Lost Season Two
Lost is one of the most popular shows on modern television, an hourlong drama that combines elements of sci-fi, melodrama, adventure and thriller genres in a way that many, many people find to be near endlessly entertaining. Me personally, I’m not a big fan. I find J.J. Abrams – the creator and producer, as well as head writer of Lost – to produce insipid and simple work. In that regard, lost season two is a perfect example.
The whole season revolved around the cliffhanger from season one, namely “What was in the hatch?” Yes, Abrams and his writing staff answered the query early – in the opening sequence, actually – but that shot off only more questions as Lost Season Two progressed. Periodically the writes would drop hints at what was going on, but in fact their main goal seemed only to be as incrutable and obtuse as possible, with the goal of representing confusion as entertainment. It’s a tack taht I, as a television viewer, find to be endlessly annoying, but clearly (according to the ratings) many people find to be absolutely scintillating.
My main gripe with that kind of writing is that it cheapens the narrative of the story being told. Yes, you can throw in cliffhangers and wild twists and turns, but you do so at the expense of legitimate characterization and story development. Instead of getting people invested in the plot or the situation, you get them invested in the trick about to be played on them. It’s like going to see a magician; he distracts you with his left hand while he performs the trick with his right, and you get a momentary thrill of “ooh, how’d he do that?” with no more significant meaning behind anything that’s actually happened.
Then at some point, the writers realize that they’ve constructed nothing but a house of cards and have to further the plot somehow. Without exception this seems to be done by adding new, superfluous characters who function only as plot devices. That’s because they’ve spent more time coming up with “shocker” moments than actually developing a cohesive narrative into which their current characters can fit and advance. And Lost isn’t the only popular show to do that – Heroes is another.
So lost season two has some twists and turns, but in the way I look at it, it’s twists and turns to no point except for having twists and turns in and of themselves. Is that a good enough reason to purchase or even rent lost season two? Not for me.