The Greatest Show on TV

For anyone who cares, I will NOT be spoiling any parts of the show in this post. I say this because it is a documented fact that "if you attempt to talk about an episode they have not seen yet, (white people) will scream and cover their ears." Since you're reading this, screaming and covering your ears probably wouldn't do much to deter spoiling the show. It would be hilarious to watch, though.

I don't watch a lot of TV, but with the aid of Tivo I am most certainly dedicated to a select few shows. In March I wrote a post entitled "The Greatest Show on TV?", chronicling my love for The Wire. I had been planning that post - without the "?" at the end of the title - since early January, when the show's 5th and final season began. In February, LOST began its 4th season, and I had to question my conviction that The Wire was the best show on TV.

(...I have to admit that I realize how stupid it sounds that was/am taking my rankings of Greatest Show so seriously. Perhaps that would be another entry in the Stuff White People Like blog. But anyway, back to being white...)

Last night was the 2-hour finale of the 4th season of LOST. If you aren't watching this show by now, you should start. The 80 minutes of programming last night was better than 95% of the movies in theatres.

LOST is many things. It's probably best categorized as a sci-fi drama, but has some excellent comic timing, and well, you can't deny that some of the actors - while being great actors - are also great eye-candy. It's writing, acting, and producing are superb. It's sci-fi element does require a certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief, but somehow it stops just short of asking you to believe anything ultra-corny or cheesy. In that respect, it's almost like Star Wars but without Jar-Jar Binks.

LOST certainly has a Trekkiness to it. There are fans who go a little beserk. There are forums and podcasts all over web discussion theories related to the show's plot. But somehow the creators have been able to give the show a Matryoshka doll / treasure hunt quality to it for the dude who turned his apartment into the Swan Station, and yet make the show accessible and fun for the fan who just likes to watch the new episodes. I fall somewhere in between.

So give LOST a look if you haven't yet. My guess is that by the 3rd episode you'll be hooked, caught up in a couple months and then anxiously awaiting season 5 like the rest of us.