What genre is "Lost?"

[Cthulhudrew]

Space opera?

 

[Ranger REG]

Space opera?

The island is on a space ship?!?!!!

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Am I the only one that figured that out?

 

[Nyarlathotep]

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.

I didn't watch it until the first season was released on DVD because I thought it was a reality show

Of course I don't generally watch TV (no cable), and nobody I work with had seen it, so I was really quite ignorant of it. Of course, it took only 1 disc to become addicted to it. The only problem is that I can't watch shows like that once a week. I tend to lose intrest, so I have to wait until they come out on DVD and then watch them all in a couple of days.

 

[Hand of Evil]

drama/sci-fi or what passes for sci-fi on network television. Now, it is moving to crapfest for me but still watch.

 

[Huw]

(Disclaimer: I only watched one episode and hated it)

Chose either:

Soap opera split into easily digestible chunks for non-soap viewers who want a whole story in one episode.

or:

Sci-fi with the weird stuff spread thinly and non-threateningly across the season so as not to put off the non-sci-fi viewers.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

IMO I'd put it solidly in the soap opera group. It has some mildly sci-fi tendencies and some mildly fantasy tendencies but at its core it's soap opera.

Similarly I'd put the new iteration of BSG into the soap opera category too. Leaning very hard on the sci-fi angle but basically a military soap opera (and those are words that should never have to be used together) set in the future with gratuitous use of apocalypse/disaster themes.

 

[Fast Learner]

To those who categorize Lost as a soap opera: you surely must not actually watch soap operas. It's a drama, yes, and largely about people's relationships, but that's drama for you. Lost is no more a soap opera than Hamlet. It's just a drama.

Soap operas are a different beast altogether.

 

[Arnwyn]

Whatever. There are many many definitions of "soap opera" (just see Answers.com for a schwack of them) and it's not a hard stretch to figure out that Lost certainly can be considered one.

For example, one definition:

Broadcast serial drama, characterized by a permanent cast of actors, a continuing story, tangled interpersonal situations, and a melodramatic or sentimental style.

For those who categorize Lost as a soap opera - they're not wrong.

 

[Mallus]

For those who categorize Lost as a soap opera - they're not wrong.

I don't know about that... you have a question the utility of a definition of 'soap opera' so broad that both One Life to Live and The Uncanny X-Men fit comfortably under it.

Seem like people are actually using the term to refer to any serial dramatic presentation that they're trying to denigrate -even if just a little.

As for Lost, if I had to pin it down into a neat genre category, I'd have to go with thriller. I have a hard time considering Lost as SF. It has --what might turn out to be-- SF elements, but as far as I can tell, it addresses none of the major themes.

Now if 'Prisoner-style mindfu mindfrak' is a genre, I'd choose that, because there's certainly some of it in Lost. Or perhaps 'conspiracy-theory magical realism'... that has a nice ring to it.