a Lost cause

The final season of Lost is under way and, once again, I find myself drawn seemingly against my will to start watching. And once again, rather than start to reel in some of the multitude of dangling plot threads, they are straight back to work casting out even more. A bifurcated reality, with one where the plane crash never happened, and the island sits atlantis-like at the bottom of the ocean? Another band of "others", led by an enigmatic oriental gent, who looks and sounds like an extra from Big Trouble In Little China? Jack's father lost in transit? John Locke inhabited by an ancient and malevolent being from the island, and sahid "infected" by something similar? Enough already!

Of course, that the writers are more or less playing it by ear, making it up as they go along, has been fairly clear to even the most credulous fan since the second or third season. But what kept me coming back each time, apart from a small but nagging desire to find out "what happens", is the fact that, basically, it was pretty entertaining.

This season, however, it's feeling like more of a chore than ever before. It's just not fun any more, and I simply don't care enough to follow the diverging, looping, incoherent story lines. There's no shock factor -- a few cans of worms too many have been opened and now I'm just expecting the unexpected. Juliet is dead, supposedly, but they could bring her straight back to life next week and I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Sahid died, and then came to life, and I didn't bat eyelid. When you break too many rules -- introduce too many supernatural occurrences -- you sacrifice the value of any of them, and the suspension bridge of disbelief collapses under their weight. The show has become the t.v. equivalent of a Ponzi scheme, but one in which the biggest losers are the original investors -- the suckers who have been watching since day one.

I guess there's a good story-telling lesson in this: maybe the one enduring legacy of Lost will lie in its becoming a case study of how NOT to develop a storyline. Or, more worryingly, maybe the executives will look at viewing figures and conclude that this is precisely how to do it.

As for me, I've come too far to stop now. I'm just hoping there'll be another writers' strike and then maybe we'll get a shortened season...