Fantasy Island

The skinny: When Oceanic flight 815 crashes on an island, the survivors find that they are not alone. They struggle to cope with relying on strangers, survival, the threat of the hostile Others, and the inexplicable mysteries of the island.

Review: In my book JJ Abrams took the serialized cliffhanger tv show to the next level with Alias, and then perfected it with Lost (sorry 24, but polar bears in jungle islands are more plausible than getting across LA in 10 minutes). If you haven’t been obsessed with this show then you are probably a skeptic for the same reasons I was: How long can you keep a show going about people stranded on an island? The next thing you know some producers will squeeze 4 seasons out of a premise about a bunch of guys breaking out of prison.

What you need to know is that Lost is a character driven drama first and an internet geek speculative mind frak second. The cast is truly international with one couple who only speaks Korean to an Iraqi torturer.  As inexplicable phenomena occur on the island and they are constantly harried by the indigenous enigmatic Others, we are treated to flashbacks in each characters’ past. They give insight to their current choices and tease how all of the survivors are strangely connected to one another.

From week to week it consistenly delivers gasp moments that have me scurrying to various forums where a community of other dorks hyper-analyze stills from the show as if we were verifiying photographic evidence of aliens.  While the flashbacks are great character devices, the latter incorporation of flashforwards is a riveting plot device that creates more questions than answers.

I got sucked into Lost because the show broke a lot of conventional tv rules and it has a strong diverse cast. But I continue to discuss it around the email water cooler because the writers and producers have managed to keep it fresh and unpredictable this entire ride.
Wrap up: If you dig serialized drama with a helping of scifi and romance, you need to get, wait for it…the DVDs block out a weekend.

Entertainment rating: 5