Lost: TV Series or Illness?

September 16 2008 02:32 Filed in: Television
lost-tv-guide
I’m a broken down man that’s experienced serious issues in my life. I’ve had major life altering addictions. Food, cigarettes, alcohol struggles...
However, I believe that most destructive addiction I’ve ever faced is in the midst of destroying me as we speak...

I have to admit that when ABC’s Lost began 4 years ago I had absolutely no interest in it. I didn’t know who J.J. Abrams was, the show didn’t sound interesting, I wasn’t really watching much TV at the time because I had just moved, had a new baby and was in the midst of scheduling a major medical procedure.

I managed to stay a “virgin” about the show for all these years. Up until 90 days or so ago I couldn’t have told you the name of one character or actor in it. The limit to my exposure was listening to radio disc jockey’s talk briefly about the program or running across stray posts on internet forums—basically all saying at various junctures through the past 3-4 years that the show had basically “jumped the shark.”

By the time it had sparked any interest for me I had figured it was way too late to start on it. No way I was going to pick up the story in the middle and no way in hell I was going to go back and pick up seasons of episodes just to be part of the gang.

Back on the other side of my head, I should probably also give up my “box set” sickness. I love DVD box sets. Sure, you say, lots of people do. The sickness part of it is that I have the tendency to buy them and never watch them even if I open the packages. I just want to own them figuring that at some day in the future I will go back and revisit them. Most of the box sets I own are series that I’ve caught a fair amount of but maybe have missed a handful of episodes of, sometimes I’ll plug in a disc and catch the episode or 2 that I may have missed when the show ran. All this changed recently.

Into my mailbox (along with some cat food and dog biscuits--long story--I have no pets) the first season of Lost came my way via loan from a friend about 3 months ago just for the hell of it. My wife and I sat down and watched the first couple of them. Had it not been a loaner, we may not have done it. However, the loan came from someone that shared an interest in one of the long story arcing shows that I DID watch religiously, Galactica and he assured me that it was worth my time to pound through a handful of episodes of Lost and give it a shot. By this time season 4 had already aired and I knew even if I liked the show that there was no way in hell that I was going to make it through 80-90 episodes of it. But 23 episodes of season 1? Well, I’d give it the old college try, whatever that expression means.

My wife and I made it through the first 8 episodes of season 1. Unfortunately, because of our schedules at the time, it got to be very difficult to watch them together. One of us would get ahead an episode and we would wait to coordinate a viewing and it took us weeks to get through those first couple of discs, then it stopped. Intrigued as we were, we put it down for about 2 months. Looking back, I’m not sure how we managed this, but that’s inconsequential since the seeds for the addiction were planted.

It was only a sparking interest in Heroes (another article for another time) that we actually became energized to go ahead and finish the first season of Lost.

It was then that the illness set it full force. We managed to watch the second half or so of Season 1 in a couple of weeks. By that time, it was too late. My birthday hit the day before we hit the last disc of season 1 and my wife, I’m sure with absolutely no self-serving thoughts, bought me season 2. And it was time to give the loaner season 1 back.

By this time, we were coordinating our viewings, so it was an easier road, but after we put down the first two episodes of season 2, my wife left on a weekend trip while I had a couple of house guests.

Unfortunately, she left late on a Friday night and by early Saturday AM I had put away an additional six episodes and forced myself to stop until she got back. As the weekend drew to a close on Sunday my wife returned and I went back and rewatched the 6 episodes I had already seen, this time with her so she could catch up. It took sheer force of will not to take the next discs upstairs to our other DVD player and continue watching ahead, but I held out.

At this point we were both extremely caught in the sickness. Two discs (8 episodes) into season 2, we began a routine. We would come home, straighten the house, feed the kids and eat and start cooking up Lost “the fix”. Every night 3-5 episodes only to be curtailed when we had evening plans. Needless to say, by the following weekend we finished up season 2 early on a Friday night and grabbed the kids to head for some dinner and check used DVD stores for season 3. I still refused to pay $50.00 for another season at this point if we couldn’t find it on sale. We couldn’t find it used at all or new for less than full retail at this point. This was 4 days ago. We decided to take the “rental” route.

Boom! Ninety-nine cents a disc at Blockbuster (dusted off that old membership card that hadn’t been used in at least a year) and we got the first 3 discs of season 3. Hey, it’s the weekend, right? We finished them in a day in a half and picked up the second half Sunday afternoon.

If you are wondering why you should care about this, you shouldn’t care at all, to be honest. However, I think it does demonstrate the extent of the illness. We pounded through I don’t know how many episodes Sunday. And it came down to Monday night. Straighten, get the kids together, feed, LOST!

Tonight the illness came to a head. We had four episodes left in Season 3. We watched them all even while I was working on my laptop because of unavoidable needing-to-keep-employment issues. And for those that watched, you know that there’s no way in hell you can leave the show hanging there. I immediately pounded upstairs to my XBOX and started downloading episode 2 of Season 4 onto my console while we pulled open my laptop and watched the season 4 opener streamed in HD onto my laptop.

I think we are some major trouble now. We watched 6 episodes tonight. Thank God there’s only 14 episodes in season 4, because this could have gotten real ugly. In fact, when season 5 starts in January, I don’t know exactly how 1 episode per week is going to cut it.

Whatever the extent of the illness, this is able to put me in a unique position to judge the series in the light of one long continuous narrative. Two episodes into season 4, I don’t see these drawn out arguments about the drop in quality season to season or have any flashes of the show “jumping the shark” at this point. [I will continue to use quotes for “jump the shark” until I’m sure that I actually like that expression, by the way. Having watched the original airing of the Happy Days episode where Fonzie literally jumped a shark it has a weird feeling for me—sorry, lost in a tangent.]

Anyway, I’m viewing the show as one long, continuous narrative at this point. It has some stretches of episodes where it lulls and some where it excels, but I think the most impressive strength it demonstrates is it’s ability to maintain an intriguing story constantly as the plot takes wild directions and your feelings for the characters constantly change. In fact, I believe that at this juncture, it’s completely avoided what in most cases would have been a real repetitive drag after 3 or 4 seasons and again has exploded into something completely different. Season 3-4 are to me, almost a completely different program than season 1. Both good, both very very different.

Some of the rewards of watching such an immense amount of this program in huge, unhealthy chunks are the little payoffs that keep coming episode after episode. All this, and I’ve managed to watch almost the entire series run now with absolutely no spoilers, no idea where it’s going, no wild speculation, no constant moaning or arguing about the quality or the characters. I almost wonder how much this actually can ruin a show--this thing called the internet.

Well, most of season 4 left and we’ll have to get creative watching most if it on my laptop probably rather than paying $3 per episode on XBOX live. But regardless of how it ends, I’m in for the ride.

Unfortunately, I think that season 5 is going to be bad for me because by then, I’m sure I will have inaugurated myself into the internet Lost crowd. Bitching, moaning, arguing and all that crap. No speculation and no spoilers are what I’m going to miss, and I refuse to hit ANY forums or boards for the show until I’m caught up. You don’t really need to speculate at all when you know you’re a couple of remote clicks away from the next 45 minutes of the story.

Well, whatever the case. For any Lost faithful out there count me in for the final couple of seasons. I’m embarrassed to parrot the critics and fans, but it definitely is one of the best shows on television.

And BD, I’m not sure whether to thank you for the season 1 loaner or not. Part of me wishes I had greased it up and shoved it up your ass for destroying my life for the past several weeks. But I’ll be damned if I have enough energy to do that before I see how season 4 turns out.

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