Entertainment Junkie : LOST

(I'm hoping that this will be a regular feature on the site. The plan is for each post to focus on a favorite album, movie, TV show, or video game of mine. Since Lost is returning from the dead tomorrow, I think it's appropriate to kick it off with that.)

Lost is one of those shows that I saw previews for and SWORE I would never watch under any circumstances. I mean, think about it: A TV show starring that Hobbit guy and a bunch of other people I'd never heard of before, about a bunch of people being lost on a deserted island (in the era of Google Earth and GPS tracking, no less.) The whole premise is ridiculous, like Gilligan's Island without the laugh track. I predicted it would last a couple weeks, no more.

And when I was proven horribly wrong, and the show lasted the whole season, and half my friends were addicted to this ludicrous program, my resolve hardened. I vowed to stay away from it on principle alone. And when it came out on DVD, and was constantly playing in the dorm I was living in, the boycott almost became a game. How could I avoid watching Lost? Not only was it ridiculous, but it seemed to be impossible to watch it without becoming addicted. Having been already hooked on Smallville, Scrubs, Arrested Development, and just recently The Office, I didn't need another TV show to watch each week. And, for a time, my fight was successful.

Then came Tour Choir 2006.

Someone (to the best of my knowledge, a certain hobbit-loving young lady who shall remain nameless) convinced our professor to play the series premiere on the tour bus TV screens. Try as I might, I couldn't avoid it (it was playing on six screens all around me, for crying in the mud.)

And just like that, I was hooked.

Without even realizing it, I was deeply invested in not just the plot, but the characters I was getting to know. I suddenly was interested in their backstories. Why did they let a super-pregnant chick on the plane? What's that Kate chick's story? What flew up that doctor guy's butt? Who's that Popeye-lookin' mamajama? Is it just me, or is the black guy a big douchebag? (Turns out, I was right on that one.) Yes, I was head-over-heels for this show. And when I came back from tour, I shotgunned the season one DVDs in the course of a weekend, and I haven't missed an episode on TV since.

Lost is probably the most frustrating thing I have ever loved with all my heart (excepting, of course, the various women I have fallen for in the past.) I know so much about this show, but not enough to know what the crap's going on. I'm so pissed off by it that I have to watch the next episode. For this reason, as well as more boring reasons such as the superb writing, acting, and cinematography, Lost will always be one of my favorite shows.