Column:
Easy to get lost in 'Lost'
Published March 9, 2010
For nearly five years I refused to watch "Lost." I nay-sayed, complained and all around groaned at anyone trying to make a case in favor of watching such a bizarre show.
Then something happened: I decided I needed to be informed. If I was going to hate this show, I needed to know exactly what it was that I hated.
After watching the first episode, I watched the second.
After about a week and half, when my "Lost" marathon was completed, I decided I still didn't know if I liked the show.
I ate more Taco Bell than any one person should amid a television binge. My body screamed from a lack of Vitamin D and sunlight. But I still had an unsettling feeling deep in my bones.
Fast food and vitamin deficiencies aside, I still didn't know if I liked the show I'd been watching.
My marathon of "Lost" lasted so long I almost didn't know how to live without the John Locke plot lines, which are matched only by the John Locke forehead lines. I'm not proud that I have become addicted to "Lost," but I am unsettled that my opinion of the show has only gone from "I'm not going to waste my time with that" to "I'm going to waste my time with this." After engulfing myself in "Lost," I found myself becoming lost.
Now, I consider myself a fan of the show; the recent season has started to answer, slowly, some of the painful questions brought up in the previous five seasons. But still the question — does anyone actually like the show? I'm a fan and I'm not even sure of this. The show's game is that they never really tell you what's going on; it is the epitome of suspense for suspense's sake. It takes a special kind of person to not only understand this but to actually enjoy this. The writers of the show are at the top of their game during the last and final season and I find myself waiting, impatiently, the seemingly exhausting lifetime between episodes. I can't get enough.
With all my newfound enjoyment of the show, you would think I could sit down and tell you what it's about. I can't; no one can. All I know is there is some smoke and an island, and I think there was a guy in a wheelchair at some point.
This is why I struggle to actually say I like the show. The plot lines, the characters, the flash-forward-back-and-sideways sequences have all confused me so much that I am not even sure which timeline my own life is in. The show is simply too good to like.
I'm so far invested in "Lost" that to give up now would leave me heartbroken. All of that fast food would be for naught. If you have never seen an episode, I encourage you to stay away. But for you faithful followers like myself: Don't worry, we'll be able to sleep soon.
No other show on television has ever done what "Lost" has, which is why I can say, though I have no opinion on whether I like the show, "Lost" might be the best show to ever hit television. If not only for the simple fact that once you start watching it, you cannot stop. The attention to detail and character development is impeccable, and even though nobody knows what any of those details mean, the suspense to maybe find out is making me pull my hair out.