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LOST: THE (HAPPY) END(ING)?
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I know, I know, “Lost isn’t a movie, so why are you bothering to review/critique it?”
Because above all I love and defend story; cinema is my medium of choice because it’s the premiere worldwide vehicle in which most human prefer to experience narrative. The small screen also uses the same techniques to express story, so it’s not a far stretch.
And, it could be said, that at the moment, May 25th, 2010, the quality of TV is WAYYYYYY better than what’s available on the big screen. And Lost has been the best example of that for the last six years.
The reason?
Movie’s make money at the Box Office; TV, through commercial advertising.
Films just need that opening weekend pop. TV shows need viewers to keep coming back each week.
It’s the one night stand vs. the long term relationship.
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For a movie, just give us someone hot, ready to put out, big explosions, CGI money shots, genre set pieces! We’ll have fun, exchange a pleasant “thank you” and never see each other again…maybe for a Redbox-booty-call-rental if we’re lonely.
For TV, we want to get to know the person. Who are they? What’s their backstory? Values? Why should I like them? Care about them? Cheer them on? Invest MY life and time with them week after week?
On the small screen we tune in every week because we care about the people, on the big screen, we just want an emotional rush.
It’s interesting: both mediums are profit motivated, but because the audience has different standards, which are shaped by the marketing and goals of each medium/corporation, the quality of story is affected in opposite ways.
On a 70 foot screen we want it to be filled with impressive, imaginative and ground breaking technological advancement, like…3-D…or really pretty people’s faces.
On the 50 inch LCD screen explosions don’t have the same power, so keep the pretty people, but make them 3-D…internally. After all, most of us watch TV in our living rooms, so it’s fitting that we invite real people that we form voyeuristic relationships with to join us in our homes for an hour once a week.
As a result, any self-respecting filmmaker who doesn’t want to feel like a Professional Climax Consultant has shifted from film to television. Story and character are highly regarded, there’s more creative control and there’s a chance to layer in exploration of the human condition.
In many ways, movies have become a visit to a Brothel while TV is more like talking with a priest/rabbi/spiritual advisor.
We can thank Lost for this.
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Let’s not get too crazy and say that there wasn’t great TV before Lost. NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The X-Files, ThirtySomething, The Wire, The Wonder Years and many others have proven the potential for quality on what FCC Chairman Newton Minow called in 1961 a “Vast Wasteland.”
And because I believe Lost proves that viewers ARE smart, or at least can be IF programming, like Lost REQUIRE us to rise up to ITS level instead of playing DOWN to market researched demographics, here’s the entire Minow speech – if this was a newspaper article my “editor” would cut this out because, “People don’t want to learn or think when reading a newspaper. They just want information quick, easy and fast.”
And that’s why newspapers are dinosaurs, on the verge of extinction. Here it is: (thank you internet for the power of the blog.)
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"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.
- But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.
- You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."
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It’s actually pretty scary to read this because it still applies, but in many ways it doesn’t and Lost is an example of hope for a medium that has so much potential. Lost has changed the way hour-long dramas deal with character, approach story and most importantly, view the audience – with respect.
It has standards and makes us accept them if we want to keep up. It doesn’t give in to falling ratings, sponsors dropping or complaints of being “too confusing.”
Interestingly enough, Lost may have changed the way hour long dramas will be approached in the future.
The old methodology (uh-oh, I violated another rule: “Unless it’s the New York Times, no mention ‘ology’ allowed – it sounds too smart”) of creating a new TV show followed the Story Lifecycle:
- NEW STIMULUS - Pilot episode presents a new show to the viewing public. Characters are introduced and the story/conflict/objective established.
- Preferably this is a conflict is open ended a.k.a. episodic, so that many episodes can be made.
- Examples: The Fugitive – find the One Armed Man, The A-Team – escape military capture/help innocent people, Fringe – Solve mysteries/discover truth behind “The Pattern.” The examples goes on and on.
- ADDICTION – The show is a hit, viewers love the story/character/drama stimulus it provides and can’t get enough. It’s here where ratings are highest and advertising/sponsor revenue peaks. At this point imitations and clones are created to mimic the success on other networks or in other time slots. They usually fail because while it’s easy to copy a format or idea it’s impossible to capture the same soul and spirit that birthed the idea and connect to the audience (Invasion, The Nine, FlashForward).
- ADAPTATION – Just like diving into cold waters on a hot summer day, at first it’s a shock to the system, but after a while we stop noticing, so too does a show lose its impact on us, especially if it’s the same characters and objective and opponents – how long can the A-Team stay on the run? How long will it take for Richard Kimball to find the One Armed Man? How long can Locke keep pushing the button? This is where advertisers question if their money is being spent well and as a result the network puts pressure on to “bump” the ratings up somehow.
- THE END/REJUVINATION – At this point there’s two places to go: 1) End the show. The idea has been explored, the conflict/objective has culminated and the character’s journey is at a natural end. 2) Start the Story Lifecycle over again by adding new dramatic elements.
- This is the “Cousin Oliver Effect” ah-la The Brady Bunch Jump the Shark moment when a new family member was brought in “spice things
- up.”
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Lost suffered the effects of this old way of thinking for its first 4 seasons until….they announced an end date! And that’s the biggest most significant contribution Lost has given to Television Dramas: A glimpse of what can happen when a series knows how long it has to tell its story.
This is my wish for the future of TV Production – Know how many episodes there will be BEFORE a series starts!
Back in the 80s there was something called the “Mini-Series.” Usually it would be a two-night event, two hours each, shown Sunday and Monday, or to really boost the tension, Sunday and Tuesday. The newly rebooted alien invasion show V was originally broadcast in this format.
Imagine a TV world where hour long dramas had a defined end date? Shows would be invigorated and so would we! Call them…MEDIUM-SERIES? Too long for the mini-title, but too short to be just a standard series.
Now, not every show would benefit from this. Law & Order is an idea that works week to week and can go on for 20 years because it’s very topical and in many ways is a small complete movie every week; it’s the same characters, but in different situations with new opponents.
The thing about Capitalism is that if it finds something profitable, like a bottle of toothpaste, it wants to squeeze every last ounce of bank out of the tube before throwing it away.
If a series remained popular year after year – sort of like a fictional dramatic version of American Idol – the network would fight to keep it going – much like NBC did for Seinfeld during season 9 when Jerry was offered a million an episode to stay on the air.
That’s the struggle of Commercial Art. Art is a manifestation of spirit; it lives as long as it needs to. When a value is put on it, corruption begins, motivations are skewered and we the audience can feel this lack of…honesty.
Lost may have just provided an ideal middle ground. Everyone wins. Networks have popular, profitable programming and the audience gets solid character based entertainment.
Seasons five and six of Lost have been the best since its first, and that’s because 2, 3 and 4 were stuck in the ratings motivated limbo of “keep viewers hooked” storytelling.
ABC aired the “enhanced” Pop-Up-Video style Pilot episode of Lost before the Finale. Watching these back to back one truth becomes obvious – the writers had it all planned out from the beginning.
Of course the show opens with Jack’s eye opening and ends with it closing! How could we have NOT seen that coming?!
It’s his story of redemption, his test lasted 121 episodes.
It should have been 60.
That would have been a focused, intense powerful story:
The plane crashes, smoke monster shows up, Rousseau shows up, hatch is discovered, button is pushed, Dharma Initiative revealed, Hanso Foundation revealed, orientation videos watched, Others met, history of Dharma vs Others explored, rescue boat shows up, Oceanic Six return home, they go back, time traveling takes those on the Island back, Oceanic Six return to the Island, smoke monster takes John’s body, the final battle to keep him on the Island leads to the end.
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But, with the flashback parallel Watchmen inspired storytelling, the exploration of character and the J.J. Abrams Alias inspired episode to episode cliffhangers, ABC had a massive hit and wanted to milk it.
So the problem for the writers: What do we do until the final episode?
The solution?
Draaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggggggggg things out for as loooooooonnnnnnnggggggggg as possible.
Enter: the number entering every 108 minutes.
Enter: the orientation films.
Enter: The Others.
Enter: the survivors from the tail end of the plane? Really???
Enter: very, very, very, very few answers.
Enter: more and more and more questions.
It was creative, it was mind bending, it was….slow.
In many ways, the structure of the show was suited for the milk-it nature of the TV serial drama. Because only 50% of each episode dealt with the present mystery with the other half dealing with flashback character development, the “bigger picture” was revealed at half speed.
Even though this was the motivation, it was still impressively and creatively executed.
That episode where we found out how Jack got his tattoo? Ultimately, it never tied into anything in the bigger picture, but still, great episode.
John and his Con Man father, awesome human drama, but, never tied in to the “big” questions. But hey, at least it got resolved!
The final episode too obviously titled, “The End” chose to focus on closing the emotional journey.
Was that a bit of a cheat? Yeah, a little bit.
Was it satisfying? Yes, mostly.
Which is another great lesson from Lost: The emotional journey is what’s most important.
I believe that totally, but at the same time, if we follow the show for six years and suffer through the mysteries, wonder about what it all means during the summer breaks and never get the big answers – it feels like we got cheated.
Worst of all it feels like we got tricked.
Looking back at it all now, it becomes obvious that the “questions” and “mysteries” were just ways to “hook” viewers. They were promises that were never made good on.
That’s the contract between show and viewer: We give our time to watch, it makes good on what it promises to deliver.
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From the beginning Lost was doomed for disappointment in that respect because the questions it asked ignited our imaginations so wildly that once a choice had to be made on “what” this or that means or is, our response was bound to be, “Really?”
But I’d rather have defined answers instead of vague ideas.
So here’s what I still wonder about:
- Walt!!!
- Why was Walt built up to have all these powers, or, potential, and just forgotten about. Yeah, I know the kid actor had a growth spurt, but, come on, make something up. He’s a huge part of the first two seasons and he was pretty much thrown away.
- The Dharma Initiative & Hanso Foundation – What was it all about? What did it accomplish? Fail to do? The Hanso Foundation is still in existence? What’s up with them? Yeah, Ben killed all the Dharma people on the island but was that it? That thread was cut too soon and with not enough answers provided.
- The Artifacts – Who created the statue? The room of light? The temple? Etc…
- The Smoke Monster – WHAT was it? Yeah Jacob’s brother went into the light and Smokey came out? And, WHY did he want to get off the island so bad? Evil already exists in the world, so it’s not like he’s gonna make it a darker place, right? Let’s be honest, the final fight with Jack and Locke/Smokey was pretty lame. It was too quick and was missing that final moment of meaning between the two of them.
- The Numbers & The Valenzetti Equation! We know these numbers are part of a formula that’s suppose to predict the end of the world and the purpose of the Dharma Initiative was to conduct experiments to change the equation. That’s a lot of info. But beyond that, how do the numbers tie into the “candidates?” Why do they have a mysterious power and overall “bad luck?”
That’s just the tip of this mountain of questions that will never be answered, until the “Lost Secrets Revealed” book comes out for a final profit gambit by ABC.
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It’s a minor gripe found amongst a sea of praise, of which, is the fact that Lost did something very brave: it explored the nature of existence on prime time television.
Earth is the Island. We are all stranded on this rock, with no instructions, with no guides and the more we discover the answers always lead to more questions. All we have is each other to keep us grounded, to give it all meaning, to make it bearable. And of course, there’s always the struggle between good and evil.
It’s an eternal struggle that hasn’t yet found an answer in real life, so why should we expect Lost to have it?
And that’s the point of the show. We are Jack. On this Island Earth, each of us are the main character of our “life movie.” Regardless of religious belief, or, non-religious belief, we all face our final church gathering in some from or another, alive or dead, how we live lives with us…and those we encounter in our time here.
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Let’s look to one of the most recent Lost-ish big screen mind bending soul searching stories of recent memory, The Matrix. There’s a scene when Neo tells Morpheus he was, “Looking for an answer,” to which Morpheus responds, “It’s the questions that drive us.”
That sums up Lost and it sums up life.
In many ways Lost was the perfect post 9-11 story. Subconsciously we responded to a plane disaster where people tragically died, where a smoke monster as dark as burning jet fuel rising up from a tower terrorized everybody, and where the survivors wondered, “What do we do now?” “What does this mean?” “Why is this happening?” “Will things ever go back to the way they were?”
Not many Pop Culture stories have addressed the collective psychic pain the horrific 9-11 attacks have caused. We may have responded to Lost because it explored the wake of a disaster; with the struggle of reason vs. faith, destiny vs. fate and past vs. present. It reflected, so subtly, our world, our predicament, our fears, frustrations, hope...the journey we’re all on.
The Island will always be here, but we won’t. While we are here all we can do is make sure the light doesn’t go out.
We are all candidates, all Jacob. We don’t know the “why” of our existence here on this Island, but we do know the “what” we have to do.
Which, now that I think about it, leads to one of the few clear cut answers Lost ever gave:
“If we can’t live together…we’re gonna die alone.” – Jack Shephard (Season 1, Episode 5).
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