I tried to watch an episode of Lost while visiting my parents house last year and my mom walked in and did the “who’s she?” “what’s he doing now?” “why does that statue have four toes?” questioning routine, which simply will NOT work with Lost. There is no quick premise that you can explain during a commercial break.
For those of us who are obsessed with the show (even at a casual, not-up-to-the-Doc-Jensen-challenge level), it’s hard to imagine that there are people out there who haven’t been following Locke and Ben’s every move. What the heck would these newbies think if they tried to jump into the show?
Newsweek recruited some of its staffers who have never seen Lost to attempt to explain scenes from the show. It’s hilarious. I especially like the New Yorker who thinks that the only white animals are cats and dogs (time to get to Central Park Zoo, buddy!), asks what everyone on The Island does for toilet paper, and says Sawyer looks “like Fabio.” And the woman who says that Ben “looks like a pedophile,” and the guy who calls Jack “Party of Five guy.”
Lost watchers, have you tried to make any converts with season 6, and if so, how did you prep them (DVD box sets, recap specials, or hand-drawn timelines)? And non-Lost watchers, has anyone tried and failed to convert you this year? If you were a newbie tuning in for the season 6 premiere this week, how confused were you?
Funny stuff.
I feel like if you’ve NEVER seen an episode of “Lost” it’s absolutely hopeless.
However, if you watched the first two seasons of the show and dropped out sometime in season 3 (not really unusual), there’s at least a chance I could catch somebody up, though they could never FULLY appreciate the show without seeing every single episode.
For what it’s worth, I was surprised to find out that I had an easier time recapping the time travel-heavy fifth season of “Lost” than I did season of 2 of “Damages.” The plot for this year’s “Damages” feels refreshingly tighter, but when I tried to explain what happened in season 2, I realized that even tertiary characters had double and triple motives!
I have started watching Lost from the beginning on dvd. I am half way through the dvd’s. My friend got me hooked. I am enjoinging it.
I’ve watches since season 1, but I still sometimes need the little “Previously on ‘Lost’” montage at the beginning of each ep to help me remember everything that’s happened. So many twists and turns… When you try to explain it to someone who hasn’t watched, they think you’re crazy.
I understand completely, the dazed look when I try and answer my husbands questions or try to, makes you feel completely crazed…
I know right!? It’s so frustrating when I’m so excited about some new nugget of info is revealed and I try to explain it to him…my husbands only seen S1 and part of S2. Just doesn’t get how obsessed I get, ha ha. Thank God my kids watch with me.
I can’t even imagine being married to someone who doesn’t also watch Lost religiously.
They didn’t do as badly as I feared, but I’m surprised that so many younger, seemingly with-it people have NEVER seen “Lost.” Really? I mean REALLY?
I know, what is wrong with all these people that are missing out on the best show on TV!!!!!!
Two seemingly innocent questions casually thrown at me by my husband: How can someone “steal” your kidney? Why does that one guy have to touch those other people?
For a lost fan, these seem like simple questions, until you try to answer them with the context necessary for understanding them. Then you realize that you sound like a babbling idiot. Even worse, you realize that the questioner lost interest about 15 minutes ago.
yeah, my brother is convinced that ‘Lost’ is crap because of this April Fools hoax that said that there would be a crossover episode between ’24′ and ‘Lost’ with Jack Bauer landing on the Island…um yeah, they’re on different networks!
It’s episodes like the pilot, “The Constant” and most of those in seasons 4-5 that reassure fans that ‘Lost’ is not crap.
There have been crossovers between networks before. The actor that played Oscar Goldman appeared as that character on both “The Six Million-Dollar Man”(ABC) and “The Bionic Woman”(NBC) simultaneously in the ’70s. Also, Richard Belzer has appeared as Detective Munch on “Homicide” and “Law and Order SVU” (both NBC) and “The X-Files”(Fox). There are probably other examples. Still, Jack Bauer ending up on “Lost” is incredibly far-fetched.
haha this is so true.
they blew me up…AGAIN!…jeez…
haha
The problem with Lost is that it makes perfect sense if you pay close attention. (of course there are questions, but everything that happens makes sense in context) If you’re not devoted to watching, it gets really confusing really fast.
I agree. It makes perfect sense to me. Except for the Nina and Pablo stuff.
Who the hell are Nina and Pablo? Could you possibly mean NIKKI and PAOLO??? Please rent the DVDs, start over, and pay attention this time.
Jeez, Elizabeth, it was a joke. Nina and Pablo is what Sawyer called them. I suggest you take your own advice.
Nikki not Nina
yeah, that must be the biggest mystery on the Island…to what end did the Island summon Nikki and Paolo?
Who watchs to watch those shows that you can figure everything out..how boring will TV be after LOST….despressing…I don’t understand why more people are not hooked…I guess people do not want to have to think about what they are watching or ponder or use their brains at all…..
I can’t count the number of flow charts and character maps I’ve made for my mom. And she’s seen the show. Many episodes of it, in fact. She just can’t follow it, especially the time-traveling.
My mom got confused when they introduced the flashforwards and gave up because she said it got too crazy and confusing. That just made me go “What?! The show just got ten times better than it already was, Mom!”
Aren’t moms the greatest? My mom was the one who got me hooked during first season. She stopped watching and by season 4 she wanted to “catch up”. I was like there is no way you can “catch up” now! I don’t recruit fans, because it’s too much energy to bring them up to speed. And I also feel powerful being in tune to something they aren’t…heheheeee!
I’m a 54 year old mom and along with my husband, haven’t missed an episode. It’s my kids who are lagging behind. My husband and I love this show – we TOTALLY get it! (Now tell me again why the 2007 bunch at the 4 toed statue saw the same flair that was set off by the 2004 Japanese temple leader?)
Ooh, you’re so right. I haven’t seen that question asked yet. Very interesting.
If you haven’t yet, you need to post that question in the comments section for Jeff Jensen’s article.
A lot of timeline discussions over there.
Well, I just looked again at Jensen’s board. It is discussed that it’s 2007 with the temple people. I guess I was the slow one here.
“Islands can’t disappear! That’s impossible!” See, I don’t even want to convert people with such lack of imagination.
They’re hopeless.
“LACK OF IMAGINATION” I couldn’t use a better term. This is often the case with people who “don’t get Lost” and refuse to watch it. You really need to be able to open your mind to watch this show, those who aren’t willing to are almost always negitive towards it.
you’ll never win over right-brain- impaired people.They’re trapped in their own island of limited reasoning.
@Pat – perfect description – i unfortunately work with that kind of person – impossible to deal with
My sister missed season 5 due to night classes. (Is a degree REALLY that important?) I tried to catch her up with a synopsis… Yeah, next time I’m just pointing her to a youtube Lost recap in 8:15. Succinct and fun…
No excuse Tia. Both my friend and I went to grad school, worked full-time and STILL watched Lost (it was our only show though). She call herself a fan…not! She does not deserve your synopsis.
No VCR? No TiVo? Come on now.
i have actually made four people obsessed about LOST by talking about it all the time, DVD’S, hulu, and very complicated explanations
My husband wasn’t interested in watching “Lost” until they featured the novel Valis by Philip K. Dick. Since PKD is his favorite writer, I kept bugging him about every plot point/symbolism/meaning in the book; then I yelled “holy sh*t” when Christian Shepard appared in Jacob’s cabin. He caught up on the DVD’s, and has now re-watched the previous seasons more than I have. But I did see them in “real time”.
I tried to get my brother into it. Even sent him a link to the first season streaming video, with a promise that he would be thanking me by the time he got up to Season 4 (he had already seen parts of the beginning Season 1 way back when, and did not “get it”). His reply was a terse “No, I don’t want to get into this. I do not care to get up to speed. Thanks, Your Brother.”
I got tired of my nephew laughing at me for watching the show. He would say I was a dork and that the show is “Stupid”. Finally I had enough so I told him to watch the Pilot with me, and if he thought it really was stupid and not the best thing ever I’d just have to live with it. Well he watched the pilot and then spent the next two months watching all the rest. You can’t explain Lost you MUST see it with your own eyes. There’s never gonna be anything like again.
Same way with my fiance. She said Lost was stupid and i was “lost” for watching it so I told her since you got me hip to The Office(one of the funniest shows of all time) you have to at least watch the 1st 4 episodes to see if you like it. Now Im in the middle of season 3 and she hasnt stopped yet…lol
That’s great! My best friend constantly tells me I’m a geek and a loser for being so into it….I’ve realized that I just have to embrace my inner-nerd and deal with her derision (plus inside I feel superior to her for getting Lost when she clearly can not!) – I know she loves me despite my love of Lost!
I don’t understand. Since when did wanting your TV shows to be more intelligent than “According to Jim” make you a nerd?
When ABC has to air “pre-shows” and “post-shows” to explain what is going on to its audience, there’s a problem.
The pre-shows are for fans for whom its been a while since they watch the previous episodes. If I were a producer on the show, I would not expect nor want someone “coming in cold” and starting with the premiere of a the later season. This requirement of getting in on the ground floor is why many serialized shows just never skyrocket. LOST is an exception, due mostly to its high quality cast, writing, and production values.
Why don’t you post the link to the “Newsweek” article you mentioning?
That would be nice since I can’t find it there myself…I don’t believe it exists actually.
uh…it’s a video and it is right here on this page.
To be fair, Newsweek’s video module sucks. There’s no play button. It’s not intuitive at all.
There was no link before, I even searched the site & couldn’t find it. Someone corrected it, thanks to me.