I enjoyed the pilot for “Lost,” but I can’t imagine how they are going to sustain the show for 22 episodes, much less five years. I look forward to seeing if they can pull it off. Afterall, they are 48 castaways on an uncharted island thats apparently full of man-eating monsters. How many stories are there? Where can they go? What can do they? The monster bit is bound to get old fast. Figure one castaway munched per episode, and unless another plane crashlands on the island, they are out of cast members after two seasons. Those long-range creative concerns aside… the pilot was great fun to watch, and a lot of people watched it. According to Variety, the pilot scored big numbers:
The J.J. Abrams/Damon Lindelof survival drama, which has generated the best reviews for any program this fall, opened to surprisingly sockosocko numbers for the Alphabet, dominating its timeslot with the best young-adult rating for a drama premiere on any net (excluding spinoffs) in four years. ABC sure could use a breakout drama success, as it hasn’t had a real hit since “The Practice.” “Lost” reps the net’s best start for a drama in 18-49 since “Once and Again””Once And Again” in 1999, and in total viewers since “Murder One” in 1995.
That’s nice, but not very encouraging. Let’s not forget what happened to both “Once and Again” and “Murder One.” They barely survived their first seasons and were cancelled in their second.
Lee,
I had similar feelings about “Lost.” I told my wife that I would probably be very entertained by the first 5 or 6 episodes but that my attention might drift after that. But I did think the debut episode was very well done.
Victor
22 episodes? No problem. First, one of them will build a raft, but Gilligan will sink it. Then, the Harlem Globetrotters will visit.
Wasn’t there a series like this in the late ’60s? I seem to remember one back when I used to read the fall issue of TV Guide cover to cover. It didn’t last a second. That might have been the same year ABC did a “Mod Squad” meets “1776” show.
I think Rod Serling created it. Was it THE NEW PEOPLE? Or something like that. My COMPLETE DIRECTORY OF TV PROGRAMS is in a box, or I’d look it up…
I do know there have been DOZENS of unsold pilots with that theme…
I finally watched it over the weekend. I felt ambivolent about it. Kinda the way I felt about the first episode of Alias. Since we all know how I feel about that show now, I’m willing to give it another couple tries. But if I need to drop a show this year (like I usually find I need to), it’ll go.
I really enjoyed the first two episodes of Lost. Episode one struck me as the sort of show that Irwin Allen would be making if he were still alive: a group of people thrown into a situation where most of them will surpass their limits, monsters running loose on an island, even characters climbing up the interior of the nose of the plane a la The Poseidon Adventure.
The first season will be no problem for the writers. I remember thinking the same thing about 24: how could that gimmick continue to work? But it did.
However, if Lee Goldberg has trouble imagining five seasons, then it will be terribly difficult for the writers to reach that magic number. The characters found a polar bear in the tropics in episode two. Perhaps it’s an Island of Dr. Moreau clone. Perhaps they will get off of the island when the ratings start to sag, and so will the monsters. Keep your doors locked!
I have to say, when the Polar Bear showed up, they lost me (no pun intended). I’ll stick around for another episode or two, but the moment Pat Morita shows up as the Japanese soldier who still thinks its WWII, I’m throwing my TV out the window.
And here the polar bear really intrigued me. I want to know what’s going on. I’m hooked.