Nothing ever happens at random on Lost. The second season of the castaway drama has picked up precisely where the first season left off -- both in complex storytelling and viewer momentum. A recent Emmy-winner for Best Drama, Lost has routinely finished in the top-five rated shows in both Canada and the U.S. since its return last month. The show has inspired dozens of fan websites and thousands of hours of dialogue on fan chatrooms. It's one of the most buzzworthy shows on TV today. How did this all happen?
Much of the credit goes to creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, who set the bar high in the rookie season. The first year of Lost seemingly had it all: over-the-top special effects (it was one of the most expensive pilots ever produced for television), a gorgeous-looking cast and even a man-eating polar bear. But there was more to the show than blending elements of Survivor and Fantasy Island. Viewers came to the land of Lost for the good-looking castaways, and stuck around for the multi-layered storytelling.
Moving beyond a fable about plane-crash survivors stranded on a desert island, Lost gained remarkable creative depth through the introduction of simple, straightforward human issues -- good against evil, faith versus science, et al -- which were drawn out through the weekly backstories of its central characters.
It was intelligent TV that required viewers to pay close attention. Everything and everyone on Lost were somehow connected and viewers were left to connect the dots. Each new episode brought a new level.
A case in point: Last season, bad boy Sawyer (Josh Holloway) met the father of his island nemesis Jack (Matthew Fox) in a bar in Australia sometime before the crash. Around the same time, Boone (Ian Somerhalder), a character that was eventually killed, was seen in a police station with Sawyer, for reasons unknown. Fans are still trying to figure it out.
A more telling theme involves the series of magic numbers that have been running like a thread through the show. The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 were previously chosen by Hurley (Jorge Garcia) to win $156 million in the lottery; they're also the numbers that drew the Frenchwoman Danielle Rousseau and her expedition to the island; and they're also the numbers that appeared on the door to the buried hatch.
On occasion, it seems the numbers have simply been dropped into various episodes of Lost to test the eyesight of intrepid viewers: In last year's season finale, in a flashback of Hurley running to catch a flight, he passes a soccer team who have the same numbers on the back of their jerseys. Weird, wild stuff.
The result has translated into the maddeningly addictive quality that distinguished the first season and held viewers over to the sophomore campaign. And season two of Lost started with a bang -- literally.
This season's first new episode finally took viewers down the metal hatch. Instead of buried treasure, the castaways discovered the strange communal research compound, a fuzzy orientation film by the cryptic Hanso Foundation and a creepy Scotsman named Desmond who had met Jack prior to the crash. Once again, instead of ending the suspense, the story took another twist leading to a whole new series of questions and connections.
The second season has also seen plot-thickening in the arrival of several new cast members -- survivors from the back portion of the plane who landed on another part of the island and who have apparently had a far more frightening experience than that of their counterparts.
For viewers, making the weekly commitment to Lost is akin to joining a secret society. And the show's producers continue to wisely nurture the expanding mythology by building in tiny, seemingly inconsequential clues for those Lost aficionados who faithfully tape every episode to freeze-frame the shots for analysis.
In fine Lost tradition, the clues have been tantalizing so far. In early developments this season, Hurley has seen a picture of the kidnapped Walt on the side of a milk carton, albeit during a feverish dream. Likewise, it was rather puzzling to learn that Hurley's ex-boss at the Chicken Shack is the same person who was previously Locke's employer.
But can there be any rational explanation why viewers have seen the Hanso Foundation logo emblazoned on the fin of a shark? In the Lost universe, it's another tidbit that makes little sense by itself, but is clearly leading to something bigger. And it's a long season ahead.