OPINION : The past month I ’ve been re - watching Lost , and yes , I can likely guess the first matter you ’re going to say is “ worst ending ever ” .
I ’d disaccord with that sentiment , principally because after a few seasons I realised Lost was never go to reconcile its whodunit in a way that would please everyone . You ’d probably look at the headline for this thought piece and also wonder , what is it on about ?
But I think in the long time of streaming , TV shows simply are n’t as good as they used to be . I wrote about howThe Acolytenever really get up and hightail it , and that felt emblematic of many television series in the last few years – hatful of spectacle but not much in the way of interesting grapheme or an piquant tale .
It ’s been twenty years since Lost strike our screens ( we in the UK actually started look out it on Channel 4 a whole calendar month before it debuted in the US ) , and watching it now reminds me of how different these two televisual eras are . Lost emerged on TV as an original idea – not a series establish on a have sex property or a spin - off . It was new and fresh , and not something we ’d ascertain before .
This was back at a clock time when TV show were twenty episodes plus , which think you could tell story and graphic symbol acts without having to rush . Sure , there be ‘ Bottle ’ episodes , but series feel better paced than film - same narratives streaming show are going for today .
Remember how well theNetflixMarvel show bug out and then begin to sag down around the mid - point ? And they were only 13 episodes .
And this was a time when people would congregate around one main screen and watch television together , back when “ water cooler ” series were a thing , and a sign of how pop ( or controversial ) a serial could be . In the era of cyclosis , people do n’t find out shows at the same prison term , and even risky than that , some series are so middling that hoi polloi would rather talk about something more interesting like how bad the British summer has been .
TV needs fresh new ideas
So while Lost was n’t a perfect video show , I do wish we could go back to a meter when TV serial publication could take their meter in price of pacing , focalise more on the characters and less on spectacle , but , significantly , state original story .
With cyclosis , the stress has been on seek to draw citizenry in with recognisable worlds and characters initially , and the Bob Hope ( at least for me ) would be to eventually swivel back to telling original , riskier stories . Those stories are still happening – Baby Reindeer is one example , but they also feel few and far between .
We have n’t reached that point and we may not – perhaps times have convert so much that things wo n’t ever be the same , but to reword a sentence Jack said to Kate in time of year four , “ we have to go back ” .
telly ask impertinent Modern ideas , not more of the same , to get it out of the rut it ’s presently in .
