- Every epic needs a tortured hero, right? Matthew Fox’s Jack is that (and more) in LOST
I won’t string you along through an entire blog with promises of some kind of priceless nuggets about tonight’s season premiere of Lost. I got nothing. I was all set to watch previewed episodes on the press site where ABC posts all their screeners and tease and taunt you but, alas, there was nothing there. Some clips. Some previews. Some press clips from the recent TCAs. Well, like you, I’m stuck waiting which makes sense because in this age of immediate news, spoilers and other internet scoops, someone out there would get hold of the episodes and spill the beans and, honestly, who wants that?
So, let me ask this…what is it about Lost, which airs tonight on ABC at 9/8c, that has captivated AND frustrated us after all? It can’t be merely the mystery about the island, why our Oceanic 815 castaways are there, the black smoke monster, Jacob, Locke, etc. It comes down to two things – the storytelling (duh!) and trust.
Sure, the ride from the first episode to tonight’s sixth season opener hasn’t been an easy one. After one of the best first seasons of any series, Lost stumbled along the way with twists and turns that either didn’t make perfect sense or just didn’t take us where we thought we were going but us diehards learned to trust creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse early on and just went along for the ride.
One other television cult classic comes to mind when thinking of a series where you just had to keep the faith in terms of where things were going. In the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) died and was revived, the series took a dark turn as our spunky heroine went to the mopey place but, through it all, we trusted Joss Whedon to get us out and, of course, he did. We may not have always enjoyed the ride but we never wanted to get off. The same thing can be said for Lost.
In the recent press for the show, Cuse and Lindelof have both said that they are not sure if fans will love where the sixth season takes them but, like any good writers, they themselves have to have faith in their storytelling. We can ponder endlessly about the fact that John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) is really dead and his body is just being used now for not-so-good purposes (if that’s even what’s really happening) or if we have to endure more of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle (sounds like we will) and will Jin and Sun find their happy ending (I have a feeling they will for some reason since these two have been the secondary romantic core of the series)?
Regardless, I’m in. Take me where you want, Cuse and Lindelof. I’m not promising that I won’t bitch and moan if something doesn’t jive with me but even then I’ll probably only do so half as loud because I trust you know how to steer this ship home and give us a great story.
Leave me a comment here and tell me your favorite LOST story from the entire series. Was it Charlie’s death? A bearded Jack screaming to Kate in the present “We have to go back!”? Or the death of Mr. Ecko? Tell me in the comments below.
