A 'Lost' Cause

Before I move to the topic which has inspired me to form such a terrible pun, I'd like to take a brief moment to give an update on the status of my Decisions-related situation. Put simply, Decisions have been made. I am now a double major in Media and Communication Studies and American Studies. I will be remaining at UMBC for another year in the hopes that this radical shift in my academic goals will also instigate improvement in the other areas of my life. Also, the monster success we achieved with our party last night is particularly inspiring. In general, I would describe my current state as "cautiously optimistic."

Anyway, on to a topic I consider far more important: the serial television drama Lost. In the course of the past two years, I have become a dedicated Lost fan. Well, maybe not "dedicated," but at least "committed." Which, incidentally, is what I should probably be for professing my loyalty to a show that even die-hards would agree is "bat-shit insane." Lost is an incredibly polarizing show. It is discussed with an equal mixture of intense devotion and intense disdain. I happen to be firmly in the camp of the supporters, and thus I am going to subject you all to my own personal take on the Lost universe.

Even the most cursory summary of the plot will quickly necessitate a lengthy explanation of the motivations and relationships of a frankly rediculous number of characters. As anyone who has read Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time can testify to, filling your story with a fucking phone book's worth of characters is a massive pain in the ass for your average reader. It is some small consolation that at least the creators of Lost are willing to some extent to kill characters off. I've always been a proponent of killing off crucial characters; it makes for some wacky plot twists (and by extension, entertaining television) and really fucks with the viewers' heads. George R. R. Martin, writer of the Song of Ice and Fire series (which is purportedly being adapted for TV by HBO), is an expert at this game of bait and switch. Although it makes it kind of difficult to get attached to any of the characters, the fact that Martin is fully willing to kill off anyone regardless of how indispensable to the plot they may seem is one of the things that makes A Song of Ice and Fire my favorite fantasy book series hands-down.

Right, so...Lost. Lost is primarily focused on a group of passengers aboard Oceanic Flight 815 who crash on a mysterious island. This island is henceforth referred to as The Island because it is really a character in its own right. The Island is a powerful and mysterious entity, the product of supernatural forces that defy explanation or control. These forces exhibit unusual effects on the people who encounter it, including but not limited to accelerated miraculous healing, visions of dead people, and an overinflated sense of purpose or destiny. This power has drawn people both intentionally and unintentionally throughout history to The Island. Among these include a secretive and not entirely benign research organization called the Dharma Initiative, a powerful and wealthy Brit by the name of Charles Widmore, and a vaguely cult-like group living on the Island referred to as The Natives, the Others, or the Hostiles depending on who is referring to them. The survivors find themselves entangled with these and other factions as well as the Island itself.

To further complicate matters, the survivors all have their own colorful backgrounds filled with scandal and intrigue which tie them to each other, the Island, and many of the other factions. Nothing in the Lost universe can be taken for granted or accepted at face value. Every episode raises more questions than it answers. It is probably this fact that makes Lost such an easy show to either love or hate. There's no denying it - Lost is confusing. If you miss one episode you're effectively screwed. Watching Lost for any extended period of time cultivates a compulsive need to watch more Lost. Medical professionals are currently researching the prolonged effects of and potential treatment of 'The Lost Effect.'

As a sufferrer of the Lost Effect, it may be difficult for me to fully articulate what it is that makes the show so compelling. Never have I seen another television show that offers its viewers so much to sink their teeth into. There are innumerable mysteries to speculate and theorize over. No matter how much is ever revealed, you always know the writers have only scratched the tip of the iceberg. It makes one wonder if the writers even have answers to the questions they create. Are they making this shit up as they go along or are they really following an over-arching plot with a definitive beginning, middle, and most importantly, end? At this point either option seems entirely possible. I mean, they actually made the current season about time travel. Time travel is probably one of the quickest ways to send a plot into the crapper, but I have to say that this season is one of the most entertaining I've seen since the beginning. It makes my head hurt something fierce to even contemplate for a moment how any of this is supposed to get resolved, but I have faith in the Lost writers. Personally, the only way I can really see to tie off all the loose ends is to drop a nuke on the Island or in some other way completely wreck its shit. Also, they would need to kill off every single character and call the Ghostbusters to get rid of their lingering spirits. I have absolutely zero expectancy, for example, that John Locke will actually stay dead. Everyone knows you have to stake the heart, cut off the head and stuff the mouth with garlic, then put the head and body in separate boxes and throw both boxes into a fast moving river. Wait, maybe that's vampires I'm thinking of...ah well, it never hurts to be safe.
As you can tell, I don't exactly take the Lost mythos very seriously. It's rediculously overblown and hopelessly overcomplicated. There are plenty of laughable aspects of the show, namely the terrible actors who fill out the ranks of The Others and the Dharma Initiative, the cheezy effects, and the seemingly unlimited supply of nameless extras among the survivors despite the fact that there was only a finite number of passengers on the plane to begin with and a good third of those died in the very first episode. Yet week after week I keep watching, hoping to get answers to those questions that plague me: what's with the four-toed statue? Why was there a polar bear? And why the fuck did they have to bring time travel into it? Also, do they ever plan on bringing on more former hobbits as cast members?

If you've never seen Lost, I urge you to at least check it out. It's one of the few reasons I still watch TV. Support A Lost Cause. And bow down to the genius of Damon Lindelof and J. J. Abrams while you're at it.