Sadly, I have started watching Lost again

No thanks to Hulu, and against my better judgement, I have gotten sucked back into Lost. I’m about five episodes into the second season. If I recall correctly, I have a few more episodes to go before I get to the point where originally I gave up on the show.

There were a number of reasons I stopped watching Lost, but the biggest reason was that the show clearly had no idea where it was going.

Just like The X-Files and Alias before it, Lost hooks viewer by making us think that there is some big, overarching explanation for everything. If we just pay close enough attention, we can figure out its secrets and understand what’s really going on. It’s this sort of thing that keeps fans parsing every bit of dialogue, pausing the show to inspect what’s going on in the background and what book happens to be sitting on a table at the edge of the frame, and sifting through message board posts.

In reality, the writers start out with, at best, a vague outline of where story is headed, and then spin that any way they can to keep the show going as it gets renewed and personnel come and go.

The appeal of these sorts of shows really isn’t much different than that of your average conspiracy theory. When faced with a confusing world, people like to think that if only they can figure out the secret patterns that guide everything, then they’ll understand the world and their places within it. With real-world conspiracies, people either buy into them completely and see every turn of events as further evidence of the conspiracy, or they realize that coincidence, stupidity, and unconnected self-interest are the more likely drivers of world affairs.

I suppose the hope is that if one sticks with the show long enough, either A) All will be revealed, or B) the characters and episode-to-episode plot will be so engaging that we won’t notice that they’re just making shit up as they go.