(5 seasons of Spoilers are on full blast!)
It's one of those pop-culture phenomenons I never intended to get caught up on. Sure, friends in college would chatter about it, look up theories during class, and fantasize about main characters but having not seen it I simply ignored it. My senior year (S3?) I finally relented about borrowed the first season for a friend and was immediately hooked. Time between classes was spent trying to watch as many episodes as possible. I was the guy who wanted to talk about things from the past seasons during the eight month long breaks. When I got home, I did my best to catch up before the next season started. Once I started work I scheduled my nights around watching the show interrupted. If I miss an episode I have to make sure I watch it the next morning before I go into work so it won't be spoiled by my co-workers. My dad and me have weekly LOST chats to talk about the and see if we missed anything. I will probably annoy all my non-LOST friends on Twitter with my inane rambling about the show. And why not, it's the last season of an incredible show that you have to talk about after watching it.
Why does LOST work? It's a great blend of drama, action, humor, pop-culture, science-fiction, people getting hit on the head with blunt objects, time travel, polar bears, mythology, religion, symbols, and much more. There is literally something for everyone. I understand how people can get frustrated and confused but I believe if you keep with the basic of, a bunch of people are on a weird island, you can understand the show. For as a deep as a show as it is, I'm surprised we've gotten this far. LOST is a very smart and layered show that requires pie charts, genealogy trees and timelines to keep the plot straight. This can be hurtful and helpful at the same time.
As I've proved in the past (Jay Leno), the American viewing public doesn't do too well when it comes to intelligent show that require you to think. The shows non-linear story telling is enough to drive the simplest of Neilson viewer to an episode of CSI. "I don't get all these durn flashbacks and forwards. There's too many characters. ect." This show was practically DOA.
On the other hand, because the show has so much to offer, people began picking up on the little clues and hints and a very aggressive fanbase was formed. Even my father fancies himself a LOST theory-ologist. It's a very engaging show that lets it's fans do all the work. They never ask us to put a puzzle together, we do it for them.
There's a million other reason's LOST is a great show and I'll explore a few of them over the week but I think this a good base to build upon. Remember Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010 at 8pm (EST) is the premiere date. I believe the first hour is a recap and then a two hour premiere. I will be there with my other LOSTies at work waiting to see our buddies from Oceanic 815.
In case you need to catch up:
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