On The Record

I want to go on the record about something.

In the last few years, fans of the television show LOST have debated back and forth the mysterious — solved and unsolved — of the island and its inhabitants. Some say the writers have left way too many things unanswered for too long. They see that as a sign of sloppiness and apathy towards the feelings of the fans.

We as a collective sit through week after week of polar bears, smoke monsters, hatches, the Dharma Initiative, the numbers, etc., if only to learn something new that makes sense of something old.

Eventually, people get sick of waiting week after week, then months at a time, for just morsels of information. They say in frustration, “I’m never watching that show again! There are too many mysteries left unsolved! %##&^!!!!”

Well, I’ve never been one of those people. As soon as I became an official LOST fan, I was in it ’til the end. Even after a lackluster second season, a weak 6-episode arc beginning the third season, and a 9-month break between season, I sit here as excited about the show as I was when I watched the pilot episode.

Some of you doubters will say, now that LOST is awesome again, “Well, I never really doubted it.” Bull. I read thread after thread on Lost Facebook pages and AIM conversations of the same, tired laments. I got so sick of hearing people whine and moan about the show that I just stopped listening.

I’ve never whined about a thing on that show. Never.

Of course, after every episode I would excitedly chat with friends and family about what the @#$^ had just happened, and get each other excited about what would happen next week. And that whole time, no matter how lame others said Lost was getting, I loved it. Every freaking episode.

I think it’s because I know I’m watching something historic. (Historic in terms of television.) LOST made a huge splash it its premiere — literally. I didn’t start watching it until after the first season, on DVD. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked. Anyone who watches it is. You just can’t stop watching it.

Now, since we know that they have a firm end date to the show, I know that LOST will be even greater. This is not one of those I-knew-it-all-along things. I’ve always had to try to convince the doubting Losties I know that no matter how they felt about the latest episode, they had to appreciate the show itself. Look at it from a wider perspective. Because from there, it’s quite beautiful.

So go on, doubters. Complain that there are just more mysteries to solve and not enough time to solve them. Go ahead. It’s your loss. While you sit at your computer and bitch about the Others, I will be happily absorbed in a great show.  I just wanted to make sure that you know I’m in it no matter what.

I don’t care which characters they kill off, how lame the latest twist is, what is behind the Dharma Initiative, or how much of a rip-off the grand finale might be. I just don’t care. LOST is just too good a show to diminish.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, watch the two-hour season 4 premiere tonight,  8/7c on ABC. It’s back, LOST fans. And it’s going to be awesome.