Granted there are traditional reasons for its success - good acting, lots of cliffhangers, adventure, etc. However, what strikes me as I watch it is the way it dares to approach spirituality and the supernatural as very real, and it addresses in one way or another those things humanity yearns to understand but has not and can not understand by natural means.
I think this is the appeal to a lot of the shows which feature the supernatural or even science fiction, i.e. movies/books/programs with a scientific basis that then break conventional science to create a fantasy (fiction).
People are hungry in their spiritual selves and are starving more and more as the world convinces them more and more that there is nothing beyond what science says there is. Hence, we see the success of shows like "Lost" and books like the "Harry Potter" series, as well as growth of various religions. Man has a soul, and man cannot starve that soul of spirituality. He will seek it out one way or another.
It was always interesting to me how so many science fiction fans were also very strong atheists or at the least agnostic. But it makes sense; they are feeding their soul. It is their outlet for spirituality. Many of them get REALLY into it, living lives based on going to conventions, shows, events, etc. for Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books and graphic novels, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Triology, general sci-fi, etc. It is their surrogate religion. To be sure, they do ultimately acknowledge it is all fantasy or fiction, but their involvement is often of fanatic proportions. Others do the same with sports, hobbies, etc., but what is different is that sci-fi and fantasy are very evidently based on the supernatural (even if that supernatural is considered fictional).
So, it's no wonder "Lost" has had such huge success; it is a great, entertaining, well-made show in its own right, but it has the added benefit of providing people a spiritual outlet which they are hungry for and don't realize it. Many don't know why they love the show so much, and they don't care why, but they do. I'm confident it is because of the show's function as a spiritual surrogate for people.
Why "Lost" is such a popular TV show
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JohnnyJersey
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Re: Why "Lost" is such a popular TV show
Post #2I have been into science fiction for over thirty years now and have been to a number of conventions and can say that it is not a surrogate religion. Most of sci fi and fantasy have nothing to do with the supernatural whatsoever and usually what there is of it is being used by the antagonist almost exclusively. This also brings into question christian science fiction such as the Left Behind series which were very popular. Personally I never got into Lost and don't really consider it very science fictiony.JohnnyJersey wrote:Granted there are traditional reasons for its success - good acting, lots of cliffhangers, adventure, etc. However, what strikes me as I watch it is the way it dares to approach spirituality and the supernatural as very real, and it addresses in one way or another those things humanity yearns to understand but has not and can not understand by natural means.
I think this is the appeal to a lot of the shows which feature the supernatural or even science fiction, i.e. movies/books/programs with a scientific basis that then break conventional science to create a fantasy (fiction).
People are hungry in their spiritual selves and are starving more and more as the world convinces them more and more that there is nothing beyond what science says there is. Hence, we see the success of shows like "Lost" and books like the "Harry Potter" series, as well as growth of various religions. Man has a soul, and man cannot starve that soul of spirituality. He will seek it out one way or another.
It was always interesting to me how so many science fiction fans were also very strong atheists or at the least agnostic. But it makes sense; they are feeding their soul. It is their outlet for spirituality. Many of them get REALLY into it, living lives based on going to conventions, shows, events, etc. for Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books and graphic novels, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Triology, general sci-fi, etc. It is their surrogate religion. To be sure, they do ultimately acknowledge it is all fantasy or fiction, but their involvement is often of fanatic proportions. Others do the same with sports, hobbies, etc., but what is different is that sci-fi and fantasy are very evidently based on the supernatural (even if that supernatural is considered fictional).
So, it's no wonder "Lost" has had such huge success; it is a great, entertaining, well-made show in its own right, but it has the added benefit of providing people a spiritual outlet which they are hungry for and don't realize it. Many don't know why they love the show so much, and they don't care why, but they do. I'm confident it is because of the show's function as a spiritual surrogate for people.
Post #3
The fun thing about lost was really only the theories some people came up with. A guy once introduced me to the game theory or something after season 5 or 6 or well very late.
Ridiculous especially considering how convinced he was.
I liked lost because of the nice tropical island. Imagine being stranded there with those beautiful women they had. Sounds pretty awesome to me. As soon as the smoke and whatnot appeared it just deteriorated. Every additional season it felt more like they just wanted to keep it alive but could have ended it with the initial story line just after season one maybe season 2.
The whole purgatory ending really was a bit poor in the end after so many seasons, so many locations changes and people.
Watch Game of Thrones. That is the best book goes screen I have ever seen. They leave out the big battles but that is really not possible without a LOTR operating budget.
Song of Ice and Fire is probably the best fantasy stuff I have ever read. Granted I didn't read much but I am always annoyed when stories don't make sense. Like with Wheel of Time, with a brilliant fantasy world but some decision of the protagonist are very strange and just seem to be the way they are so the story drags on longer.
I think Lost is just a really basic principle that just works on TV if you do it once. Than it looses its magic after they couldn't come up with a ending that actually does fit the story. The ending would have worked well after season 1 or 2, 3 at the latest. All the series that try to reproduce that seem to fail lately. I think it needs a while to settle for a new good sequel.
The great thing about the supernatural is that everything is allowed. You can make great stories without being dishonest. Series that try to be real and authentic always fail to entertain or don't stick and just become ridiculous. With SciFi you can do whatever is fun and that just makes for loads of fun and entertaining stories.
I don't think it makes it in anyway fundamentally different as opposed to anything else. I can only speak for myself but I don't like the pretend authentic series as much as the everything is on the table we own the story and make no secret about it approach. Anything goes and all is fictional.
Maybe it is a bit of compensation for not accepting nonsense in reality so we want all the nonsense we can imagine in fiction.
As far as Lewis and Tolkien go. Fantasy is just better to tell great stories without all the baggage of people interpreting and reading it all differently. You take out all the usual baggage like religion, countries, politics and replace it with something new. That way you can better own the story and the message. If you own the world the story doesn't have to fit in. You have your story and can mold the world to your hearts desire around it.
A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones doesn't have all that much magic but still the whole world is fictional with all its history. The best thing about it are the characters that aren't black & white like in Harry Potter but very real and the stuff that happens just is unpredictable. Not the usual stuff where you know how everything will turn out you only wonder how the heroes get there.
Ridiculous especially considering how convinced he was.
I liked lost because of the nice tropical island. Imagine being stranded there with those beautiful women they had. Sounds pretty awesome to me. As soon as the smoke and whatnot appeared it just deteriorated. Every additional season it felt more like they just wanted to keep it alive but could have ended it with the initial story line just after season one maybe season 2.
The whole purgatory ending really was a bit poor in the end after so many seasons, so many locations changes and people.
Watch Game of Thrones. That is the best book goes screen I have ever seen. They leave out the big battles but that is really not possible without a LOTR operating budget.
Song of Ice and Fire is probably the best fantasy stuff I have ever read. Granted I didn't read much but I am always annoyed when stories don't make sense. Like with Wheel of Time, with a brilliant fantasy world but some decision of the protagonist are very strange and just seem to be the way they are so the story drags on longer.
I think Lost is just a really basic principle that just works on TV if you do it once. Than it looses its magic after they couldn't come up with a ending that actually does fit the story. The ending would have worked well after season 1 or 2, 3 at the latest. All the series that try to reproduce that seem to fail lately. I think it needs a while to settle for a new good sequel.
The great thing about the supernatural is that everything is allowed. You can make great stories without being dishonest. Series that try to be real and authentic always fail to entertain or don't stick and just become ridiculous. With SciFi you can do whatever is fun and that just makes for loads of fun and entertaining stories.
I don't think it makes it in anyway fundamentally different as opposed to anything else. I can only speak for myself but I don't like the pretend authentic series as much as the everything is on the table we own the story and make no secret about it approach. Anything goes and all is fictional.
Maybe it is a bit of compensation for not accepting nonsense in reality so we want all the nonsense we can imagine in fiction.
As far as Lewis and Tolkien go. Fantasy is just better to tell great stories without all the baggage of people interpreting and reading it all differently. You take out all the usual baggage like religion, countries, politics and replace it with something new. That way you can better own the story and the message. If you own the world the story doesn't have to fit in. You have your story and can mold the world to your hearts desire around it.
A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones doesn't have all that much magic but still the whole world is fictional with all its history. The best thing about it are the characters that aren't black & white like in Harry Potter but very real and the stuff that happens just is unpredictable. Not the usual stuff where you know how everything will turn out you only wonder how the heroes get there.
