The other 'L' word. I think I know why it is called 'Lost', because I am.

Was 'Lost' just an experiment to see how much random crap they could throw at an audience and pass it off as genius and creative?

I asked this question on Facebook the other day and I thought it required a little more explanation.

Yes, like ‘Glee’, I have not seen ‘Lost’. I have seen a few clips of the show. I would have watched an episode once but another show was on for some reason, and my sister’s friend liked it, and it was about a father-daughter team of assassins/secret agents or something, and they were going after the mother who worked for the other side, and then the daughter starts to give birth and the family works together to get her to safety and the mom being an evil bitch then betrays them and runs off. The father of the newborn baby is still alive. Oh, SPOILER ALERT! I don’t remember the show; it was four years ago dammit!

Anyway, I really haven’t seen any of ‘Lost’. All the knowledge I had about this show came from my sister from the beginning and now from Cracked.com.

My question is this; why was the show a hit? Reading from Cracked, it just seemed like it was one random plot twist or added mystery after another. This might not seem too bad if the writers had a plan for it and explained everything in the end. But, IT WAS MADE UP AS THEY WENT. There was no rhyme or reason to anything they did. “Let’s add a polar bear and give the kid mind powers!” This kind of show should have made everyone mad as they kept insulting the audience’s intelligence. I don’t want a show to make me feel stupid, but it shouldn’t because they weren’t trying to convey anything!

What if ‘Lost’ was like this?

 (Like this, but taking itself seriously and not trying to be funny)

This is how random I think ‘Lost’ is.

I don’t get how anybody could think this was genius or creative or existential or whatever. It was just “A plane crashed and a lot of weird shit happened, 50% of which we’ll explain!”

Because of its complexity, I feel you can’t just sit down in the middle of the series and start watching. You need to see every single episode in order to be able to understand what is happening. With nearly every other show, you can see a random episode and get hooked. You can watch episodes in any order without needing to see other episodes. Although it does bug me when shows are too episodic and there is no feeling of continuity or arc, just random problems happening that get solved in half an hour and all history provided in the last 300 episodes no longer matters.

 I’m looking at you, Simpsons.

I think Arrested Development and The Venture Brothers had a good balance between long story arcs and contained episodes.

I swear, I plan on reviewing a show I have watched and do like.