LOST

The almost-tropical weather we have been having today—blue skies and bright sunshine instantly turning into dark clouds and rain—reminded me of something I’ve really been missing this Spring: LOST.  

Yes, the TV show. 

I’m not sure if I can call myself a Lostie like I call myself a Phile (a hardcore X-Files fan) but I love LOST.  Back in 2005, Grandma asked me if I was watching “this new show called LOST.”  I admitted that I hadn’t seen any of the episodes but I’d heard great things.  I remember her saying to me, “Oh, Dana!  It’s really good!  You should give it a shot.”  Seeing as how I’m always open to watching all kinds of shows, and knowing that this show was acclaimed for its deep character development and its elements of mystery and science fiction (everything that I enjoy!), I decided to follow her advice and get into it.  So for my birthday that summer I asked for LOST Season 1.  On that warm summer night in late August my family and I settled down in the den to watch it and we didn’t (couldn’t!) stop that night until we finished disc one. 

I was floored by how addicting the show was.  I just couldn’t get enough!  After finishing Season 1 on DVD, my mom, dad, brother and I began watching it religiously together on live TV.  I fell in love with the characters: from the reluctant but strong leader Jack to the ambiguous Kate to the bad boy Sawyer to the sadistic Other Ben to the Other-turned-good Juliet—all of them.  The flashbacks of these characters’ lives before the plane crash became just as important as the current trekking-through-the-jungle-avoiding-monsters-death-and-the-mysterious-Others-while-desparately-searching-for-a-way-off-the-Island plotline.  Each episode focuses on one of the characters.  Their flashbacks and the current Island plotline are woven together with a themed symbolism and purpose that I find innovative and provocative.  The characters of LOST are not one-dimensional.  Each flashback (and in later seasons, each flashforward) and action they take in the Island plotline adds layer after layer after layer to their personalities, making them real people who are good and flawed, who have loved and suffered, who have gained and lost.  They are not black and white—they are shades of grey.  I think that is definitely part of the reason why I fell in love with all of them and why everyone who loves the show can relate to them—because we are all shades of grey.

LOST is a show that is character-driven which is the number one reason why I love it so.  But I love it for its mysteries too, both explained and unexplained.  I mean, smoke monsters?  Ghosts?  Polar bears roaming around the jungle?  Miracles?  Immortality?  Time travel?  You can’t get much better than that!  I also love it for its complicated storylines that took me on a whirlwind of a wild ride.  It’s definitely not a fluff show.  To quote my professor, it is a “thinky thing” because it challenges your perceptions.  It didn’t really irk me that not everything was explained by the series finale.  I felt that the way it ended, with unraveling threads and loose ends, was fitting for a show that was renowned for its ambiguity. 

This is my first Spring since 2006 without LOST to look forward to every week and I really do miss it.  I miss the feeling of excitement that used to come over me when it was 15 minutes til 9:00.  I miss settling down on the sofa with my family around me, chatting about the last episode and theorizing about the mysteries unexplained.  I miss talking to my friends about each week’s episode, exclaiming over the events that occurred and wondering what in the world was going to happen next.  I’ve missed LOST so much that my family and I have started the series over again since we own the seasons on DVD.  I love revisiting all the characters and reliving their stories with them.  Even though I know what is going to happen next, I still find myself biting my lower lip nervously, clutching my blanket to my chest, sometimes groaning and snarling at the TV, and, yes, sometimes wiping away a tear or two—it’s a sign of an excellent show.

There will never be another show like LOST.  Never.  I count myself fortunate to have, in a way, grown up with it.  If you haven’t watched it I recommend that you, to quote my Grandma, “give it a shot.”

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