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.