Lost

For six seasons I have liked and disliked, been frustrated and captivated by this show. For years I have sat quietly and listened while my sci-fi friends dissected, discussed, and theorized about Babylon 5, Dr. Who, the various Star Trek shows, etc. My first foray into these conversations was with Battlestar Galactica, as we talked about the social, political, and religious themes of the show.

And then came Lost.

I don't do scary. And I don't do gross. So the show almost lost me from the very beginning. But I was fascinated. I wanted to understand what was going on. I wanted to make sense of it all. I enjoyed being surprised every week, even though I don't usually enjoy surprises. I liked being confused, also rare for me.

I didn't always like it, though. I broke up with Lost as least twice that I can remember. I just got too frustrated with all the twists and turns. Too many questions and no answers. Too many new characters and new situations to keep up with. I gave up.

But I went back. I willingly got lost again.

At the heart of any show for me, sci fi or otherwise, is character development. You're going to hook me if you present me with characters that I can fall in love with, that I can care about, that make me want to tune in every week to see what happens to them. And Lost absolutely did that. Every character was so interesting, so compelling, so multi-dimensional. As one fan wrote, "There is a smoke monster in all of us." I don't necessarily like to believe that is true, but it probably is. Actually, I'd rather believe there is a Hurley in all of us.

Lost WAS about the smoke monster and the polar bears and the donkey wheel for me. But it was even more about Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Locke, Claire, Charlie, Aaron, Sun, Jin, Juliet, Desmond, Penny, Shannon, Boone, Rose, Bernard, Michael, Walt, Russo, Libby, Mr. Ecko, and the rest. And yes, it was even about Ben, Miles, Charlotte, Daniel, Charles Whitmore, and Eloise. It was about Jacob and the Man in Black. And of course it was about Vincent! Dare I say it was even about Nikki and Paolo? :)

I wish we knew the real name of the Man in Black.

Before anyone is amazed that I remembered all those names, I'll admit that I didn't. Even though in every episode they continually say each others names, I still had to look several of them up in wikipedia. :) And I still can't remember Ben's daughter's name. Arg!! Oh wait, its Alex. Yea! I remembered without having to look it up!

I have always said I'm not smart enough to be watching this show. I was confused all the time, including at the end. I don't know enough about mythology. I'm not a Christian. I was an English major for awhile in college, but I didn't get most of the literature references. But I kept watching. Because I wanted to understand it. And because I wanted to see what would happen next.

The way I coped with not understanding was to at least think I could try to remember everything that happened. So I started taking notes. I currently have notes for seasons one through four. I don't know if I'll go back and take notes on the last two seasons. I wonder if the story will become more clear if I do that.

So thank you Lost, for six seasons of incredibly smart, innovative, engrossing television. It was all worth the ride.

librarianintx