TV is the New Reading

‘Lost’ is confusing;

Lots of stuff going on,

all leading... somewhere...

“Lost” is just confusing.

On her desperate flight to safety, a team of assassins encounters Alex – adopted daughter of island ne’er-do-well Ben – and forces her to open the sonic fence surrounding the Others’ village.

This triggers a phone call Ben is in exactly the right place to hear in enough time to barricade a safe house and take out most of the marauding hordes.

Meanwhile, on the beach, a body washes up on the shore. It is identified as the doctor on the ship evil capitalist Charles Widmore sent to the mysterious island with the team of assassins to assassinate Ben.

But when Oceanic Flight 815 crash survivor Jack contacts the ship – if that’s in fact who he contacts – he’s told that the ship’s doctor is alive and well.

So ... who’s the corpse the away-team identified as the ship’s doctor? Or, for that matter, who is the doctor on the ship? Or, for that matter, the assassins? Or, for that matter, that crazy smoke monster?

Or, for that matter, what the heck is any of that?

Confusing

“Lost” seems to me like most of the parties I was at in college. It’s like a conversation eight people are having, all pretending to be a lot more clever and interesting than they actually are. But that’s not a problem, because you’re pretending the exact same thing. And anyway, you can half hear most of what they’re saying but the music is really loud and you’re pretty drunk.

And occasionally the music stops or someone passes pretty close by and you hear a revealing sentence and have a moment of clarity but it’s entirely out of context and while you think you’re closer to knowing what’s going on, by now you’re certain someone has slipped something into your drink.

And Season Four had started with such promise, too. The writers started including flash-forwards in the mix so part of the story is being told by characters who have left the island. This holds out some promise that some people will get to leave the island somehow.

The writers have shrouded this aspect of the story in a fog – we don’t know how they are selected, what happens to those left behind and how their cover story was established.

But there’s a lot of pressure for something to happen. Right now, people are split into groups and moving about seemingly at random. There are people who are dead who seem vital to the story moving forward. There’s no small amount of mystery.

Science?

Not least of which, in one of the flash forwards, the camera comes up on Ben in a parka in the desert of Tunisia, where earlier this season we saw one of the polar bears. This is all the more intriguing because there’s no hint of how Ben got there – no parachute or footprints or anything.

The producers have said that everything that happens in the show can be explained by science. It seems like the smoke monster is going to prove at least somewhat difficult.

But whatever is going on – with the people stuck on the island or the survivors desperate to get back somehow – it’s certainly interesting enough to stick around and have another beer.

“Lost” airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays on ABC.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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