'Lost' finds its way to adventure
It's hard to watch tonight's premiere of "Lost" without mixed feelings. This is a great piece of TV work, a tropical island adventure fitted with more than 40 characters, conceived with an eye to marooned-traveler classics such as "Lord of the Flies," "Castaway," and "Jurassic Park," and overlorded by one of the medium's most energetic and innovative talents, J.J. Abrams of "Alias."
Right from its opening minutes, after a flight to Australia has crashed on the shores of nowhere, ABC's "Lost" simulates the kind of dread we don't expect to find on the small screen. Dazed survivors wander aimlessly around the flaming debris, as if in suspended time. Explosions, silence, screams, silence. Jack, a doctor played by Matthew Fox, comes to consciousness and gradually joins the milling strangers, zeroing in on the injured, including a pregnant woman.
The show, which premieres at 8 p.m. on Channel 5, speeds up, of course; this is action and adventure, not to mention fantasy, as unseen creatures make their Spielbergian presence known in the forest by the beach. Predatory and noisy, the creatures chase after Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) when the trio goes looking for the plane's cockpit and its communications device. They keep the pulse of the show pounding as it introduces the large international cast of characters. Resourceful and athletic, Jack will become the island society's hero -- if first impressions are right, that is, and with Abrams they often aren't.
The adrenaline of "Lost" kicks in during the flashbacks, too, as crash victims recall their last moments in the air as they wait for rescue on the beach. These are the devastating sequences ABC has been clipping for its promotions -- the fast downward spiral begins, oxygen masks pop out, the plane cracks in half, and passengers are quickly sucked into the blue. Like the harrowing descent in the movie "Fearless," the plane disaster in "Lost" is not going to make the skies any friendlier to phobic viewers. During these disturbing flashbacks, the characters' back stories begin to emerge -- Charlie, for instance, who was fumbling with a little baggie when the plane lost its pressure and began to fall. One character is seen struggling to pull down an oxygen mask while wearing a pair of handcuffs.
So what could possibly cause mixed feelings about this show?
"Lost," one of the best new series of the fall, is on ABC, a network whose desperation has led to some very bad decision-making.
ABC is the network that doomed its best show last year, "Karen Sisco," by scheduling it opposite "Law & Order" and then canceling it too quickly. ABC is the network that has taken Abrams's two-hourlong premiere of "Lost" and snipped it in half to accommodate tonight's opening of "The Bachelor." (The other half airs next Wednesday.) And ABC is the network that has scheduled this series at 8 p.m., even though it's built for audiences that probably don't settle in for viewing until 9.
In other words, like so many quality TV shows that have been improperly handled over the years, "Lost" may be lost to us sooner rather than later.
Then again, the show might be a hard sell on any network. It's more demanding than its Edgar Rice Burroughs-like premise might suggest. With Abrams at the helm, the island mysteries will probably involve paranoid government twists and mad-scientist turns that don't reach out to mainstream viewers.
"Alias" has long faced the same ratings challenge. Abrams's imagination has a bit of "The Manchurian Candidate" running through its more accessible Saturday-matinee visions.
And there are a lot of characters and back stories to keep straight on "Lost," including a couple who don't speak English, a father (Harold Perrineau) who has new custody of his son (Malcolm David Kelley), a heavy man (Jorge Garcia) who hands out tinfoiled meals, and a former Iraqi soldier (Naveen Andrews) who's immediately treated with suspicion.
And as the season develops, the writers will inevitably delve into the many passengers who are now merely in the background. If the season develops, that is.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
