Lost (TV series)

Lost is a popular television series made by the American Broadcasting Company.

The series follows the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, which crashes on an unidentified island in the Pacific Ocean. The group of strangers must learn to cooperate in order to survive the island's challenges, which are vastly more complicated than initially thought. Despite the standard "desert island" scenario, the plot involves much more than mere survival against the elements, with the castaways encountering several mysteries and ever-deepening conspiracies to deal with, as well as bizarre occurences and mysterious phenomena meeting them at every turn.

In the first three seasons, each episode typically centered around one character, with events on the island mixed with flashbacks to important parts of that person's life before the crash. Later in the series, however, this formula was altered several times, in ways that were appropriate to the radically-changing nature of the plot.

Lost began its first season on September 22, 2004, and is scheduled to end with the last episode of its sixth season on May 18, 2010. The announcement for the show's end date, including the number of remaining episodes and layout of the remaining seasons, was made in May 2007, close to the end of the show's third season. The show's creators had been urging the network to agree to this relatively rare arrangement for some time, and explaining this move, executive producer Damon Lindelof remarked that "We always envisioned 'Lost' as a show with a beginning, middle and end. By officially announcing exactly when that ending will be, the audience will now have the security of knowing that the story will play out as we've intended."

The show's popularity is such that the sixth season premiere, which aired February 2, 2010, forced the Obama administration to move up the annual State of the Union address to avoid scheduling conflicts.

Lost makes unusual demands on its audience's ability to keep track of a long-term, detailed plot, and perhaps as a result of this has gradually lost viewership, from 15.5 million in the first season to an average of 11 million in its fifth season. However, it has received excellent reviews since it began, and still at its lowest point has enjoyed an audience of over eight million viewers. Additionally, the show's complexity is clearly the draw for this loyal fanbase, and has inspired numerous websites, such as "Lostpedia" and "DarkUFO," which keep detailed analyses of each aspect of the plot and characters. Also noteworthy is that much in the way of Christian imagery and themes permeate the show's narrative. For example, one important character's name is "Christian Shepherd," and several characters exemplify the conflict between science and faith. Overall, the theme of good vs. evil is predominant, with other Christian themes such as redemption and judgment playing major roles. One of the show's executive producers, Carlton Cuse, has often stated publically that he's a Christian whose faith informs his writing.

External Links

• The Internet Movie Database's Lost entry
• "Lostpedia," a complete wiki devoted to the show