How Lost is LOST?

December 05, 2006

The last time we saw them -- that eternal “love” triangle Jack, Kate and Sawyer were stranded on that “other” island with the Others.

We’ve been introduced to a whole new herd of people living on an adjacent island.

The people from Season 2, who we thought were the Others -- Mr. Eko, Libby, Ana-Lucia -- are dead and gone.

So … Jack, Kate and Sawyer aren’t the only people who have made a confusing trek to another island. Over 5 million viewers (that’s how many fewer folks are watching this year) have voted themselves off the island.

Why?

“Lost” has never been an easy show to watch. It’s multi-character plotlines and flashback-laden episodes require an almost-encyclopedic knowledge of what has gone before. But sometimes, it seems all that extra stuff is just filler, useless information designed to keep us going until something important happens. It’s as if you could watch only five episodes each season and still know exactly what’s going on.

Watch the first episode, one in November, one in February, one in early May and then the season finale. Everything you need to know about “Lost” is right there, in those five shows.

Everything else will just drive you nuts.

And that’s the problem with “Lost” -- and the other multi-character, ongoing serials its success spawned.

This year, a few of them -- “Kidnapped,” “Smith,” Runaway” -- have tanked right out of the gate. Others, like “The Nine,” have slowly slid after promising debuts. “The Nine,” which chronicled the bond between nine hostages during and after an armed bank robbery, quickly became the world’s longest group therapy session (the show is currently on “hiatus”). The secret to doing this kind of show well is to reward the audience on a weekly basis, give them some kind of meaty tidbit to tide them over until next week -- like Season 1, and most of Season 2 of “Lost.”

Now, “Lost” fails miserably at this. A show that succeeds at this is “24.” At least with that show you know that whatever Jack Bauer encounters on this year’s worst day of his life, he’ll shoot and kill it by season’s end.

“Lost” is lost to us now, gone from the airwaves until February 7, at which point it will return for sixteen straight episodes. But on a bigger level, is “Lost” forever lost to its viewers, a victim of the very things that set it apart from other shows?