Lost

Now that the show is over and we've all had a few days to sort out the final episode, what does the summary report on Lost say about its phenomenon? Make no mistake, it was a phenomenon, even for people like me who loved it initially, missed a few episodes, the could never get back into the plot especially once all the time travelling started going on. 

Evangeline Lilly waves goodbye...

Ah yes, time travelling. Lost broke two taboos from screenwriting 101: Don't time travel as a way to escape out of plot traps, and don't kill everybody off at the end. Virtually every cheesy science fiction device was trotted out over six seasons. Included an a partial list: mysterious hatches, doomsday devices, rifts in the pace-time continuum, crazy as fruit bats teams of scientists, peaceful villagers, non-peaceful villagers, shape-shifting into the body of a main character, explosions and a big creepy monster. And Ben Linus who got beat up every week. Granted, there were no space aliens, but every week you halfway expected someone green to say, "We do not wish you to take us to your leader. We are the leader." So there might as well have been aliens. Whether you go for all this or not depends on your taste for la fromage scientifique. 

And many people dined on the Brie of Lost. According to the numbers supplied by the ever-efficient CTV press office, the final episode drew 5 million views with a peak of 2.5 million. more than a cult hit. It crushed the last episode of Celebrity Apprentice by almost three to one. Added to that, Lost fans have streamed the videos on the CTV site 6.4 million times this season, including half a million between Sunday's finale and Tuesday morning. So Lost was more than a cult hit. 5% or less is the barrier point for cult status. More than that, you''re mainstream these days.

Truth be told, I've always thought that creator J.J. Abrams and the producers were lying through gleaming well-capped teeth when they said that they knew the ending of the show right from the start. If they did - and I have my doubts on that - they definitely had no idea how they were getting there. Hence all the devices. Bizarrely enough, that is a compliment rather than a criticism of the creative team. Bogart and company didn't know the end of Casablanca until they shot it, and perhaps the best Star Trek: The Next Generation cliffhanger had Picard turned into a Borg and the writers had to sweat all summer to think of a plausible way of turning him back. 

The series survived because of a handful of extremely compelling characters,a nd not necessarily the leads of Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly either. I won't miss my mind running its opinions back and forth back and forth trying to decide if Evangeline Lilly's Kate Austen was incredibly annoying or just incredibly hot. Possibly both. As a retired yet jaded veteran of the wars of love I have found that women's natures can occasionally run contrary to their appearance. Yes yes, men too. What of it? 

No, this was Hurley's show and Sawyer's show and most especially Terry O'Quinn as Locke's show. I read on the E! Network blog recently that O'Quinn deserves an Emmy for his work as Locke. He brilliantly expressed two contrasting characters and the development of one into the other in an absolutely bell-tone perfect feat of acting prowess. O'Quinn is also bald and ageing. Hollywood being Hollywood, his career may have just ended. let's hope not. Until next week, be seeing you.