A Map to LOST Island?

During the course of these three seasons, I have been at times baffled, surprised and sometimes confused, but always entertained. I have never been bored watching LOST. I do in fact sit on the edge of the couch watching and listening for clues, hints, and any kind of giveaway. Sometimes I think I catch something, maybe an anagram or a name, but it usually turns out to be wrong.

I certainly have never seen any show so analyzed and dissected as this one. I for one love getting on the fan sites (thanks DarkUFO and Doc Arzt) and rehashing the show and the many subtle clues thrown in by the writers. Of course this is the lead in to this weeks column.

You see, I'm LOST. I mean I have watched every single episode of season one and two twice. I watched every episode of season three once and will get the DVD's as soon as they come out. But after three seasons and we now know halfway through this journey, I'm still confused.
Is it a show about redemption, time travel, or relationships? or all of these?

One week we're in Shambala and the next we have a catholic priest building a church on the island. I got a real chuckle after the statue with four toes appeared. Suddenly the message boards were speculating it was Atlantis, then Walt's comic was sure proof they were in a snow globe, not to mention all the sidetracks and wild theories spun of in every direction.
I've got to hand it to these writers for keeping us all guessing. It must be hard to inject so many different mythologies and symbolistic references, not to mention they must be about halfway through their book of obscure philosopher names about now.

Visions and Smoke Monsters, Four toed statues and guys who don't die or age, Beechcraft and Black Rocks in the jungle, Hell , I can't even think of all the tangents and blind alleys we've been led down. Trying to sort out all of these references, hints clues and mysteries requires a lot more room than just sketching on the back of the blast door.

This weeks mystery topic is about 'Finales'. After watching the ending of the Sopranos and feeling a really stiffed, I really hope the LOST crew can be a little more creative than that.

I wonder... (insert dream sequence music here)
If this show hadn't been picked up for a second season, how would LOST have finished after just one season? Would we have had the raft kidnapping? Would we have had an explanation for Smokey, who at the time was really just a Tree Shaker? Hmmmmm.

I wonder if the original idea really was Purgatory. Remember "Gary Troup"?, maybe because the audience figured it out so fast, they moved to plan B. I'm getting really cynical in my increasing age. If I'm watching a formula cop show and I recognize the rehashed storyline, sometimes I'll blurt out what is in the next scene (my kids always ask "how did you know that") because in Hollywood there really are no new ideas. Just the same ol' same ol' in a shiny new wrapper. LOST however, is unpredictable, and I like that. I have been burned recently with a number of shows that I bought into, invested an hour a week getting to know characters and following a good plot line only to have my show yanked after one season, and without a good wrap up. Firefly, Crusade, Surface, and Threshold were all yanked after just getting interesting. At least the bastards who axed Firefly had the good sense to finish it off with a great movie (Serenity). In fact it should be a prerequsite for any series that has an ongoing story that if they get axed after one season there has to be a movie or at least a good two hour or two part finale that wraps up the damn storyline. I am still chomping at the bit over 'Invasion' which admittedly was real slow with the reveals and the story dragged a bit, but was really building to a terrific mystery. I almost got burned again with 'Jericho' fortunately that show got a reprieve (hopefully one of my many emails to the CBS VP of Programming had some effect) although I did not send any nuts. I have none to spare.

But back to LOST, how would we have experienced all the amazing things we've seen in seasons two and three if this show had ended early? maybe someday, when all is said and done we will find out if they really did have this all mapped out from the beginning or if are really being taken along for a ride, a making it up as we go along type of thing. Because how could Twin Theory, Time Travel, Alternate Timelines, Different Dimensions, Atlantis, The Wizard of OZ, Alice in Wonderland, Shambala, Stephan Hawking and his merry band of Philosophers all fit into one story?

If they pull a Sopranos on us and don't explain the mysteries, eventually they will not be able to get viewers to watch this type of show in the future. Who will waste an hour a week knowing you're getting your chain yanked and this story will stop abruptly. Serial dramas will lose out to more Reality show dreck. Because people do have short attention spans and want resolution. By the end of this episode they want to know who will move on to the next round, or be booted off the island or win the million dollars, not yanked along for thirteen weeks just to have the rug pulled out from underneath them.

So Carlton and Damon, let's hope you really know who the skeletons are and why the statue has only four toes. You can pull a Deus Ex Machina like they did in Star Trek ( you know, make up some B.S. technology ) or you can try to make it believable, but just don't leave us hanging.

Namaste
hatchling23