To commemorate my love for Lost, a repeat of my post from Girls Guide...
A Love Letter to LOST
I’ll admit, your resident TV & Movies Maven (that’s me, by the way) has been feeling a little uninspired lately. Usually, I have tons of entertainment related topics I want to write about, but coming up with an idea this week was nearly impossible. I even went to Twitter with suggestions, and even you, my loyal followers, could not pull through (thanks anyway).
How is it that something I love so dearly (yes, I’m still talking about TV & Movies, and I see nothing wrong with describing our relationship in terms of ‘love’) could leave me so uninspired?
Perhaps it’s because I have fallen way behind in many of my favorite shows (Fringe, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Greek, One Tree Hill, Grey’s Anatomy, America’s Best Dance Crew…). Perhaps it’s because most of the recent movies I have watched were nothing short of terrible (have you people ever seen Dreamcatcher?) But I have a feeling that my lack of inspiration in other TV & Movie-related business is because all of my focus, all of my energy, all of my brainpower, is being focused elsewhere.
Work, you ask? My new blog, perhaps?
No way. Lately, all I can think of, all I want to read about, all I care about, is my Tuesday evening date with Sawyer. And Richard and Ben and (Un)Locke and Kate and…. well, you know, the rest of the Losties.
Yes, I am a LOST fan. And not just a ’sort of’ LOST fan. I’m one of those crazy intense LOST fans that the Onion warned you about.
I watch the show. I read the blogs. I rewatch the episodes (multiple times). I pick apart the theories I find online. I have seen all the bonus features on the DVD. I even watched this 20 minute LOST-inspired fan video (and it’s only part one).
I’m not going to sit here and tell you to watch LOST. I’ll probably ridicule you for not watching, but I seriously do not want you to just start watching now. That would be ridiculous. Not only would you not understand what was going on, but, perhaps more importantly, you probably wouldn’t appreciate it.
You see, LOST is a lot more than a show about a group of people stranded on an island (it’s also about smoke monsters and temples and time travel and an indestructible dog named Vincent, but I digress…). LOST is about characters. The producers have prefaced this season saying that if the mysteries don’t matter to the characters, then they don’t matter. Period.
I have been trying to tell people this since the first season. You don’t have to watch the show for the mystery, you don’t have to try to solve every puzzle- just watch it for the characters. Every episode is filled with incredible performances that can make you laugh (Hurley), make you cry (RIP Juliet), and make you shutter with fear (Man In Black/Locke/Smoke Monster, you freak me out). The depth the writers have given these characters is unreal. It’s what kept me coming back in the third season, when many fairweather fans claim the show jumped the (Dharma-branded) shark.
What you really have to appreciate about LOST is what it has done for television. In a time when networks were feeding us one silly reality show after another, LOST came along with it’s mythology-based story. Hoards of viewers flocked to the Internet to share their theories on blogs and make fan videos on YouTube (LOST premiered in September 2004, Blogs really hit the mainstream that same year, YouTube launched in February 2005. Coincidence… or fate).
LOST made (and still makes) people think. Unlike reality shows, which assume that all of us are weight/beauty-obsessed hoarders looking for love, the creators of LOST gave us something smart. They challenged us. When everyone else was underestimating the American public, LOST took a chance.
Some are calling it the most important television show of the decade, and I have to agree. In my opinion, LOST forever changed American television.
Again, I’m not going to tell you to start watching LOST (because then you will probably call me and ask annoying questions), but I do have one favor to ask of you…
Leave the LOST fans alone.
We are passionate. We are crazy. We are obsessed. And we only get to be like this until May 23, 2010. So cut us some slack, okay?
And when you decide to jump on the bandwagon and want to borrow my DVDs, just let me know.
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