Lost Withdrawal

As much as I criticize the dismal state of our culture, I should confess to being occasionally entertained by Hollywood. For example, I'm addicted to the ABC-TV show Lost, which aired its Season 3 Finale episode last night. (If you haven't seen it yet and want to remain unspoiled, stop reading now.)

For those who are unaware, Lost is about a group of people whose plane crashes on a tropical island, leaving the stranded. Many strange things happen and the series has turned into a massive puzzle with multiple layers of mystery. It's complicated. How many other TV shows have their own online encyclopedia?

More important, Lost is about human emotions and relationships: family, love, sacrifice, faith, and hope. We get to know the characters through flashbacks to their prior lives. All are faulty in various ways. Thrust into a terrible situation they must share with strangers, they must live together - or else die alone.

I'm a little bit shook up after last night's episode because my favorite character died. While it may have been the most dramatic and heroic death ever seen on network TV, and was long foreseen, I will miss Charlie because I saw some of myself in him. No, I'm not a heroin addict, or a musician. But we have a few other things in common and it was interesting to see him deal with those challenges. I feel kind of like I've lost a friend.

We need more TV programming like Lost. It's dramatic, entertaining, and (more or less) clean. It is also immensely profitable for the network and the producers, so you'd think they would get the message and dump some of the drivel that fills the rest of the week.

The producers recently made a deal with ABC to continue Lost for three more seasons and then bring it to a definite ending. Season 3 is now complete and Season 4 won't begin until February 2008. That gives us all eight long, frustrating months to ponder the mysteries of the Island. On the other hand, I will now have more time for blogging. :)

For those in the know: who was in that coffin? Post your theories below.