LOST

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Interesting article on Lost, posted at MSN.com: (tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=168627)

Mystery Shadows Castaways on 'Lost'
Something goes bump in the night on new drama
By John Crook
Zap2it.com

Here's the first thing anyone should understand about "Lost," ABC's high-profile new adventure drama: It's not really about a hungry monster chasing a bunch of plane crash survivors around a remote desert island.

The ill-tempered, huge but largely unseen beastie plays an unnerving role in the first hour of this promising new series from J.J. Abrams ("Alias") and Damon Lindelof ("Crossing Jordan"), but the show's stories remain tightly focused on the diverse human beings who find themselves thrown together by an air disaster.

Of those 48 survivors, a dozen or so begin to establish themselves as principal characters, among them Jack (Matthew Fox, "Party of Five"); Kate (Evangeline Lilly, "Kingdom Hospital"), an enigmatic beauty; Charley (Dominic Monaghan, "Lord of the Rings"), a young rocker with a painful secret; and Sawyer (Josh Holloway), a wary and possibly violent alpha-male type.


And, in short order, they discover something big and hungry is lurking in the jungle that lines their crash site on the beach.

While emphasizing -- again -- that the monster will figure more as a source of menace than an actively recurring "character" on the show, Abrams says he and Lindelof felt they had to indicate it was on the island from the very first episode.

"If we introduced it in episode nine or 10, you'd feel like, 'What? There's this freaking monster?' It wouldn't make any sense," Abrams explains.


"In upcoming scripts, the monster is referenced, but it is in no way in the spotlight of the show."

"I think the monster itself actually represents what we're all scared of," suggests Monaghan, making his U.S. TV series debut here. "For me, 'Lost' is a character study of 13 or 14 people who find themselves thrown together in a situation where, through no fault of their own, they are called upon to face their personal demons."

"If you call it a monster," Abrams says, "it comes kind of disposable and silly and it feels kind of irrelevant or gimmicky. But if you have something that represents terror and represents fear and the darkness of this place, that to me is incredibly valuable."

And "this place," the remote island throbbing with both peril and possibilities, quickly becomes a supporting character in its own right, Fox says.

"'Lost' is about the people, the characters and their relationships," he says. "The title has dual meanings. These people are obviously lost in a physical sense, but they're also personally lost and spiritually lost as individuals -- what they brought, who they were before this crash.

"Each episode will use flashbacks to go back into a character's past and you will learn their history, some of the baggage they may be hoping to leave behind, all within the context of what is happening on the island.

"In many ways, I think this is the story of these characters becoming the people they really want to be. But the island also frees them from a lot of constraints they might face back at home, so some may start going down some pretty dark paths. It's going to be interesting."

Just as viewers will be learning new facets of these characters on a weekly basis, so the actors themselves are not being made privy to any advance revelations unless their characters already would know about them within the context of the story. And the cast also has been instructed not to let any of their co-stars know of personal secrets their character is keeping under wraps.

Thus Monaghan, for example, knew Charlie's secret from square one, although his castmates did not -- and while viewers are let in on the secret early on as well, its nature is such that the young actor admits he has no idea whether Charlie ultimately will turn out to be a good guy or a bad guy.

"Charlie has been in a couple of places in his life that have sent him over the edge, whether because people have badly mistreated him or perhaps his family hasn't given him the respect or support he really needed," Monaghan reveals cautiously.

"I've always enjoyed playing people who appear to be one thing but are actually something else. The Charlie that he puts out there and shows the other characters isn't really the Charlie that he is comfortable with. He is still playing to [the others] as an audience. As an actor, I have to play him right now in a way that I hope will keep the options open for him to go in any direction we need to take.

"That means I can't hit any clear 'good guy' beats or 'bad guy' beats, because soon Charlie is going to need to confide in someone to help him through the bad times and if he makes the wrong choice, that person could use his secret against him, so Charlie is actually a little more cynical and suspicious than he might want to be ordinarily."

Lindelof cautions that viewers simply have to buy into the central conceit of this mysterious island without expecting that an upcoming episode will deliver some sort of concise explanation. "Lost" isn't about why this island is such a strange place, but how its unwilling new inhabitants cope with that strangeness.

And, as "Alias" fans know, Abrams isn't above an occasional shocker of an episode in which the perceived reality undergoes a shattering shake-up. That extends to the whole notion of which players in this huge cast are permanent regulars and which are faceless extras, Lindelof says.

"There are 48 survivors, and the non-regulars are definitely not there just to be eaten," he says firmly. "J.J. and I have already talked about this idea we really love where you get 10 or 11 episodes into the show and one of our regulars goes off into the jungle with one of the more anonymous castaways none of us has really seen before, but against your expectations, the series regular gets killed and the other castaway becomes sort of the new series regular.

"You don't just do that arbitrarily, but you do it to remind the audience that anyone could go at any time."
 
Thanks for posting that, Jennie! I just finished watching the pilot episode and must admit that I am hooked. I'll have to download the rest of the series eventually... hehe...

The whole time I was trying to place where I had seen Charlie before... I should have known right away that the same actor played Merry in the LotR trilogy.

... Mike. ^_^
 
YAY! Another one gets hopelessly LOST! :lol

Welcome to our soon-to-be cult following, Mike! Jennie and I were feeling kinda lonely! :p
 
I watched the first few episodes of "Lost" and found myself really enjoying them, to my surprise. Unfortunately, I missed several episodes in a row due to working late. I went to go watch an episode the other night, but I totally got "lost" with what has been going on and am finding it hard to catch back up. I hope the "Lost" DVD will be available to rent as well as buy. Hopefully I'll catch some repeats before I'll have to worry about the DVD though, otherwise I'll have to wait a long time before I'm in the "know" like you other "Lost" fans. I look forward to reading ya'lls posts in the mean time, and when I get myself caught up I will participate further with this subject. Have fun with the show everyone.

Emily. :)
 
Well, you've still got a head-start on me, Emily. I've only watched the first two episodes (the pilot) so far and it will take me a while to download the six or seven episodes that have aired since (especially when I have "JAG", "Star Trek: Enterprise", and "NCIS" to download!).

One little thing I'm looking forward to is trying to see how much Korean I can decifer. :b The only word I could grab in the pilot was when the Korean man was offering people food and he said, "Shille hamnida," which means "excuse me".

... Mike. ^_^
 
Oh no, not here too! I'm also a member of another message board of a favorite show of mine, 24, and find that LOST threads constantly pop up there. It's everywhere! The thing is, recently this show was up against 24 at the Emmy Awards and it ultimately won. You would think that fans of 24 would actually be upset about it, but in fact, the opposite reaction occurred. Thread after thread and member after member kept saying how Season 4 of 24 sucked and how LOST deserved to win the Emmy. To tell you the truth, I've never seen so many "fans" of a show pick it apart and critique it and actually become GLAD when it gets beaten out. So I finally got so fed up of defending the show from its own fans who favored this one that I just stopped posting there altogether. (That, and the maturity level of the members there consists of, "Season 4 sucks!" and, "You're stupid!")

Anyway, I guess I'm mentioning all of this because I finally got so sick and tired of reading about this show when I'm on a site for 24 that it makes me not even want to see it at all! It would be like coming here and talking about LOST all the time! :hmm Err..nevermind! The last thing I was interested in was continuously reading about the show while I was on a site for a completely different one. Now I'm not the type of person that has pre-conceived notions about things and judges them before I even experience them for myself, but in this case, I find it pretty difficult! Maybe I'll eventually give the show a chance on my own time when all its hype dies down...probably when it reaches syndication.

Initially I was never interested in the show because I thought that its plot was too clich?d. At the time of its premiere, all I thought about was countless stories about a group of people that get stranded on a desert island and have to survive, like, Cast Away, Survivor── heck, even Gilligan's Island. I have a knack for originality and because of it, I sometimes have trouble enjoying "style over substance" entertainment (not that I'm saying that about LOST since I've never seen it). However, I do like the ambiguity of the title and how it also pertains to the individual characters and how they're "lost" in their own way. I also hear that one of the main writers for the show will be coming to 24 for its fifth season, so apparently that's good news for the 24-bashers, AKA its own fans. Yeah, so anyway, I'll probably eventually take a look at it and give it a shot. I do like to consider myself an open-minded person and don't want to be biased...
 
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LOL at MJ's "spoiler"!

Glad to see another Lost convert! It's pretty much the only thing Jennie and I talk about on Wednesday nights. :p This season, especially, has taken a most interesting turn. Finally getting some answers, but getting even more questions in return. Lost is the type of show where even if you pay close attention, something pops up much later on that will compel you to go back and carefully rewatch a previous episode to see what you missed. All I'll say is... pay attention to EVERYTHING: book titles, songs played, but especially the "numbers"... every prop is there for a specific reason and nothing is a coincidence. ;)

Glad to see you've gotten "lost" too, Brian! :lol

Damon
 
You posted before me. I can understand how you feel, Chris. To be honest, it was a toss-up for me whether 24 or Lost should have won. While 24 is definitely one of the best shows on TV right now, I have to admit that the quality of the writing has gotten very predictable over the past 2 seasons. There were a few plotlines that occurred last season that I personally felt were kind of ridiculous... they just would never happen in real life. Their big "shocker" moment last season that Fox boasted would change 24 forever was something I had guessed weeks earlier. The new season coming up in January, though, does seem interesting. I'm curious as to how they're going to pull it off.

Ultimately, though, 24 and [/i]Lost[/i] are two vastly different types of shows. There's just something about the structure of Lost that draws you in. For anyone that doesn't know, every episode (most of the times) focuses on a specific character in the main cast (i.e. "Jack-centric," "Kate-centric," etc.). So, even though the main story of their struggle to survive on the island is being told, another story is being told through flashbacks. These flashbacks often intertwine with one another to show exactly how fate has selected each and every one of them to be on that specific flight (Oceanic Flight 815). The flashbacks always end up relating to something that that particular character is now struggling with in that given episode. It's not a coincidence that all of them were on that flight together. As you learn fairly early on in the series, it's not an "ordinary" island... there's something mystical about it. There are a lot of literary and biblical references scattered all over the place that add up to a huge mystery of what's really going on on this island. And that's where the enjoyment comes from, at least for me. Seeing how the storyline unfolds week to week and what new piece of information we learn about one of the characters' past. That's the "heart" of the series: not being lost on an uncharted island, but the characters themselves all being "lost" in their own lives and coming to terms with the choices they've made in their lives that led them to this point. Plus, by the time the first season ended, only 40 days passed on the island. I think by the time this season ends, another 50 days pass, give or take.

Now, of course, I will never love Lost better than Quantum Leap or probably even Sliders, but it's definitely become one of my all-time favorites; and there aren't that many shows on television that I can really get into and watch religiously like that. The only ones I've ever been into (and currently into) in that sense were/are Quantum Leap, Sliders (the first half of the series anyway), 24, NCIS, and now Lost (The new show Threshold on CBS is pretty damn good as well).

I don't think you'll really need to worry too much about us talking about Lost on this board all the time, though, Chris. This is, first and foremost, a messageboard for Quantum Leap. The Off-topic forum is for everything else! :D

Damon
 
As I'm learning more and more of how complex the series seems to be, THAT is what's intriguing me. I love intellectually stimulating entertainment. I like using my brain to figure things out. When things tie in together in a clever way, it really helps me appreciate a show or movie that much more. So, as I was saying earlier, I was initially not interested when the show premiered because I thought its plot was unoriginal, but I do love it when there's always something new to be found by rewatching episodes. I call it "replay value." I'm not sure if I'm going to go so far as to buy the set or start renting episodes (like I said, I'll probably wait 'til syndication), but I want to give it a shot. Comparing the shows is also counterproductive, as I'm sure they are vastly different. I also really don't want to sound like I'm trying to dampen anyone's enthusiasm about the show who's posting here, so when I eventually watch the show, I can hopefully put some positive input here on what I thought about it. ;)
 
I'll admit, I was unsure of the premise for LOST and I only watched the first episode because I knew Dominic Monaghan had scored a part in it. But I got sucked in to the show as a whole, not just for the Dom factor, and now enjoy trying to figure out the mystery of the island and the clues and the hints and the backstories.

MJ's right, you DO have to pay attention, and little hints and clues are scattered throughout. As Damon knows, when our ABC station had transmission problems post-Katrina there was much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth going on at Casa McDuck. The smallest thing can end up being so important in the show, and one night we had sound but no picture. Thank heavens it repeated on the weekend.
 
I love Lost and have been blown away with the finale on Wednesday. I have thought little of anything else. I have some ideas but I just posted them on another board I am part of and as a result am now suffering from typing cramps. I would like to see what everyone else thought of it though.
 
Oh, I am still very much a LOST fanatic! I have been dying to talk to someone about the season finale (aka "The Incident, Parts 1 & 2"). I thoroughly enjoyed this season, especially the whole time-travel element, which I have to admit is what my original theory was when the show first began. I am SO glad that my initial theory of what the show was about has been vindicated. You all know me... anything involving time-travel and I'm a sucker for it.

I have to admit, though... I did NOT see the big twist coming (what was the code-word this year? "The fork in the outlet?") For those who don't know what I mean...
Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
Locke has been dead since "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" and has been replaced by the "man in black," aka the anti-Jacob.

Now that I know, a lot of the second half of this season makes more sense. I feel like I need to re-watch the whole season now, given the new information we have. Plus the way it ended:
Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
Juliet detonating the bomb, everything flashes white (presumably "resetting" the timeline), and the LOST logo is inverted (black outline on white instead of white on black).

I don't think that last bit was a coincidence. I think there's deep significance behind that for the final season to come. After all, NOTHING on Lost is a coincidence.

I know I shall likely be lynched for even saying this on the QL boards, but LOST is now my all-time favorite show. Quantum Leap does, and always will, have the deepest place in my heart, but the mythology of Lost is so intriguing from the perspective of a writer such as myself, that I can't help but be inspired by it. I am going to be suffering from MAJOR withdrawal this time next year when the series finally ends. :(

On another note, anyone a fan of HEROES? Perhaps we should start a separate thread for that series as well: it's had its ups and downs this season, but I thought Volume 4 ("Fugitives") was a lot better than Volume 3 ("Villains")... at least up until the season finale. What was THAT all about?!? I have a feeling that next season will probably be the last season of HEROES as well, if odd plot-lines like that keep up.

This all reminds me... I need to work on some kind of LOST/HEROES avatar and/or sig. :)

Damon
 
Also into Heroes here too. I kind of liked the finale of it. I do have mixed feelings about the Sylar/Nathan arc though. I think it would be cool but at the same time...