Thursday , March 28 2024
Lost returns, but to smaller ratings yet again.

Lost Returns… You Don’t

So, Lost returned last night.  Now, if the ratings are anything to go by, you weren't that interested.  Yes, some of you watched, but far fewer than watched last year.  I'm not quite sure how that could be though.  How is it that you started watching this show, that you really paid attention to what was going on, and now you feel like you can just drop it?  Seriously, that's something I just don't understand.

Let's examine that idea a little more fully, shall we.

You sat down during the first season of Lost, you were like "smoke monster?," "where'd the dog go?," "wait, Locke was in a wheelchair?," "I don't get it, but I so want to know more."  And then, at some point you decided that you'd had enough.  Maybe you cared about The Others and what was in the hatch, maybe you didn't.  Maybe you fell off the train when the show started to flash forward instead of flash back.  Maybe you were good with that, but simply couldn't take the idea that Ben was going to use whatever was under The Orchid to "move the island."  Whatever the case, while a decent number of you are still watching the show, it's way less than the number of folks who used to watch.

Now, I've fallen off the train on other shows in the past, most notably Alias, which I really liked for several seasons, I simply couldn't accept anymore by the final batch of episodes.  But, Lost still intrigues me, every bend, every twist, every slight change in the story intrigues me even more.  I didn't watch the recap last night, but I definitely felt as though a mere two hours of the show last night was way too little.  What I want is a marathon of new episodes, I want to sit down and watch 12 hours of Lost in a row.

For me, Lost is compelling television, it is, I am reminded after watching last night's episode, perhaps the most "appointment" show around.  When there is a new episode on, even if it's not the greatest episode they've done, I am intrigued, I am entranced, and I will be watching it live (with the necessary delay so that I can skip through the commercials, of course).  There are few shows I feel that way about.  Yes, I do watch most shows the night that they are, but there's a difference between watching them the night they air and as they're airing.

Frankly, that's why I'm completely and totally shocked that more people don't at the least, the very least, want to watch the show.  Fine, don't feel as strongly as I do about watching the show live, but watch it, how do you not want to watch it?  I don't mean to harangue you or anything, but how is it possible, even a little bit possible that you once watched the show and gave up on it?  Is it simply too intriguing?  Is it that the mystery is too deep?  Can you simply not afford those 45 precious minutes?  Is watching Simon yell at some poor person for being delusional about their singing about really that much more intriguing to you?

There are a ton of people who have dropped Lost from their viewing schedules, and I'm truly flabbergasted at how that could be, simply flabbergasted.

About Josh Lasser

Josh has deftly segued from a life of being pre-med to film school to television production to writing about the media in general. And by 'deftly' he means with agonizing second thoughts and the formation of an ulcer.

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