Just like with any serial, the ABC program about a group of airline passengers stranded on a tropical island after their plane crashes, Lost was designed to draw you in. In the case of a television serial, it is written and produced to keep you coming back week after week...maintaining viewer ratings of folks like me watching the commercials...and making the network and the producers lots of money. Lost has done that.
The term serial is defined, in recent times, as a radio or television production with a continuously evolving, unified plot and set of characters spread over multiple episodes and sometimes years...blah blah blah. Lost is definitely that...with more than its share of twists and turns.
The season premier of Lost was on last night. It was preceded by an hour long Lost Survivor Guide, hosted by two of its producers, in hopes of drawing us Lost fans back in as well as making some sense of this sometimes senseless, disjointed serial.
I must admit to you...Loretta and I are loyal fans of Lost...we have been since the first show aired back in September of 2004. I must also admit that sometimes our fanaticism about it was hanging on by a thin thread. At times, the so-called plot of Lost strayed way beyond the bounds that make Lost a serial that motivates your interest. We became "lost" many times over the past three seasons.
The producers of Lost have initiated this new season with the intent of bringing “us” back and generating interest from new viewers (with short attention spans). If you are not a fan of Lost (and aspire to be), check out the updated Lost web site ...it will get you kick-started. Explaining the premise behind this immensely popular network program deserves more treatment than a 500 word blog. But, here is the short take on it: A commercial airliner crashes on a remote tropical island and weird things start happening that are somehow related to each other. How’s that? Lost has unseen monsters, non-indigenous fauna and flora, a mysterious underground techno-bunker, new characters known as Others (people who were already there before the crash) showing up every week, some hunky guys and some babelicious gals...all of whom with sordid pasts and/or a lot of “baggage” not checked in at the airport. And all of whom somehow connected.
I got a real kick out of the Lost Survivor Guide that aired just prior to the season premier. It did help us understand a few things about what has happened so far...but not much. More than that, it confirmed by theory that these two guys are having a blast with their network “toy”. Like two little kids, they are playing with their toy (and playing with us). They are also making up this shit as they go along! Anything and everything is possible on Lost...the sky’s the limit. For instance, as the seasons progressed...new characters would show up wondering amonst the wreckage in the survivor’s beach camp. “Who the hell is that?”, I would ask Loretta, “She wasn’t there last season”. “Oh, I guess they are just other survivors of the plane crash we haven’t seen yet. Or maybe she is one of the Others?”, she would tell me in a consoling manner, “Maybe they were just farther up the beach!” “I guess so, huh?”, I said while thrusting my butter-soaked fingers back into the popcorn bowl.
Do you remember the PC computer “game” called Myst from the mid-90’s? I do. I spent many late night hours trying to figure out the “mystery” of Myst. Though not really a game, it was a highly-acclaimed, groundbreaking computer “puzzle” that took weeks to complete. I can’t help but think that the producers of Lost were fans of this as well. Lost is very similar.
So...here we are...Season 4 of Lost. One episode down...15 more to go! That’s the good part. Unlike last season where they only teased us with 6 episodes...we can look forward to the next four months of anticipating the arrival of 10:00 pm on Wednesday nights. All new shows. And we can only hope that this season goes beyond what has sometimes made Lost very disappointing...episodes with absolutely nothing of interest or related content happening! We fans of Lost want substance! We want the plot (and possibly the fate of the survivors) to be a bit more revealing. Give us something that makes sense. Something to keep us coming back to this television serial.
They are improving somewhat. Last season, two of the main characters “hooked up” finally. Maybe there will be more of that this season on Lost. Maybe they'll find Jimmy Hoffa...or, better yet...Amelia Ehrhart!
