One of the great lessons of the network race: Don't count anyone out.
   CBS was limping along until, seemingly overnight, it found new vitality with the help of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Survivor." And now ABC may be about to pull itself out of a deep rut, which has seen the network stumbling from bad idea ("Threat Matrix") to bad idea ("Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital") for years. This week, as TV critics gather to assess the new fall season, the No. 4-rated network is pushing a new slate of scripted dramas that aren't just not awful, but are awfully good.
   "It's no secret to anyone that we haven't had a drama that has really broken out in the last few years," said Stephen McPherson, the new president of ABC prime-time entertainment. And with McPherson's guidance, the network has scheduled a cluster of series that are as unpredictable and colorful as its recent ones have been formulaic and generic. Indeed, its best shows -- "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" -- are original enough that they almost defy categorization....
   ..."Lost" is also the creation of one of TV's most imaginative storytellers: J.J. Abrams, the man behind the ever-inventive "Alias." Abrams and his co-executive producer, Damon Lindelof, have come up with a beautifully filmed drama that will be compared to "Survivor" and even "Gilligan's Island" but that deserves a category of its own.
   The two-hour pilot finds a large ensemble of strangers stranded on an island after a gruesome plane crash. There's lots of character drama afoot, of course, as the scripts will explore the society that arises out of the ashes. (The huge cast includes a beefed-up Matthew Fox from "Party of Five," Harold Perrineau from "Oz," and Dominic Monaghan from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.) But there's also a mythological element to the plot, as the castaways encounter supernatural mysteries including a monster. Lest it all sound too Michael Crichton-like, Abrams is quick to note, "It's not a dinosaur." And lest it all sound overly involved in an "X-Files" kind of way, Lindelof says, "The key is not to become a slave to the mythology."
   SOURCE: Boston Globe Permanent Link | 10:57 AM