Dear God*: Why, oh why do I watch Lost?

I should preface this by saying that I hated John Doe. Loathed that show. I have this friend who's pretty hip to the TV industry, tried to get me to watch it, and I've only recently forgiven him for it (he told me Enterprise got Manny Coto).

John Doe had one problem - it was a mystery based premise with a really stupid mystery. Why does this guy have no memory? Why does he know everything but still uses a phone book? What does blue smell like?

Who cares? It was self-evident from the second episode that the writing was completely shooting from the hip, had horribly continuity and was destined for a downfall.

So why do I watch Lost? This came up after some beers a couple nights ago. It's very similar in it's core. The premise must be way out there and if you had to roll the dice, chances are the explanation is probably not going to appease everyone.

But the characters don't suck. Locke is one of the best TV personas to come around for a while, and let's not even get into Sawyer. The background stories are riveting without requiring the oddness of the show and the whole castaway bit is handled quite well. So the reason, I guess, is that even if the mystery ends up sucking - the show is still very watchable.

I do love a mystery though, so here are my observations:

No, they aren't all dead. Though Lost seems like Purgatory, we've gotten to many instances where characters have mysteries not pertaining to the island. Why would we care about the odd destiny of Claire's baby if they were all snuffed out?

It's about the children. We've got two really odd children now. Claire's baby is so important a psychic is willing to send her to the island and apparently Walt is so strange that his adopted father didn't want to risk living with him. They somehow seem core to the story.

Locke knows something. Guess this is obvious, but Locke understands the island. Whatever he went through showed him a bit of the island's inner secret. I don't think he hasn't shared with the crowd because he's stingy, I think he believes they'll only understand when they experience it as well.

Sooner or later, someone is gonna die. Just a prediction. I think they're holding out on this until towards the end of the season or the beginning of the next. They've got a great cast, both of actors and characters, and there's too much tragedy to pass up here.

They're not in Kansas. The metaphysical can't be ignored, and I don't disagree with the in-show observation that none of them should have survived the accident. While I don't think they're dead, I don't think they are exactly in a place a search plane can fly to easily.

Can't wait for next week...



* I'm an agnostic...