Why I Still Love "Lost"

A lot of people have given up on the ABC show "Lost." I can't exactly say I blame them. For a while, when the show had no clear ending date, the show was very hit or miss. They made some grand missteps along the way and introduced characters that just went nowhere and were quickly removed. The show is also maddeningly dense and unwilling to let go of clues or provide answers with any kind of speed. It's a show that takes commitment and it's a show that, if you miss one episode, you can find yourself hopelessly lost for good.

The thing is, I feel that the show is worth that effort. I think it rewards those of us who have stuck with it and continues to promise further rewards down the road. Yes, it is frustrating and for every answer the show gives, it tends to open up a dozen more, but I still feel that those who have left the show deserve to give it a second, or even third, chance.

There are a lot of shows I like. I love watching Hugh Laurie in "House." I enjoy "24." I loved "Life on Mars." I used to watch "Friday Night Lights" almost religiously. I also love Fox's lineup of animated shows like "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." All of these are shows that I watch when I can and sometimes have on in the background when I am working on a book or writing an article or doing something else. There is only one show, however, that I stop in my tracks to watch. There is only one show I put the phone on silent and shut down the computer and put the book I am working on to watch with unflinching and unblinking anxiety and anxiousness and that would be "Lost."

For me, now that the writers have a definite end time in their heads, I think the writing has only gotten better. While they still don't hit the ball out of the park every time, I think they manage to hit it further even on an off day than most television writers. I know a few people who laughed an groaned when the entire island disappeared at the end of the last season, but not me. I clapped and laughed like a little kid. I thought it was awesome.

The new season has opened with time travel and that is always a dangerous thing. The thing about "Lost" though is that the characters inside it seem to understand that time travel is a dangerous thing and that not everything makes sense. There was a delightful and funny conversation between the characters of Miles and Hurley as they discussed the ramification of a young Benjamin Linus having been shot by Sayid. If it happened in Ben's past, why didn't Ben recognize Sayid when they first met? Of course, the real reason is because when they wrote Sayid and Ben's first meeting, they didn't know that Sayid would shoot a young Benjamin Linus. The writers hadn't thought of it until now.

The fact that the characters acknowledge this, discuss it, and ask the questions that viewers themselves might be asking is very funny, very self aware and show a sharpness and a wit that most shows just don't have. It doesn't quite break down the fourth wall between the show and the audience, but it comes damn close.

The other thing that keeps me coming back again and again can be summed up with the following two words: Michael Emerson. If you don't know his name, then you know his bug-eyed, creepy character of Benjamin Linus, the former leader of "The Others." There has never been, in my opinion, a better-written or more well-crafted villain in all of TV history. I loved the villains on "Buffy" and "Angel" and thought Lex Luthor on "Smallville" was more well-rounded than any portrayal before, but Benjamin Linus manages to put them all to shame.

Emerson and the writers have created a rich and complex character. He is evil, without a doubt, but he sometimes seems to actually have compelling and good reasons for the evil he is committing. The writers make him almost sympathetic and like-able one week, then the next week, he turns into a villain again. One moment he is seen as a caring father and the next he is shooting an unarmed man with a shotgun. He can be seen as a savior, with the character's best interest at heart, one moment and then be strangling a major character to death the next.

I know that Emerson, in the real world, is a very nice, friendly sort. He seems to have a really great sense of humor about himself and the character he plays. I am sure he is a great guy. All I know is that on "Lost" he has created one of the best characters, and best villains, you will ever see. He deserves many more Emmy nominations and he really deserves to win one.

As for the rest of the cast, well, so many of them have started to fade into the background. Sayid has become more and more fascinating to me as the seasons have worn on. We learn new levels of his personality each year and he too becomes a mixture of good and evil. Unlike Ben, however, Sayid seems trying hard to redeem himself, to become a better person, to right the wrong he has committed and to come to terms with the fact that he is, almost from childhood, a born killer.

Matthew Fox's character Jack continues to be a frustrating one. He never quite seems to gel, at least with me. He is always whining, always angst-ridden, always reacting to things. He never seems as strong as he ought to be, bending and twisting with the wind, going wherever other characters dictate.

Jack Sawyer, meanwhile, has developed into a far more compelling character this season than in the past. He has shown himself capable of being a leader, and of being more than just a con man. At the same time, he is still pulling off a con.

The writers continue to surprise. Slowly, like a frustrating magician promising to reveal his tricks but at a maddening and glacial pace, they are revealing how the characters are connected. The only trick is, you had better have been paying attention to every single character ever seen throughout the series from the beginning. Did you pay attention to the woman who sold Desmond his engagement ring? Do you even remember her? Well, she's back and now she's one of the keys to the plot. That's just one example.

No television show in recent memory has been this challenging and yet managed to maintain at least some of its quality. "Prison Break" devolved into ridiculousness the moment all of the escaped convicts ended up back in prison, but this time in South America. "Twin Peaks" lost its edge the moment it caved in to fan demands and revealed who killed Laura Palmer. I never even got into "Alias" but I heard that it had its own problems and I have missed out on the sci-fi shows like "Babylon 5" and "Battlestar Galactica."

No, the horse I have backed involves a plane crash and an island. It involves complex people and challenging stories that leap back and forth in time. It involves a conflict between good and evil, but you never know for sure who is good and who is evil. It involves well-rounded and "real" people in very unreal and unrealistic situations. It makes me scratch my head and throw my hands up in frustration but then it has a huge wonderful moment that makes me go "wow" and it makes up for all of the head scratching.

Of course, I worry about the ultimate ending. The show is building and building to something apocalyptic in scope. Can the writers possibly match the viewer's expectations? That remains to be seen. They have the rest of this short season to get as far as they can before the final season next year. I have a feeling that, however it ends, fans will debate it for a very long time. There will be those that love the ending, and those that hate it. In a way, that's exciting and worth watching as well.