Last Lost

Damn Sky One. In a good way.

What they've managed to organise for the LOST finale is unprecedented, but they've now given me a stupid choice I stupid didn't want.

The plan was quite simple - download it during Monday and watch it on Monday night. Find something outdoorsy and away from networks to do all day long then enjoy the last piece of my favourite TV show of all time come evening.

Now I have been handed the choice of watching it on TV at 5am that same morning, with adverts mind.

Thing is, I have watched most of the season in 720p mkv files, and i'm not a Sky HD subscriber, so technically i've been watching the higher quality version, but when I felt like a second look on Friday nights, I couldn't help noticing that something just seems to look better in the standard definition picture. It feels more vibrant, and the frame rate seems steadier. To make the decision based on that though, would surely be overthinking it.

Then there's the timing. Big dramatic pieces always work better at night. They actually work best when it's dark outside, but at this time of year that's near impossible if you have a job to get up for. Whether you stay up, wake up or temporarily shift your sleep pattern to be awake and in front of a TV at 5am on Monday morning, is it really going to feel like the "TV event of the decade"? I'll be scared i'm waking the neighbours and then have to face a full day post-LOST abyss in the aftermath. That seems like a slightly better reason to make the decision on.

There's also being a part of the synchronicity. Impossible to be spoilt. Reading what others thought in the immediate aftermath, but then again, I barely manage to avoid spoilers due to my cake and eat it nature. Still, it's something.

It's 10pm on Friday. I have things to do during Saturday and have already agreed to be out that night. If I stay up all night Saturday, it feels like the appropriate sleep in between just might land me in the right state of wake, but who knows. I've never tried it before.

Can't decide. I'm even somewhat swayed by the idea that casual fans getting off the night shift will be seeing it before me, and care so much less. That's a little annoying, but who really cares?

One thing's for almost certain. By the end of Monday, i'll be temporarily but genuinely depressed that a large portion of things I thought would eventually make sense never will. I resigned myself to that midway through the season when it became clear that the writers had no intention of upping the pace. This final season seems to have been written with a few milestone episodes and the final piece in mind. That at least does bode well for said final piece, but i'd never be able to state season 6 as preferable to any of the others. All that, and yet I'm still very impressed with it. It's a big contradiction sitting somewhere in my brain which will most likely rectify itself after the thing's over.

First thing I write in months is this? That's a little sad.