Thursday, January 17, 2008

Why does this make me like LOST more?

This isn't the newest news, but ABC's Lost in 8:15 summary is floating around out there to help viewers catch up/remember where things stand with the Flight 815 survivors as the network prepares to launch the show's new season.

This is a clever little video that had me chuckling out loud from atop the elliptical machine at the gym the other day (thanks to one of the great additions to my life as a result of convergent media culture, the video iPod--more on that another time). As I watched, I thought how much more I like the show in this summary than I do during the episodes proper. I think this is because the recap video has a sense of humor about itself and places the series' bizarre narrative in what I think is its most fitting context--that of a pulpy, over-the-top, melodramatic yarn. I think the show works really well on this level and enjoy it as such, but I also think that it (and much of the critical discourse around it) takes itself too seriously, too self-importantly.
Lost, like so many other contemporary prime time series, is trying so hard to be "quality," to be "important," to be "cinematic," that it fails to recognize its real strengths, which lie in schlockier, pulpier, more histrionic realms. Lost in 8:15 embraces such pleasures openly. It made me wish for more of the same in the series itself.

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