
I recently had the opportunity to watch the LOST Sci-Fi series on Netflix. Curiously enough, I had not even intended to watch it--I was just setting up Netflix access on a computer for a friend, and they gave me access to their account in case I wanted to watch something. It just happened that in order to test internet bandwidth, I just clicked on the first thing that happened to show up--which was LOST. After the first episode, I was hooked!
The premise of the series is that a plane crashes on an uncharted island with 48 survivors, from various walks of life (ditzy blonde to medical professional). They have to face the basic challenges of survival, plus a number of seemingly paranormal events--like a monster made of black smoke that can hurl trees--and people--into the air (reminded me of the old Jonny Quest episode, "The Invisible Monster").
The series contains a number of mysteries that develop over its 6 seasons, including a synchronistic number sequence of: 4 8 15 16 23 42 and the number 108 (the number of names of Shiva).
The format of the show is very "psychological," in that as challenges are faced on the island, it flashes back to the character's past so you can see the influences on their life that brought them to this point to make the choices they made. Kind of a "bass-ackwards" character development, but it works well given the premise of the series (otherwise, you'd have to wait 5 1/2 seasons to get TO the plane crash).
It is sort of a modern remake of Gilligan's Island in many ways; in that old series, Gilligan was basically portrayed as the devil, always screwing up the castaways plans to escape. In LOST, many characters fulfill that role and also exhibit the "virtues and vices" archetypes that Gilligan's Island was noted for.
It was these "mysteries" in the series that got me hooked, because the parallel to my life was downright shocking. For a while, I was wondering if the writers had gotten a copy of my old journals... including that sequence of numbers, which are my age at the 6 major "turning points" of my life. And if you've read my Vision Quest poem (in another topic), you'll notice it is 108 lines. I started making notes on the synchronicity--ended up 3 pages long! And I have never even seen an episode of the show before... I guess when the Universe wants to give you a message, it will find a way.
Despite all the negative reviews the season finale got, I thought it was very well done and appropriate, though it did not leave "room" for a 7th season because it ties up all the loose ends except one (the mystery of the island, itself). I tip my hat to the creators of this series; a job well done.