Why Lost Is The Best Show On TV

| By Scott McClellan | Found in Design | 8 Comments

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those that like Neil Diamond and those who don’t My ex-wife … loved him.”

—What About Bob?

Lost reminds me of Neil Diamond. Either you love it or you could care less about it. Either you’re riveted by the twists and turns or you’re tired of hearing geeks at the watercooler speculating about Purgatory and parallel dimensions. Personally, I love it. With that in mind, I’ve compared a half-baked, completely biased manifesto on why Lost is the best show on TV.

The story is key—Although the show has occasionally involved explosions, car chases, gunplay, and fist fights, those things are not what Lost is about. Instead, viewers are watching a huge narrative play itself out. The episodes and seasons are mini-narratives that comprise the overarching story of the island and its inhabitants. And that overarching story, so far, has been unlike anything we’ve ever seen on TV.

Nobody’s perfect—As the Losties’ backstories have been revealed, and as we’ve watched them interact on the island for 90 days, one thing is clear: there are no perfect people in the Lost universe. Isn’t that refreshing? In most episodic television, the characters are too good and things work out too well. Any character flaws are only skin deep, which allows them to patched up in a 30-minute episode. Real life just isn’t that way, which is part of why Lost resonates with its viewers.

Anything is possible—Redemption for sinners, polar bears in the jungle, and cancer in remission are just a few of the unlikely realities on Lost island. It’s really cool to watch a show that takes place in a world where conventional wisdom doesn’t always apply. In fact, rational science can’t explain everything that takes place on the show, which leads us into …

The supernatural—A lot of shows on TV dismiss the supernatural entirely (especially those courtroom dramas we love so much). Some other shows embrace the supernatural, but in a laughable way (think Touched By an Angel, Joan of Arcadia, The Ghost Whisperer, etc.). Lost‘s acknowledgment of supernatural phenomena is creepy, suspenseful, and brilliant. Plus, it reminds us that for all its boasting, Big Science isn’t an omniscient monopoly.

Layers—Sure, Lost is pretty wide (it has characters and storylines out the wazzoo), but it’s also deep. Every character and event has multiple layers to it. That makes for pretty engaging entertainment, but it also might help us to stop reducing everything and everyone to a soundbyte. As it turns out, soundbytes rarely tell the whole story.

Mystery—When did the human race become so obsessed with overturning every rock and solving every mystery? Sure, it’s good to discover cures for diseases and new species of wildlife, but we need to learn to live with and appreciate the mysteries of life. Why do things happen the way the do? How do things happen the way they do? We don’t know, and nowhere is that more evident than Lost message boards.

Everything and everyone is connected—We tend to believe that people float in and out of our lives without consequence, but in reality, we’re all connected. Did you know that millionaire Hurley owned the box factory Locke worked in? Did you know Locke did some work (I think it was a home inspection) for Sayid’s long-lost love, Nadia? Lost often reminds us that we are all connected, and that the people around us are important in our personal stories and the bigger story we all find ourselves in.

So, what do you think? Am I overrating this silly little program? Did I leave out an important part of Lost‘s greatness? Chime in.

  • Ron

    Interesting overview… I might have to check out the show.

  • http://www.iamanoffering.com/blog Ryan

    Without a doubt, I believe that LOST is and always will be the greatest series ever made for television. It’s the smartest TV show that’s come around that I’ve ever seen. It’s packed full of hidden clues and messages (some I’m sure we don’t even know yet, but will when the series is over). It’s full of philosophy, culture, history, writing, science, all sorts of the stuff that the average viewer will never ever dream of finding but can if they desire to go deeper. Did you play the Lost ARG in which we tracked Rachel Blake trying to find Alvar Hanso and in so doing uncovered the purpose of the DHARMA initiative, to find a way to alter the Valenzetti equation?

    Did you play this year’s ARG on find815.com which tied in Magnetic anomolies over the ocean that create light with Maxwell’s equations?

    The show is a brilliantly told story (which most shows lack these days…story) and full of brilliant depth in every area. I agree with you completely.

  • http://www.pastorkes.blogspot.com Kester

    Lost strikes me as a potentially amazing show if I had been able to begin at the beginning. Every once in awhile I jump in for an episode and find myself…well…lost.

    There’s a lot of talk recently about the gospel as narrative, and it’s an idea I find very appealing. But jumping into Lost reminds me how those who attempt to jump into our churches must often feel -either this is your story from the beginning or you’ll never catch up.

    So, Lost may be the second greatest story ever told, but guys like me will never know it unless the show creates a more natural way to jump on board.

    Or I may just have to break down, rent the DVD, and have an in home Lost marathon. As of yet, that simply doesn’t seem worth it.

  • http://www.collidemagazine.com Scott McClellan

    Thanks for weighing in, guys. For what it’s worth, you can actually watch every episdoe of Lost on ABC.com right now: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP

    Obviously that’s a good option for folks like Kester who are interested in checking out the series from the beginning without dropping some serious $ on the DVDs. However, if you don’t have a quick, reliable Internet connection, the ABC.com streaming experience might leave you frustrated.

  • Lindell

    For a somewhat quick catchup. Check LOST in 8:15 from iTunes.
    Truly the best show with so much thought and interactivity to it. If you watched this last week, the 1-888 phone number was an active number that if you called, was Oceanic message to those calling in about the crash.

  • http://www.reneejohnson.net Renee Johnson

    Scott,

    I was the one who wrote to you about Facebook and the Church (although I’m sure you got a lot of those)…also send you info on Bryan Jennings on accident–but that turned out to be a good thing. That was enough of an intro–anyway, so Lost is my favorite show. I can’t get enough of it. Season 1 was personally my favorite as the layers were really incredible and the flash backs really kept me coming back. Now the flash forwards keep me guessing on who is this Oceanic 6 and how they get off the island.

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