'Lost' Is The Most Important Show Of The Decade

Thanks to Daniel for the heads up.

While reading this discussion between TV critics Maureen Ryan, Alan Sepinwall, and James Poniewozik, I was reminded of the thought I had while mainlining the fifth season of Lost this weekend.

As I've gone back and given Lost a full viewing after dipping in and out over the first three seasons or so, one thing has impressed me more than any other, which is that, as comes up in the linked discussion, there is absolutely no way for Lost to be entirely successful. This goes beyond the nitpickiness of viewers, I think; it goes beyond the fact that some people are never satisfied; it goes beyond the dissecting culture of Internet television fanaticism. It's not that it can't be perceived as entirely successful -- though that's certainly true. It's that it can't be actually entirely successful in wrapping up the sprawling, complicated, decades-spanning mystery it's created.

And credit for the impossibility of the task goes, really, to the scope of the ambition of the show's primary thinkers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (and, to a lesser extent, J.J. Abrams, who created it but hasn't really stayed involved), and of the rest of its writers. The reach of this show will inevitably exceed its grasp; that's often how ambition goes, and here it is, happening on network television on a show that has been, at times, very, very popular.

We're going to talk about what's happened so far, after the jump, so don't be upset

Source: Full Article @ NPR