What is it about LOST?

Apologies to my thousands of readers for not blogging in over a week.

It seems to me I need to go into a little more detail as to what this blog is about. Obviously, it is a LOST fansite, by and large, although I hope to take a few detours now and then into other areas that fascinate and/or interest me. But, yeah, primarily I wanted to use this as a personal forum to write about this incredible TV show, a show that continues to enthrall me, captivate me, amaze me. At the risk of indulging in some unalloyed hyperbole, this show has literally changed my life, and continues to effect this change.

So, what is is about LOST?

I never watched the show during it's first season. I remember reading something at the time about the premise and rolling my eyes at it. "People crash on an island and try to survive? What, is this gonna be some mytant hybrid of 'The Love Boat' and 'Survivor'? Boooooooring." Indeed, it was more than halfway through the second season--after reading bits and pieces about the show, noting that it won the Emmy as Best Drama in its first year, and particularly after reading how Stephen King babbled on fulsomely about the virtues of the show--that I decided to Netflix the first season on DVD.

Got the Netflix envelopes in the mail, popped 'em in on a day off, watched the first three discs back-to-back, one episode after the other.

HOOKED! HOOKED! HOOKED!

Even though it was sheer torture, I decided to wait until the second season DVD came out before I got caught up the storyline. I knew I wouldn't want to start watching halfway thru the season. I wanted to replicate the experience of watching Season 1. So...I was patient. I waited. And it was worth it.

Remembering the last shot of the last episode of Season 1 (Jack and Locke staring down into The Hatch as the camera receded further and further away from them), I couldn't wait to see what was waiting down there. I wasn't disappointed. Some people disparage Season 2, but you'll never catch me doing that. The storyline was extended, was expanded, and we got some truly great moments and met some great characters: Desmond. The Dharma Initiative. Mr. Eko. Realizing that The Others were only pretending to be hillbillies. Eko facing down the Smoke Monster. Finding out that Libby was in the same mental institution as Hurley. Seeing how the Tailies spent their first 48 days on the island. On and on.

Season 3 I will go into sometime in December, after the DVD set comes out.

Watching LOST is truly (as has been pointed out elsewhere) like watching a novel unfold in a cinematic format. Each episode is a chapter. It is episodic television in the finest and truest sense of the phrase.

My reasons for adoring this show are multivarious. I love the characters--ALL of them (even Nikki and Paolo!). I love the concepts. I love the Dharma Initiative. I love the Black Rock. I love how when one mystery is resolved, another is created to take its place. I love the use of flashbacks (and am eagerly waiting to see how they are going to employ the flashforwards in Season 4). I love the locales. I love the sets. I love the eerie, compelling music by Michael Giacchino. I love anticipating finding out more of how Danielle Rousseau survived on the island for 16 years. I love empathizing with John Locke and idolizing the actor who plays him, Terry O'Quinn. I love watching the pilot episode over and over, and still being thrilled by it.

I love the fact that my Dad loves this show. FINALLY, my dad and I actually have something in common!

Most of all, what I love about the show is the longing.

When I watch the show, when I talk about the show, when I write about the show, when I think about the show...I feel such an utter sense of longing--and it feels remarkably pleasant. I long for an adventure of my own. I long to wander on a deserted island--like Locke, like Ben Linus, like Desmond--in hopes of finding the remnants of something paranormal. I long to find myself amidst mystery.

And if I can't find such things in the life I live, LOST, I think, assuredly points the way for me to find these things in a life as yet unlived...and perhaps, find a way to live that rare and mysterious life and not spend so many of my days...being lost.