You're Wrong About Lost
Despite the "declining audience" Lost is one of the most popular shows out there. If you don't believe me, ask the advertisers who are paying millions of dollars to have their commercials run in the Lost time slot.
Dispelling the Complaints
Complaint 1 - Lost Doesn't Answer Enough QuestionsUh, if all the questions were answered there wouldn't be a show. Lost has a nice way of answering one question while creating a whole slew of others (pun intended). For example, we found out what was in the hatch, a man, a computer, living quarters. But we didn't know why there was a man, what the computer really meant, and why there were living quarters.
Why is Locke in a wheelchair? We'll find out this season.
What do Jack's tattoos mean? We'll find out this season.
Why is Juliet on the island? We'll find out in tomorrow's episode.
No, we haven't gotten the answers to all of our questions, but that's what makes the show so good.
Complaint 2 - Too Much Time Spent With the Others and Jack, Kate, and Sawyer
The producers wanted the first six episodes to run like a miniseries, so they concentrated on the one storyline. Sure, it would have been nice to spend more time with Locke, Hurley, Charlie, Claire and the rest, but there is only so much you can do in a 42 minute episode.
We need to remember that Lost is a series that is extremely dependent on it's previous episodes. Many of us did not think that season 2 was very good, as we were watching individual episodes, week by week. But when you look at the season as a whole, it's amazing. The story arc, the hatch story, the forward movement of the characters was very well done, but we have to look at each season, and eventually the entire series as a whole.
Things may happen in an early episode that don't get paid off until a much later episode. The masterminds of Lost are hard at work to bring us the most dramatic and satisfying story of (I believe) any show in the history of television.
Complaint 3 - They Gave Us Six Episodes Then a Long Hiatus
Okay, I'll give you this one. The scheduling has been hard, but it's because Lost is such a great show and the nature of it building upon itself makes it hard to run the season as a traditional TV season. Traditionally, shows run their season with reruns interspersed between new shows, but, as we found out during season 1, that didn't work with Lost. It was difficult to keep up with the show with reruns being shown.
So, for season 2, ABC decided to run six episodes at the beginning of the season, with a 13 week hiatus to run another show, and then return with 16 straight episodes that begin during February sweeps and end during May sweeps. Part of the problem was that the interim show, Day Break, was a flop.
Next season, they will try running a short season with 22 consecutive episodes, but then, of course, people will be complaining about the long time in between the season 3 finale and the season 4 premiere. So, ABC and Lost producers really can't win. If you're wondering why they can only put out 22 episodes a season, see: Lost Scheduling.
Losing It's Audience
While it's true that Lost has lost some of it's audience, it just means that it's not the number one show anymore. So what? It's still in the top ten. Heroes is currently doing great, and next season another show will be in the top spot. That's the way it goes, but it doesn't mean that Lost has lost it's popularity. In fact, the die-hard fans are going to remain die-hard fans until the end.
Lost has many fans who are obsessed with the show (I mean, besides myself), many fans who may not be obsessed, but will still scour the Web for information, and still more fans who may not search for extra information, but who wouldn't miss the show.
I've found many nay sayers, but have also come across a few people who have gotten it right. Anthony Letizia says, "Don't complain that [Lost] is confusing, that little has been spelled out so far. We should welcome the challenge offered by this kind of television. It's invigorating. It's productive. And, as always, if you want your entertainment easy, there are a bucketful of CSIs waiting just a remote click away." Yes!
The nay sayers seem to be the loudest, but now that I'm looking, I'm finding others who don't think that Lost has lost it. Including:
In Defense of Lost [flakmagazine]
The Critics are Wrong [The Lost Blog]
Lost in Juliet's Journey [Chicago Tribune]
How to Keep Enjoying 'Lost' [Newsweek Entertainment]
Don't worry, fans, Lost is an extremely profitable show and won't be going away any time soon, so try not to listen to the darn nay sayers.
Edited to add: Ike, a nay sayer, has some good points in his rebuttal posted in the comments section below. What do you think?
Comments
A Rebuttal From One of the “Nay Sayers”:
Let me begin by saying I’m not a person who sits around trying to nitpick shows, I’m very faithful to the few shows I watch, and Lost started out as one of them. The first season of Lost was one of the best TV experiences I’ve ever had. To show that I am not a disloyal fan, I have remained a viewer through the mediocre second season and the first six frustrating episodes of season three. My main problem with Lost is that it has evolved from a thrilling story of action/survival/suspense/drama to a feet dragging soap opera bordering on the ridiculous.
1. Does Lost answer enough questions? No, and for everyone it answers, it creates many more. This is intriguing to many, but I fear this will lead to problems with the series conclusion. It could easily get to the point were there is no way to bring about a satisfactory conclusion to all the questions, which means we get left hanging on something or the storyline gets ludicrously confusing. I don’t have to know all the secrets now, but throw me a bone and answer some of the little questions that are stock piling by the dozen.
2. The back stories are getting ridiculous, and they’re all negative. I’m sure this is part of some tie in with the island(s) big secret, but I’m starting to not care about the characters anymore, which is fairly important for a series like this. Kate went from being a runaway you could sympathize with, to a bad person who continues to make bad choices, and don’t even get me started on Locke or Sun. Stop with the back stories, or give us something good a normal human can relate to.
3. Kate and Sawyer. I can already see you Sawyer fans rolling your eyes, but let me finish. I don’t care that Kate didn’t choose Jack (although I would have preferred it), I care what it will do to Sawyer’s character. I loved him in season one, and he was still fairly refreshing in season 2. He was the guy you loved to hate. The guy who gums up the works and creates internal conflict and tension. Now he’s being turned into relationship guy, and it makes me want to hurl. Give me good ol’ Sawyer, who doesn’t care about anyone but himself, one pure character.
4. The Hiatus. Becoming more and more common amongst shows these days. The prevailing mantra is “Oh, this gives us more time so we can write better shows.” , but so far I have yet to see that be the case in these hiatus shows, and I’m not holding my breath now. Plenty of shows in the past have delivered quality episodes over consistent time periods and seasons.
After season one Lost was the best thing on TV. This is no longer the case. For those of us who like shows with conspiracies and intricate plots, but still manage to resolve a storyline every once and a while, may I recommend the following: Battlestar Galactica, Prison Break, 24, and MI:5. Many still love Lost and will continue to watch it, and for your sakes I hope it lives up to your expectations. As for me, I’ll catch it on DVD and hit the high points. I no longer have an hour of my life I want to commit to it every week.
Ike,
You bring up some very good points! Thinks for speaking up.
1. I think Lost answers more questions than people give it credit for.
2. Of course the back stories are negative, if they were positive who would care? How would the character have room to grow?
3. Okay, I’m with you on this one, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with Sawyer in the rest of season 3. He’s Sawyer, he’s going to screw it up. He’s going to make us hate him again. He’s going to make Kate hate him. In other words, he’s going to be back to his old season 1 self, I predict.
4. I really think that scheduling is a problem that is somewhat out of the control of the powers that be. Lost is a heavily produced show. There is a lot that needs to happen between writing and airing. There are not enough days in the year to complete enough episodes to fill up a season. You used 24 as an example, but they have the same problem. Their solution was to run a short season with consecutive episodes, which the Lost producers hoped for, but which ABC would not allow. However, it does look like that is what is going to happen for season 4.
1. I have to give Ike the point on this one … aside from actually explaining what happens when you don’t push the button (and, therefore, why the plane crashed), I can’t think of any actual question about the island which has been actually answered in a direct fashion. The answers that are provided just increase the mystery (example: the black cloud is a “defense mechanism”). I understand Bonnie’s point that this is part of the show’s premise, but I think that we could have a FEW more direct answers … answers which actually satisfy the viewers instead of continually leaving us going “Huh?”
This, in my opinion, is the flaw that destroyed ALIAS. And ALIAS was a lot better about actually resolving most of the plotlines.
Alternately, there have certainly been questions answered about the characters’ past. Why was Kate on the run? Why was Hurley in a mental institution? How did Sayid learn about torture? (though I found the fact that an Iraqi soldier had to be taught torture by an American soldier a somewhat unnecessary, and unrealistic, metaphor)
2. I still like the back stories, though I think they’re getting worse rather than better. My problem is that the characters are generally NOT growing beyond their past … they’re getting trapped in the same patterns they’ve always been in. That, I think, is part of the point, though.
3. I don’t think Sawyer’s been tamed. Having sex with Kate in a cage doesn’t equate to “relationship guy” in my book. He’d still screw anyone over, including Kate, if he thought it would get an outcome he wants … which, at present, includes Kate’s well-being.
4. Prison Break was the first show I ever saw which introduced the “Fall Finale” concept … now half the shows on television have them as an official part of their schedule. This is, to me, worse than “Fresh” episodes (as opposed to “New” episodes … I wonder, then, if reruns should now be called “Rotten” episodes instead of “Old” episodes) in annoying television maneuvers. I do think it’s a detriment to the show, however, and am glad to hear they’re switching to a 24-like format … I think it’s far better for a suspense-based show of this type.
Speaking of annoying television maneuvers, Battlestar Galactica broke their season 2 DVDs into a “Season 2.0″ and “Season 2.5″ … both at full DVD set price. That cheesed me off a lot more than the hiatus of any show.
“Lost” has turned into a sophomoric display of ain’t-I-cleverness by a pair of sophomores who throw in every Core Curriculum reference and pop-culture aside they can think up, to distract us from the obvious fact that they have no clue in the world what they’re doing or where they’re going.
Just lik Twin Peaks, this show has disintegrated into a morass of snippets, shards and nonsense that seems sometimes to be tossed in from whatever book or video game the writers happened to run across that weekend.
In real life there are a few characters who are not candidates for a prison planet or an insane asylum or both. There isn’t one single normal person on this Island, much less one who’s Good. The odds of a plane being filled only with the dregs of humanity, including mainly psychotic people who can’t get along with anybody at all, are limited only to Con Air flights.
Not a single one of the psychopathic criminals on this plane shows the slightest tendency to reform their way of living. If I were stranded in a place I might never get out of alive, my first impulse would be to straighten out my life as much as I could and spend a lot of time in prayer. Not a single person on this Island ever seems to think about anything except sex, drugs, torture and murder. This is not remotely like any population outside, as I said, a prison or an insane asylum.
Why don’t they have contests? When I’m stuck on a plane or train or standing in line, especially with my kids, I try to think of ways to pass the time — rock paper scissors; how many uses for a brick; all the words I know that begin with the letter Q; Simon Says; Mother May I; Twenty Questions; Animal-Vegetable-Mineral; tiddlywinks…why don’t they ever play any games?
Apparently there is no one in this group with any gift or talent save for sex and murder. What are the odds that nobody on this plane would be able to sing, write, declaim, dance, act, do stand-up comedy, build a checkerboard, jump rope, play Red Rover, get up a game of soccer, touch football or kick the can? Heck, Iraqi kids in the towns that have been flattened by the war still find time to build toys and play games! Why don’t any of these nudniks on this Island ever have any fun?
Why doesn’t anybody keep a journal in writing or by sketching?
In short — why is everybody on this Island a criminal psychopath?
Lost has a good thing going. Television is at a cross roads right now thanks to technologies such as the internet, DVDs, DVRs, etc. The medium is changing. Past conventions will not work in today’s culture. What we don’t need are studios/producers/writers that are slaves to out-dated formulas that might have worked (worked to them means brought in money) in the past. We need pioneers that are willing to experiment and take chances. But the thing about pioneers is that they often get things wrong before they get them right. It seems that the writers of Lost are at least making an attempt. Their decision to commit to a pre-arranged end to the show is a step in the right direction. IMHO 5 seasons is a season too long, but it is up to them to prove me wrong.
Lost has a good thing going - question remains, where exactly is it going? Little doubt it will ultimately be judged by how well the writers can deliver on their promises and give us a destination that will make us look back and say, “Boy, that was worth the ride.”
Well said.
With all due respect, I don’t think 1% of Lost viewers have ever really cared about Jack’s tattoos. That’s not a “mystery”. They may turn that into a storyline but it’s not one of the “mysteries”. For that matter, neither is Locke being in a wheelchair. I’m sure most of us would like to know how he ended up in one but it’s stretching it to call that one of the island’s “mysteries”.
I’m sorry but the show is just phony. It’d go up about a thousand percent in my book if just once one of the Lostaways had said something to the Others like: “Look, our plane fell out of the sky. I may never see my loved ones again and we’re all probably gonna die on this speck of sand. So why the hell are you trying to kill/enprison us?” I mean, if I were Jack, I think at some point I’d have dropped a “WTF?” with these people by now.
I believe it was Hurley last season who dropped the line that went something like, “Has everyone forgotten there’s a friggin’ dinosaur out there?!” It was funny and maybe even a wink to the fans, but it’s exactly the problem with the show. The characters aren’t worried about getting rescued any more and are barely worried about surviving the elements. They’ve never had the slightest curiousity about what makes the Others tick. They’ve seen one of the pilots ripped out of the cockpit from a very great height but apparently this isn’t much of a cause of concern, considering they’ve put in a golf course.
It’s just phony. It seems almost stupid to say, but I actually think the Lost writers could learn a lot from watching a few episodes of “Survivor”.