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Why I Love...Lost

The cast of Lost
  • Posted at 5:16am
  • 15 March 2007
  • by MartinAston-RT

Can Lost be the most unpopular "most watched" series in TV history?

According to a survey published last year in Radio Times, Lost is only second behind CSI: Miami in global viewing figures, so there are plenty of people watching it.

But in "watercooler" terms, the criticisms that Lost receives are endless. Such as, "it's infuriating!", "I simply don't have the patience for it" and, "even the writers don't know what the story is!" I agree, wholeheartedly, if I'm to be honest.

But I'm utterly, painfully hooked. The tension racked up toward the end of the second series made waiting a week between episodes an awfully long time - something I haven't experienced since Six Feet Under, which was barely ever criticised in its lifetime.

What is it about Lost that turns people into jittery substance abusers? Maybe it's just that we're hostages to curiosity. After all, the series is the first of its kind since The Prisoner almost 40 years ago to keep viewers continually wondering what is truly going on.

It's a genius plot, too: plane disaster + deserted island + mysterious forces + beautiful bodies + unexpected surprises + grisly deaths = who knows what, precisely? It's like a combination of The Twilight Zone, Desperate Housewives and Gilligan's Island - what's not to love?

Throw in ridiculous coincidences and multiple possibilities for all the above elements and you have more twists and intrigue than any show has a right to have. It makes it easier to accept a succession of script howlers. Why is it that at no point has anyone asked the Others what they wanted with little Walt - not even his dad? A little realism to make us think we're in the same universe and time zone, please!

What is the most baffling thing in Lost? Is it the way characters appear in other characters' flashbacks, as though the plane crash and subsequent adventure was engineered by some god or crazed billionaire scientist? Is it those infernal numbers? Exactly who initiated the Dharma Project? Or maybe it's the more prosaic matter of how the scriptwriters can justify introducing tons of canned food just so all the castaways always look so well fed and groomed?

The fact that we don't know what is happening is bound to keep us hooked, but for how long? (It's like being shown a drug, but not getting the fix, only the promise of a fix.) Ultimately, we demand some pay-off. If it's one thing viewers hate, it's being taken backwards instead of forwards. Oh, well. Let's enjoy the tease - and the game of trying to work out what the truth is behind Lost.

As much as I love the show and can never wait for a new run to start, I desperately want to see the very last ever episode, so that I can be put out of my misery. I'm guessing that this episode, whenever it will be, will be watched by every single person who has tuned in to Lost at some point in their lives. Maybe the writers aren't as lost as we like to think they are.

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