We live in a age of great television, much better than anything I watched as a kid. I think the age of greatness began with Babylon 5 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, still two of the best long running shows in the medium's history. HBO's Deadwood was, by far, the best thing I have ever seen on film, and I do not expect its equal in my lifetime. But in the last several years we have Dr. Who from the BBC, the best example of a series revival I can think of, Heroes from NBC (best new idea), and ABC's Lost.
Lost has had an uneven run, so far. In its first two seasons, it was one of the most intense dramas I have seen. I watched the first season on rented dvds, and once had to bang on the door of Block Buster at closing time to get the next four episodes. The second season was almost as good. The series created and nurtured a profound sense of mystery, working itself out in the lives of a number of fascinating and seductive characters. Fans combed over the details like Monks glossing a text. My favorite novelty was a set of numbers that could generate power and wealth, and perhaps salvation, but also carried a terrible curse. That punched my buttons. So did the names of the characters, several of whom were named after major modern philosophers: John Locke, Desmond Hume, Rene Rousseau.
The third season was a disaster. Almost all of the things that made the series wonderful, including the numbers, were forgotten. I came very close to switching to one of those chef-war shows.
The current season is much better than that, but hardly back to the original standard. Part of the problem, of course, is that it is not hard to create a mystery, but very hard to develop a resolution that satisfies the longing that the mystery generated. That requires great story telling power. Another part of the problem is that modern cinema and TV are the result of many different minds working together. In the best case, a number of minor geniuses make up for the lack of one Shakespeare. The easiest way to make that work is to allow different writers to offer competing script ideas. I am guessing that that is the method behind Dr. Who. But when it comes to laying out the story arc, too many cooks can easily spoil the broth, and that is probably what soured Lost.
I still have hopes for the series. At least one episode has been as good as anything in the first two, and it turned on the drama of time travel and tragedy. I am a sucker for that kind of story. But for heaven's sake, can't J. J. Abrams take a good hard look at what made the first two seasons so compelling, and bring more of it back? If not, all is lost.
This last bit will make sense only to those who have watched the show from the beginning. When the show was still very hot, my son and I thought of marketing a Dharma Initiative Waffle Iron. It would produce waffles in the image of the Swan Station insignia. The waffle iron would include a DVD. A vaguely Asian guy in a white lab coat would explain to you how to operate the device, and what to do if hostiles attack. When the waffles are ready, the same alarm would sound as in the Swan Station. To open it, you would have to punch in the mysterious series of numbers. If you haven't watched the show, this may give you some idea of why you have been avoiding it.
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