Lost ... Worse Than Using Mapquest
The Unretrievable, the Dead, the Strips of Paper in Dick Cheney's Shredder, and the Utterly Lost
From Weekly Adventure to Catachism
My wife recently said that a woman entering a shopping mall is like a pilot entering the Bermuda Triangle. She might come out eventually or perhaps stay there forever.
That's a premise for another enigma series. For me, "Lost" was the most engaging TV series since "The X-Files." Very much like "The X-Files," the first series of "Lost" promised much more than it could ever deliver.
If "Lost" had lasted two seasons, what sort of end would the writers have provided us? Startled by the success of the show, the writers weaved complex characters with a complex plot -- thereby keeping the island afloat for seven seasons.
The program is to be applauded for its addictive nature. Surpassing all other soap operas, "Lost" pressed the viewer's imagination.
That the show fluctuated in style and focus from one season to the next is forgivable. Consistency was not one of its major strengths. From starting out as a kind of Irwin Allen-like catastrophe and survivability premise, the show eventually drifted into the supernatural. This drift wasn't necessarily an improvement upon season one.
If I could subtract season seven, I'd give the show a full five out of five stars. However, the seventh season revealed the utter bankruptcy of the writers. Perhaps from the start, no one had a clue how to end such a bold and fatiguing journey. This is how it seems. To resolve the unresolvable, the writers jumped the fence, offering a hollow, fatuously transcendent end to what started off as a mere adventure series.
The strange (forced?) interconnectedness of the characters created an additional layer of mystery (and unbelievability). Ultimately, it was the the actors who grew into portraying their complex characters that drew us back to watch every episode. This, far more than the often-times circumlocutious storyline, is what glued the audience to the series. Any accolades must be left at the feet of the superb acting team (and crew) who created a sense of realism out of a schlocky, banged-together story.
