It was June 26, 2009, and I had only just met the woman I was going to marry a few days earlier. We were at the Tower of London for one of our class' first field trips into London. It was early enough into this term we'd be spending abroad that no one had really settled into separate cliques of students yet. As I explored the tower, I spent moments with different girls from the group, here and there, looking around, but I recall walking off by myself repeatedly.
A few of us had started to form a group, but within a week some of its members would have left to join cliques and have been replaced by other girls (there were a lot more girls than guys on this trip), but among this handful of potential friends was Abby. Near the end of our exploration of the tower, her eyes went wide and she began to shout, "That's Sun! That's SUN!"
Sun was a character on what Abby knew was my favorite TV show, LOST. She knew this because it was probably one of the first things I mentioned about myself. In fact, when I introduced myself to the other medical students I will spend the next four years getting to know, I made sure they knew that I "was one of those people that still cares about LOST."
Abby was, however, excitedly pointing at a man, who didn't see us and was walking away. Sun is a woman. I asked Abby if she thought she saw Jin, Sun's husband on the show, played by the excellent Daniel Dae Kim (now on Hawaii Five-Oh). Embarrassed by the mix-up, she corrected herself and said we should try and meet him. I was hesitant for the briefest of moments, but I never could have resisted.
As you can see, we met him and he was kind enough to be photographed with us, even though we could tell he was with family. But the lasting part of this story, and why I am including it in this post is this: this moment was probably the very beginning of the bond between Abby and I that would turn into an amazing friendship, then love, and then marriage, and then Abby and Addison with a baby carriage. The fact that it was Abby that recognized Mr. Kim there that day speaks scores as to why we are right for each other; I knew then that we had shared interests and that she understood my nerdiness. In fact, we celebrated our wedding on what we thought was one year to the day from this encounter. It was only last year did I revisit my journals to find we were off by one day.
I am now going to explain why LOST should be regarded as a being excellent, and at the same time I will analyze why opinion of the show has seemingly soured substantially since it went off the air. But in so doing, I am laying my cards on the table: as my introductory story attests, LOST holds a sentimental place in my heart. I am very, very biased.
Also, I am an uber-nerd when it comes to LOST. I own these:
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| Left:LOST (The Complete Series)/Right: The Dharma Initiative Labcoat |
Yes, they were both gifts (expensive gifts), but actual human people who were not me spent their own money to make sure I owned them. You don't just do that for any passive television fan.
So, without further ado, here is WHY YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT LOST!
For months now, I have been asking people about their opinions of the show, how long they watched it, what they thought of it. If they quit early or disliked it I tried to find out why. Here are the major reasons that came up.
1. It was weird/awkward/too confusing!
More than once, I've been told "Yeah, I watched LOST for a while, but then I quit when that polar bear showed up!"
Uh, I can only reply, that was the very first episode.
If you are viewing from a mobile device, the video is HERE.
You're welcome for that. Also, the main message is "If it's not for you, it's not for you!"
If it's not your thing, it is not your thing! For example, you will never be able to make me excited about the NFL draft. Never! But I will also never try to depreciate it to someone who is excited by that sort of thing. I can never claim that LOST is a show for everyone, and the fact that it hemorrhaged viewers as it embraced its weird side more completely reflects that. This is also the reason shows like Community and 30 Rock struggle.
That being said, the convoluted nature of the plot was one of my favorite things about the show. I loved the slow, confusing reveals. Spoiler alert: For example, at the end of Season 3, there is a flash-forward that reveals someone has died, as Jack (the main character) is reading an obituary. It isn't until the Season 4 finale that the identity of that person is revealed. In the middle of Season 5, that character mysteriously returns to life (hey, it is a magic island), only for it to be revealed in the Season 5 finale that yes, in fact, that character actually was dead all along.
The heart of this show was its mystery and a mystery is only a mystery if it keeps you wondering. Had the producers been quicker with this storyline, it would have lost its weight. Which brings us to number two.
2. They never answered any of the questions! or The answers to the questions sucked!
I love when I get this complaint, because then I get to put my nerd hat on and ask, "Which question did they not answer?" In fact, I issue you this as a challenge now. What question did you feel was left unanswered? If it was a major one, it was answered; the problem is, most of them were answered in the sixth and final season. True, some of the answers were more contrived than others (I was never 100% happy with their explanation for the numbers or the "Heart of the Island"), but for the most part the answers that were given actually did serve to paint a more coherent picture of the Island and advance the plot.
Why were there polar bears? What were the whispers? What is the smoke monster? What was the Dharma Initiative? Why did that bird say Hurley's name? WAAAAAAAAAAALT?
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| http://musguita.tumblr.com/post/398617319/waaalt |
Yes, all of those questions were answered.
As for those answers sucking, I have a theory on that. As I said, I actually enjoyed most of them, but at least half of the fun of watching LOST with people was debating its mysteries. Almost everyone had their own pet theory about just what-in-the-name-of-Jacob was going on. It was fun to find evidence for your ideas and predict where they might take the show. As the show progressed though, it had to reveal those mysteries. If they did not match your ideas, there could be disappointment or confusion; in fact, the entire show could feel differently for you. Since the mystery was the heart of the show, the show lost its savor with many once it was dispelled.
If that's not the case and you simply think the answers sucked, I have another video answer for you!
If the video doesn't show, go HERE.
If it's not for you, it's not for you.
3. The producers didn't have every detail set in place from the beginning! They made stuff up as they went along!
One of the enjoyable things about the mysteries in LOST was the comfort in believing that everything had a set-in-stone answer to it. Viewers believed there was a show "Bible" that contained the rules about where all of the plot points had to converge. But as time went on, it became evident that some elements of the show were newer creations and other components of the plot, though focused on earlier in the series, were now deemphasized. Moments, like the several episodes where two characters spent time locked in polar bear cages in Season 3, proved that some of the show was being made up on the spot, as opposed to being part of some grand, unfolding plan.
I mention the polar bear cages because they represent a turning point for the show's focus. LOST was ABC's most talked about, unmitigated hit, and ABC wanted to make that last forever. However, in order for LOST's producers to be able to actually resolve the show's mysteries without stretching them out indefinitely or bogging them down, that required a set endpoint. The fact that the producers were able to get ABC to agree during the third season to end LOST after Season 6 with abbreviated seasons was a victory for the storytelling. Weird as they were, the following seasons had their own individually-set rise-and-fall of a plot that each dealt with a specific theme. This is why Season 3 is often regarded as the show's worst as well: the stories had to be stretched out with nonsense because the writers did not know how long they'd have to keep it going.
So, it's because of the fact that there is no magic, time-traveling island in the real world, unfortunately, that some of the plot had to be changed on the fly. This is why WAAAALT! never returned to the show (the actor grew up too quick). This is why Mr. Eko died just when he was becoming cool (the actor quit). But just because some elements were changed/added with time, does not mean everything was.
Anyone who has written anything knows that the story changes as you write it. New insights come to you, the story evolves, the characters change. Had LOST's producers rebuked any form of change to their original plans, the show would have lacked perhaps its most popular character. Michael Emerson had originally been cast for a temporary role, but he was so excellent that he was written into one of LOST's most important characters: Ben Linus, a part that had not existed originally. Few would argue that this was to the show's detriment.
| http://app.cheezburger.com/TemplateView.aspx?ciid=3165658 |
And, for the last complaint (spoilers)
4. What's was up with that ending?! They were dead along along?!
Nope. That didn't happen. Rewatch the episode and then we can talk.
Thank you for asking. I've already told you that I loved the plot; I love its crazy complicatedness. I loved the mystery and the unabashed individuality of the show. But I think the show still matters because of what it did for the world of scripted television. LOST did a lot to prove that scripted programming could still thrive in the face of the ever-encroaching "Reality TV" plague. It became part of the "Third Golden Age of Television" and helped pave the way for other shows that benefitted from complex core mythologies (Fringe, Battlestar Galactica), enormous main casts (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead), and abbreviated seasons and set finales (Breaking Bad).
Yes, it also did usher in an era of attempted copycats who attempted to mimic its flashy, high-cost pilot with a supernatural mystery at its core (The Event, Flash-Forward, Revolution, etc.). Yes, it also become so complex that casual viewing became almost impossible (also see Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad). It, along with 24, may be one of the first shows to commence and thrive off of the "binge-viewing" age.
But for me, it is nice to know that from 2004 to 2010, network executives could believe that there was a large enough audience that would enjoy a sci-fi/fantasy-drama about dozens of people trapped on a magical, time-traveling tropical island inhabited by polar bears and smoke monsters, to justify its existence and expense.
When I look at much of what is on the major networks today, I wish they would believe in us again.
Next time on LOST I, Culture Nerd: I fix the Star Wars prequels, bit-by-broken-bit!
YAY ADDISON
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