I'm LOST

I am now an official fan of Lost. It's brilliantly written, performed, and directed. It is definitely earning a spot in my top three, along with Deadwood and Babylon 5. Unfortunately, as much as I love Firefly, this is just too good.

Lost has a great ensemble cast, and each episode sheds some new light on a character through flashbacks while still advancing the current timeline. Before watching any of the show, I knew about the flashbacks and was afraid that it would jar me too much out of the main story, or that it would focus too much on the past and not enough on what's happening now. Fortunately those fears have been put to rest. In fact, the flashbacks are well timed to teach us just enough new information about a character so that our perception of their reality shifts at key moments, adding a lot of tension and drama above what we might have received through more conventional storytelling devices.

There are a lot of subtle cues and hints scattered around the show that wind up being significant later on. Lost is also using more than just the TV show as a medium. Fake commercials, mixed in with the real commercials, reference phony companies that have real websites, which can give you clues to what's going on in the show. There have also been book and music tie-ins as well.

Naturally, everyone who watches Lost winds up with a favorite character or two. John Lock is far and away my favorite, played to perfection by Terry O'Quinn. Geeky friends may recognize Dominic Monaghan ( Merry from The Lord of the Rings ) and Mira Furlan ( Delenn from Babylon 5 ), two actors that were well cast in their Lost roles.

Anyway, enough rambling. I started with the pilot last night, and I'm about to watch episode 14. If I work hard at sitting on my ass, I can watch both seasons in time to watch the second season finale on Wednesday night. Bottom line is that anyone who's ever enjoyed a movie or TV show I've suggested in the past really needs to check this thing out. It is well worth getting lost in. ( Cheesy pun intended. )