Lost: Confusion beyond measure

Much talk abounds about the meaning behind the hit American sci-fi TV programme, Lost. Questions such as, ‘What do the numbers mean?’, ‘What the hell is going on?’, and, ‘Did I miss an episode?’ are typical of what the general audience is asking.

The writers of this show have turned a perfectly ordinary aeroplane crash into some sort of mystical/sci-fi adventure, one which seems almost genre-less. A unique show, it is in some ways like Alice in Wonderland; it gets stranger the longer you watch it. One hopes, naturally, it will not end, like the aforesaid novel (and I paraphrase) with, ‘and it was all a dream’ (or trip, rather).

Initially, I became wary of these inexplicable happenings, which seemed entirely out of place, preferring instead to take refuge in what I losely (and perhaps, inaccurately) describe as my own sanity. Nonetheless, as the show continued, I found myself strangely drawn to find out exactly what was below the Hatch, or what the numbers mean, or what had happened to the raft that they constructed.

Series two moves quickly in exploring not only what lies below that infernal hatch, but also begins to draw certain various threads of the story together. Yet, as one watches it, the story is revealed painfully slowly, and each revelation merely leads to more questions. Indeed, the story is sometimes out of order. Thus, there is always a strong desire to watch the subsequent episode.

Lost, as a unique show, draws upon our desire to escape from the monotonous nature of other programming on our televisions. It is certainly different, and that is where it succeeds. Few would deny that it is unpredictable and to me, this makes it enthralling, if infuriating.

Something the writers must be careful to avoid however, is digging themselves a story from which they cannot resolve without some form of Deus ex machina plot device; that is to say, they must always ensure that the story follows some form of internal logic and, for example, John doesn’t wake up in a crack den to find it was all a drug-induced dream. This would simply be disasterous as far as viewers are concerned. We all want the answers to our growing list of questions to be as intriguing, if not more so, as the mystery which surrounds them. So far, they have been. But can the scripts continue with this exponential curve of perplexity?

Even if they were to do so, will viewers continue to show this level of enthusiasm? Sooner or later, the audience are going to demand concrete answers to these questions. The temptation for producers is to keep a successful show running until it is dry. For evidence of this, one must merely look into the Star Trek franchise, or indeed, the Stargate one. In the former case, they felt it was possible to continue with only minor tweaks to the basic premise. But audiences change, and eventually, they get bored with what is essentially a twenty year old episode jazzed-up. In the latter case, MGM seem to have realised this pitful and try to keep the show fresh by switching characters and enemies every few series. Lost is a new class of TV show. But that hardly precludes it from becoming boring if the intriguing plot becomes intricate to the point of ridiculousness.

For me, no worse ending could prevail than the show petering out after twenty series because no-one can follow it anymore. There does come a point where a show has had its success, and it should end on a high. Right now, however, the writers have got us just where we want to be.