What genre is "Lost?"

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

(No threadcrapping, please.)

I initially didn't watch "Lost," because I thought it was just a dramatized version of "Survivor." Luckily, the network ran the pilot in its entirety again on the weekend after its debut, I tuned in for the hell of it and got hooked.

Now, three seasons in, though, what the heck IS it? Is this a sci-fi series, a fantasy, a horror series? It's clearly some sort of "genre" show, but which?

 

[WayneLigon]

Honestly, we don't know enough to really slot it into a genre, but I suspect it would be a sci-fi mystery character drama with some fantasy. I wouldn't really call it horror.

I can't imagine this late in the game that you'd think it was any sort of thing like Survivor. You must not have office-mates or friends that talk about it all the time

 

[trancejeremy]

Soap Opera? Albeit more of a high budget one like Dallas or Knott's Landing or Hotel.


edit:

I'm serious, don't be so touchy. I've heard a soap being defined as a "form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode".

 

[Ranger REG]

(No threadcrapping, please.)

I initially didn't watch "Lost," because I thought it was just a dramatized version of "Survivor." Luckily, the network ran the pilot in its entirety again on the weekend, I tuned in for the hell of it and got hooked.

Now, three seasons in, though, what the heck IS it? Is this a sci-fi series, a fantasy, a horror series? It's clearly some sort of "genre" show, but which?

A thriller.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I can't imagine this late in the game that you'd think it was any sort of thing like Survivor. You must not have office-mates or friends that talk about it all the time

I meant I thought that in the three days between its debut and the network rerunning it on Saturday.

And no, no one I worked with watched it during the debut.

 

[Fast Learner]

I'd call it magic realism, a form of fantasy, and it'll stay that way for me, likely. Which is to say that while it's theoretically scientific in some sense, I can't imagine how it'll turn out to be actually scientific, therefore making it a form of fantasy.

 

[Mark CMG]

Adventure / Drama / Mystery / Thriller

 

[Mistwell]

Sci-fi.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Soap Opera? Albeit more of a high budget one like Dallas or Knott's Landing or Hotel.


edit:

I'm serious, don't be so touchy. I've heard a soap being defined as a "form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode".

I definitely put it in the nighttime soap opera category. Not much different than Desperate Housewives except it has a sci-fi twist instead of a humor element.

 

[Arnwyn]

What others have said: a sci-fi soap.