"Lost" Finale & J.J. Abrams' Magic Mystery Box Technique: The Future Challenge for TV

Let the debates continue that the polarization of the "Lost" finale on May 23 was a deliberate writing exercise to keep us debating far beyond the night it aired. Yet there can't be much argument that the 2 ½-hour finale brought ideas to dramatic fiction on television that's seldom been put to paper or aired. We've seen plenty of outstanding series finales over the decades that tied up relationships among longstanding favorite characters. But we really hadn't seen a TV series finale that tackled issues of life, death and blending spirituality with theoretical physics; no, not at least since the early 1990's.

You can only imagine a rookie director by the name of J.J. Abrams sitting and astutely watching these around that time frame:

"Quantum Leap" was one of the first TV shows to end its run with the exploration of spirituality and science. In 1993, we saw the time traveling Sam Becket end up in a mysterious spiritual realm insinuated as Heaven or somewhere in-between. Not long after was the end of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that took Capt. Picard back and forth in time as a cerebral test by the ambiguously moral Q. Add in the series finale of "Northern Exposure" a year later. Their end also brought a profound philosophical communion to characters that were always stuck in a whimsical Alaskan universe that operated on deep philosophical concepts.

Imagine again a younger J.J. Abrams taking a break from TV and looking over at one of his favorite personal possessions: A magic mystery box.

If you know anything about the background of "Lost's" initial creator, Abrams, he's kept a "Magic Mystery Box" in his possession and safekeeping since his grandfather bought him one as a kid. In case you've never bought a magic box in a gag store or magic shop, it's merely a small to medium-sized box with a question mark printed on top and an unknown (likely cheaply China-made) item inside. Abrams fortunately decided never to open his--hence preserving a sense of imagination for himself.

And that very action also helped preserve the imagination of TV and perhaps shape it for years to come. While it may be a mystery whether he long ago formulated the ending to "Lost" after he left writing and executive producer duties to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the influence of that magic box permeates in just about everything he's done on TV or in movies. If you watched "Lost" in earlier seasons, you'll also remember that Benjamin Linus referenced a magic box as a metaphor for the island.

Just how does the Magic Mystery Box Effect work in the realms of writing? It allows enough information from the outside to help you get a literal explanation to a long-held mystery in a story. Concurrently, the inner core of more complicated information remains a mystery so your imagination can fill in the cavities of the unknown. When you combine those two quadrants of the brain, a confluence of intuitive information floods the mind and creates powerful responses.

How many people did you read on the net say they figured out the bigger picture of "Lost" after thinking it over for 24 to 48 hours?

Well, now that we know that Abrams' magic formula exists and manifests itself in the astute mind, writers are going to have to figure out a way to dissect it. If "Lost" set a new high bar for TV, the Magic Mystery Box Effect has a way to take future fictional TV shows far and away from the mindlessness most TV has been stuck in since the 90's.
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Just how profound can a TV show get now that "Lost" proved viewers are willing to be cerebrally challenged for more than a few seasons? Expect more shows that tackle the complicated questions of life and death that "Lost" didn't broach. It's really a natural progression after movies finally took that path over 40 years ago, albeit sporadically. Those attuned to the history of movies know that 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" started the entire path "Lost" expanded on. Even though the settings and situations were different, the biggest questions about who we are and where we're going were given an ambiguous interpretation.

Only the mind-busting Russian "Solaris" in 1972 decided to keep that trend going and expand horizons. Then it took twenty-five more years before any movie decided to take the foundations of "2001" and "Solaris" and dare connect all ends to spiritual territory. In the American film world, the only thing that can compare would be the 1997 movie "Contact" adapted from Carl Sagan's book and starring Jodie Foster. Fiction finally made the first connection between the unknown in our universe and death.

Now that TV has finally fallen on that path, plenty of room exists for a botched delivery from writers who still don't quite grasp Abrams' magic box technique. It's still easy to go the literal route in revealing a profound mystery in a TV show. It's also easy to keep the mystery a mystery without explaining anything. If another show decides to take on mind-expanding ideas, we've arrived at a good place to at least open Abrams' magic mystery box and get a hint of what's in there.

In the realms of covering spirituality and the meaning of life, getting a little more information helps move the imagination forward another step to extract what we perhaps already know instinctively. "Lost" helped tap deeper into that instinct.

If this happens successfully, fiction in television can evolve right along with the human mind. Then the mindlessness of most TV may finally start to devolve, even though it's no secret that devolution of TV is the whole problem.

Keep the Magic Mystery Box relevant, you writers for the small screen. Someday, we'll all see what's in the box, despite it likely being another box with another question mark branded on top.

Resources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpjVgF5JDq8