L is for Lost

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

In the fall of 2004, amidst a general lackluster lineup of programming on TV, my brothers pulled me aside to watch this new show everyone had been buzzing about. After watching just the first episode, I knew there was something great about this show with a simple concept about a plane crashing on a deserted island, but that obviously was up to much more. For me right off the bat the show keyed into something I’ve always been into, which is a kind of survival show idea, but then as it goes on the show kept me hooked with great drama, intriguing mysteries and original ways of tackling sci-fi and fantasy elements.

Far too often do I get hooked on these unpopular shows which are canceled right away. Blade: The Series, Journeyman, Daybreak, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the list goes on and on, so how pleased was I to see that a show I liked was actually popular? Lost was a ratings hit for ABC from the beginning when it’s premiere episode was the most watched show in it’s time slot. The ratings have varied throughout it’s 5 seasons but they have always been fairly good. Good enough to keep it on the air, and to allow the creators to do what most shows never attempt to, which is to wrap the story up in a fixed time frame. Far too often shows which would work well with a story with an ending, instead opt to remain on the air as long as the ratings allow them to be profitable, and then get canceled in a furry of disinterest. Lost will have one more final season, and the story has been worked out for years now to end after season 6, so there will be no excuses about not having time to wrap up everything they wanted to with this one. This format really is one that has the best interests of the fans in mind, and I can only hope that more shows strive for this kind of success.

One great reason to watch the show has always been all the hot bitches. The first seasons introduces us to 3 such women. Shannon or “sib crush” as I like to refer to her, played by Maggie Grace, is a lazy ditzy blonde who likes to manipulate guys, such as her brother who she’s sexually active with, into doing things for her. She spends a good part of the first season lying around and tanning in her bikini which is a real treat for viewers until she is abruptly shot in the second season.

For those who share my love of pregnant women we have Claire, played by Emilie de Ravin, who arrives on the island full on ready to burst pregnant. If preggers aren’t your fetish then she does give birth and quickly goes down to a size which would make you think she must never have been pregnant in the first place! This could be due to the fact that it was just a fake belly for the show, or because of the island’s magical regenerative abilities. Sadly, Claire’s house is hit with an RPG in the 4th season, though on the Lost island this certainly doesn’t mean she can’t walk around as what may be a ghost from time to time.

Finally we have Evangeline Lily in the most prominent female role of the show, Kate Austen. She’s all hot and obviously the show runners know this by the fact that she’s skanking it up in skimpy clothes all the time. Off set she banged the hobbit from Lord of the Rings for a while which is pretty cool. There are other hot chicks in the show, but it would take me an eternity to mention every female character to make an appearance so please, no hate mail from disgruntled Rose fans.

Of course attractiveness is not the main draw of the characters. With the show’s unique flashback format, we have the oppurtunity to get a lot of very well fleshed out characters, most of which are great, some of which are amazing, and … well a few kind of suck.

By far my favourite would have to be Hugo “Hurley” Reyes. Hurley is a crazy guy who spent a while in a mental institution and is worth roughly 150 million dollars off the island. To make matters more complicated, he may not actually be crazy at all, because he might just be able to see dead people. Of course with Lost being what it is, who knows what the real story is. Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley, provides great comic relief to the show, and always brings a fresh perspective on things. Sometimes he oversimplifies things, but often that can sort of ground things in reality. From humourous eating disorder to cluelessness to trying to write Empire Strikes Back before it’s made, he’s always good for a laugh.

Season 2 introduces us to the fascinating character of Ben Linus, one of the others. Michael Emerson does a great job in playing this complex lying, cheating character. Life is like a game to Ben, who seems capable of manipulating almost anyone by telling them just what they need to hear. Time and time again we get pulled in by the character, half convinced he’s not too bad a guy after all, only to be reminded of what a dick he truly is when he goes off and stabs someone in the back because it suits his purposes.

Desmond is another character I’ve enjoyed quite a bit. His time travel and back story are particularly interesting. The peculiar physicist Daniel Faraday bring a cooky interesting twist to the show. Finally we have the character of Richard Alpert, who I still think is a pirate, who is still after many years surrounded with enough mystery that we don’t really know what the hell’s going on with him. And let’s not forget the always great Vincent. Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I could probably go on and gush about every character in this show. Well, almost every character…

Because God damn am I ever sick of Jack and all his bull shit problems. “Oh I have a strained relationship with my father.” “Oh I’m an alcoholic.” “Oh I always need to fix things.”. Of fuck right off. I’m just so sick of the seemingly endless string of Jack backstory episodes where we get introduced to what always boils down to the same character traits of his. And in the latest season he’s just become a completely unlikeable character with his constant desire to just fuck up the timeline. Jack, I hope you go home alone while Sawyer fucks Juliet, Kate and the ghost of your half sister.

It’s always fun to try to make predictions about Lost. What does the future hold? Or is it the past, I can never remember… After the bomb is “detonated” what really happens? I don’t really see much of a reason to think anything’s been changed by this. It’s well established that there was an “incident” which was why the Swan station was built, and the detonation fits with this. The flash could just as soon been time traveling as it could have been the island blowing up. The time travel idea is consistent with the time travel flashes shown throughout season 5.

But then, we had these interesting videos from comic con which seem to come from a reality where Oceanic 815 never crashed on the island.

In this mock commercial for Oceanic airlines they claim to have had a perfect safety record for 30 years following 1979, which would include the year of the crash that everyone would have known about:

In a mock Mr Clucks commercial Hurley is shown having returned from Australia, though he crashed on the island on his way back from Australia:

In this mock America’s Most Wanted clip Kate is mentioned to have accidentally killed the wrong person when she was trying to kill her step father, which is contrary to the events shown in the show, where she did actually manage to kill her step father:

Now these could be red herrings, or maybe the next season will take place in this other timeline which spits in the face of their established continuity, or maybe they’ll just jump between the timeline we know and this one.

Whatever happens, I’ll be watching … in 2010! Yes, we have to wait quite a while until the show returns. In the mean time, I’ve found it terribly entertaining to rewatch episodes. I’m always amazed at the extra little things you’ll notice having seen later episodes, or just how well they seem to have planned this show from early on. It’s out on DVD and Blu-Ray, and available on Hulu.

Here are a few suggestions for episodes to watch which have my seal of approval:
– The pilot episode that started it all.
– The episode where Boone and Shannon fuck.
– A good episode featuring with my favourite character Hurley
– The season 3 finale which totally blew my mind with it’s twist (part 1) (part 2)

For more about Lost check out:
– Lostpedia – Everything you ever wanted to know about Lost and much more.
– ABC’s official Lost site
– Lost on Wikipedia
– Lost at IMDB