Lost Until Now

Once every now and then, something comes along that defines the very age we live in. Phenomenons that capture the attention and imagination of people the world over. If you live in the western world, you will not have gone through the last 6 years without at least hearing about the Phenomenon that was the TV show ‘LOST’.

Lost followed a seemingly random group of survivors of a flight from Australia to Los Angeles that crash landed on a mysterious Island before reaching it’s destination. The show told the story of  their struggle to survive on the Island, as well as the stories of the characters previous lives via flashbacks.

My first memory of Lost is the first UK trailer in the summer of 2005. Living in the UK, I missed the initial launch of the first season in the USA, yet the hype had made it across the sea sooner than its August 2005 UK premier. Lost was an instant hit the world over and for many reasons. Perhaps the most important of all was the timing. The dawn of the digital age was in full swing and the Internet was the driving force behind changes in pretty much everything, and the revolution of the way we communicate.

The past decade saw Television move in a new direction. As technology progressed, it became easier and cheaper than ever to get movie quality special effects into television budgets. Still this didn’t stop Lost’s Pilot episode becoming the most expensive TV episode of all time. But to this day it is still hailed as one of the best episodes of any TV show ever. It set the tone of action packed, mystery filled drama that immediately got audiences asking questions and craving answers. This was not your business as usual American TV Drama.

It was closer to a movie than a TV show in both quality and scale. This was not the story of one man, or one island. It was the story of a big group of people, who had to discover each other at the same as time we discovered them. It had everything, and yet was unlike anything else that had ever been on television before. The first season was flawless, arguably the best series of any TV show still to this day. It was perhaps the mystery written into the show that made it really stand out. Each week would leave the audience with more questions than answers. And it was these questions that go people talking.

The timing of the show, coinciding with the way the internet was revolutionising the way we communicate, that played right into it’s hands. Everyone wanted to know why there was a polar bear on the island, or what was in the hatch. Everyone had a theory. The internet meant that we were no longer confined to talk about last nights TV around the water cooler, but could share thoughts and ideas with people anywhere in the world at any time. The show had been very well thought out and the continuity and consistency was unparalleled. The writers made it knowing that every single part of every episode would be scrutinised for clues to solve some of the mysteries of the show. Every line, every prop, every single frame could hold a clue from the writers to the fans. The writers knew it and played along with it. It was this communication between the writers and the fans, and vies versa, that really took Lost to the next level.

Fans flocked to the internet to find answers and share their ideas on the mysteries of the show. It was truly the first show to create a real community on the web, with sites like DarkUFO and Lostpedia becoming havens of information on the subject. It was also the dawn of the Podcast and fans flocked to download the latest theories from the biggest names in the community. The writers paid close attention to fans reactions to every twist and tale. Never before did an audience have so much of a say into what they wanted from a scripted show. It lead some critics of the show to claim that the writers were making it up as they were going along. The claim, denied by the writers, may have been true to a small extent, but certainly worked in the shows favour when it came to eliminating dull characters (Nikki & Paulo in Season 3) that fans quickly grew tired of. But the writers never really deviated from the overall path of the show.

Lost not only worked for the hardcore fans that delved themselves into the mythology of the show, it also appealed to the casual viewer. TV shows before Lost generally followed the idea that you had to dumb down the narrative to make it appeal to a large audience. Lost managed to prove that that was no longer the case. It may have been the overall story ark that brought the hardcore fans back every week, but they did not make up for even half of it’s millions of weekly viewers. Lost managed to intertwine an amazing map of story arks both long term and short term. And it was perhaps these easier to understand short term character plots & developments that consistently kept the average viewer tuning in.

Despite all its hype, all it’s mystery and it’s massive external community, it was Lost’s characters that were the real stars of the show. What a lot of people failed to realise, despite constant reassurance from the writers, was this was a story about these individuals and not about the island or the mysteries behind it. It was these people, these flawed individuals forced to live together or die alone, that really made Lost excellent Television.

So when it came to the final season, we were promised the answers that everyone craved. The writers knew they would never please everyone, and the fans knew that they couldn’t all be right. The writers wanted a legacy. They would never end Lost in such a way to ruin its status they had worked so long on building. True fans of the show (myself included) could figure out that we would never get all the answers to everything on the show. But that’s not what the show was about. It was about the characters and their path to redemption. And that is exactly what they got.

After watching the finale, I can comprehensively say that it gave me everything I wanted as a Lost fan. It was the damn near perfect way to end the perfect TV show. There were no big mythological answers or huge revelations, just the very emotional and sombre endings of the stories of these characters. The writers made it very rewarding for those of us who have been there since the very beginning and ended it the way they clearly set out to from the start. It was probably the strongest emotion reaction I have ever felt from TV or film and one I feel is unlikely to be beaten. I hope that when I die I get to hang out in a room with all the cool people from my life.

So for me personally, Lost has to go down as one of, if not THE best TV show of all time. It consistently pushed the boundaries of TV and was consistently flawless on almost every level. So Thank you all to everyone involved! Well Played Chaps!

Leave a reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website