Thoughts on Lost

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Thoughts on Lost

Kat and I are Netflixing Lost.

I've been studying storytelling techniques, from Aristotle (pile on pity and fear until catharsis--it's a shame he left out sense of wonder and awe) to Campbell's Hero's Journey and lots of other stuff. I decided to watch a long TV series to see if I could catch the techniques as they happened (and I have been able to for several).

Kat and I settled on Lost after watching the first two episodes. Neither of us had seen it and it is complete. So we made a project out of it.

Lost has the weirdest goddam story, a mix of Robinson Carusoe, Gilligans Island, slight allusions to Dante's Divine Comedy, reality TV, cop shows, cheesy science fiction (there's a black smoke monster, for Gods sake! ), and some other arcane references.

But it is full of storytelling at its finest. Talk about a banquet of cliffhangers! Characters that entangle your emotions. Secrets galore. Mysteries to solve. Reversals. Reveals. Betrayals. More throughlines than anyone can follow. Oodles of conflicts, both external and internal. Symbolism up the giggy.

And most of the main characters are seeking redemption in one form or another without showing their hand to the others.

One cool thing just happened as we were watching (we're at the end of the Second Season). One of the main characters is a hunk named Sawyer. He is selfish in a bad way, a professional con artist. But he's also got a really good side he doesn't like to show the others too much. He secretly damns himself inside, but he's extremely competent and macho when the situation breaks bad. And he gets into the most oddball trouble, which always leaves him exasperated for comic relief.

You can't help but like the dude, even though you don't want to. As we were watching, the camera stopped on him reading a book. Lo and behold, it was The Fountainhead.

Here's a picture of it I found on the Internet:

We are really enjoying this series.

It's great to not have the commercials. And we sometimes watch 3 or 4 episodes in an evening (there are well over 100).

After I watch the show, I like to spend some time alone reflecting on what I saw as if it were a case study for the storytelling techniques I am learning. This is more cool than I can explain. Fan-friggen'-tastic!

And speaking of fans, J. J. Abrams (the director) certainly has a new fan in me.

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

Thoughts on Lost

Kat and I are Netflixing Lost.

I've been studying storytelling techniques, from Aristotle (pile on pity and fear until catharsis--it's a shame he left out sense of wonder and awe) to Campbell's Hero's Journey and lots of other stuff. I decided to watch a long TV series to see if I could catch the techniques as they happened (and I have been able to for several).

Kat and I settled on Lost after watching the first two episodes. Neither of us had seen it and it is complete. So we made a project out of it.

Lost has the weirdest goddam story, a mix of Robinson Carusoe, Gilligans Island, slight allusions to Dante's Divine Comedy, reality TV, cop shows, cheesy science fiction (there's a black smoke monster, for Gods sake! ), and some other arcane references.

But it is full of storytelling at its finest. Talk about a banquet of cliffhangers! Characters that entangle your emotions. Secrets galore. Mysteries to solve. Reversals. Reveals. Betrayals. More throughlines than anyone can follow. Oodles of conflicts, both external and internal. Symbolism up the giggy.

And most of the main characters are seeking redemption in one form or another without showing their hand to the others.

One cool thing just happened as we were watching (we're at the end of the Second Season). One of the main characters is a hunk named Sawyer. He is selfish in a bad way, a professional con artist. But he's also got a really good side he doesn't like to show the others too much. He secretly damns himself inside, but he's extremely competent and macho when the situation breaks bad. And he gets into the most oddball trouble, which always leaves him exasperated for comic relief.

You can't help but like the dude, even though you don't want to. As we were watching, the camera stopped on him reading a book. Lo and behold, it was The Fountainhead.

Here's a picture of it I found on the Internet:

We are really enjoying this series.

It's great to not have the commercials. And we sometimes watch 3 or 4 episodes in an evening (there are well over 100).

After I watch the show, I like to spend some time alone reflecting on what I saw as if it were a case study for the storytelling techniques I am learning. This is more cool than I can explain. Fan-friggen'-tastic!

And speaking of fans, J. J. Abrams (the director) certainly has a new fan in me.

Michael

I gave up on Lost because it was weird beyond reason (very literally so). My wife loved it and never missed an episode.

I am more of a Firefly and Battlestar Gallactica type. Right now I am tracking -Almost Human-. I liked the Android character (play by Michael Ealey) better than Data.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Peter]

I am also a “Lost” fan. It airs periodically on a cable channel. I particularly liked it when the Dharma Initiative was being highlighted. It’s very enjoyable to step back into the 1970’s and the show was spookier than any “ghost story” I have ever seen. The Sawyer character was unforgettable and when he calls his girlfriend “Freckles” the chemistry between them is awesome.

[dldelancey]

Some of the things I enjoyed about "Lost":

• Phenomenal character development. By the end, there will be very few characters to which you feel indifference. There definitely will not be any that you don't know well.
• Details and crossovers in the storylines. I recall a flashback episode in one character's home where the TV in the background is showing footage that includes another character. There are literally hundreds of little details like that throughout the series where you get glimpses of the connections between the characters (both large and small). Most of them turn out to be insignificant, but I guess the point was to convey that all those people were somehow cosmically interconnected throughout their lives.
• Fandom. At the time, there was so much speculation about the meaning of the island, the origin of the smoke monster, the purpose of the Dharma initiative, etc. I enjoyed the online Lost community almost as much as the show itself. The lengths people would go to reviewing footage scene by scene was amazing, and all the theories about the island.... it took on a life of its own almost. I recall a few times when this community dug out some minor detail and got such a shitstorm brewing over it, that Abrams and company had to respond to it. For instance, there was an episode in which a character handed a document to another person in a flashback. The document was visible in a couple of shots, and someone somewhere analyzed individual frames and managed to pull that character's birthdate from the document. All sorts of theories arose from that one detail, so Abrams and company had to publicly state that it meant nothing.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Kat and I just finished the third season last night. There are only six seasons and I'm already feeling sad it's going to end.

All three of us (Kat, Sean and I--Tina is away at college, otherwise she would be doing this with us) have cheated by looking up Lost information online.

It's a great ride that you can't spoil by cheating.

I've got to do some serious introspecting re my storytelling study. For those interested, here is the book on story I just started: On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction by Brian Boyd.

God knows what keeps me going as I plow through these technical books, but it's so cool to take what I learn in those places and see it happening right before my eyes in things like Lost.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

We just now finished Lost.

These dudes invented an entire mythology. It's like metaphor heaven, starting with the island itself.

I bought 3 books on it just to dig into the asskicking storytelling while it's fresh in my mind:

Ultimate Lost and Philosophy: Think Together, Die Alone by various authors--Sharon Kaye (Editor)

Lost Humanity: The Mythology and Themes of LOST by Pearson Moore

Lost Identity: The Characters of Lost by Pearson Moore

I think this is great art. Nowhere near Romantic Realism for sure, but an absolutely stunning achievement.

And it's kinda cool in the end how they unkilled everyone who got killed, even though they were all dead.

I'm not even going to try to figure out how that makes sense and is satisfying...

Michael

[Peter]

Lost truly was a unique series for me - it is better to watch an excellent re-run than a bad new show. I still watch an episode of Lost about once a week on cable channel G4. On the “Inspiration” channel I have also returned to JAG (recorded just after 9/11) and Magnum PI. I rarely watched JAG when it was first broadcast and Magnum is from so long ago I have forgotten the plots.

I think the woman who now appears on Hallmarks, The Good Witch movies was on JAG and she was (and is) “smoking hot.”

On the last episode I saw of “Two and a Half Men,” I had to turn the channel. I just can’t watch the dishonest character “Allen Harper,” who is cheating with his engaged to someone else X, Lindsey, while dating her sister. Too bad Charlie had a meltdown and left. His Machiavellian, unrepentant nature was interesting. Occasionally I may have wanted to see someone punch Charlie but I would rather someone take a baseball bat to Allen. So why be so disgusted? I will turn to Nostalgia, Rural (RD) TV, Inspiration, G4, or to reruns of “The Big Bang Theory.”

[Kyle Jacob Biodrowski]

I just started watching Lost and I can already tell it's going to be a four-episode-a-night series.

Funny, for some reason, before I actually watched an episode, I thought I wouldn't be able to get into the show. The trailers just didn't catch my interest. I'm only on the forth episode, which is "Walkabout", and I already like the series. "Walkabout" is my favorite episode, so far. It even made me tear up, which isn't that hard to do, I guess. But, for me, tearing up is a sign that I just witnessed a powerful event or sequence on television.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Kyle,

LOL...

You just "lost" a crapload of future evenings.

I envy you because I would like to see it for the first time again.

Michael

[Kyle Jacob Biodrowski]

You just "lost" a crapload of future evenings.

Given what I've seen so far, it's more than a fair trade.

[Derek McGowan]

I loved the whole series but the flip that happens at the end of season 1 to season 2 was epic. Also I really enjoyed the ending though many people where disappointed by it.

Watching "Heroes" now

[Nerian]

Too bad it had a thoroughly dumb and unsatisfying ending. I felt violated. lol

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Watching "Heroes" now

Derek,

My son boonswangled me into going through this one with him. I'm doing that now. We have already seen about 4 or 5 episodes together. Kat begged off.

Not bad so far. But it feels like a story that has been told a thousand times before in comic books (with different details and situations, of course).

I talk through the storytelling aspects with Sean as we see each episode, which is why he nagged me to do it. But why this series caught his fancy is still a mystery to me.

Michael

[Derek McGowan]

Yeah Heroes is DEFINITELY not on the level of LOST. We are somewhere around episode 20 and its starting to get to me. Still, they do cliff hangers well but they have got to stop with everything being connected, its like factory manufactured interest and its starting to wear thin. The standard formula- ....and then we find out that this person is related to this person, and this power was last seen in ancient Egypt 5000 years ago and another character was told stories about it growing up and they thought it was a fairy tale, but it wasn't...."

[Peter]

It’s a slow TV day if you don’t watch football. If “Lost” was once again in reruns I would probably watch it. On MeTV I am watching an early episode of Gilligan’s Island. They think they have found a treasure chest, but they can’t get it open and Mr. Howell and Gilligan are both insisting that they own it. Mr. Howell is insisting it is his even though Gilligan found it because Gilligan is in his “employ.” If you ever watch it look at that beautiful island in the distance.  

Gilligan's Island Wiki: Three different real-life separate islands were used in the opening credits of the series. The First season black-and-white version was Sandy Cay, a 3-acre island near the Bahamas in the Caribbean. It is now one of the many destinations featured on Disney Cruise Lines, most likely being Castaway Cay, but it is unknown which of the islands were filmed. The island seen from a distance during the Second and Third Season color episodes was Mokuoloe ("Coconut Island") near Oahu which covers 28-acres in size. The pilot, however, was filmed at Moloa'a beach on the north of Kaua'i in Hawaii, and the Second and Third episode opening credits scenes that show the wreck of the SS Minnow on the lagoon, an obvious continuity error, was the flooded parking lot at the studio in Los Angeles.

[Marc]

35 minutes ago, Peter said:

It’s a slow TV day if you don’t watch football. If “Lost” was once again in reruns I would probably watch it. On MeTV I am watching an early episode of Gilligan’s Island. They think they have found a treasure chest, but they can’t get it open and Mr. Howell and Gilligan are both insisting that they own it. Mr. Howell is insisting it is his even though Gilligan found it because Gilligan is in his “employ.” If you ever watch it look at that beautiful island in the distance.  

Gilligan's Island Wiki: Three different real-life separate islands were used in the opening credits of the series. The First season black-and-white version was Sandy Cay, a 3-acre island near the Bahamas in the Caribbean. It is now one of the many destinations featured on Disney Cruise Lines, most likely being Castaway Cay, but it is unknown which of the islands were filmed. The island seen from a distance during the Second and Third Season color episodes was Mokuoloe ("Coconut Island") near Oahu which covers 28-acres in size. The pilot, however, was filmed at Moloa'a beach on the north of Kaua'i in Hawaii, and the Second and Third episode opening credits scenes that show the wreck of the SS Minnow on the lagoon, an obvious continuity error, was the flooded parking lot at the studio in Los Angeles.

Every woman is either MaryAnne or Ginger and everyman is partial to either or.