Open Love Letter to "LOST"

Dear LOST,

I remember when I first laid eyes on you in December 2004. It was a Wednesday. I was alone in my apartment after a long day's work while my now husband was attending night classes. As a long-time film fanatic and TV junkie, I grabbed my weekly edition of Entertainment Weekly and plopped down on the couch for a read. The attractive twosome on the cover— Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly— caught my attention.

I recognized Fox from his days on "Party of Five" although I never watched it. Many confessed their love for you with exclamations of "LOST" on the cover. I was skeptical that you were anything special, but I thumbed the pages anyway and quickly found myself entranced by your story of cast aways on a strange island. There were many familiar faces and names— creator J.J. Abrams ("Alias" creator), Terry O'Quinn (long-time actor) and Dominic Monaghan (of "Lord of the Rings" fame)— but you sounded high maintenance and expensive. Something that often dooms shows like you from the start. I imagined the suit who pitched you to a room full of other suits and smiles at the mention of your potential audience draw and dollars.

There was something different about you though. Your creators spoke passionatately about you in great detail. They convinced me that it was possible you were more meaningful than a blockbuster. As I finished reading, I noticed your airtime "Wednesdays at 8 p.m." and glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was 8:07 p.m. Why not? I grabbed the remote.

And that was the beginning of a six year obsession. I was immediately addicted to your style of mixing character-developing flashbacks with present day mystery. Lucky for me, ABC aired the episodes I missed in the following weeks. I watched your pilot in awe of your special effects and ability to connect me to the loveable— and the not-so-loveable (hello Ben Linus!)— characters right away. You felt more like a movie than TV show.

My loyalty to you was not always easy. You wouldn't always answer my questions about where you were heading, but your secrets made you so interesting. So I was patient and trusted that you would tell me by the end, but alas, you did not by finale end. I don't hold it against you though because I think you meant well. I understand you were complicated and torn apart by your fans. You tried your hardest to please everyone, which can only lead to failure. You went for big picture emotional closure rather than sci-fi details. I wish you could have done both, but perhaps the expectations were just too high.

But that speaks to your talent for entertainment. Whether the audience loved to hate or love you, you were still the topic of ongoing conversation, which speaks to the truth that you were one of the most engaging things on television. I'm sure you will be a divisive source of conversation for years to come.

Now your name will never emerge from the darkness on my television screen to that ominous music whether it follows an eerie episode preview or jaw-dropping end. Now its just a memory of what was one of the most inventive and highly debated shows to grace TV land. Despite any disappointments with your final season, I'm still a "Lostie" to the core. You were an epic series and should hold a place in TV history as one of the greatest because you told great character stories with a pop-culture and historical reference, sci-fi twist. There will never be another one like you.

Thank you for the faithful, island-loving John Locke, which thankfully reignited O'Quinn's career. Thanks for Sawyer's dimples and washboard abs. Thank you for the Hurley centric episodes. Thank you for the Dharma Initiative and smoke monster. Thank you for not making it hell or all a dream that never happened— well, at least not for the entire series. Thank you for the mystery, the characters, the laughs and the tears. Don't let anyone tell you what you can't do. I look forward to the next project by your producer/writer team, Damon Lindlelof and Carlton Cuse. And I still plan to buy you on Blue Ray.

Forever yours,
Lostie Em