"Lost" Thoughts: Part I

Courtesy of Netflix Instant, I am now able to catch-up on all the pop-culture programming that I missed over the past few years. Sometimes I have elected to miss the shows or movies because they seemed passing fads to me. My free time has been precious and sparse, and I need to know that I am diving into a worthwhile distraction instead of a vacuum of brain cells or a frustration provacateur.

My recent indulgence has been "Lost." So, with only slightly further adieu, my wrap-up of the first season. N.B. There may be some sort of spoiling involved here, though given the premise of the series, one in which questions are the point instead of solved mysteries or grand reveals, I am not too preoccupied with offending anyone. Here we go:

As I come to the close f the first season of JJ Abrams and co.'s "Lost," I am annoyingly filled with questions which I know will not be answered in any of the next few seasons. I know this because the rate at which the show generates mysteries without constructing a realm for resolution seems to be the strong point upon which all the rest of the series is built. While I am sure certain intricacies and nuances will be fleshed out, I am also sure that the writers and producers will gladly throw more complexities, twists, and mysteries at me.

To summarize the season, I believe all the unanswered questions will suffice. I will try to recount all of them, but you should feel free to lambast me for missing a crucial plot point. Remember that this is just the first season:

What's with the polar bears?
What's with the forest whispers?
What's with the monster/"security system"?
Where the hell did Ethan come from?
Who are the "others"?
What did they want with/do to Claire?
What's with the psychic's reading on Claire and her baby?
What's the story behind the Black Rock?
What illness took Rousseau's people?
Where's the radio tower?
What's with the hatch and the light inside?
What's with Hurley's numbers?
Are they a Pandora's box?
Is this some sort of time-space splicing island?
Is this some sort of afterlife island?
Is this some sort of purgatorial state for more than just the viewer who is stuck between intriguing questions and frustratingly banal character development?
What's with the Nigerian priest-pilot and the heroin?
Where is this island?
What's with Locke's dreams?
What's with his legs/nonparalysis/occassional paralysis?
Is Locke's faith in the island dangerous?
How come Locke is so savvy and capable?
Why was he crippled?
What made him move to the box company?
Why was Hurley in a mental hospital?
What's with Jack's dad on the island?
What happened to Jack's marriage?
What's with Jack's tattoos--they seem so uncharacteristic?
What will happen with the raft?
What is Walt's super power all about? Future telling? Telekinetic?
What's the point of Vincent?
What happened to Kate and her husband?
Did she actually murder someone?
Why is she always running?
Did Sawyer ever find the real Sawyer?
What's with Sawyer's vindictive boar?
Who will Kate go for: Jack or Sawyer?
What is on either end of the cable leading to Rousseau's hideout?
What's the deal with the shoddy compasses?
What is up with the black smoke?

I suppose I should give the creators some credit. They have somehow disregarded reasonability and the audience's need for explanation, yet they have manufactured a hit show that captivates me amongst millions of others. That is the greatest mystery of "Lost": How do they make a show so annyoing and rife with shortcomings and yet grip my cynical attention?

My biggest complaints about the show are mostly related to character and dialogue writing. We go through the show only to find that each character brings a crucial element to the tribe's alchemy, but each character ends up type-casting their role in the daily mini-dramas that unfold on the island.

These mini-dramas seem to be time-filling devices demonstrating the shoddier half of the writing. The mini-dramas are thinly veiled depictions of the show-creators' alchemy: Which characters, when paired together, will produce television gold? The characters never seem to learn from their own mistakes or observe the way in which the others (equally stagnant characters) will respond to to certain scenarios. This results in regular disputes that I feel have reached the limit of permutations with regards to who is involved in the dispute. I have to believe that someone on the island would at some point acknowledge the absurdity that they all keep falling into the same roles in these disagreements.

A quick stray complaint: I can never tell if Sayid is being provocative, humorous, playful, sympathetic, or thoughtful. If he's not angry, he employs puppy-dog eyes, a faint smirk, and a patronizing forehead furrow.

Also, "Lost" is far too obvious about which characters the audience should hate:

-The underdeveloped, poorly explained, irrationally-constant-scrooge that is Michael: He's so isolating, angry, consistently stand-offish, and terrible at fathering Walt.
-The underdeveloped, poorly explained, and crudely acted Shannon: She's so oblivious, selfish, and prone to glazing her eyes while cocking her head and leaving her mouth slightly agape.
-The dismissable Jin is so unneccessary that the writers only provide subtitles to his Korean every now and then.

Why are the writers even bothering with the other, non-named characters of the Oceanic flight? And are they really serious about introducing the science teacher in the season finale? That dude is going to get eaten. We all know it. Also, are we really supposed to believe that Walt, Michael, and Sawyer will not be back to the island. Please. Taking note of the questions above, I realize that the show will not leave Walt's super power unexplained or Sawyer's drama with Kate and Jack left unresolved. And if Walt survives the raft, so must Michael--network television is not dark or twisted enough to burden the island or Walt himself with an orphanhood. Stop giving me obvious answers. These are distractions from the ten new mysteries per episode. Oh, and I am not remotely interested in whether Jin survives the raft. He was dead to me ever since he dipped out of the warm meal San made for him.

All in all, season one has been gratifying in its provocativeness and ability to at least begin integrating me into another niche of pop-culture. It has failed to "wow" me with acting, dialogue, or character development. I am definitely impressed with the style that transcends the show's inner time via flashbacks. I am also impressed with the audacity of the looming questions that the show makes glaringly obvious it doesn't have to answer for the audience's sake. They don't pander to me. I like that.

Two.5 out of five stars.