On <i>Lost</i>, Waiting and Pegging My Fate to the Massive Disappointment (or Satisfaction) of the Masses

I’m glad Lost will be off the air for a while. I’m sort of a little tired of hearing about it everywhere all the time. I’m fully aware that this show has transformed the lives of millions of people all over the world and that its secret is cooler than the secret that is revealed in The Secret, but I’ve had about enough.

I don’t watch Lost. I’ve seen Lost, but only on occasion. I watched the last four or five episodes of what I recall to be the third season. I’d meet up with some friends for dinner and then they would all watch Lost and forbid me from speaking. It was intense.

I won’t say I disliked Lost. I thought it was intriguing and exciting and different. I too was sucked in ever-so-briefly and formulated all kinds of kooky theories about characters I knew nothing about. At the same time, I found Lost to be exhausting. I also found Lost to be a bit of a tricky beast.

I don’t like television shows that revolve around a grand mystery and work to conclude that mystery by the series finale. I don’t like these kinds of shows because I don’t want to invest in a series for six years only to be told the island is purgatory and Jacob is God and that guy with the beady eyes in Satan and everyone’s dead and I should run to the nearest place of worship and repent. I also don’t want to be told that aliens did it. To top it off, I’m not a huge fan of the 1970s.

In other words, I don’t want to invest so much time in something that could eventually be massively disappointing.

With most shows, storylines come and go. Things get resolved in a cyclical manner and there is really no intense ultimate conclusion to be reached. That’s not the case with Lost. With Lost, it’s all about that last moment. It’s all about the grand resolution. And if that grand resolution sucks, I’m going into hiding. There are going to be some super pissed of Lost fans out there.

I do have a plan, however. Once all is said and done, I want to take a poll and find out if Lost fans are ultimately disappointed or satisfied. If they are satisfied, I’ll plunk myself in front of my television with the Lost DVD sets and I’ll take the journey myself. If, on the other hand, they are disappointed, I’ll just rewatch Gossip Girl.

Yes, I’m completely tying my fate to other people’s opinions. I’m going to let the masses dictate whether or not I’m going to ever sit down and watch Lost. I’m at the mercy of someone else and there’s not much I can do about it.

I suppose that’s a lot like waiting for the next season of Lost to air so you can at least get one or two questions answered (before twenty or thirty more are posed).