The following of Lost

I was reading Sarah Symes blog on Lost and I related very strongly to it. Actually my experience was almost identical. I began as a follower to the series, but with homework and other extracurricular activities quickly could not keep up with the complexity of the show. After continuously hearing so much about how great the series was, I too decided to attempt to sit down and watch season one. I failed to make it as far as Sarah, the interweaving of characters and the feeling of understanding and quickly being wiped off your feet left me unsatisfied… so I walked away that very day.

I watch a lot of shows that are dramatic narratives that have continuous seasons, so I am kind of at a loss of words to why Lost did not spark my interest further. I had a difficult time relating directly to any of the characters, my like in emotional involvement is what separated me from all those who are passionate about the show. The characters seemed rough around the edges, from the very being I felt a lot of distrust toward some of the strangeness in the characters. I am a viewer that has to feel connected to a characters actions and emotions in order to keep coming back – like Dr. Cudi in House. I’m sure many people side with characters but the twisting and turning and surprises, not to mention certain aspects that didn’t make sense (like the polar bear in the premiere) left me kind of doubtful and questioning, however I really didn’t care if I got an answer or not because it was so strange to me.

Again, I relate to Sarah. All of my friends were avid viewers of the show. I saw their devotion to the story line as well as the characters. Obviously I am one of view who feels this way, proved by the tremendous success. As Stacey Abbott implies, Lost is potentially the first time that a ‘cult’ series has been introduced but has always been geared toward mainstream audiences – and proved success. The fact that the network had the ability to spend so much money to advertise I think also brought in curiosity from many people. As far as articles go to say about advertising in movie theaters, this is one in few, well, as far as I know. The only time in my memory that I have seen a television ad as a preview is for My Generation, which is actually starting tomorrow. Referencing Abbott once again, it seems that the creators has to mask the science-fiction (‘cult’ draw) more than the fantasy. I hold this opinion strongly because I think it is easy to get lost in a fantasy world, however it takes a certain, select audience to fill the other end of the spectrum.

Following my starting to write about this and after reading the article I was interested to see if there was an easy accessable place to blog. Immediately I stumbled upon http://www.lostblog.net/, where many, many people blogged weekly throughout the entire series. Here individuals discussed opinions, expectations, it was an outlet for them to discuss, be reinforced and sometimes challenged on their perspectives. Even from seeing this I know see the ‘cult’ side even more greatly, the amount of outside discussion, effort, and interest that went into the show is like nothing I have ever seen, or been able to find before.