The Dharma Initiative

I know blogging about a TV show is pretty inane, but this is just a warm-up. It seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve done any worthwhile blogging (picture posts of my kid are obviously cute, but they don’t count as they have no literary value), and I need to get back in the groove, so I’ll start with blogging about TV and see what happens when/if the creative juices get flowing again.
Since we’ve had copious amounts of time locked inside hospital rooms and our apartment, we’ve managed to plow through seasons 1 and 2 of Lost. It’s one of those shows I’ve been meaning to get around to watching, but another show where there’s no point in trying to watch it live (or even PVRed) cause if you miss a single episode you’re… lost. So we worked through Season 1 during the couple weeks leading up to Benjamin’s arrival, and watched all of Season 2 in the week following it — when the little guy either eats or poops every hour, there’s not much else you can do but sit around and wait for him to demand your attention.
So at first we weren’t so into the show. It didn’t really get that interesting until they discovered the hatch, and they spend a LOT of time going into the back story of the characters — the reasons for those apparent rabbit trails are only now starting to become clear. In fact, most of Season 1 was pretty slow, and if it weren’t for being trapped in a hospital room, we probably wouldn’t have made it to Season 2. I’m glad we did though, because the show got a lot more interesting in it’s second year. I understand now why so many people are addicted to it.
One attribute of our method of watching the show, episode after episode off a DVD, is that we probably kill the suspense that most people feel waiting for next week’s episode. Now that we’re into season 3, which isn’t available on DVD yet, we’re starting to feel that a little bit, as we only buy episodes on iTunes when the PVR fails to offer up anything interesting. The scope of the story background is what’s most impressive about the series. At the surface it’s the story of some people who crash land on an island and begin to discover it’s mysteries. But as the watcher, discovering with them, you can’t help but be sucked in by what is apparently over two-decades of history that you need to understand to really know what they’re up against.
Watching Lost is a bit like feeling lost yourself, which can be frustrating. There are many moments when Nic and I just look at each other like “WTF?” (the F stands for “frig” cause we’re good church goin folks, y’know) but when you figure something out, the “ah-ha!” moments make it worth it. I know some of you out there are long time watchers, and I know the Internets are full of forums of people speculating and surmising; I have my theories, but it’s more fun to just let the story unfold. If you’ve never seen Lost, and find yourself out sick for a week or so, I’d highly recommend you rent the series on DVD…