(no subject)
5 Lost articles : ). Got these from the folks over at the Lost_ABCTV ..yahoo of course. So enjoy all the Domness :D
xoxoxoxoxox-J
from http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_84_3196972,00.html"> - InsideDenver.com
And then there were 48
September 21, 2004
Dusty Saunders
Lost is a programming find for ABC, a suspenseful if far-fetched adventure yarn that should have wide audience appeal.
Far-fetched?
The crash of a commercial airliner maroons 48 passengers on a remote Pacific island.
Not only is this panicked group struggling for survival and safety, but they're confronted by a huge, only partially seen monster stalking them from the island's wooded area.
This is the premise that has led most of the nation's TV critics to heap praise on Lost as a high- quality production?
Tune in Wednesday and decide.
Creator J.J. Abrams (Alias) has his own theory about Lost's potential success, which seems to work, based on the two-hour premiere.
"My favorite movies are those in which if you describe the premises, they don't look very good, but such premises are executed in a way that makes you really care for the characters," he said during a recent Hollywood interview.
"The description of Tootsie was ridiculous. But done as Tootsie, it's one of the best movies ever because of the characters."
Abrams believes success on television can come from a premise that has a B-plot "written all over it" but has characters who will appeal to viewers.
Abrams seemingly has done this with Lost.
The lead character is Jack (Matthew Fox from Party of Five), who wears the hero's cape as a strong-minded, broad-shouldered doctor. In the premiere, he enlists Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a fellow survivor, to stitch up his own gaping back wound with a household sewing kit.
Despite such glowing early heroics, Jack is a reluctant, often-conflicted hero.
Other survivors created by Abrams and co-producer Damon Lindelof include a non-English-speaking Korean couple, a former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard, a contentious has-been rock star and a young woman well along in her pregnancy.
By creating a cast of 48 (many of whom will be introduced in subsequent episodes), Abrams and Lindelof have a stockpile of characters and story lines that should produce legitimate suspense and sudsy soap opera, which should appeal to all major audience demographics.
The two-hour premiere offers grip-your-chair style special effects, opening with the results of the crash on the island.
The screaming survivors run around freeing themselves from the exploding debris while trying to find their traveling companions and loved ones.
Ah, but the producers have more spectacular effects in store.
Once the premise is established that the survivors are marooned on this remote island, we're given a flashback scenario.
Dr. Jack is flirting with a flight attendant over a vodka tonic when the airliner explodes. Panic reigns. Passengers are tossed about like rag dolls as the plane begins its downward spiral.
Commercial break, obviously.
Back on the island, the group begins to assimilate, cautiously exploring the personalities of fellow survivors.
While there were 8 million stories in the Naked City, there are 48 on this island. And as the season moves along, viewers will discover, through flashbacks, that many in this diverse group have major personal problems and secrets to hide.
Examined from a strictly logical perspective, Lost has a lot of flaws. In many ways it's almost as unrealistic as CBS' Survivor.
But judged strictly as escapist entertainment, the series deserves to be found by a sizable audience.
**********************************************************
From http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/30691.htm
LAND OF 'LOST' LOOKERS
By LINDA STASI
September 21, 2004 -- A planeload of incredibly good-looking yuppies and Gen-Xers crashes in the mid-Pacific, killing everyone who isn't a model.
We assume this to be true right off because all the survivors on ABC's "Lost" look like they fell out of the Ford model book - not an airplane.
Only four survivors are not perfect, demographically speaking - a woman who looks to be mid-40s; a man in his 50s who may or may not be a pervert, but is for sure a weirdo; and a kid. (There's also the kid's dog who, even though he isn't a Gen Xer, is a labrador, which is demographically desirable.)
Despite the fact that the plane breaks into three pieces, all the dead are conveniently stuck inside the fusilage so we don't have to look at them. Better yet, none of the Gen Xer's injuries are serious. Yes - it's a miracle.
As luck would have it, all have survived the crash without having broken bodies, ripped off limbs or burnt faces. I don't know about you, but I love a neat crash.
Most of the injuries appear to be restricted (thank God again!) to really attractive gashes on the left sides of faces.
The setup after the clean plane crash is good, too. There's handsome doc Jack (Matthew Fox); Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a mystery woman; Charlie (Dominic Monaghan, formerly a Hobbit); and Hurley (Jorge Garcia), the one fat guy. (Will he turn out to be doomed like "Piggy" from "Lord of the Flies"? Nah. It's TV!)
The other passengers, particularly Sayid (Naveen Andrews, the great actor from one of my favorite movies, "The English Patient"), add some spice to the stew.
Sayid is a former Iraqi soldier who fought in the first Gulf War. This brings up all kinds of prejudices - as does the Korean married couple (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim) who don't speak English but definitely don't like to be around the African-American guy and his kid (Harold Perrineau and Malcolm David Kelly).
There's one seemingly bad guy (Josh Holloway) who must be unredeemable because he is - oh God, no! - a chain smoker, although we never see any smoke come out of his mouth because, well, it's TV after all.
At any rate, while they've had the damn bad luck to have crashed on the only Pacific Island with neither luxury hotel accommodations nor the cast of "Survivor" already camped out, there is a monster that eats people. (I'm not kidding.)
It sounds dopier than it is. In fact, it's actually scary and kind of riveting.
The flashbacks to the crash from various the survivors' viewpoints are harrowing and the storyline, once the dopey non-injury plane crash is gotten through, is very good.
What's missing is any real diversity in the cast.
I mean, seriously, have you ever been on a plane with only gorgeous, young people? Neither have I.
"Lost"
Tomorrow night at 8 on ABC
**********************************************************
From http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/9718727.htm
Posted on Tue, Sep. 21, 2004
COMMENTARY
Spoiler space!
ABC series 'Lost' tough to describe
By Charlie McCollum
Knight Ridder
Trying to write a capsule description of ABC's new "Lost" is almost impossible without making it sound, at best, positively ludicrous.
In the series' first two episodes, there's a plane crash on a tropical island, with one passenger getting sucked into a jet engine and another going into labor. The 48 survivors soon discover the plane was way off-course and no one knows where they are.
Several of the passengers are not what they seem to be. One is a veteran of the first Gulf War - as a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The female lead is an escaped federal prisoner.
Then we get to the good stuff: Out in the jungle is an unseen but man-chewing creature. A rampaging animal, killed by a passenger, turns out to be a polar bear. The survivors' radio picks up a distress call sent by someone stranded on the island - 16 years ago.
No wonder at the end of the second episode, one crash survivor asks: "Where are we?"
Preposterous-sounding? Sure. Good TV? You bet.
Like his other drama - the spy thriller "Alias" - J.J. Abrams, writer-director, has taken a batch of hokey elements and cooked up the most riveting opening hours of a new series since ... well, the first episodes of "Alias." The show, which debuts at 8 p.m. Wednesday, might sound like a dubious cross between "Land of the Lost," the old kids' show, and "Survivor" minus Jeff Probst. But it packs a wicked punch with true emotional urgency, suspense that doesn't let up and a real knack for the surprising.
As he does on "Alias," Abrams never loses track of his characters, no matter how far-fetched the story lines. By the end of the first hour, you will find yourself caring about what happens to the people on the island.
The first two episodes are so lavishly produced that they look like a feature film. The large cast is strong, particularly Matthew Fox ("Party of Five") as a doctor who takes charge of the group, Dominic Monaghan from "Lord of the Rings" as the rocker, and newcomer Evangeline Lilly as a sexy but probably dangerous woman.
Given its underlying premise and ongoing story lines, "Lost" - again, like "Alias" before it - might be a tough sell to the larger TV audience. Viewers who discover it are likely to get drawn into the show, and ABC should really give the series a chance even if the initial ratings aren't the best.
**********************************************************
From http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1095744963315880.xml
Lost in paradise, or is it limbo?
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
BY MATT ZOLLER SEITZ
Star-Ledger Staff
ABC's spectacular new drama "Lost," about plane crash survivors on a jungle island, poses a challenge rarely encountered on this job: how to critique a show built upon surprise.
I'm not sure where to begin. If I describe the premiere in detail, I'll ruin (or at least weaken) the same plot twists that delighted me. Perhaps the best solution is to urge you to tune in tomorrow and save this review for later. The show's unusual construction makes it hard to type a sentence without spoiling something.
Created, executive produced and written by J.J. Abrams, "Lost" has been likened to many works set in sea-swept tropical locales, from "Lord of the Flies" and "Survivor" to "Cast Away" and even "Gilligan's Island." Yet none of these comparisons does the trick.
Advertisement
The show's cast of 48 characters is stocked with familiar archetypes -- the worried father, the pampered princess, the stoic hero, the shady opportunist, the wrongly vilified member of an ethnic minority. The survivors-in-the-wilderness setup -- which forces so-called "civilized" people to improvise a bare-bones mockup of society -- is familiar, too.
But Abrams, who directed tomorrow's pilot, has many more cards up his sleeve -- and he's constructed the premiere to allow him to play one card at a time while building tremendous anticipation for each new flick of the wrist.
The first scene zeroes in on a single character, later revealed as Jack (Matthew Fox of "Party of Five") -- a well-dressed gentleman lying amid vegetation. Then he makes his way toward shore, slowly taking in a catastrophe: a wrecked plane wreathed in smoke and flame and surrounded by debris, corpses and shattered survivors.
"Lost" is reportedly one of the most expensive pilots ever bankrolled by a network, but Abrams refuses to take his budget for granted. He directs "Lost" with a precision that makes an already big production seem enormous. Like Steven Spielberg, he moves the camera to reveal the wreck piece by piece, and introduces his characters with the same muscular precision, one or two at a time.
There's Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a reticent beauty who finds herself taking care of wounded survivors (Jack included), despite having no medical training. There's Michael (Harold Perrineau of "Oz"), a divorced dad taking care of a son (Malcolm David Kelley) he barely knows.
There's a former Iraqi soldier named Sayid (Naveen Andrews), who resents knee-jerk suspicions that he caused the crash; a has-been rocker named Charlie (Dominic Monaghan from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), and a brooding loner named Locke (Terry O'Quinn of "Alias"), who seems to have a mystical connection to the island.
In time, Locke may prove to be the show's pivotal character. I say this because there's obviously more to the island than scenery.
From the get-go, the characters are menaced by beasts. Abrams denies us a clear look at them, finally granting a glimpse that might prove misleading. The creatures are mostly a source of anxiety -- faceless monsters growling in the distance and knocking down trees.
Is Abrams laying groundwork for tale of science gone bad -- another "Island or Dr. Moreau" or "Jurassic Park"? Or are the premiere's fantastic overtones setting us up for a popcorn-munchers' update of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" -- a poetic drama about the conflict between civilization and savagery, and the impossibility of a creator's maintaining control over his creations?
Or is Abrams creating some kind of parable? While the settings have little in common, "Lost" faintly suggests the 1960s series "The Prisoner," in which a top secret government agent resigns his post and gets incarcerated in a seaside community, where he struggles to understand his captors' motives and plot an escape.
O'Quinn's character -- seemingly named for the philosopher John Locke, whose writings influenced the formation of democratic governments -- might point the way toward answers. Or he might be another question mark. At this point it's impossible to know.
But I do know this: Abrams' ambitions, though still undefined, seem so grand that they can only end in triumph or disaster. Let's hope it's the former. Either way, ABC has rolled the dice on a dream worth getting lost in.
**********************************************************
From http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/tv_and_radio/article/0,1406,KNS_357_3196561,00.html
'Lost' worth finding amid fall TV shows
By TERRY MORROW, morrow2@knews.com
September 21, 2004
Find "Lost." The ambitious adventure (8 p.m. Wednesday, WATE, Channel 6) is the best new action series on network television this fall.
The new drama from "Alias" mastermind J.J. Abrams harrowingly follows the lives of 14 survivors of an airline crash on a remote island. It's a little "Robinson Crusoe," a bit of "Lord of the Flies" and a tad "Survivor."
"Lost" is blessed with intriguing characters and layered with dense mysteries worth digging into. This is appointment television for Wednesday nights.
And as he does with "Alias," Abrams keeps the action tight, especially in the opener's first 10 minutes, when havoc from the crash forces a shocked doctor (Matthew Fox) to turn into a superhero.
After awakening dazed and confused in a jungle, he encounters a beach filled with people screaming and bleeding and struggling to understand what's happened to them.
Thanks to the revolution in computer-generated images, "Lost" is able to bring us threats that are visually realistic and dynamic.
But once the survivors get organized, the show kicks into higher gear as we get to know them. Aiding the doctor in trying to wrangle the troops is a beautiful but mysterious passenger (Evangeline Lily) who's not what she seems.
There's also a Middle Eastern radio communications specialist (Naveen Andrews) who butts heads with a hotheaded American; a Korean couple who do not speak English; and a former rock star (Dominic Monaghan) with a desire for nose candy.
They band together, but find the jungle houses its own unique dangers, including a shadowy creature who is hungry and on the prowl.
As with many scripted shows, "Lost" allows for some contrived conveniences. I only hope if I crash-land on a deserted island that I have a doctor and a radio expert on board with me. And, hey, make sure the passenger list reads, "For hot people only." No ugly people on my plane.
However, even with that, "Lost" establishes early that it's as much about compelling character development and riveting plot. That makes it a rare television creature indeed, and one worth seeking out immediately.
RATING: (out of five)
Terry Morrow covers television. He may be reached at 865-342-6445.
xoxoxoxoxox-J
from http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/entertainment_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_84_3196972,00.html"> - InsideDenver.com
And then there were 48
September 21, 2004
Dusty Saunders
Lost is a programming find for ABC, a suspenseful if far-fetched adventure yarn that should have wide audience appeal.
Far-fetched?
The crash of a commercial airliner maroons 48 passengers on a remote Pacific island.
Not only is this panicked group struggling for survival and safety, but they're confronted by a huge, only partially seen monster stalking them from the island's wooded area.
This is the premise that has led most of the nation's TV critics to heap praise on Lost as a high- quality production?
Tune in Wednesday and decide.
Creator J.J. Abrams (Alias) has his own theory about Lost's potential success, which seems to work, based on the two-hour premiere.
"My favorite movies are those in which if you describe the premises, they don't look very good, but such premises are executed in a way that makes you really care for the characters," he said during a recent Hollywood interview.
"The description of Tootsie was ridiculous. But done as Tootsie, it's one of the best movies ever because of the characters."
Abrams believes success on television can come from a premise that has a B-plot "written all over it" but has characters who will appeal to viewers.
Abrams seemingly has done this with Lost.
The lead character is Jack (Matthew Fox from Party of Five), who wears the hero's cape as a strong-minded, broad-shouldered doctor. In the premiere, he enlists Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a fellow survivor, to stitch up his own gaping back wound with a household sewing kit.
Despite such glowing early heroics, Jack is a reluctant, often-conflicted hero.
Other survivors created by Abrams and co-producer Damon Lindelof include a non-English-speaking Korean couple, a former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard, a contentious has-been rock star and a young woman well along in her pregnancy.
By creating a cast of 48 (many of whom will be introduced in subsequent episodes), Abrams and Lindelof have a stockpile of characters and story lines that should produce legitimate suspense and sudsy soap opera, which should appeal to all major audience demographics.
The two-hour premiere offers grip-your-chair style special effects, opening with the results of the crash on the island.
The screaming survivors run around freeing themselves from the exploding debris while trying to find their traveling companions and loved ones.
Ah, but the producers have more spectacular effects in store.
Once the premise is established that the survivors are marooned on this remote island, we're given a flashback scenario.
Dr. Jack is flirting with a flight attendant over a vodka tonic when the airliner explodes. Panic reigns. Passengers are tossed about like rag dolls as the plane begins its downward spiral.
Commercial break, obviously.
Back on the island, the group begins to assimilate, cautiously exploring the personalities of fellow survivors.
While there were 8 million stories in the Naked City, there are 48 on this island. And as the season moves along, viewers will discover, through flashbacks, that many in this diverse group have major personal problems and secrets to hide.
Examined from a strictly logical perspective, Lost has a lot of flaws. In many ways it's almost as unrealistic as CBS' Survivor.
But judged strictly as escapist entertainment, the series deserves to be found by a sizable audience.
**********************************************************
From http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/30691.htm
LAND OF 'LOST' LOOKERS
By LINDA STASI
September 21, 2004 -- A planeload of incredibly good-looking yuppies and Gen-Xers crashes in the mid-Pacific, killing everyone who isn't a model.
We assume this to be true right off because all the survivors on ABC's "Lost" look like they fell out of the Ford model book - not an airplane.
Only four survivors are not perfect, demographically speaking - a woman who looks to be mid-40s; a man in his 50s who may or may not be a pervert, but is for sure a weirdo; and a kid. (There's also the kid's dog who, even though he isn't a Gen Xer, is a labrador, which is demographically desirable.)
Despite the fact that the plane breaks into three pieces, all the dead are conveniently stuck inside the fusilage so we don't have to look at them. Better yet, none of the Gen Xer's injuries are serious. Yes - it's a miracle.
As luck would have it, all have survived the crash without having broken bodies, ripped off limbs or burnt faces. I don't know about you, but I love a neat crash.
Most of the injuries appear to be restricted (thank God again!) to really attractive gashes on the left sides of faces.
The setup after the clean plane crash is good, too. There's handsome doc Jack (Matthew Fox); Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a mystery woman; Charlie (Dominic Monaghan, formerly a Hobbit); and Hurley (Jorge Garcia), the one fat guy. (Will he turn out to be doomed like "Piggy" from "Lord of the Flies"? Nah. It's TV!)
The other passengers, particularly Sayid (Naveen Andrews, the great actor from one of my favorite movies, "The English Patient"), add some spice to the stew.
Sayid is a former Iraqi soldier who fought in the first Gulf War. This brings up all kinds of prejudices - as does the Korean married couple (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim) who don't speak English but definitely don't like to be around the African-American guy and his kid (Harold Perrineau and Malcolm David Kelly).
There's one seemingly bad guy (Josh Holloway) who must be unredeemable because he is - oh God, no! - a chain smoker, although we never see any smoke come out of his mouth because, well, it's TV after all.
At any rate, while they've had the damn bad luck to have crashed on the only Pacific Island with neither luxury hotel accommodations nor the cast of "Survivor" already camped out, there is a monster that eats people. (I'm not kidding.)
It sounds dopier than it is. In fact, it's actually scary and kind of riveting.
The flashbacks to the crash from various the survivors' viewpoints are harrowing and the storyline, once the dopey non-injury plane crash is gotten through, is very good.
What's missing is any real diversity in the cast.
I mean, seriously, have you ever been on a plane with only gorgeous, young people? Neither have I.
"Lost"
Tomorrow night at 8 on ABC
**********************************************************
From http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/9718727.htm
Posted on Tue, Sep. 21, 2004
COMMENTARY
Spoiler space!
ABC series 'Lost' tough to describe
By Charlie McCollum
Knight Ridder
Trying to write a capsule description of ABC's new "Lost" is almost impossible without making it sound, at best, positively ludicrous.
In the series' first two episodes, there's a plane crash on a tropical island, with one passenger getting sucked into a jet engine and another going into labor. The 48 survivors soon discover the plane was way off-course and no one knows where they are.
Several of the passengers are not what they seem to be. One is a veteran of the first Gulf War - as a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The female lead is an escaped federal prisoner.
Then we get to the good stuff: Out in the jungle is an unseen but man-chewing creature. A rampaging animal, killed by a passenger, turns out to be a polar bear. The survivors' radio picks up a distress call sent by someone stranded on the island - 16 years ago.
No wonder at the end of the second episode, one crash survivor asks: "Where are we?"
Preposterous-sounding? Sure. Good TV? You bet.
Like his other drama - the spy thriller "Alias" - J.J. Abrams, writer-director, has taken a batch of hokey elements and cooked up the most riveting opening hours of a new series since ... well, the first episodes of "Alias." The show, which debuts at 8 p.m. Wednesday, might sound like a dubious cross between "Land of the Lost," the old kids' show, and "Survivor" minus Jeff Probst. But it packs a wicked punch with true emotional urgency, suspense that doesn't let up and a real knack for the surprising.
As he does on "Alias," Abrams never loses track of his characters, no matter how far-fetched the story lines. By the end of the first hour, you will find yourself caring about what happens to the people on the island.
The first two episodes are so lavishly produced that they look like a feature film. The large cast is strong, particularly Matthew Fox ("Party of Five") as a doctor who takes charge of the group, Dominic Monaghan from "Lord of the Rings" as the rocker, and newcomer Evangeline Lilly as a sexy but probably dangerous woman.
Given its underlying premise and ongoing story lines, "Lost" - again, like "Alias" before it - might be a tough sell to the larger TV audience. Viewers who discover it are likely to get drawn into the show, and ABC should really give the series a chance even if the initial ratings aren't the best.
**********************************************************
From http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1095744963315880.xml
Lost in paradise, or is it limbo?
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
BY MATT ZOLLER SEITZ
Star-Ledger Staff
ABC's spectacular new drama "Lost," about plane crash survivors on a jungle island, poses a challenge rarely encountered on this job: how to critique a show built upon surprise.
I'm not sure where to begin. If I describe the premiere in detail, I'll ruin (or at least weaken) the same plot twists that delighted me. Perhaps the best solution is to urge you to tune in tomorrow and save this review for later. The show's unusual construction makes it hard to type a sentence without spoiling something.
Created, executive produced and written by J.J. Abrams, "Lost" has been likened to many works set in sea-swept tropical locales, from "Lord of the Flies" and "Survivor" to "Cast Away" and even "Gilligan's Island." Yet none of these comparisons does the trick.
Advertisement
The show's cast of 48 characters is stocked with familiar archetypes -- the worried father, the pampered princess, the stoic hero, the shady opportunist, the wrongly vilified member of an ethnic minority. The survivors-in-the-wilderness setup -- which forces so-called "civilized" people to improvise a bare-bones mockup of society -- is familiar, too.
But Abrams, who directed tomorrow's pilot, has many more cards up his sleeve -- and he's constructed the premiere to allow him to play one card at a time while building tremendous anticipation for each new flick of the wrist.
The first scene zeroes in on a single character, later revealed as Jack (Matthew Fox of "Party of Five") -- a well-dressed gentleman lying amid vegetation. Then he makes his way toward shore, slowly taking in a catastrophe: a wrecked plane wreathed in smoke and flame and surrounded by debris, corpses and shattered survivors.
"Lost" is reportedly one of the most expensive pilots ever bankrolled by a network, but Abrams refuses to take his budget for granted. He directs "Lost" with a precision that makes an already big production seem enormous. Like Steven Spielberg, he moves the camera to reveal the wreck piece by piece, and introduces his characters with the same muscular precision, one or two at a time.
There's Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a reticent beauty who finds herself taking care of wounded survivors (Jack included), despite having no medical training. There's Michael (Harold Perrineau of "Oz"), a divorced dad taking care of a son (Malcolm David Kelley) he barely knows.
There's a former Iraqi soldier named Sayid (Naveen Andrews), who resents knee-jerk suspicions that he caused the crash; a has-been rocker named Charlie (Dominic Monaghan from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), and a brooding loner named Locke (Terry O'Quinn of "Alias"), who seems to have a mystical connection to the island.
In time, Locke may prove to be the show's pivotal character. I say this because there's obviously more to the island than scenery.
From the get-go, the characters are menaced by beasts. Abrams denies us a clear look at them, finally granting a glimpse that might prove misleading. The creatures are mostly a source of anxiety -- faceless monsters growling in the distance and knocking down trees.
Is Abrams laying groundwork for tale of science gone bad -- another "Island or Dr. Moreau" or "Jurassic Park"? Or are the premiere's fantastic overtones setting us up for a popcorn-munchers' update of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" -- a poetic drama about the conflict between civilization and savagery, and the impossibility of a creator's maintaining control over his creations?
Or is Abrams creating some kind of parable? While the settings have little in common, "Lost" faintly suggests the 1960s series "The Prisoner," in which a top secret government agent resigns his post and gets incarcerated in a seaside community, where he struggles to understand his captors' motives and plot an escape.
O'Quinn's character -- seemingly named for the philosopher John Locke, whose writings influenced the formation of democratic governments -- might point the way toward answers. Or he might be another question mark. At this point it's impossible to know.
But I do know this: Abrams' ambitions, though still undefined, seem so grand that they can only end in triumph or disaster. Let's hope it's the former. Either way, ABC has rolled the dice on a dream worth getting lost in.
**********************************************************
From http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/tv_and_radio/article/0,1406,KNS_357_3196561,00.html
'Lost' worth finding amid fall TV shows
By TERRY MORROW, morrow2@knews.com
September 21, 2004
Find "Lost." The ambitious adventure (8 p.m. Wednesday, WATE, Channel 6) is the best new action series on network television this fall.
The new drama from "Alias" mastermind J.J. Abrams harrowingly follows the lives of 14 survivors of an airline crash on a remote island. It's a little "Robinson Crusoe," a bit of "Lord of the Flies" and a tad "Survivor."
"Lost" is blessed with intriguing characters and layered with dense mysteries worth digging into. This is appointment television for Wednesday nights.
And as he does with "Alias," Abrams keeps the action tight, especially in the opener's first 10 minutes, when havoc from the crash forces a shocked doctor (Matthew Fox) to turn into a superhero.
After awakening dazed and confused in a jungle, he encounters a beach filled with people screaming and bleeding and struggling to understand what's happened to them.
Thanks to the revolution in computer-generated images, "Lost" is able to bring us threats that are visually realistic and dynamic.
But once the survivors get organized, the show kicks into higher gear as we get to know them. Aiding the doctor in trying to wrangle the troops is a beautiful but mysterious passenger (Evangeline Lily) who's not what she seems.
There's also a Middle Eastern radio communications specialist (Naveen Andrews) who butts heads with a hotheaded American; a Korean couple who do not speak English; and a former rock star (Dominic Monaghan) with a desire for nose candy.
They band together, but find the jungle houses its own unique dangers, including a shadowy creature who is hungry and on the prowl.
As with many scripted shows, "Lost" allows for some contrived conveniences. I only hope if I crash-land on a deserted island that I have a doctor and a radio expert on board with me. And, hey, make sure the passenger list reads, "For hot people only." No ugly people on my plane.
However, even with that, "Lost" establishes early that it's as much about compelling character development and riveting plot. That makes it a rare television creature indeed, and one worth seeking out immediately.
RATING: (out of five)
Terry Morrow covers television. He may be reached at 865-342-6445.