Sunday, February 28, 2010

Media Meditation #2: I Found LOST




If there is one show out there that makes me say “What the f-bomb just happened?!”, it’s LOST.

Past, Present, Future, Stations, Mangos, Guns, Dead but alive people, Planes splitting, 4 8 15 16 23 42, Jacob.

WHAT? Oh LOST, you’ve done it again, such a mind boggle.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve wept inside for a moment about this being the final season for the epic tale of the passengers of flight Oceanic 815.
I only started watching LOST this summer, and now I am hooked. Every Tuesday I rush out of work at 8:30 in order to get to a friend’s house to tune in to the tube.





WORKING THE BRAIN:

LOST is great at making use of all three parts of our brain. Our reptilian brain is often entertained with the constant mess of love affairs and whenever someone pulls out a gun. Our limbic brain is triggered whenever that reoccurring music comes on, and because it is an image that we are watching. LOST does a great job with stimulating our neocortex brain because we are forced to piece together past episodes and characters, and make sense of what is actually happening on that damn island.

EIGHT TRENDS:

EPISTEMOLOGICAL SHIFT:
Getting sucked into watching LOST is pretty easy, but can you imagine if it was a radio program? Following the plot would be so much more difficult.

TECHNOLOGICAL SHIFT:
Because I don’t have cable, I was able to watch all previous 5 seasons through hulu and ABC.com.

PERSONAL SHIFT:
There is just about every type of website for LOST. Facebook, blogs, wikis, you name it, it’s out there.

CULTURAL SHIFT:
It’s easy for ABC to track and see how many people are tuning in and actually watching their program.

DISCURSIVE SHIFT:
We never know what is really going on during LOST and the truth is always being distorted depending on which character’s eyes we are watching through.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES:

“REALITY” CONSTRUCTION/TRADE-OFFS:
I have wasted so much of my own reality on the “reality” of LOST.

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES:
LOST uses so many different production techniques in order to portray the stories of all the characters. The camera angles and similarities between each episode makes LOST cohesive.

EMOTIONAL TRANSFER:
This show definitely pulls at all the emotional strings. There are problems with kids and marriages, deaths, births, and new loves, LOST is just a soap opera during prime time.



The Famous Love Triangle

PACING:
I think that LOST’s pace is pretty easy to follow, but sometimes I’m happy that I can rewind and watch a scene more than once.

PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES:

SYMBOLS:
LOST is full of symbolism. There are uses of light and dark colors to represent good and evil, there are uses of objects that characters acquire or keep which symbolize who they are.

SCAPEGOATING:
One group of people is always blaming the other for their problems, thus we have 6 seasons worth of LOST. The survivors blame the others, the others blame the survivors, it’s a never ending story.

TESTIMONIAL:
So much of the series is shown through testimonials. Whether it is the past, present, or future, a majority of what we know about each character is through a testimonial.

REPETITION:
The reoccurring music, the numbers, and the overall way that LOST is shot, it is repetitive. And don't forget about the smoke monster.

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE:
Is it me, or are most of the people stuck on the island pretty good looking (cue the swoon over Sawyer), sorry Hurley. But let’s get real, they must smell pretty bad.





Hurley at his best. Not the best looking guy, but we still love him.

GROUP DYNAMICS:
Whenever there is a problem the characters either divide into groups or there is one person who says, “Live together, die alone.”

NAME CALLING:
The “Others”. Just by giving them a name makes them sound more terrifying then they actually are. Sawyer is the king of name calling, he has a list of nicknames for each character.

TIMING:
LOST is all about timing. The writers time when and what you find out about each character.




Number One is so true...

3 comments:

  1. OK, Rachel.

    Who is hotter - Jack or Sawyer or Sayid? (Or Hurley?)

    Ha ha.

    This is an EXCELLENT blog post. I just finished watching last season on dvd on Thursday night.

    They blew up the damn Island! Or did they?

    Shhh...

    Lost,

    Dr. W

    ReplyDelete
  2. SAWYER all the way!! All those literary references...WOWZAS

    Start the new season so we can discuss!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I better start getting some answers or i'm suing ABC for pain and suffering.

    ReplyDelete