Losing interest in Lost

It took some time, but I’ve finally bought into the craze that is ABC’s TV program Lost. Well, "bought in" isn't accurate, "yielded to invitations to view, for free online" is more like it.Originating in 2004 the series spanned 6 seasons and captivated audiences almost all the way through. I’ve been encouraged by friends to watch the series, but until about a month ago, I never did. The premise of the show, based on having just finished watching the entire first season, is that a plane crashes on a seemingly uncharted Pacific island and the 40+ survivors deal with it. My wife and I watched the first season on Amazon Prime beginning in July and finishing up just a few days ago. That’s my back story, now we’ll return to my review of the show.


As I said, I have been encouraged by many people to watch Lost. Everyone was always careful to not give away any of the plot twists. Perhaps if they had I wouldn’t have subjected myself to watching the entire first season. There it is, I’ve said it, I don’t particularly care for Lost. It is interesting in its use of suspense, and I do enjoy the character development with the back stories, and some of the characters are just fun, but overall, I find the series confused and disappointing. I don’t say that it confuses me, just that the story line is confused on its own.

I do not fear revealing the surprises now as the series is complete and season one is 8 years old, plus I read a study that suggested plot revelations do not spoil a book or movie experience for those who have yet to read or view them. So I won’t be concerned with keeping any secrets from you. The island the survivors are lost on is not your ordinary island. The plane was well off course and out of communication when it went down, so there is little expectancy that they will be found quickly, although many of the passengers hope for this. Overall the hope is sufficient that they delay searching for adequate food, water, and shelter for a few days. Amazingly, missing out on the basic necessities of life, and modern conveniences don’t seem to have any effect on them. They continue to look and act very healthy (physically), for the most part.

But it is a TV show, so I don’t get too caught up in the fantasy aspect of how well they are doing for being in such a fix. What does bother me is that every single person on this island, aside, perhaps, from Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, is a self-righteous, irrationally proud, prejudicial creep. Honestly, other than Hurley, I think the world is better off having this collection of nit-wits confined to the island and out of our hair. Yes, even though it is only 40 people, left to roam free throughout the earth, they would do some major damage. Hardly a full episode can pass without someone jumping to judgment and accusing someone of a heinous act, or someone says “don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

As I said before, I do enjoy the character development in the story; I just wish the characters weren’t quite so ignorant. I think Lost could have been a great show, but what happened was the creators didn’t think past the pilot episode. They though “let’s do a modern twist on Gilligan’s Island, but in a drama format instead of slap-stick, it’ll be great!” So they got started writing, casting Jack the surgeon as the Professor; Kate the fugitive as Ginger; Sun the repressed wife of a mob-style hit man as Maryanne; Sayid the former Iraqi Republican Guard communications officer also as the Professor; Shannon and Boone the crazy twins as the Howell’s; Michael the divorced parent reuniting with his biological son as some form of the Skipper and also the Professor; and Charlie, formerly of rock band Drive-Shaft (and heroin addict), and the aforementioned Hurley, lottery winner and curse-bearer, as a split act Gilligan. Other characters too, some main, some not, but those are the Gilligan’s Island comparisons for the most part. I got sidetracked on that.

Well, the creators put the show together, made a pilot episode with a good hook, and then realized they didn’t have a real story to tell. Was it going to be Robinson Crusoe with a lot of people? Or would they let the Gilligan’s Island comparison be obvious? They had no idea, so what happened? They made an invisible monster that rips trees out of the ground. They put a mysterious capsule buried out in the woods. There was a polar bear, just one, that charged a group of survivors early in the series. They even added a French woman who was shipwrecked on the island 16 years earlier, who was living, in seeming comfort, all alone for all of this time. And then there is The Others. Whispering voices in the woods who are then realized as unkempt sailors on a small boat in the final episode of the first season who kidnap a 10 year old boy from the bamboo raft. It turns out the island isn’t so uncharted and deserted after all. Who knew?!

I don’t really have a review for Lost. I liked some of the episodes, or at least parts of them, but overall I found my interest waning and my distaste waxing as each episode passed. The first season was a series of let downs at various stages in the haphazard story line. I was hopeful for different characters to take the lead and build a strong working community on the island. The resources seem to be there, they have knowledge from various walks of life, but the overall theme keeps turning out to be that these people are fatally flawed and incapable of working together. They each seem to have their moments of heroism, only to be shortly followed up with villainy or something. Granted, they are under profound stress and trauma, but it just seems like they are bouncing between extremes too quickly. Maybe the intent is to show that these are “real” people and subject to weakness and flaw, which I accept, but then they should be real people all of the time and not perform miracles one minute and not know how to tie their own shoes the next minute.

I think what it comes down to is that I’m jealous; one, because I want to live on a deserted island and see if I can survive, and two, I’ve never written a television show myself. So when I see plot twists instead of thinking “oooh! The suspense is thrilling!” I think, “no! you are doing it all wrong!” Because I envy their situation. Such as when Sawyer killed the polar bear, why didn’t they try to eat it? Maybe because they still thought they would be rescued or because Locke hadn’t busted out his knife supply yet. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have let it go to waste. I don’t know how bear meat tastes, but in that situation it seems best to find out. And other times they leave the story too full of holes. Who was Ethan? Where did he come from? Why was he helping Danielle? Why did he seem to have superpowers? Perhaps they’ll explain it in the next 5 seasons.

Yes, I will continue watching the series, but under protest. I think they had a great story and it fell apart. They got scared and thought they needed invisible dinosaurs to keep people interested. Then again, maybe I’m the only one who sees it this way. If I am, I’m 100% okay with it. In my opinion Lost is not worth its hype.

On and on and on

Okay, okay, timeout! I’m reading a Reuters news article on Yahoo! News and I find the following: “Groups calling themselves The Descendants of the Prophet Brigade and the al-Habib al-Mustafa Brigade said on a Facebook page they were jointly responsible for the bombing, which they said had killed 50 soldiers.”


I deleted my Facebook account just over two months ago. I’m pleased to announce I am living a happy and normal life. I appreciate the freedom of speech and expression afforded by the Internet, and I am not calling for censorship, but let’s just stop and think about this for a minute, terrorists and armies are announcing their efforts through a Facebook page? Twitter wasn’t good enough? Needed more than 140 characters I suppose.

I’m not even sure what I find unsettling here, but it is something. Perhaps it is the association I have in my mind with Facebook as a way to connect with friends and brag about personal accomplishments in order to garner attention. I suppose that fills the need for claiming responsibility for a terrorist action. It all just seems really ridiculous. But I don’t know why it should, Facebook is the new newspaper. Underground and revolutionary movements thrive on communication ability. In the past this meant having a printing press. Now it means having an Internet connection.

Regardless of why this was shocking to me, I’m concerned over how well we all just sit back and let these things happen. The wars I mean, not the Facebook postings, well maybe that too in some cases, but I’m talking about the wars primarily. The world as a whole has no clear purpose or direction. This planet is a wayward teenager, listing about, looking for cheap thrills, trying to find their way. There is simply too much selfish pride. It is actually unfair to call the world a teenager, unfair to the teenager that is. The world isn’t listless or lazy, it is selfishly proud.

No one is willing to bend on their culture enough to accept anyone else. You don’t have to bend on your personal morals in order to appreciate a differing point of view. Unfortunately so many cultures embrace immoral behavior, yes, immoral from my perspective, but all cultures have these things. Those are the aspects of culture that need to be forgotten. Selfish pride stands in the way, individually and collectively. Science needs to forget about Mars, global warming, and fat-free foods for a while and focus on human relationships and selfishness. I guarantee if we can eliminate selfishness we will eliminate a lot of these other issues we are spending our time on. Stop treating the symptoms and treat the underlying issue.

I suppose it will treat itself eventually. The cancer of pride eventually kills the body. Or we could forget the 401k and the thrill-seeking and unite ourselves as a human family. We can work the land and feed ourselves and our neighbors. We can teach each other the good customs and traditions we have that educate and build our communities. We can enjoy laughter and exercise and healthy competition. Or we can keep on with our contentious one-upmanship, fighting, and exploitive entertainment. If we all quit being selfish we can turn this thing around.