It wasn't supposed to happen this way.
   Attention spans were too short, they said. The audience was too jaded. Reality TV was all the rage. Nobody would make much of an effort to find Lost, much less come back each week to keep up with the spine-tingling thrills, hair-raising twists and turns and labyrinthine inventiveness of a complex serial drama with some 40-odd (some very odd) recurring characters, where missing even one episode could leave one feeling, well, lost.
   Lost, a sprawling ensemble drama about the survivors of a passenger jet crash on a not-so-deserted desert island in the South Seas, was supposed to be the epitome of a critics' darling — good reviews, a tiny but loyal audience and a short shelf life....
   ...The strange, emotionally stirring yarn about the survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 has spawned some 6,110 fans' theories about Lost’s mystery, according to a recent check of www.lost-tv.com, the unofficial forum for the series (what’s the island’s secret? how did they crash? why are things so weird? post your theories and speculation!). The program's followers have established more than 700 of their own poll forums, everything from, "If there was a Lost movie, who gets a nude scene?" and "Who do you think Sayid will hook up with?" to "What will happen to the French woman?" and the hard-to-top "Boone beatings."
   For all the hype and glory, whether its online chitchat in chat rooms or in the ubiquitous magazine and arts section cover stories, there is one unassailable fact about Lost that gives dedicated TV followers everywhere reason for hope: For once, there is a program out there that is grabbing a mass audience with not just style, but real substance.... Read the full story here. Permanent Link | 9:51 AM