Lost

December 12, 2004

 "Maple Street, U.S.A. Late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice-cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43pm on Maple Street. This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street, in the last calm and reflective moment before the monsters came."—Brilliantly written Rod Serling narration of the famous paranoia Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple St.”

    There was a specific reason I chose this quote from The Twilight Zone, a show I’ve been enjoying recently on DVD, and one that made me think, a few times, about my current favorite television mystery, “Lost”, which is now on a much-deserved holiday break, after a superb first half.  The above quote has everything to do with normalcy gone awry; of paranoia in suburbia, prejudice in everyday life, or at least that is where Serling’s cool, slightly metallic voice is leading us into the episodes themes of mob violence and communal mistrust.  And it is in that where “Lost” has led us so far this season, into a world where seemingly different people from all walks of life- all being a bit much, but different just the same- have been railroaded into coexisting in some kind of other-world (a Twilight Zone, if you will), where one deserted tropical island can serve as the petri dish for a whole slew of social rules and character morality tales.  Like something out of “Animal Farm”, or the frequently discussed book Sawyer found on the shore, “Watership Down”, the characters of “Lost” are merely symbols for what is turning out to be the great sociological experiment of the year.  Forget “Survivor”, even forget “Desperate Housewives” (please don’t forget “Desperate Housewives”, just play along), what we’re getting weekly from the stranded crew of the Oceania (Orwellian name by all means), is a mock-society where dangers lurk from behind the bushes, and from within the camp circles, where everything from jealousy, communication misunderstandings, and past demons can cause even the slightest riff in a new-born community.

Here is a sampling of what we’ve seen so far.  On one strong episode, a drug addict, very grudgingly, kicked his nasty habit, with the help of a recently cured paraplegic (there is your miracle); a son (the hero) trying every so hard to escape the shadow of his dead, alcoholic father, a girl (potential love interest for the hero) keeping something about criminal past, an ex-Iraqi soldier (noble, mystic adventurer) trying to flee the shadow of Saddam’s regime, but caught in a New World Order almost as dangerous and threatening (what were those voices in the woods?), and a pregnant girl who, as the mystery wants us to assume, is carrying a child that may one day rule this closed-off universe.  Or at least as I se it, for why else would a psychic insist on her being on that exact plane, and why would the mysterious previous island inhabitants go to great lengths to only kidnap her?  Maybe it has something to do with the essence and purity of newborn life in a world sadly devoid of social order amongst its elders, or maybe it has something to do with the image of the Madonna, giving birth to a child of blessed roots.  Maybe, but then the flashback to Claire’s skuzzy Australian boyfriend would totally dispel the “immaculate conception” theory.

But theories are what we have to go on, especially after the cliffhanger two weeks ago.  And what of it, that metal bunker Locke and Boone found while trudging through the wet forest looking for Claire?  Possible a gate to hell, as some conspiracy theorist assume, the door after Purgatory?  Or a door to the control room where the aliens are controlling the survivors lives, not unlike the final scene in the above ‘Twilight Zone’ episode.  Or how about this one, like the famous ‘Zone’ ep “Odyssey of Flight 33”, where out heroes have ripped into a time warp that has taken them from the present to the past, possibly to a time before the dinosaurs, where maybe, the other islanders also fell 16 years earlier from the same warp, to find a Godly paradise of unseen monsters, and, still trying to figure this one out, polar bears.  What I can’t say, for sure, is that any guess is the correct one, but what I can say is that, barring “The Wire” (which wraps it’s superlative third season tomorrow night at 9 on HBO), “Lost” is the best show on television right now, and like something written by Rod Serling, with the social adventure of H.G. Wells, and the stinging politics of George Orwell, it’s likely to keep audiences, and conspiracy theorists, guessing all the way through May Sweeps. 

by Adam Suraf

asuraf@DunkirkMA.net