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Getting Lost in Lost

A group of teenagers are sitting around a television with their eyes glued to the screen and the volume turned all the way up. In another house down the street, a middle-aged man with no family or friends is simultaneously watching the television and chatting online about what he’s witnessing. On the opposite side of the country, a small family is arguing about what they just saw in this episode.

The one thing these people all have in common is that they are watching the TV and internet phenomenon, LOST. Since its launch at the begging of LOST’s season 2, Lostpedia has gained more and more speed and popularity, with over 4,000 articles posted, 25,000 registered users, and 150 million page views. This past summer Lostpedia joined the Wikipedia family and became an official wiki-affiliate online encyclopedia. In December of 2007, Entertainment Weekly voted Lostpedia the third best fan website on the internet.

Whether it’s an average citizen, a young adult or a stereotypical “nerd”, all these people are part of the LOST subculture. While LOST certainly isn’t the first television show in history to have a fan base like this, the role the internet has played in shaping its following is remarkable. The greatest example of this is the Wikipedia-affiliate website, Lostpedia.org, a website dedicated to dissecting and discussing LOST and its mythology.

LOST first aired in September of 2004, and is currently in its fifth season. According to head writers and executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, LOST will fully conclude after its sixth season is completed. The show has gained a huge number of fans and critical acclaim for its artful blend of elements from drama, romance, comedy, mystery, science fiction and fantasy genres.

One of the most important and well-publicized aspects of LOST is how many mysteries are presented throughout the show and how it takes a great deal of time for them to be solved. This has led to speculation being a staple of the LOST aficionado. On September 22nd, 2005, shortly after the second season of LOST premiered, a man named Kevin Croy created a website that allowed the LOST admirers the opportunity to track the show’s developments, a way to analyze episodes and a method for fans to pool their collective speculations. Lostpedia.com quickly became the tool of choice for any LOST enthusiast. The website sports numerous features and pages to help its users dissect the twists and turns of their favorite show. Every episode of the show has an individual page on the site, where the plot of the episode is recapped, the instances of how the show’s running themes pervaded into the episode are pointed out and techniques such as irony and foreshadowing are identified. The same is true of pages dedicated to characters, locations, plot-important objects and other factors that impact the show. All updates to the pages can be made by registered users but must be approved by administrators, much like Wikipedia. The amount of analysis that goes into these pages is staggering, and it helps make Lostpedia so appealing and useful for its users.

The website also features several pages where users can post their theories about the mysteries of the show. These pages take on forum-like atmospheres with people proving and disproving each others’ hypotheses. Lostpedia also contains pages detailing other elements of the LOST universe, including LOST: Via Domus, a LOST video game and Bad Twin, a book set in the LOST universe.

Lostpedia and its subculture following has become a legitimate part of the LOST legacy. The show is unique in that it yields itself to both the casual and the fanatic fan. The show is written well enough and is captivating enough to capture any variety of fan. Whether it is someone who just wants to watch the show once a week for an hour, or it’s a person who will be up late at night blogging about that week’s episode, there’s something for everyone. The many people who contribute to Lostpedia fall into the category of the “fanatic fan,” and are very active in posing questions to the LOST writers. The writers usually address these questions in their weekly podcasts which broadcast while new seasons of LOST are airing.

Also, Lostpedia has succeeded in creating a journalistic sort of approach to LOST by maintaining communication with the writers and actors of LOST. Many of the main actors from LOST have been interviewed by Lostpedia, answering questions posed by its users. Actors like Jorge Garcia and Michael Emerson have been very involved in reaching out to the fans. Currently, Lostpedia is gathering questions from its registered users that will be posed to Lindelof and Cuse in an upcoming interview. Activities such as these establish Lostpedia and the LOST subculture as not just a by-product of the LOST phenomenon but also a major player in how the show will be remembered.

When LOST concludes with its sixth and final season next year, it will surely be remembered for its mystifying story, capable acting, exemplary writing and interesting scenarios. However, the internet subculture trend that has been born of this show will be just as recalled just as fondly and celebrated just as excitedly.