I'm Lost - can someomne tell me what is Lost about? - give me spoilers!!!

Tonguez · May 31, 2006

Okay I actually sat and watched an episode of Lost (having seen only glimpses of it before) and must admit I have absolutely no idea whats going on

I understand the bit about a plane breaking in two and leaving two lots of survivors on an Island and people dying - but thats as far as sensibility took me and after that I have no idea.

Is it aliens? Lost tribes? The Department of Game and Wildlife?

WayneLigon · May 31, 2006

Tonguez said:
Okay I actually sat and watched an episode of Lost (having seen only glimpses of it before) and must admit I have absolutely no idea whats going on

I understand the bit about a plane breaking in two and leaving two lots of survivors on an Island and people dying - but thats as far as sensibility took me and after that I have no idea.

Nobody knows, yet. That's why it's been so popular. There are a ton of speculations as to just what the island is, and what the Hanso Group and the Dharma Initiative are up to. (I have not seen the season Finale, yet). If we are to beleive the creators in interviews, the island is not Heaven, or Hell, and they didn't all die in the crash, and there are no aliens involved. They've sworn that there is an explanation within possibility, though it's probably a super-scientific possibility to me after seeing the 'security system'.

They occassionaly run a catch-up 'episode' that's basically a recap; they did just before the
finale, and it's a good bet that they'll do so again before the new season starts.

ABC.com's Lost site has lengthy recaps of the episodes.

Brown Jenkin · Jun 1, 2006

Yeh, this realy is as much a soap opera as anything else. Once the story gets going there is no easy way to jump in. Fortuntly there have only been 2 seasons so far and Season 1 is on DVD and Season 2 will be sometime realatively soon. See if your local video store rents it nd get caught up. Otherwise just watch several episodes to get get sort of current.

[rant]
You may just want to start next season from Season 3 episode 1. JJ Abrams seems to me to be doing the whole Alias thing and rebooting the situation while reusing the characters. This is what irritaded me about Alias and made me leave 3 episodes into Season 3. At this point I am contemplating whether I will make it longer into lost or not.
[/rant]

Viking Bastard · Jun 1, 2006

The difference is, of course, that ABC pressured JJA into that with Alias because of it's sagging ratings, while Lost has been gaining ratings in it's second season.

What's the big reboot? Loss of the hatch?

Brown Jenkin · Jun 1, 2006

Viking Bastard said:
The difference is, of course, that ABC pressured JJA into that with Alias because of it's sagging ratings, while Lost has been gaining ratings in it's second season.

What's the big reboot? Loss of the hatch?

Season 1 was about castaways trying to learn how to survive on a deserted island.
Season 2 dropped that angle by giving them a hatch with all the creature comforts of home and survival was not an issue any longer. Even the big bad jungle moster was completely neutered. It instead became us vs. them scenareo.
Season 3 spoiler follows:

It has been stated by producers that season 3 will be focused on love stories. Plus the hatch which was everything on season 2 is now gone. The others including Henry Gale are becoming regulars instead of guest actors. Add in an outside search and a likely focus on what is dharma.

Too me these seem like seperate and unrelated arcs with just the characters continueing. This strikes me as very much what jj did with Alias with the Rimbaldi holding everything together but the characters being reorganized every season. Here we have the mystery of the island holding everything together but the underlying format is changed from year to year as each layer of the onion is revealed. I am not saying this is a bad format, just one that I don't like.

Tonguez · Jun 1, 2006

So what was the monster - was that ever revealed?

Shayuri · Jun 1, 2006

It hasn't been revealed unequivocally...but it seems to be some strange black cloud of particulates that has been called "a security system." It appears to come out of the ground (and return there when whatever it's doing is done), often uprooting trees in the process. Oddly, it used to be quite active near the Forward Section Survivors, but not at all where the Tail Section fell. Now it seems to appear very rarely. Last seen, it was confronting Eko. It seemed to flash images of his life within it...then retreated, leaving him alone.

One thing I'm curious about...how do the producers, who insist this is all caused by something that's within the realm of possibility, explain the strange prophetic dreams of Eko and Locke. The ones that led them, in tandem, to the Swan.

I'm not aware of any science that can custom make a dream. Even in the realm of superscience.

ThirdWizard · Jun 1, 2006

Lost is really about the characters and how they interact with each other more than anything else. The background plot of the strange island goings on is there to get you hooked, but it isn't the meat of what the series is actually made up of. You'll find that most people who talk about Lost do so concerning very miniscule portions of the show. The fact that a good portion of each episode is devoted to a single character's past, rarely having anything to do with the island (though often paralelling the current situation), is indicative of this.

So what you really need to know is who's who and how they're connected, which gets pretty inter-connected as the series goes on. Of course, then someone dies, and things get a lot simpler again.

Viking Bastard · Jun 1, 2006

Brown Jenkin said:
Too me these seem like seperate and unrelated arcs with just the characters continueing. This strikes me as very much what jj did with Alias with the Rimbaldi holding everything together but the characters being reorganized every season. Here we have the mystery of the island holding everything together but the underlying format is changed from year to year as each layer of the onion is revealed. I am not saying this is a bad format, just one that I don't like.

Well, fair enough, I guess.

But still, I wouldn't call those unrelated arcs. Evolution of the arcs. I think the most common bane of series is their unwillingness to play with the format they've adopted.

sniffles · Jun 1, 2006

ThirdWizard said:
Lost is really about the characters and how they interact with each other more than anything else. The background plot of the strange island goings on is there to get you hooked, but it isn't the meat of what the series is actually made up of. You'll find that most people who talk about Lost do so concerning very miniscule portions of the show. The fact that a good portion of each episode is devoted to a single character's past, rarely having anything to do with the island (though often paralelling the current situation), is indicative of this.

So what you really need to know is who's who and how they're connected, which gets pretty inter-connected as the series goes on. Of course, then someone dies, and things get a lot simpler again.

I've fallen behind a bit, but I think ThirdWizard has the right of it. It's not about events; it's about people. That's certainly what I would watch it for. If you watch it only for the plot you'll either get very confused or very frustrated or both.