‘Lost’ fans will be lost without the show
The Onion, the news parody Web site, in February came out with a faux news report noting how excruciatingly annoying “Lost” fans will be this final season. “If you haven’t watched ‘Lost’ yet,” the fake newscaster intoned, “you’ll regret talking to anybody who ever did.” (The video is at the bottom of this blog entry)
Indeed, “Losties” over the years have pondered the show’s characters and mythology ad nauseam, from the Smoke Monster to the Kate-Jack-Sawyer love triangle to philosophical debates over reason and faith. It was enough to drive anybody who hadn’t watched the show into hiding.
And many fans are anticipating “Lost” withdrawal after the show’s two-and-a-half hour series finale Sunday.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without it,” said Cliff Flagello, a 25-year-old assistant baseball coach in Rome, who reads multiple blogs about the show after each episode. “It’s what I live for! My wife has me watching ‘House,’ but it’s not the same.”
He was a minor-league player for the Baltimore Orioles and during the late spring, he and his buddies would miss the show because of the game. So the next day, they’d download “Lost” off iTunes and watch it then.
Amazingly, the show’s conception came from the mind of an ABC TV executive Lloyd Braun (not a creative type), who commissioned a script in which “Survivor” meets “Cast Away.” Fortunately, ABC found the right people (including “Alias” creator J.J. Abrams and executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) to create a concept that resonated with a broad audience, gambling $10 million on a brilliant pilot episode about plane crash survivors on a desolate island. It was a hit from day one.
Paul Levinson, a Fordham University professor who talks about “Lost” in his “Television and New Media” course, said it was a perfect amalgamation of sci-fi fantasy and character development.
“The show is a compendium of some of the most appealing archetypes in the history of television: the doctor, the fugitive, the grifter,” Levinson said. “And the story of someone shipwrecked on an island goes back to ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and even ‘The Odyssey.’ ” Plus, it skillfully weaved in creative storytelling techniques such as flashbacks, flash-forwards and parallel realities.
“Lost” also took full advantage of the Web. Levinson was impressed when ABC posted a fake Oceanic Airlines Web site early on. “In the old days, you’d watch a show and talk about it with friends and family,” he said. “Now you can live online with message boards, forums and podcasts.” This online community, he said, fed and sustained the show.
“Lost” did flag during season three, Flagello said, until ABC smartly gave the producers an unprecedented end date three years in advance. This allowed them to map out the end and provide enough answers to keep fans interested.
The show’s passionate fans can hit highs and lows within a week of each other. After major characters died in a spellbinding episode two weeks ago, the most recent show disappointed many Losties. (”Atrocious,” Levinson said.) The entire hour focused not on any of the original characters but goes back centuries to explore the origins of Jacob and the Man in Black and explain the source of the island’s power: a cave emanating light embodying the good in man.
“I’m okay with the idea there’s a source of goodness on the island that needs to be protected,” said Lynnette Porter, co-author of two “Lost” books, including “Lost’s Buried Treasures,” and an associate professor of humanities at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “We all have it. Yet by nature, humans are dark and greedy and try to destroy the goodness. I feel the responsibility of that goodness has been transferred to me as the audience. It’s an idea not everybody likes, but it’s a very different type of storytelling.”
Other shows have attempted to replicate the “Lost” magic, but the very difficulty of doing so (think “FlashForward”) accentuates its special qualities.
Marc Oromaner, author of a book about “The Myth of Lost,” said in an email that “Lost” over six seasons “managed to stay relevant because it took risks, refused to bow to network pressure, and allowed fans to shape its story (such as when they killed off the Nikki and Paulo characters after their unpopular debut). Most importantly though, it stayed true to its own rich mythology, and kept viewers vested in the characters’ journeys which often mirrored their own.”
Final Season Of ‘Lost’ Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever
ON TV
“Lost,” Tuesday May 18 at 9 p.m. on ABC
“Lost finale” Sunday May 23 at 9 p.m. on ABC for two and a half hours
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30 comments Add your comment
CCATLSux
May 16th, 2010
8:43 am
But the real question is, Who is Number 1?
NoShamSam
May 16th, 2010
8:58 am
But the real answer could be, Number 1 might be Last (really deep)
Go home illegals!!!! Arizona rules
May 16th, 2010
9:49 am
Must be a slow news day….
Courtney
May 16th, 2010
10:13 am
Most “Losties” I know are only watching still b/c the show is dying and there might be an answer or two. After last week’s episode it is apparent there was never a plan and there are NO answers for all the crap they produced.
My own worst editor
May 16th, 2010
10:14 am
I’m actually planning on going back and watching each season in reverse after the finale. Then forward again. Then sideways.
My own worst editor
May 16th, 2010
10:16 am
Courtney- yes, they really mishandled telling the whole smoke-monster story. Sometimes the less they try to explain, the better.
Me
May 16th, 2010
10:55 am
@ Courtney, I have rewatched all of the seasons from 1-5 in the last few months (mostly b/c I have no life and a lot of free time). When I rewatched the pilot it was hard to believe that what is happening now is even the same show, however I respectfully disagree with you. I would say after last weeks episode they clearly did have a plan all along.
Ted Striker
May 16th, 2010
11:12 am
Rodney — You’re an excellent writer and bigger than this market. (But don’t leave).
I’m not a big TV watcher. In fact, I never saw a single mili-second of “Lost” till around June of last year. For whatever the reason, I checked out the archived pilot from Season 1 (2004). From June till now, I made up all six seasons and am intrigued to see what the finale holds.
Brilliant writing has rewarded the risk taking the network took. More shows would likely do better if there were an established lifeline for the series finale, even if it wasn’t known to the public.
Keep up the good work, Rodney.
Fan since the beginning
May 16th, 2010
11:35 am
I find that most people who don’t like LOST prefer to watch brainless, mind-numbing television, rather than something that may actually make them think.
TrafficHeadache
May 16th, 2010
11:45 am
To paraphrase Jimmy Kimmel: I’ll miss “Lost”…the same way I’ve missed it every week since it’s been on.
“I find that most people who don’t like LOST prefer to watch brainless, mind-numbing television, rather than something that may actually make them think.”
Right. Shows that get geeky people to blather on about the most minute plot points and write lame fan stories isn’t brainless and mind-numbing.
MitzyMy
May 16th, 2010
11:57 am
“Lost” lost me after the first few episodes when I realized that it was a soap opera. I detest soap operas.
CS
May 16th, 2010
12:26 pm
Why are people commenting on a blog about a show they don’t watch? This is not some huge mainstream hit like American Idol. If you don’t like it, that is perfectly fine. But some of us do and we will miss it very much when it is over…….
susan
May 16th, 2010
12:47 pm
There is WAAAAY too much TV jumk on here – why don’t you have it seperated by ‘radio’ and ‘tv’ or ‘LOCAL and National’ so we can read about LOCAL stuff – not just about national tv programs. They get all the media coverage in the world. This is a LOCAL column isn’t it ?!?
Mr. Echo
May 16th, 2010
12:57 pm
despite last week’s extremely underwhelming episode, I have to think that, given 3 yrs, the writers/producers will wow us in these last 2 weeks (they damn well better, otherwise there might be riots).
there is a lot that can happen in 3 1/2 hrs of TV, & unless JJ Abrams had a lobotomy, he’ll come up w/something memorable.
Let’s just hope they leave it alone after it’s over….no spin-offs, no movies. Just end it.
Dee
May 16th, 2010
1:17 pm
Courtney: After last week’s episode it is apparent there was never a plan and there are NO answers for all the crap they produced.
No plan?????? During last week’s episode, a scene from the first season showed Jack and Kate finding the 2 bodies AND the stones. No plan???????
Dee
May 16th, 2010
1:22 pm
The whole series has “wowed” me! Right from the beginning. The end will either knock my socks of OR it will satisfy some of my questions. Doesn’t matter really how it ends…the journey itself has been worth the trip.
Susan Hater
May 16th, 2010
1:36 pm
The show DOES come on locally, doesn’t it? (I could swear I’ve seen it before.) Else how could anyone be talking about it?
@Mr Echo
May 16th, 2010
1:41 pm
Speaking of spin-offs and The Onion, take a look about this potential spin-off from the series:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/smoke-monster-from-lost-given-own-primetime-spinof,2734/
KJ
May 16th, 2010
2:00 pm
“Most “Losties” I know are only watching still b/c the show is dying and there might be an answer or two.”
Yeah, this. I’ve watched it since the beginning, and I’m ready for it to be over.
Patrick
May 16th, 2010
2:02 pm
Have them start watching Fringe
Bleh
May 16th, 2010
2:12 pm
I could care less about Lost, what I will have withdrawl from is 24!!!!!!! A much superior show that doesn’t have to resort to dumb gimmicks like “alternate time-line stories”.
Tom
May 16th, 2010
2:47 pm
24… a show about resolving international crises in one day by the same man over and over… that’s not a dumb gimmick? Heh…
Sam
May 16th, 2010
2:56 pm
I have enjoyed the show, but it is a TV show. If a person has issues with a show going off the air, that person needs to seek professional help.
Ghost
May 16th, 2010
3:49 pm
A friend and I keep discussing what we’re going to do after the show ends.
After the finale and seeing how it all plays out, I figure I’ll start watching the DVD’s from Season 1 on and see if all of this was planned from the get go or if it looks like they made stuff up as they went.
Over the years, I just kept saying I only need to live long enough to see how this all ends. Now that the end is near, I still want to live a lot longer though.
Lost
May 16th, 2010
4:43 pm
It is sad to see “Lost” go off the air after all these years. Will we ever know all the answers? Even if we don’t it has been an enjoyable show on a beautiful island, They have kept the show clean and for some of us on the esge of our seats.
There have been many other shows that have debuted since Lost and they never even made one season. So I applaud the writers and the actors for a job well done. Ironically this is the only show I watch on local network. The networks have to be more creative to keep the viewers watching.
Bustin' Loose!
May 16th, 2010
4:47 pm
Yep, I am sure we would all have a lot more withdrawals if this season had not SUCKED so bad. I am still watching it out of sense of duty for having already invested 5 years, but quite honestly, this season has been terrible. I am just ready for it to end.
Rosita
May 16th, 2010
5:17 pm
Roho, nice piece.
BTW, it’s “ad nauseAm,” not Um
Cheers
The Critic
May 16th, 2010
5:49 pm
Lord, do some people need a LIFE!
Courtney
May 16th, 2010
8:05 pm
@Dee – Yeah, I am SOOOOO glad they solved the Adam & Eve Mystery. Now let’s get on to real mysteries. What is with the alternate world going on right now, What was Ethan? Where does the electromagnetic power come from? Why was Hurley so unlucky? Why did Jacob tell Ben to kill lots of people if he is good? Who is Richard Widmark, why does he care? What time is it on the island? Why were the pressing the numbers? How come the others were like super beings? Where did the temple guy come from? How does an island move? Did Fahretey die? about 100 more. They had/have no plan.
Deirdre
May 23rd, 2010
7:26 pm
@ Courtney.
1.The alternate world will be resolved tonight
2. Ethan was an Other sent to spy on the crash victims
3. The electromagnetic field comes from deep underneath the island.
4.Hurley was led to believe he was unlucky by Jacob
5. Jacob never told Ben anything. Ben admits that he had never seen or spoken to Jacob before the day he killed him.
6. Richard Widmark was an actor in the 40’s and 50’s. I have NO idea why he cares. If you mean Charles Widmore, he has a vested interest in protecting the world from the Man in Black.
7. The island can be any time.
8. They press the button to stop the electromagnetic field from blowing….we’ve seen what can happen when they don’t do it on time.
9. The Others aren’t super beings…they lost the battle with the castaways.
10.The temple guy was some kind of aberration
11. The island moves when the wheel is turned. The island is supernatural in case you haven’t figured that out yet.
12. Yes, Farraday died on the island…who knows about in L.A.
Please submit you other questions and I’ll be happy to answer.