More Than a TV Show: Saying Good-bye to LOST

Last July, as I stood in line with multitudes of LOST fans for the LOST panel at Comic-Con an overwhelming wave of bittersweet nostalgia overcame me. This would be the last LOST panel at Comic-con. The last time we would eagerly turn to Team Darlton for a few clues on what the show was all about. The last time to gather with other people who enthusiastically watched every week and puzzled out theories together. Heartsick was how I felt.

To dismiss LOST as simply a TV show does it a huge disservice. LOST is a beautiful and magnificent achievement in storytelling. Yes there were missteps, yes there was clumsy dialogue, yes there were unexplained questions.

But I don't really care. Because when I look at LOST as a whole, I see one of my favorite stories ever told. I see a story that is big and huge and universal and yet individual all at once. I see a story of people bumbling their way through life and then learning how to figure it out together. I see a story that was told with depth and heart and humor, that celebrated a diverse cast driving home, yet again, how much we are all the same.

LOST gave me so much. It gave me points of connection with other fans. It gave me opportunities to consider and think about my own life. It introduced me to the music of Michael Giacchino. It expanded my literary world. It drove me to Comic-Con for the first time, just to get to go the LOST panel. (now Comic-con is a can't miss event for me)

I don't know what the finale holds tonight. I trust the ending will bring some satisfaction. But even if it doesn't, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the creative team of LOST, for dreaming big, creating a story that captured our imaginations, a story that was in part, all of our stories. Thanks for including huge doses of literary love, for building your tale on the backs of great stories already told, for thinking outside of the box, for negotiating an end so the whole could be enjoyable, for changing the way we watch television, for setting the bar so impossibly high.

I will miss LOST, truly, deeply.

Namaste