Knowing when to hang it up

Too many times in today's world do we see TV shows, actors, actresses, and athletes hanging on too long. It begins to spoil the good memories you had about them. In sports, the biggest example to me was Michael Jordan. After he came back from his gambling exile to baseball, he won 3 more championships and decided to hang it up. However, he couldn't stay away and came back to play with the Wizards. It was sad to watch because not only were the Wizards terrible, but MJ went from the game's most dominating player to the second best player on this team. Like watching Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa, it makes you cringe and ask why??

I'm beginning to get that feeling with Lost, much as I did with Michael Jordan. Now I'm the type of TV viewer who watches things mostly for entertainment. I do not analyze shows down to their core and find hidden meanings. It's ironic b/c that's what I do professionally in my career. To me, Lost simply seems to be milking their viewers for one last season, just to generate a bit more revenue. I began watching it back in 2004, at the infamous Dawson St. house in Pittsburgh with Gigs. It's now reached the point where I've invested too much of my time, thought, and emotion into the show to give up now. I believe it should have ended after the 4th season with a little better writing, and more episodes (due to the writer's strike). The plot was "fairly" believable up to that point, and it seemed the survivors escaped the island and all is well. Soon after Season 4, we were exposed to time travel; forward, backward, and sideways (now Cha-cha real slow), a disappearing island, hydrogen bombs blowing up, and now a battle for the "devil" to escape the island. It's almost as if they brought on new writers to go in a simply new direction. All the while, pretending like nothing has changed. Much like when the Fresh Prince replaced Aunt Vivian with a woman who looked NOTHING like the other and simply chose not to address it. This all adds up to being too much for many viewers.

Since the end of Season 3, Lost has "lost" over 4 million viewers. For most shows this would mean the end of syndication, however when you start with 15 million viewers, you can afford such casualties.

It's great we're finally getting the background stories for many important characters, but it's still a very slow build towards the Season finale. These revelations I can only think should have been accomplished long ago. Here's to hoping Lost ends it permanently after this season and does not produce any more spin-offs (such as Flash Forward).

(Editor's note): Here's a question for the fans. If we are to believe there has been this constant struggle between Jacob and MIB, why did either of them let the survivors leave the island in the first place? It seems everyone is either brought to the island to replace Jacob or "be sent to hell". During Season 4, some apparently found a loophole and were like "see ya, I'm heading home!"