What would you get if you re-imagined Survivor as a supernatural horror series, then played the whole thing absolutely straight-faced?
Someone who is not familiar with Lost might think that what you'd get is a complete mess. Reality shows are only worth watching if they're actually... real, right? Professional actors performing from a script would strip away what little reason there might be to watch the show in the first place. And even if they didn't (a detractor might say), the whole desert island thing has been done to death, both in comedy and in drama. What is there left to be done?
But somehow, despite the absurdity of its project (or perhaps because of it), Lost works.
The Premise
A passenger jet travelling from Sydney to Los Angeles crashes on a remote island somewhere in the Pacific, leaving forty-eight survivors to scrape together enough food and water to last them until help arrives. Help does not come, however, and the survivors slowly come to the realization that they may be stuck on this island for a long, long time. They have to learn to live on scant resources and primitive technology. They have to learn to live with one another -- no small feat given the neurotic group that made it this far. And finally, what is perhaps most difficult of all, each survivor has to learn to live with his own demons. Through masterful flashback sequences -- sometimes spooky, sometimes funny, and sometimes almost unbearably sad -- we learn what it was that brought each character to Australia, and what forced him or her to leave it. Very slowly, connections between the characters' lives are drawn, both in the past and in the present.
The survivors include a has-been rock star who is also a heroin addict, and who has to deal with a rather brutal way of kicking his habit cold turkey. There is a criminal -- of what sort, we're not told for quite some time, since the federal marshall who was escorting her was killed in the crash. There is a physician, who was clearly a type A personality even before he got here, who suddenly finds himself clawing through the wreckage in search of medicines to help the wounded. There is a Korean couple who cannot communicate with anyone else on the island (and who do not seem to be especially good at communicating with each other either). There is an obese young man who finds it even more frustrating to hunt, fish, and scavenge than the others. There is a pregnant woman. There is an old man who has a rather alarming talent with knives which proves handy when hunting for food, but which also makes him rather creepy to be around.
Oh. And I shouldn't forget to mention the monsters.
Since this isn't a reality show, Lost does not need to avoid torturing, killing, or otherwise traumatizing its characters, and it doesn't need to stay within the bounds of reality as we know it. Though the show focuses on the characters' day-to-day lives about ninety percent of the time, occasionally it veers in the direction of science fiction. The viewer soon learns that there are other things living on the island, some of which may be human, some of which clearly are not. But just when the viewer has confidently reached a conclusion about what these things might be, a hairpin turn in the plot causes her to re-evaluate her opinions. And given the fact that everyone on this island seems to be going just a wee bit barmy, the possibility is never distant that the monsters aren't real at all.
It is hard to talk at any length about this series without spoiling it, since it gets so much of its dramatic power from surprises and startling discoveries of various sorts. So I will simply say that the first season of Lost has some of the cleverest dialogue and some of the most interesting characters I've encountered on network TV in years, and I've gotten in the habit of clearing out my datebook on Wednesday nights just so I can watch it. Whether the gimmicks that propel this show can keep its energy up for longer than one season, only time will tell. I'm pessimistic, but I'm glad to enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Lost, created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof.
Starring:
Information courtesy
The Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411008/