Warning for Lost Noobs: Possible Spoiler Alert

I find it especially challenging to compare anything else on TV to the mindtrip that has been the last five seasons of Lost (Five years already?!). Lost is a show fueled by, to a greater extent than anything else, its writing. It is “strategic” writing in a way. We begin with the initial mysteries of the island—the healing properties, the smoke monster, the Others—every time a mystery is solved (chiseled away at slowly, I should say) at least three more are revealed. You can only imagine all of the mysteries five seasons has provided us with.

For those of you who aren’t addicts yet (if you watch more than two episodes, forget it), I’ll try to explain the approach here. Writers J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have created the illusion that they are the sole gatekeepers to knowledge of an eternally complex world that they created (are in the process of creating, perhaps), the secrets of which they have been slowly revealing to their audience scrap by scrap (quite maliciously), all the while enticing us with exponentially more thought-provoking anomalies whose revealing will indefinitely be put off until the “next” episode (I become violent every time I hear that creepy orchestral crash followed by the thudding Lost logo). I say “next” because there are so many characters, settings, and threads to be wound together later in the series, a topic broached in season 1 might be put on the table until season 3; so that going back to the topic is like starting the show all over again (“They brought the polar bears back!” “Walt is still ALIVE!”). As you can imagine, the result is a degree of fandom that puts Trekkies to shame. Have Abrams et. al. found the formula to for true TV series success: “Create more mysteries per episode than you explain”?

To all my fellow viewers: as caught up as I am myself, I suggest you take my advice not to waste your time speculating. The writers are the only ones with the key to that door, and frankly, the writers seem just as surprised at the developments as we are. Kudos to them, however, as they’ve taken the most complex web of plot and character on television and (with the help of some pretty versatile actors) turned it into a (seemingly) structured masterpiece.

Photo courtesy of Arrow of Apollo via Flickr Creative Commons License

Tags:   big screen/small screen week · Chris · j. j. abrams · Lost · mystery · Television · writingNo Comments