Totally Lost

It’s not often that Eyegal and I get hooked on a TV show. Usually, we’re much too busy in the evenings to become regulars at anything, but I can think of three times it’s happened in the past:

1) Thirtysomething. This was a show about angst-ridden yuppies in their 30s with young kids living in Philadelphia in the late 1980s. We watched this show during optometry school when we were poor twentysomethings who looked forward to the day when we would have enough money to be angst-ridden yuppies. It all looked so good at the time, but reality is rarely as good as the dream itself.

2) Northern Exposure. We watched this immediately after graduation when I was starting my career first as a resident then a staff doctor at a very busy ophthalmology clinic in Nashville. The show revolved around another young doctor who was sent off to isolated, quirky Cicely, Alaska to pay off his medical school debt. Most of the characters on the show were about our age (late 20s), and although roughing it in Nashville was not quite the same as doing it in the hinterlands of Alaska, we somehow could relate. Not all the shows were quality (some of the writing was pretty lame), but there is one episode involving pheromones and an itinerant optometrist making her rounds in the “Oculomobile” that was pure television-writing brilliance.

3) The X-Files. Another 90s classic that we just couldn’t get enough of. Numbers One and Two have memories of us throwing them and their younger brother in the playroom, shutting the door (with warnings to stay put NO MATTER WHAT), and retreating to the couch with a large tub of cheesy-popcorn to watch Mulder and Scully chase down aliens, government conspiracies and various and sundry paranormal phenomena. It never made a lot of sense to either of us, but it didn’t matter. We simply liked the fact that the show celebrated the theme that there was still, despite all the science and technology that dominate our lives, ample mystery out there to make life interesting and give it a little spice. My favorite episode is probably “Signs and Wonders,” a Flannery O’Connor-esque tale of a fundamentalist snake-handling preacher (ironically named O’Connor) and an oh-so-rational liberal mainline minister. The ending is about as twisted as a LA freeway cloverleaf–no way we saw that one coming.

So, what are we hooked on now? Well, thanks to Number One Son who tied us down and forced us to watch the first and second season on DVD before he went off to Bama, we now have a very bad Lost habit. He even provided us with a link that we could use to watch the third season online (which is not too bad really if you don’t mind all the Chinese subtitles). I was aware of the show and that many were excited about some of the religious and philosophical themes explored, but we had simply missed it with our busy schedule.

Boy, have we ever made up for lost time. Eyegal is a little disgruntled, though. She doesn’t think the show’s writers and producers have any idea where they’re going with all this and there are certain characters with whom she bonded who have not survived. Still, as we finished each episode in Season 3, she would always say, “Aw, come on, we’ve got time for another one.”

As for me? I’m totally Lost. And entertained. It’s like The X-Files all over again, only this time we don’t have to throw the kids in the playroom.

11 Comments

  1. greg

    Lost is great. And if you’re not watching Heroes, you need to as well. It’s first season was very good. Get the Season 1 DVD’s asap so you can catch up on that. Season 2 begins in September.

  2. Donna

    I was hooked on 30 something too!

    Now just 24….I don’t have time to add one.

    I will watch CSI-the original if I am home when it is on…but fortunately it is not a series….

  3. Mike the Eyeguy

    Greg–Now that I’m going to have to wait till Winter ’08 to resume my Lost habit, Heroes may be just the ticket. I’ll check it out.

    Donna–I hope they come out with Fortysomething soon. Time’s stating to run out.

  4. Jeff stidman

    If you have a weekend with nothing to do- ya right! Rent or buy 24, season one. You’ll have hours of compelling and riveting wasted time.

  5. Mike the Eyeguy

    Sounds like the voice of experience, Jeff. I’ve watched a little of 24 at various times, but I never saw the first season–I was probably roaming some soccer touchline somewhere yelling at encouraging my players.

    Good to hear from you. Hope you guys are doing well.

  6. Brady

    I have not seen a single episode of any of those shows. However, I have borrowed all the 24’s and consider myself very disciplined before I watch them. If I don’t open the box, they can sit there for months. But once I get started, Saturday is wasted.

    We like Monk, and continue to watch old Columbo reruns, even though we’ve got many of the DVD’s.

    We also stationary bike to the Muppets and Seinfeld.

  7. Mike the Eyeguy

    We like Monk too, but I might like a show about a real monk even better. Maybe a Belgian one who makes good beer.

    You should do a series on unique Swiss TV shows. I would read that.

  8. Mike the Eyeguy

    Number One read this and sent me a link with all the seasons of The X Files.

    The boy should be arrested for feeding my habit.

  9. Lynda Bee

    I know it’s very cliche’, but I love The Office! I have worked with practically every one of the personalities on the show. (And you haven’t lived until you’ve worked for a Dwight!

    Dwight Schrute: No, don’t call me a hero. Do you know who the real heroes are? The guys, who wake up every morning, and go into their normal jobs, and get a distress call from the commissioner, and take off their glasses and change into capes and fly around fighting crime. Those are the real heroes.

  10. Lynda Bee

    P.S. – Hi Jeff Stidman – You old Frater You! Tell Terri Hi for me!

  11. Mike the Eyeguy

    My office isn’t quite a goofy and stereotypical as The Office, but we do have our Dilbert moments.

    Ocular Fusion–where old Harding grads meet and greet!

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