Lost Again

I am a Lost fan. I’m not one of those people who can tell you every single bit of trivia about the show, or what it all means, but I look forward to watching it. I enjoy it. I think it’s damn good television. And when I meet people who say they don’t get it, or that it’s boring or slow or a load of crap even, I will admit that I judge them, just a little. I want to say, ‘Have you even watched it?!’ And not just one random episode in the middle of a season, because of course you won’t get it then, it won’t make any sense, you won’t care about anyone. But watch it from the beginning, watch a few of the episodes from the start. And then if you hate it, well ok, we can’t be friends or anything… I’m kidding. We all different tastes and yadda yadda. But I get like this with shows I love.

I’d been really looking forward to the new season, after the ‘Oh my God’ ending of the last one. And I thought they were really good. It’s on form. Until I went back and started watching season one again. It’s been a couple of years since I saw it. And I’ve been surprised by how different it is. The tone, the pacing. It was a lot slower back then. I suppose it had to be, there was a lot to set up, and a lot of characters to introduce.

But now, it’s a lot less about the ordinary lives of these people who have been thrown together, and how they’re going to survive with all this bizarre stuff going on, and it’s more about that bizarre stuff, the great mystery of the island. Obviously it had to change, but since the ‘game-changing’ episode of last season, or maybe even before that, there has been less down time for the characters, less time to process and more ‘go go go’, do it now, ask questions later. Fewer sweet moments between characters. Reactions to deaths have been minimal as the story pushes on. I think it’s lost a little something along the way.

I was very touched at the end of the first season. That damn montage of them all on the plane, the sentimental music playing over it all. These people had no idea what was in store for them, what they were going come to mean to each other. They were just strangers on a plane.

Originally Lost gave us snapshots into their lives, how they were connected, without knowing it, and we got to know and care about them. Now it seems it’s more about the end game, of getting answers. The hatch, the others, their future. And this is no bad thing. It’s still excellent television, and I have been enjoying these latest episodes a lot. But it would be nice to be able to touch base with how they are all feeling about the changes that have been made. Less of a rush every episode to get to the next cliffhanger moment.

The first season didn’t always end its episodes with cliffhangers or big moments. Often it was a sweet moment instead. People sitting together, sharing their stories. A little more of this would be nice. And maybe when it settles down it’ll go back to that. I’m excited to see where Lost is going, but I hope all the hoopla doesn’t take away from what for me is the core of the show, and that’s the people, the characters and how their lives are changed by Oceanic 815 crash landing on that island, by being survivors. Not by what amazing plot device can be unveiled every week, not by what can cause the greatest shock to viewers.