Aschrock280's Blog

Reply to Lost

Am I lost? Most definitely. I am not a fan of Lost, but throughout it’s tenure, I have heard the stories surrounding the current plot. At first it was just a story about survivors on a plane crash, then it became more interesting with the discovery of other survivors, then the moster came about, polar bears, time travel, death and other science fiction entities that just made anyone who was not a fan of the show go “…HUH?!”. Erika accurately notes it’s multiple threading as Johnson called it, and it’s complex characters. She is thoroughly correct when she says someone who wants to become a fan should go back to the beginning and start…but let’s face it, not a lot of people have that much time on their hands.

Lost is one of those shows with a cult following and the producers are smart enough to keep the formula within the show. I think that if they wanted to attract a more broad audience, then they would need to simplify the story a bit. While Steven Johnson sees that our society has grown smarter with the need of more complex story lines, he fails to see that even the simple story lines of todays TV shows are much appreciated. It allows us to become a fan whenever we want. Not that I’m comparing Lost to Power Rangers, but the Rangers did follow the latter formula. While they held a basic premise, they were also able to further their own story lines. Lost had a basic premise, but it kept changing, which makes the show harder to follow. Alas, Steven Johnson and Erika are correct in identifying the complexity of new shows. The following clip is a brief history of Power Rangers. It occurred over 300 episodes, and not one season, like Lost.