In Defense of Lost - A Spoiler Free Look

Lost is a series which is as close to marmite as you can get, a true 'love it or hate it' show! I don't mind admitting that I was among the 'love it' brigade. I have all six seasons on DVD and I regularly re watch them. I even have the Lost Encyclopedia, such is my love for the show. While bear a lot of love for Lost, I can understand why it is beyond a lot of people. It is mental, the most barmiest of shows. There has never been a series like it and there probably never will be again. Also, that ending! What the hell was all of that about? I 'get' the ending. I totally understand it and I accept it. I also think that it was the only way the show could've ended! Anyway, I'll touch on 'that ending' in a future post. In the mean time I've got to convince you all to watch the damn show so here goes!

Lost was epic in its scope!

Firstly, I don't think that anyone can deny that Lost heralded  a dawn which brought many popular shows to our screen! Lost was the first 'movie-like' TV show, a series which redefined what it meant to make television shows. Suddenly everyone wanted to make event television. Had Lost not been a success then Once Upon A Time would almost certainly have remained in the heads of its creators. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis were writers on Lost and it's their success on that show which convinced ABC to give Once Upon A Time a shot (a show equally as mental as Lost when you think about it). Yes, 24 came before Lost and there's no denying the influence that show has had. Lost was different though. It was epic in its stunts (which other show has featured the immediate aftermath of an airline crash in its pilot episode) and it was endless in its questions. It got people hooked and it created a cult following not seen before.

The mythology of lost stretched far
beyond what we saw on screen.

One of the big draws to Lost was its mythology, a feature which many other shows can only dream of. It is more than what we see on screen! It has a history that stretches back to the Romans and a future that extends far beyond the end of the show. The thing is that we are only ever spoon fed tit-bits which means that a lot of the show is based on our own interpretations and that is no bad thing. Which other show has provided as much discussion as Lost? The internet is full of web pages and forums discussing Lost and its concepts.

It is a show about life and death, about hope and love and about that age old argument of science versus faith. Above all though it's a show about redemption. All of our characters find themselves on that plane for different reasons but they are all searching for redemption of some kind. Aside from the actual characters, the island is also a character in itself. It has a history which the show only really touches on. That makes it a show ideal to be drawn from when writing fan-fiction!

The Doctor, a man who can change his face and travels in
a little blue box makes more sense than a magic island?

Ok, so it did get a bit crazy and there were times when the show perhaps lost its way. When it was good though it was beyond great! Its a show which requires multiple viewings to really get an understanding of and it's a show which does take time. One of the most common complaints I hear from the 'hate it' brigade is that "It doesn't make sense". These are of course the same people who love Vampire Diaries (because of course vampires make total sense) and Doctor Who (a time traveling alien who traverses the entirety of time and space in a blue box that's bigger on the inside than the outside). They were avid viewers of Heroes (a show where people with powers are hunted by a psychopath who eats their brains in order to gain their powers) and they never miss the latest marvel films (featuring a man who turns green and gains 500 Ibs when hes angry, a Norse god and a super-soldier from WW2)! Don't get me wrong, I love marvel, thought Heroes was great and I'm a self confessed whovian. The point I'm trying to make is that the whole 'it doesn't make sense' argument is invalid because it makes about as much sense as half of what we watch!

Give it a go, you won't be disappointed!

Give it a try and I guarantee that you'll be hooked by the end of season 1. Season 2's a bit slow in parts and the early part of season 3 takes a bit of getting through but the rewards are there. It is a show that needs you to stick with it, a show that needs you to leave any preconceptions at the door. Just watch it, enjoy it and what ever you do, suspend any ideas of reality you may have!