloved characters, though it maddeningly side-stepped the show’s legion of unresolved enigmas.…
The Boston Globe says:
… the mixed episode offered an abundance of emotional resolution and vague metaphor, some of which was compelling (Sawyer and Juliet’s reunion, Jack and Desmond's farewell) and some of which was quite hokey (the cork?! the light? Locke becoming human again?). … Despite the disappointing muddiness and unanswered questions of the finale, I still felt grateful for it. One of TV’s most compelling pieces of serial storytelling came to an end exactly when it should have – before the rigors of TV seasons stretched the narrative too, too far out of shape. Viewers and networks always want more of what they love, but the “Lost” producers resisted temptation. They picked an end date and stuck to it, and for that – as well as six years of great mystery – they deserve respect. …
USA Today says:
… Thrillingly, cleverly, and in a manner that tapped into the simple, profound truths of great American works like Our Town, the show spelled out for viewers what it has been saying all along. Lost is about life and death, faith and science, spirit and flesh, and has always stressed that the title refers to the characters' souls, not their location. …
Time Magazine says:
… an epic, stirring two and a half hours of television, full of heart and commitment, that was true to Lost's characters as we knew them from season one. And through elaborate use of symmetries, echoes and callbacks—as well as some go-for-broke acting and a visual grandeur by director Jack Bender that matches the show's pilot—it brought them powerfully and cathartically full circle. …
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