Having watched the series finale of ABC’s Lost, I finally have time to start watching shows that are still good and that I actually care about. These include The Wire and Treme, both written and created by David Simon.

The problem with Lost was that the sci-fi/mythical machinations between Jacob and the Man in Black were just not as compelling as the earlier characters’ stories. Jack’s story as a doctor with a god-complex and Sawyer’s guilt-ridden history as a con man were much more compelling than the cosmic forces of light and darkness because they were more concrete and relatable.

I agree with Charlie Anders at i09.

Lost, the show, was absolutely genius at making you care about stuff. That was one of the half dozen things that Lost was brilliant at getting us to invest in, along with intriguingly murky characters and starkly surreal storytelling. Probably the greatest weapon in Lost’s arsenal was always its ability to make you care, desperately, feverishly about what happened to these people.

And in the end, I just didn’t care if that rock went in that hole or not. By extension, I had stopped caring whether the island sank. I had stopped caring about the fate of the Man In Black, long before he got kicked out of the episode prematurely. I didn’t care about any of it.