get lost.

Why is LOST so amazing?

Here's why:

1. It encompasses the best elements for a modern epic: tensions between science and faith; the birth of a society and evolution of positions within it (and factions); constant, shifting questions of trust; intense character development; multiple plot-lines; constant evocation of the past; danger; outside characters with vague motives; mythology and mystery.

2. The archetypes are so interesting. The Leader, the Con Man, (not to be confused with the Outlaw), the Man of Faith, the Young Mother, the Foreign Couple (with Gender-Equality-Issues), the Creepy Guy You Can't Trust, the Soldier, the Lover.

Interesting because each one's past informs who they are on the island. And you learn their past directly, by seeing it.

3. Desmond. I just like Desmond. It's A's influence, maybe.

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If you don't see it from the beginning, it isn't worth it. If you do see it from the beginning, it's sort of endlessly fascinating. Admittedly, Season 3 mostly sucked.

So, I don't actually watch any other TV. But Lost is good because of the story factor. It's a story. I sometimes spend time just thinking of how satisfying it is as a story. It's kind of like the Twilight Zone, only modern and way more complicated.

It's the mystery factor--so few stories are mysteries anymore, and mysteries, I think, speak to people more deeply than America's Next Top Model. Because at the end of the episode, you still don't know what's going on but you're a little bit closer to finding out. Sort of like how at the end of the day, you're still not sure why you're alive but some more interesting things might have happened to pull you in a direction.

Except it's bigger than that, because you know the mystery in the story is overarchingly significant, and cosmic, and profoundly life-altering. And we will find out.

Most likely we won't find out why we exist, though. Or what's beyond the beyondest thing we know. Or what's the last beyond.

Did that make sense, without sounding incredibly prosaic?

No? Well, give me a break. I'm talking about a television show, here.