The Tail Section

Converting The Masses

Lost News — July 11, 2007 at 11:11 am by Santa

We still have a long while until the debut of Season 4.  For nearly three years, it’s been a household ritual for my dad and I to sit down in front of the TV and watch the latest eagerly-anticipated episode.  I may be out of the house with friends or extracirricular engagements a lot of other nights, but Wednesday nights during the on-season are strictly reserved.  It’s nice to have that mid-week placemarker, and a good show is even better when you can have watercooler discussions with other people who watch it, especially if they’re watching it with you.  So fans are inclined, naturally, to want to bring new viewers into the fold.  But such a task becomes difficult with a non-procedural, serialized drama, and exponentially more so when it’s one that’s as cryptic and chronologically-winding (and large-cast) as LOST.  Thankfully, the show’s narrative compels new viewers from the first episode to keep watching, daring them to follow Jack down the rabbit hole. 

So, with plenty of time left before our story picks up again post-"snake in the mailbox", I figured it might be helpful to share what I’ve learned, from the gradual process of getting my girlfriend onboard, when it comes to courting new fans.  She’s in the midst of the second season now, and I want to be able to invite her along Wednesday nights come this winter for the next sixteen episodes of LOST.  Consider this a recruitment manifesto — I suppose one could liken it to the methods of the Church of Scientology, or perhaps NAMBLA, but I’d like to think of it more along the lines of Mittlos Bioscience (drugged orange juice is optional).

What’s it all about, anyway?  Talking about the show 

Your friend, family member, or signifigant other knows you watch the show, but doesn’t watch it themselves (yet).  They probably want to know what the big deal is.  But how does one summarize the show’s sprawling narrative up to this point?  Besides, what’s the fun in spoiling it?  A better approach is to tell them what the "angle" of the show is; that the appeal lies in the structure of its story: 

LOST is about a group of airliner crash survivors on an island; the viewer soon comes to suspect there’s something special about this locale–why did so many survive in the first place, what is the fearsome unseen "monster" in the jungle, why can no one find them, and what’s up with the crazy woman in the jungle talking about "Others"?  The show raises a lot of questions in the first season (the biggest being, "What’s inside the underground bunker they find?"), but doesn’t answer many of them in the first season, as the first season’s really more of a prologue that sets up our character’s relationships and explores their lives pre-island.  We come to discover over the course of the show that many people had incidental influences on each other’s lives, and if it wasn’t for the action of one person, another might not have gotten on the plane in the first place; so there’s a kind of huge Rube Goldberg design to the narrative.  The series can be compared to the Harry Potter books in the sense that from early on, readers have known there would be seven books, and each one is its own micro-narrative with rising and falling action divided into chapters (episodes), but each one is just a leg along the journey of the macro-narrative.  Viewers of LOST now know there will be six "books" total with 118 "chapters" (the next episode will be #70).  Viewers are always in search of the answers, spotting clues like anagrams and background information to try and stay one step ahead of the story, testing their theories about exactly what is going on with "the Others" and the Island; many think that it’s the key to preventing Armageddon that lies within the Island’s seeming ability to shape the will of fate. 

Watching LOST with them 

Suggest setting aside a day to watch the first disc of Season One with them — "Pilot, Parts 1 & 2" are a good place to start, naturally; and by the time they get to the last three spine-tingling minutes of "Walkabout" they’ll have a tangible grasp of what game the show is playing.  Have fun with it; crank up the surround sound, dim the lights, get some popcorn and pizza.  Half the fun of LOST for many is the interactivity of it; the aforementioned water cooler talks and the now-tradition of tuning in for that fresh chapter.   

One of the important things to remember is this:  There’s a fine line between preventing suprise-spoilers and lording over them with your secret knowledge of what’s going to happen next.  They’ll want to know how Locke can walk, what the deal was with Ethan Rom, so on and so on.  It’s up to your judgement when it’s okay to tell them what happens and when you should keep them in the dark, but if you aren’t open at least some of the time, they won’t get any satisfaction out of the communal experience that LOST should be.  Give Lindelof/Cuse "interview answers" that will be concrete but leave them wanting to know even more. 

Also, don’t be pushy.  It’s fine to ask them if they feel like watching the show today, but like sex, if someone’s not in the mood, you can just turn them off to the whole idea by insisting on it.  What I’ve done is set up a loose weekly viewing schedule.  We say that every Wednesday night, we’ll watch an episode or two.  If we watch one and then want to do something else, that’s okay, but LOST is like potato chips, and we usually end up watching a whole disc.  If we can’t do it Wednesday night, some other night works just as well, but at least it’s a time we can commit to (and it just makes sense).  It’s a good substitute for the actual on-season Wednesday ritual feeling. 

Down the Rabbit-Hole 

LOST will almost certainly become a fixture of their week once they’ve been properly brought into the fold; the fantastic storytelling, complex characters and relationships, remarkably high production values, and genuine talent and craftsmanship on the part of the creative team means that getting them hooking shouldn’t be hard for you to do.  And not only will you have satiated the human desire to proselytize one’s interest to the masses, but you’ll have created a new shared experience that can bring you and your friend or loved one closer together, create endless conversation topics, and can be a lot of damn fun.  You just have to remember to make sure you’re guiding them along a journey of self-discovery, not pulling them on a leash down your own chokingly-obsessive fandom.   

See you on the other side of the Looking Glass!

Giovanni

Giovanni Iacobucci is an aspiring filmmaker, writer, and all-around renaissance man.  When not inflating his own ego, he enjoys long walks on the beach and watching LOST.

Which Lost Character Are You?

Exclusive Interviews

Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof LOST
Doc's Exclusive interview with Lost show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof.

Doc Interrogates Benjamin Linus himself!

Doc encounters William Mapother and gets the lowdown on the Ethan Vs. Locke cut scene.

Doc interviews the portrayer of his namesake! Daniel Roebuck!

Doc gets the truth out of Dr. Marvin Candle / Wickmund / Haliwax

Doc finds out what on of Lost's best writers ever is up to.

Doc catches up with TLE's Rachel Blake, Jamie Silberhartz!

Powered by WordPress

Terms Of Use