Lost

I'm glad I passed on this show when it first came out. It saved me two seasons worth of outrage. I've never found a show that I liked so much that pissed me off even more. Most of the time, Lost gives you intriguing, deeply-layered mystery intertwined with solid character drama. The rest of the time, it gives you a "What the fuck?" complex, often leading to food and other objects chucked at the TV screen in an unbridled rage.

The first season is incredibly good. You get a few dozen characters crashed down on an uninhabited (?) island. Each character has an air of mystery to them, and each episode picks a particular character and delves into their backstory, with each flashback giving a little insight into the character. The characters have to work together to survive, not just the obligatory "man vs. nature" conflicts of finding food, water, and shelter, but the "man vs. weird shit that keeps happening" conflicts of fighting polar bears, hallucinations, and smoke monsters. The island itself becomes a character, because something is clearly messed up, and unraveling the many mysteries of the island becomes the driving force of the - -

Wait a minute, did he just say "Smoke Monsters?" What in the frilly hell is a smoke monster?

This is what I'm talking about. The show is flippin' crazy. Sometimes, in a hella good way. Sometimes, it's just plain maddening. A good mystery series presents a bunch of compelling questions the characters go about solving as the show progresses. A really good mystery series solves some questions while presenting new and equally compelling questions to continue the show. Lost falls into the latter category, more or less by default, because it answers questions at a rate of about 3 per season, and raises roughly another 15 scrillion per season.

At some point, you start thinking that maybe the writers have no answers, and their basic strategy is to throw new mysteries in there willy nilly to leave the viewers thinking "Wow, this show is so good, I have no earthly idea what the hell is going on in any part of this show whatsoever." I'm only about half-sure that's not what's happening.

By now, in mid-Season 3, some of the loose ends are starting to mosey on toward one another, providing a vague framework of potential answers. That's the best I can give you.

Also, Locke is an excellent character. The guy is vague and cryptic, philosophical and faith-based, which is fun. At the same time, he's got a dagger collection to rival that of Cliff Thompson. He goes through some changes as the series progresses, not all of them good, but most of them necessary. All in all, probably my favorite character. (Except maybe Mr. Eko and his Jesus stick.)

All in all, Lost is an excellent show. It always keeps you guessing, and when it finally pays off its secrets, they usually play out pretty well. The writers pull the curtain back inch by agonizing inch, but so far what they've revealed is pretty tantalizing. Like a book that you can't possibly set down until you've consumed every word, and would then cap somebody and pry the next chapter out of their cold, dead fingers to feed the fix. This show seriously leave you fiending.

My advice for those of you who haven't seen it yet - wait until it's over, then get the DVD sets. Otherwise you'll have to wait, episode to episode, season to season, cliffhanger to diabolical cliffhanger. Or maybe that's half the fun.

Fuckin' smoke monsters.

Next in the Series: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip