Television: "Lost"

Lost is the best show on television right now. Of course, this statement comes in the midst of a writer's strike in which there is almost nothing else airing on TV right now, but it is still one of my favorite shows of all time. Oh, I'll get to other favorites in the weeks to come such as Buffy, Veronica Mars, West Wing, Simpsons, Futurama, Firefly, etc., but Lost is unique.

Lost is a hybrid show like no other. Sure, we've seen large ensemble casts, exotic landscapes and flasbacks before, but not like this. People can enjoy Lost on several different levels. On the surface, it's the story of a planeload of castaways struggling to survive and return home. But there's so much more to it than that. The flashbacks that occur aren't ONLY so that we can see what makes our characters who they are, they're also for the character themselves, so that they can atone, repent, or sometimes become stubbornly apologetic (for which there are consequences). The exotic landscape is not just any exotic landscape. This island is somehow both out of 'time' and 'space.' How did they crash there? Why can't anyone else find it? This kind of mystery has led some fans to even question the idea that there even IS an island. Was the crash just happenstance, or were they 'brought' there?

These are just a few of the mysteries of Lost. There is nowhere near enough space in this blog post to mention even the major ones. Every season it seems as if there are more mysteries to solve, more questions asked than questions answered. This can tend to frustrate most casual viewers. Not me. I eat this kind of stuff up. Every time I see some new mystery on the show (i.e. the four-toed statue or Hurley's ability to see Jacob) I get even more excited.

But that's not the only reason I love the show. For me, there's the whole 'book' angle. Books feature prominently in Lost, from The Wizard of Oz to The Third Policeman and pretty much the entire works of Stephen King. And, they all mean something. Books aren't just something that characters like Sawyer read on the show. Each book means something to the show as a whole, and maybe even more than I'm thinking! Some seem to be simply indicative of what's going on in the episode or the story arc, such as Watership Down mirroring the idea of a community of 'creatures' seeking a new home. Others tend to reveal something about a character, such as Carrie being a favorite book of Juliet's, which later sets up the idea of the power of a woman both ostracized and humiliated. So, do these plots merely mimic books, or is there something deeper going on? Does the power of the mind on this island create things? That was one of the theories when we saw a polar bear after Walt read about them in his comic book. We did find out that Dharma had polar bears on the island, but was that one of the 'escaped' bears, or was it 'conjured' by Walt? Did Juliet's betrayal of the 'Others' come as a direct result from the book club reading Carrie? Or, and this may be crazy, are all of these characters actually in a novel themselves, written by someone with a vast knowledge of different types of books? (If this comes true I'm a genius, if not...who cares.)

Anyway, those are some of my quick thoughts on Lost, a show with enough characters that everyone can have more than one favorite (mine are Ben and Hurley, and formerly Charlie R.I.P.). Tonight is the second episode of the fourth season and I can't wait. It supposedly is going to be one of the few shows to feature flashbacks (or flashforwards? Darn that crazy possible time paradox!) of non 815 people. This one focuses on the 'rescuers,' the people on the freighter who were 'looking' for the survivors. The writer's strike may be ending this week, and it could mean more episodes of Lost than we originally thought at the onset of the strike. I hope this is the case, but I also hope that care is taken in how these scripts are written. Lost is somewhat unlike most shows in that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof know pretty much what is going to happen every step of the way. That being said, I bet they could farm out say, episodes 11-14, write 9 and 10 quickly themselves so that they could get to filming right away, and then work on polishing the other farmed scripts and the season finale episodes. It can be done. They have seven weeks for episode 9 if they want no interruptions between shows. That being said, if making it good means taking more time, then by all means, why not have a short hiatus of a couple weeks, then resume the season. We as fans would, I'm sure, be okay with that if it meant a full season. Besides, what else does ABC have going on in the summer besides crappy reality shows? Lost is the best thing that network has going for it, and they should treat it as such.