LOST Reveals Scifi FANgS

[D-Roc]

As we move further away from Lost's amazing three-part finale, I find myself tempted to analyze the season as a whole. I truly believe that the show was firing on all cylinders in its fourth year. The writers managed to strike a perfect balance between plot momentum and intriguing character dramas, while also broadening the show's mythology and juggling numerous timelines. People will look back on Lost's fourth season as not only a great year of television, but one that completely changed the direction of the series. After three years of teasing us with numerous sci-fi possibilities, Lost finally came bursting out of the science fiction closet in season 4. The decision to embrace the sci-fi may have cost the series a few fans, but I think it's destined to make the final two years of the show even better.

To examine Lost's sci-fi roots, we first have to take a look back at the career of co-creator J.J. Abrams. Abrams often creates what I like to think of as "sneak attack sci-fi." His projects tend to have a shell of normalcy on the outside, but the longer you watch them the more you start to realize you're watching hardcore science fiction. This is one of the reasons he's so successful and respected. With few exceptions (Star Wars being a huge one), Americans just don't seem willing to embrace complicated sci-fi. Transformers has about as much science fiction as most people care to handle. This is why I love Abrams' work. He hides the medicine that people don't like to take inside tasty candy, and often tricks them into loving genre entertainment.

Most people think that Abrams started smuggling sci-fi onto television with Alias, but his love for the genre even shone through on Felicity. There was one installment filmed entirely in black and white to resemble an old Twilight Zone episode, and the final plot line of the series actually hinged on time travel. These digressions didn't fit in as well on a down to earth show about a girl in college, but they were interesting nonetheless.

Next came Alias, which still remains one of my favorite shows of all time due to its comic book inspired wackiness. Much like Lost, Alias started out with a few hints of weirdness, like a strange floating red ball of liquid. However, for the most part it remained a relatively normal kick-butt spy show for at least half a season. With the audience comfortably settled in, the show then went on to include ancient prophecies, evil clones, red-eyed zombies, brain transplants, people hunting for immortality, and a thousand other impossible things I don't have time to list. Some people turned against the show as it got more sci-fi, but I completely loved it.

With that epic preamble out of the way, let's talk about Lost. I'm not giving Abrams much credit for anything that's happened on the show, mainly because he's had very little involvement since the first season. However, he did help to develop the concept, and Lost is one of the most successful examples of sneak attack sci-fi that I can think of. It's certainly my favorite out of his numerous projects, and obviously the one that will have the strongest impact on television history.

For a show that often receives the complaint that "nothing happens," it's mind boggling to think of how much we've learned since Lost's pilot episode. Like I mentioned with Alias, there were certainly hints of the sci-fi to come, but we definitely weren't thinking of time travel and frozen donkey wheels back then. There was a polar bear in the jungle, a 16-year-old transmission, and something deadly in the trees. We knew something was weird about the island, but we truly had no idea what we were in for.

The beginning of Lost contained enough strange elements to hook genre fans, but not enough to scare off the sci-fi haters. The show wisely allowed the audience to fall in love with the characters throughout the first season, and slowly (some thought too slowly) started setting up the mysteries of the island. People who normally wouldn't dream of watching science fiction tuned in to Lost because it was a great character drama, and they became hooked on a genre show without even realizing it.

It's safe to say that Lost got weirder as it went on, though I'd say that it really started flashing its tasty sci-fi core with Desmond's time travel story line in season 3. As Lost became more complicated and started to embrace its sci-fi elements, a lot of people tuned out. The show has lost about three or four million viewers since season 1, but I'd say that's to be expected. A lot of people don't want a show that requires tons of thought, and others just aren't into anything that involves time traveling bunnies. I can't blame people for thinking the show's not their cup of tea, though I can certainly decide not to hang out with them. If you don't enjoy time traveling bunnies we probably don't have much in common.

While the first three seasons contained elements of science fiction, I think that season 4 is when Lost became hardcore sci-fi. There's simply no hiding it now. There are ghosts, people who can talk to ghosts, confirmed time travel, and giant wheels that can move islands. There may not be spaceships and robots, but it's obvious that nearly anything is possible on this show.

Season 4 of Lost will always be remembered as the year the series pulled back the curtain and showed off its sci-fi roots. Because of that, it's been a somewhat divisive season among the fan base. Some people think that the show gets more ridiculous as it goes along, while others see the sci-fi as the show's natural evolution. I'm obviously in the latter camp. I've heard some people complain that Lost suddenly became a science fiction show this year, which is just silly to me. It was a science fiction show from the very first episode. It's simply more obvious now.

As we move into the final two seasons of Lost, I'm certain that the sci-fi is going to become a more central element of the series. There's no turning back now. Sometime in the next two seasons the mysteries of the island will all be explained, and that's going to require the sci-fi to move to the forefront. If you're not a big fan of that particular element of the series, I'd say you're in for some disappointment. Frozen donkey wheels may seem positively quaint compared to some of the reveals to come.

That's the problem with sneak attack sci-fi: Even when you hide the science fiction inside a shell of normalcy, a lot of people still reject it once it becomes too apparent. Lost simply isn't the show for those people. It's absolutely brilliant science fiction, and after season 4 it's out, proud, and ready to get even weirder. Bring it on.

Source

Interesting. I must say however, to me LOST has always been a sci-fi show..I've always assumed that it had sci-fi roots, so i'm suprised that so many people either didn't realise it or have been put off from it in Season 4.

Also, it's perhaps interesting to consider that the underlying scifi premise is perhaps (mainly) JJ Abrams baby, whereas the deep character development seems to be 'Darlton's' contribution to the hybrid.

[monster-eats-pilot]

I read the first line and got bored

Can I have a summary?

[D-Roc]

Originally Posted by monster-eats-pilot

I read the first line and got bored

Can I have a summary?

Some Lost fans have apparently been put off the scifi nature of the show which exploaded onto our screens during S4. The writer points out that Lost has always had scifi roots and it's just that it used sneak-attack scifi in the early seasons, to lure in unsuspecting fans who don't like that genre

[lost-lover]

MEP.
I've always thought of it as a sci-fi show though. But alot of that does ring true, my Dad stopped watching in Season 3, actually right after desmond started having his flashes and predicting Charlie's death.

[monster-eats-pilot]

I'm lazy Ok?
Cheers Roco I will read it at some point and comment properly.

[lost-lover]

lol

[monster-eats-pilot]

Read it now

I've never actually thought of it as being 'sci-fi' but then again I don't watch something just because of it's genre. It doesnt put me off knowing it is. I really don't see how people can just stop watching it though?

[Miss Austen]

All I can say about those people who have gone off the show is:

QUITTERS!!!

I don't really care what genre a show is. If it grabs my attention, if it has interesting characters and good plot development, I'll stick with it. Nothing in Season 4 has put me off - quite the reverse.

It seems silly to quit watching the show now. Have they always thought that smoke monsters, mad French chicks babbling about a sickness that killed everyone and people putting a code into a computer every 108 minutes was The Archers or Coronation Street or something?!

[monster-eats-pilot]

I totally agree

[harvey107]

I never thought of it as a sci-fi show but as a show that follows the laws of physics and known Einstein's theories

[KatesFate]

The people who complain about Lost being too sci-fi or too confusing are the same people who watch reality tv, have never read a book, or are just so plain lazy and/or so stupid that they can't be bothered to watch something on television that may just force them into having too think. Most people don't want to have to "work" while watching a tv show.

I am constantly amazed by the number of people I've spoken to who don't understand Lost AT ALL!! They can't wrap their brains around the flashback/present/flashforward concept. I find it hard to speak to these people because I believe them all to be morons. jk

I agree with all of you that Lost has been a sci-fi show from Season 1. The whispers, the monster, hatches with computers. Hello!!! How could people not realize it was going in that direction. I for one enjoy shows that require more than a comfy chair and a blank stare whether they are science fiction or not.

[D-Roc]

I've always thought of Lost as scifi..but as the scifi aspect being one element to a greater whole, which includes wonderful drama, character-focus, philosophy, humour to name a few.

The scifi element allows the show to keep pushing the boundaries and allowing the 'what if?' to be possible. It's such a clever show, and it's a shame that so many people just don't get it, or don't want to invest some brain cells to understand it.

The wonderful thing about Lost (one of many actually) is that I never feel as though i'm watching show which requires one to be a scifi nerd (thank heavens!). I don't feel constrained or self-conscious of the fact that i'm dabbling in geek territory. I don't feel that my interest in the show is constrained in any way. With Lost I feel free to appreciate every aspect which makes up this beautiful ball of fun. Much like our planet, there is not one race, religion, culture, creed or point of view..but many, which when put together = enlightenment. I'm glad to be enlightened by Lost.