First And Lost

ABC is airing Lost's pilot tonight. Tomorrow, the finale.

As if by fate, Lost debuted the same month this blog started. I've probably written more about Lost than any other subject. Now that it's ending, I don't know what I'll do.

Anyway, if ABC can repeat what they did in September 2004, so can I. Here's my first take on Lost:

ABC's drama, Lost, which debuted last night, had been highly touted. The pilot (which actually featured a pilot) starts with the aftermath of a plane crash on a tropical island. The survivors are trying to pull themselves together.

It was gripping stuff. A group of disparate people were going to have to take care of problems society normally handles for them--food, shelter, medicine, etc. (And, unlike Gilligan's Island, they might have sex.)

But then, about halfway through, they lost me. It appeared there was some sort of monster on the island. I know this is TV, and you need a thrill before each curtain, but that monster turned the show from serious drama, to Land Of The Lost. Here I was, looking forward to real people with real problems and they gave me real people with imaginary problems.

By the way, in these sort of situations, there's always a disparate group. Just once I'd like to see a show where they're all middle-aged, male, Presbyterian dentists.

Little did I know.

PS As a reminder of the old days, here's a site with the original auditions.

PPS There's a lot of stuff out there on the web giving away secrets. It hasn't always been easy avoiding spoilers, but just another day and I can stop worrying.

PPPS I watched the showing of the pilot. As with other reruns, they added pop-up notes. It was bizarre--for anyone watching the show for the first time, they were trying to give you all the information you needed to appreciate the finale.