Let's talk a little bit about expectations. For example, say you walk into your local super market and buy a can of soup. If you want a can of beef soup, how do you go about it? Silly question, I know. Of course we look on the label. After finding the beef soups, we make a couple of unconscious assumptions. 1. If a can of soup is labeled "Beef," we expect some conglomeration of ingredients that is 'Beef Soup.' 2. I suspect that most of us don't worry if we are going to open the beef soup and find tomato soup. Am I on track so far? Just for the record, I am not making any distinctions about how good the beef soup is going to be; just that it IS beef soup.
Is it safe to say that we go through similar processes with everything in the grocery store? Remember, we are not assigning a certain value to the product. This comes later. But we do take for face value that we aren't going to be outright lied to. This is good for us. It simplifies the process. Do we do this for other things outside of the grocery store? Sure we do. We learn, over time, to develop certain expectations in life. If we didn't, and had to develop this on the fly, it would take forever to actually make any kind of decision. Just imagine the deliberation that would take place wondering if putting money into a candy machine would truly produce candy. No. After a couple tries, or even observing someone else do it, we just EXPECT that we are going to get our candy. If we didn't, we all know the drill; kicking, banging the machine, or waiting for someone else to come by so we can get some sympathy and perhaps a little help.
What kind of expectations does one have when watching a TV show or a movie? We expect it to have some sort of plot with a conflict. We expect that it will be similar to what was advertised. We hope to be entertained, but don't necessarily expect it. And most of all, we expect that if the series or movie is terminal in nature (not continuing) that there is a resolution to the presenting conflict(s). The Death Star exploded, emperor destroyed, Luke finds solace in his father's penitence, and Hans and the princess making out at the after party.
So, where am I going with this? Well, this is a "Lost" post. I need closure. I'm looking to make sense of it all.
I subscribed to a "product" called 'Lost' with certain expectation, and was sorely disappointed. This is my way of kicking the machine for my candy that never came out. Of course, I can't get my money back, because in this case, money is on the form of well over 100 hours of watching the show, and a number of other hours doing Lost jigsaw puzzles.
Let's analyze where Lost succeeded:
1. They created an entire subculture and faithful following of online fans. Fans creating other fans, who then created other fans. This is the same reason why Obama was successful in his bid for President. Most of the marketing came not from his direct campaign operatives, but from fans of fans.
2. The writers made it nigh impossible to watch the first season of Lost without whole-heartedly committing to the coming years or decades that it would take to conclude the journey. This is like committing to an airplane ride for an undetermined destination and length of time merely based on the wonderful experience of buying the ticket.
3. They didn't create a different world where their ideas could flourish, but rather established new rules for OUR world. No one questions how the members of Star Trek beam from their ship to planet and back, because it takes place in a different world where limits haven't been created. Lost was developed in present time and even made references to events that were happening in the land of the viewers. This is perhaps why Lost succeeded in the beginning and why it failed miserably in the end. We subscribed to this idea that our world has bounds that haven't been set yet, and Lost was going to take us on this journey.
They were only successful, because, as fans, we assumed that most everything would be resolved in the end. We jumped aboard and said, "entertain us!"
In my mind, Lost's successes are overshadowed by their inability to provide the viewers with a plausible conclusion to the world that they created. They created expectations during the first 2-3 seasons, which attracted viewers and spawned a cult-like obsession to the mysteries. They failed because they weren't able finish the story. The only thing the series finale achieved is making the first 5 seasons irrelevant. This is not only bad writing; it is bad art. Any one of us can create a fantasy world, but it takes special talent to make it work as a piece of art that one can appreciate.
Update: Ken Jennings and I seem to agree on several points. http://ken-jennings.com/blog/. Scroll down to May 24th to read his Lost post.
