... in Thought

I’m not alone in being driven to enjoyable distraction by ABC’s Lost.

Although the show has seen ratings drop considerably over the last few years, many
die-hard fans remain. You can still find viewers like my mother who tune in purely for the wild television entertainment week after week — or wait month upon month, since Lost switched to a no-repeat season that runs from January to May and goes dark the rest of the year. You’ll also find viewers who suffuse cyberspace, reading and often participating in discussions that dissect and speculate upon every nuance of each chapter, DVD extras, pronouncements from the show’s producers to journalists and Comic-Con audiences, interactive multimedia games, etc. You might even find other viewers like me, who are somewhere in-between.

For a long stretch including the first few seasons of Lost, I didn’t have ready or regular access to the Internet and simply watched Lost on TV. During the gap between the first and second halves of Season 3, however, I got hold of Finding Lost — Nikki Stafford’s captivating book on the previous two seasons — and once I plowed through her next installment in the series, covering said third season, I knew that when I could I’d be visiting the author’s blog, Nik at Nite.



Now that I’m zipping along the Web via high-speed Internet more regularly, albeit subject to the whims of whatever’s causing my ongoing connectivity issues, I well understand that if one isn’t reasonably disciplined one could spend not just hours but probably days on Lostpedia alone, never mind the forest of other blogs and fansites. Should you be interested in sharing theories with fellow Lost watchers and prefer, like me, to have a home base, I highly recommend Nik at Nite for the witty and engaging episode recaps published each Wednesday night and the tantalizing discussions that ensue — and in addition to those for Season 5, which is only a month old, you’ll find a complete set of posts on Season 4, which should further encourage you to pick up her books. When there’s a notable video or a particularly insightful article posted online, you can rest assured someone will offer the link. I also follow geek journalist Jeff Jensen's top-notch analysis and speculation at Entertainment Weekly’s Totally Lost hub.

Hopefully, I’ll share my thoughts about this season to date right here in the near future, but I didn’t want to wait any longer before giving a shout-out to one of my favorite new diversions. For those of us who have found Lost and stayed with it, things are really heating up, and it’s great being able to chew on it with friends old or new.