Lost often touches upon the realm of the pseudo-sciences. Mysticism is a big part of the Lost canon. Initially it looked as though Lost and The X-Files were similar in vein. Both shows offered a world that appeared normal on the surface, where any event was still explainable albeit with fringe science. For each element of the fantastic there was always a rational scientific explaination for the events of a given episode.

When it was smart The X-Files took a balance of the two, never giving up its cards. The end of the first season told us that in The X-Files world the unbelievable was true: there were aliens from other worlds, and evil men involved in shady conspiracies.

Season one of Lost didn’t tell us what we should believe. The events that took place on the island were explainable for the most part. They hinted at the fantasic, but were still ground in reality. Season two basically shoved the supernatural and the fantasic down our throats from the get go.

Telling the audience what they should believe isn’t the problem so long as you’re within your genre. Lost’s first season told the classic desert island story of strangers fighting for survival while their pasts affected their actions.

With the second season Lost shifted into the sci-fi genre where anything is possible. You keep hearing the tagline “Everything happens for a reason” over-and-over because if you didn’t approach the series with that mindset you’d probably give up on the convoluted plot.

Should Lost’s third season go the action-adventure route I’ll give up. That usually signals cost cutting and cookie cutter plots that kill the genre for eveyone but little kids. We’ll see what happens. Should Lost shift genres again, I’m hoping for situation comedy.

Hey, it could happen. One word: Tattengers. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 5:42 am.
More: Canon, Genre, Plotting, Season 1, Season 2, Supernatural, Tagline, The X-Files.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.