‘Lost’ found its audience among USU students
The microwave is humming with the promise of warm, affordable popcorn. The room is filled with rampant discussion and the usage of bewildering terminology like “others,” “smoke monster” and “Dharma Initiative.”
A number of tense students are collectively clutching any piece of nearby furniture they can get their hands on while they stare intently into the ethereal glow of the television screen. Everyone is careful not to blink, not even once, for fear of what they might miss. Yes, a new season of “Lost” has begun.
Premiering on ABC in the fall of 2004, “Alias” creator J.J. Abrams and television newcomer Damon Lindenof’s conspiracy and character-driven drama about a group of plane-crash survivors confronted by supernatural perils on a mysterious island has become a campus-wide phenomenon and gained a considerable following within the USU student community.
“It’s an interesting concept,” said undeclared sophomore Kellyn Bailey.”Bringing different people from all kinds of backgrounds and situations together to see how they interact. On the island it doesn’t matter who you
were. It just matters who you are.
From Sawyer, the wise-cracking Southern con-man, to Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, the laid-back heavyweight with a big heart, it’s clear that a large portion of the show’s appeal is derived from the island’s ensemble cast of complex, multi-faceted characters.
“I love Sawyer,” said Morgan Rindlisbacher, a sophomore majoring is elementary education. “I don’t care what the other characters think about him.
Although the show reveals that there are 49 survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, “Lost” focuses primarily on a pivotal group of 14 individuals that are often forced to confront their troubled pasts in the form of recurrent flashbacks and often through the many unexplainable events that occur on the island. The show’s title not only refers to the survivors’ situation on the island, but also to their positions in life before the crash.
The group’s doctor and de facto leader, Jack Shepard is haunted by a rocky relationship with his alcoholic father and even witnesses his father on the island despite his recent death in Australia.
Before landing on the island Charlie Pace, a has-been British rock star from the one-hit-wonder band “Drive Shaft,” develops an addiction to heroin after helping his brother overcome the addiction. Heroin becomes a recurring temptation for Charlie after he winds up traveling to the airliner’s cockpit to retrieve the heroin he left in the plane’s midsection bathroom.
Kate Austen, a mysterious girl revealed to be a prisoner of a U.S. Marshall during the flight, lives with a dark secret that circles back to her troubled family life.
The show’s thematic penchant for dualism and dysfunctional family situations reinforces the idea that the survivors of Flight 815 are not only lost on an island, but adrift in their own personal lives. And as a transitional period in many people’s lives, attending college presents situations that would allow many students to relate to the island’s survivors. Taking on greater personal responsibility, moving away from home, and facing the challenges of higher education can lead many people to feel a little “lost.”
“Lost” also remains one of the only drama programs on television that rewards observant viewers. The show offers several “blink and you’ll miss it” easter egg moments including the appearance of other central characters during flashback sequences.
Many of these moments relate specifically to the presence of the mysterious Dharma Initiative on the island and are important to the show’s building mythology.
Fans have been theorizing about the purpose of the island since the show’s inception and the addition of new elements like the Dharma Initiative and their cryptic benefactor the Hanso Foundation in the second season has helped to wet the appetite of the show’s many conspiracy theorists.
“Lost” is like a big math equation with missing variables,” said Matthew Johnson, a sophomore majoring in business administration. “Your job as a viewer is to solve it.”
Lindenoff acknowledged the “Lost” fan community and likened the interactivity provided by fan reaction to the show’s major revelations and brief easter eggs to a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
This interactivity was also apparent with longstanding debate among fans about the show’s numerous references to literature and how it hinted at important plot points.
Recently, the interactive nature of “Lost” has been taken to the next level with “Bad Twin,” a tie-in novel that actually appeared on the show in manuscript form, and the “Lost Experience.”
An “alternate reality game” designed to keep “Lost” fans occupied during the summer months between season two and three, the “Lost Experience” was a multi-phase combination of viewer content and subliminal marketing that required players to cross-reference clues from television and newspaper advertisements, websites, and voicemail to discover secrets about the show.
The ongoing summer distraction did yield earth-shattering results for “Lost” fans: the purpose behind Hurley’s enigmatic numbers.
But, like any of the show’s ongoing mysteries, the revelations only lead to more questions.
“The whole show is insanity,” said Mike Martinez, a junior majoring in secondary education. “It gives you enough to satisfy your craving, but it still leaves you wanting more.”
-mackp@cc.usu.edu