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The Lost Phenomenon

By Amy Walz

(Class presentation: Oct. 15, 2008)

 

Introduction

            “Lost has become a world of its own, albeit fictional, that, with its labyrinth of clues and multilayered plots, has become the test case for the marriage between new technology and creative content,”[i]

            Television is changing.  People are starting to take this form of media and make it interactive.  The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of Lost and why it has become so successful.  To take a deeper look into what it is that attracts many television viewers to become heavily involved with this so called new form of media.

            “But the “Lost” phenomenon isn’t just fandom. It’s about playing the TV show.”[ii]

For many, when they sit down to watch a television show, they do not want to have to think about what they are watching. The hit television show Lost is not your average show because it requires its viewers to pay attention and get involved.  With every new episode come new mysteries and clues to figure out that cause the viewer to attempt to solve the “puzzle.”  It is a show that will actually require its viewer to think.

“I love that a prime-time network TV show- usually considered a source of mind-numbing vapidity- is suddenly inspiring average Americans to read up on ‘Gilgamesh’ and history and Greek mythology and Christianity,” says Ryan Ozawa, one of the creators of the podcast fully devoted to Lost called “The Transmission.”[iii] The show will mention different literary works that will encourage viewers to read up on different pieces of literature.[iv]

The History of the Television Show Lost

ABC began airing its first season of Lost on September 22, 2004.[v]  J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber and Damon Lindelof are the creators of the show. The show follows characters on an island after a plane crash that was going from Australia to Los Angeles.[vi] During its first season, the show brought in an audience of over 20 million viewers which was excellent because it was at a time when ratings for ABC were not doing very well. The show helped to bring ABC out of its bad ratings and went on to win the 2005 Emmy for best drama.[vii]

The show Lost almost never aired on ABC. The executives of ABC and Walt Disney did not believe at first the show would be very successful. They even fired the network chairman who gave the idea to J.J. Abrams about doing a show based on “a plane-crash epic.” One thing that helped to convince ABC to broadcast the show was the $12 million spent on the pilot episode. This money is out of the norm for a usual pilot of a television show.

The show is one that plays on the theme that is very popular among people today, it is all about you. “Like the characters in Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49,” the characters of “Lost” are navigating a world where every minute detail-from their friends to their enemies to nature-is connected in a matrix of meaning for them. Everything is a clue. Everything has a place in context. There are no accidental encounters.”[viii]

The Types of Viewers

            There are main two types of viewers who watch the show lost, casual and hardcore. These terms actually evolved from the gaming industry. Casual viewers are

those who watch the show every week only for the entertainment value.  They are not interested in all of the clues and mysteries to solve. Hardcore viewers on the other hand are those who take watching the show a step further. They are the ones who pay close attention to every little detail that happens in the show, such as all of the hidden clues.  Once the show comes to an end, they then begin to research the meaning of all the clues by going on the Internet and participating in things such as forum discussions.

            “What’s happening with “Lost” is also a harbinger of the changing nature of TV watching itself, dividing its followers into two groups: the loyal audience that tunes in every week and the fans who devour every bit of information made available to them on the Internet, books and magazines.”[ix]

            “Hardcore gamers… memorize minutiae about their favorite developers as if they were sports stars. They’ll map out every plotline of a game’s or series’ story and explore every nook of the favorite games,” says Crispin Boyer, senior editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly.[x]

            Because Lost has allowed so many viewers to get involved with the television show, it supports the concept that television is headed in a new direction. It is becoming much more interactive than it used to be. It has become more than just a television show, it is a part of who people are.

What Makes the Show so Unique

What makes the show so unique is that unlike other shows that have mystery at only one level, Lost has mystery at several levels. For instance, there are four different kinds of riddles that each of the episodes include.  The first type of riddle is the

biographical riddle. This riddle asks such questions as, “Why was the beautiful Kate accompanied by a federal marshal on the flight?” The next type of riddle is the geographic riddle.  This riddle asks questions such as, “Why have the rescue teams missed the island?” The third type of riddle is the historical riddle which asks, “Why has the SOS signal been playing for so many years?” Lastly, there is the existential riddle which asks a questions like “are these people even alive at all?”[xi]

 When the show first started, viewers did not know anything about the characters.  They were left in suspense trying to find out who was who.  That is how the mystery of Lost started. “Lost begins seconds after the crash, and so from the very beginning of the show, the 20-odd survivors that we focus on are complete mysteries to the audience.” During season one, viewers slowly learned about each of the main characters only to find the plot thickening and themselves hooked..

            “The show is the mother ship, but I think with all the new emerging technology, what we’ve discovered is that the world of ‘Lost’ is not basically circumscribed by the actual show itself,” said Carlton Cuse, the executive producer of the show.[xii] The show Lost is truly a new form of media. It allows for a tremendous amount of interaction to take place for any viewer.  The show is bridging a new gap in media.

As mentioned above, Lost is full of suspense and mystery. In the first season alone, there were around 30 “genuinely mysterious plot elements.” The characters are also not what they appear.  For example, go back to the biographical riddle.  It asked the question of, “Why was the beautiful Kate accompanied by a federal marshal on the flight?”[xiii] When the character of Kate is first portrayed, she is seen as being “seemingly fragile and vulnerable.” However, little did the audience know when the show first started that she had a history of “violent crime.”[xiv] One of the main themes to the show is that nothing is as it appears and everything has significance.

                                The characters are a very significant part of Lost.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the shows success. “You get a sense of who these characters are more so than any other TV show,” said Steve McMasters who is a fan of the show. Carlton Cuse, the executive producer of the show believes the characters are one of the secrets to its success. “That’s why we found a mass audience because if it was just a genre show, if there wasn’t the genius of Damon and J.J.’s flashback invention, it would be a much more limited audience show… That is the secret of Lost” he said.[xv]

 “It’s essentially a cult show in its design and its genre, but what makes it accessible to a wider audience is that there is a character on the show who is like you, even if that character is Jin (a Korean who doesn’t speak English),” said Lindelof.[xvi] 

            Television shows have become more than just a script and actors. “In this new world, TV writing isn’t just about turning in scripts.”[xvii] What makes Lost so different from other television shows is that it is all a big game challenging the viewers to come up with answers to the big puzzle. It is actually the first show to resemble a video game. Viewers become involved in this huge guessing game concerning everything on the island.  They are constantly presented with new mysteries to solve. It truly takes interaction to the next level.[xviii]

The show is full of many different themes and meanings.  Take for example the title of the show.  Not only are the characters lost on an island but their souls are lost.[xix]

One of the major themes in the show is numbers.  Throughout the different episodes, numbers are given.  For instance, in the episode called “Numbers,” the character Hurley had a winning lottery ticket that had the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 on it. This same number has continued to reappear several times during the show.  

                                    “This is a new development for television, and a good one. No one ever scanned the background of “Everybody Loves Raymond” for clues that would make watching the show more engaging. It’s an interactivity that brings gaming and pop-culture TV close into proximity.”[xx] Lost is going to places other television shows have yet to reach.

Not only does the show allow for interaction from the individual through the different puzzles to solve, but also with others. Jen Ozawa who is one of the creators of the podcast “The Transmission” which is fully devoted to Lost says, “Lost is a show that is better when watched in groups, and the podcast is the perfect way to do that.”[xxi] 

The show provides a sense of community. It is truly an experience for those who watch the show and provides a connection with others. “There’s something about this big puzzle that everybody wants to be the first to solve… If I was alone in it, it wouldn’t be so fun. But it sort of sprung up, this whole subculture of fans who really see it like a video game,” said Rob Eichenlaub, a Web designer.[xxii]

Even the creators of Lost are involved with the viewers.  They participate with the viewers through online forums which show the viewers that the creators really do care about them. It is a way for viewers to feel more connected to the show. “Media companies are trying hard to create online experiences that go beyond “related articles” and, instead, tantalize you with a truly contextual experience.”       

“Lost is everywhere.  It’s a television show that was born in a traditional analog world but came of age in a digital world where the very idea of “television” is giving way to the idea of ubiquitous, platform-agnostic video.”[xxiii]                                         

Things created for the show- user involvement

            “To its most devoted followers, “Lost” is part metaphysics seminar, part jigsaw puzzle, part scavenger hunt. It’s a collaborative experience, a game to be played and shared. And an acknowledgement that, even on network TV, the audience can have power, too”[xxiv]

            For those who watch the show, there must be some form of commitment. “Lost is different. An unapologetically knotty, mass-market commercial hit, it demands commitment – and gets it.”[xxv]   The show requires much participation from its audience. For those who do watch and are seriously committed, there is great enthusiasm about the show and the desire to get involved with what is happening. Jeremy Domby, who runs the site www.4815162342.com, which host forums about the show says, “(The writers) are making a show that makes people think – to make them want to research and talk about things and not just stupid things.”[xxvi]

            The creators of the show are so passionate about what they do that Lost is truly its own world.  There have been different web site links created for the sole purpose of the show.  For instance, there is a website for the airline that the passengers were on when the plane crashed in the first episode. This site can be found at www.oceanicflight815.com/. Sights like the one just given are fake viral marketing sites. Other examples include www.driveshaftband.com, which is the website for the band of the character named Charlie, http://thehansofoundation.org, the Hanso Foundation which is the organization responsible for the hatch and www.dharmaindustries.com, the site for

the Dharma Initiative which is a research project that is of importance to the plot of the story.[xxvii]

There has actually been a book created for the show that can be found at Amazon.com called Bad Twin.  This book or the “tattered manuscript” was show in episode 13. Here is what the about the author section says.

            “About the Author: Bad Twin is the highly-anticipated new novel by acclaimed mystery writer Gary Troup. Bad Twin was delivered to Hyperion just days before Troup boarded Oceanic Flight 815, which was lost in flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles in September 2004. He remains missing and is presumed dead.”[xxviii]

            Other forms of involvement include the official Web site for the show at http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost, a site from the show’s producers called The Fuselage at

fuselage.com and the podcast called “The Transmission” which helps one to know other’s theories, whose web address is www.hawaiiup.com/lost.[xxix] Also, there are websites that translate the “whispers on the show.”

            Not only is the show considered to be the first resembling a video game, there is an actual video game that has been created and is currently available. Helene Juguet who is the senior director of marketing for Ubisoft says, “Ubisoft is thrilled to be collaborating with ABC to develop this phenomenal television series into an interactive experience.”[xxx] This is just one more way that viewers are able to interact at a deeper level with the show.        

Conclusion

            “Just as iTunes transformed the music industry by turning singles into a viable revenue source again, Cuse and Lindelof believe their show is at the forefront of the television revolution.”[xxxi]

            Lost has been successful because “it won over Internet-centric viewers who are supposed to be bored with TV, and it benefited from technologies like iTunes, DVRs and DVDs that some were worried would be the end of TV. It took the attributes that would once have made it a cult failure—eccentricity and complexity—and used them to harness the power of obsessive, evangelical fans. Like the story told in Lost, the story of the series’ success is one of careful design, science and a little faith.”[xxxii]

            Another reason why Lost has been so successful is because there is more interaction that takes place outside of the show’s main website. Just look at all the different forums and web pages, both real and fake that have been created since the beginning of the show. One key to success is “the amount of content produced about your content should be of far greater weight than the originating content itself.” The show Lost has influenced just that and shows its understanding of the new direction in which media is headed. They have been able to capture the mystery.

            Lost is a show that calls for interaction.  The chart below illustrates the interaction that takes place around one episode. The episode that the chart will focus on is episode 13. It is in this episode that the character Hurley is reading a “tattered manuscript” that he found. This manuscript represents the book Bad Twin which was discussed earlier in the paper. It must be noted that “this indicates a full circle of US release to UK release…”                                                                                                           

This chart is based upon the author’s own opinion. “This applies only to broadcast and online distribution; not DVD releases, spin-offs etc. Every ‘circle’ is simplified…”

 

     

          “Read clockwise from the top; the inner circle indicates coordinate activity by    

          Lost’s creators (the production, the network etc.), with outer circles indicating

          stimulated second-order ripples in increasingly uncontrolled spaces. This would be

          for the aforementioned episode 13, so reading from the middle out: activity at

          Amazon.com; official sites (inc. fakes); broadcast releases (inc. Bittorrent/iTunes);

          media responses (inc. ‘Televsion Without Pity’ thumbnail sketches and then recaps

          and then forum discussion, as well as magazine articles etc); Lostpedia; blogs etc.

          (inc. forums). Density and clustering equals weight and significance of event and

          response. I’ve picked out the relationship between the episode and the Amazon

          book.”

 

Lost has been a trailblazer for television. It has gone where no other television show has gone before. It has connected with its audience and allowed for a large amount of interaction, which is one of the reasons the show has been such a success. However, the show is going to come to an end in 2010.[xxxiii] The question arises, where will television takes its viewers next?

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