The Lost Generation
With the season finale (titled “The Incident”) of season 5 quickly approaching, we are left with a dilemma: there is only one season of Lost left, one that will be filled with answers and closure to one of the greatest television shows ever. And we are a lucky generation to live in the era of Lost. A lot of people are going to discover this show for the first time 5, 10, 20 years from now on DVD (well, DVD will probably be dead by then), and they will blast through the six seasons in a matter of weeks. It will be glorious for them, but they will be missing out on one of the greatest parts of the Lost experience: watching it live, theorizing wildly, anxiously counting down the days until the next episode (or, as will soon be the case, SEASON). Blasting through the series won’t allow people to theorize quite as madly, get ponder the characters and their choices as much, or feel the true weight of answers that have been years in making. While we have had to weight years to discover what the hell the Smoke Monster really is, those future people will find out in mere weeks. It won’t mean as much to them, and that sucks. For them.
I guess the point of this is that there are very few shows like Lost in the history of television, and it is a model that isn’t likely to happen again for a great long while. After Lost came out, a ton of imitators followed, all of which were missing key things that made Lost so good. They thought mysteries, huge casts, and twists were all it took. They were wrong. Heroes is a great example of how not to do Lost. A huge cast filled with non-characters, twists that betray the story, gaping plotholes, and no overall vision. Lost has twists and betrayals and cliffhangers, but they are always organic to the greater story. And Lost is really good about filling in plotholes, even if they miss a few occasionally (Libby will never be explained, according to Lindelof and Cuse, although we can assume she was an agent of Widmore I guess). And Lost made sure characters always came first, before plot or special effects or anything (look at how many 1st season episodes are just people hangin’ at the beach, or how many season 2 episodes are just hangin’ around the Swan).
Also, Lost’s greatness is helped by its incredible production value and the network that supports it even when the ratings fall (and they gradually have, especially as the show has gotten weirder). It’s a really beautiful show to watch, and that model of TV is getting hard to justify as more and more people watch TV online, where ads come much cheaper. Carlton Cuse recently said he had doubts that another show like Lost would come around anytime soon, because of the huge investment it requires with little chance of success. Serialized shows are tough - if they don’t hook their audience immediately, they die. Procedurals can spend a season or two getting their footing, and audiences will tune in because each story is more or less self-contained. Also, procedurals are generally wildly less expensive than shows like Lost (shooting in Hawaii is a budget-buster).
Lost is a show that should be appreciated for so many reasons, even when it’s less than stellar (Jack tats, Claire episodes, Nikki/Paulo). This is the last season finale we have before the series finale, which will probably make my head explode from sheer anticipation. I hope another Lost shows up eventually, but I’m not holding my breath.
