About that Spanish 'Lost' promo...

The release of the Season 5 DVD/Blu-Ray sets this week will kick an already frenzied "Lost" fan-base into even higher gear this week. I've pored over the set myself, and will have a full review when it drops Tuesday. But today, I want to look at another item that has caused quite a stir among "Lost" fans: a Season 6 promo from the Spanish station Cuatro.

Now, you've probably already seen this promo. I'm not new to the party. The website SL-Lost put it on YouTube and brought it to everyone's attention, and since very few websites that embed the video actually give them credit for doing it, I want to make sure I give credit where credit's due.

Now, a myriad of other blogs have posted their video and the response has been universally some form of "OMGZ!!!" But I've held off on talking about it for a little bit, only because I've really wrestled on whether this promo is actually brilliant or completely misses the point of the show entirely.

Here's the clip before we continue further:



Now, it's obviously important to state, up front, that this promo was made independently by the station Cuatro without any input from either ABC or the creative team at "Lost." Secondly, it's important to remember it's a promo and not a preview. In other words, the point of this is to make us excited about "Lost," not actually give a sense of what will actually happen in Season 6. And thirdly, that sultry Spanish voice-over is meant to remind us that Ben Linus is the most interesting man in the world. Stay thirsty, Others.

So why am I so conflicted? It's "Lost" plus Radiohead. My favorite show and my favorite band. Even the song chosen ("Everything is its Right Place") has both the correct emotional mood and contextual compatibility with the end of Season 5 and its implications for Season 6. I should LOVE this thing. And the first few times I watched it, I did. But then I started to think about it. And think about it some more. And love turned to like which turned to "hmmm" which turned into "uh oh."

Before I try and break down why I don't like it, let me be clear: as a piece of creative filmmaking, it's outstanding. My issues with it have nothing to do with Cuatro's production skills. And my issues lay less with their specific take on the show (because let's be honest, this promo is essentially a fan video with a big budget) than the seemingly blind acceptance of this video as giving us a viable insight into Season 6. Everyone seems so starved for anything new related to "Lost" (even if all this clip contains is recycled material) that I think critical analysis of what this video implies has gone by the wayside.

So here are the three things that really and truly bug me about this promo:

1) Jacob and The Man in Black are equal players on the great chessboard of The Island along with everyone else. Now, this might actually be true. I won't say it's not. But in my mind, the show pulled back the curtain slowly over five seasons to finally reveal the two puppet masters of The Army of Light and The Army of Dark. Even if you want to say The Island is at the top of the food chain in terms of power structure (a totally viable assessment), putting the shot of the two of them at the end of the commercial would have better separated these two figures from the rest of the pack.

2) Irrespective of the status of Jacob and The Man in Black, this promo completely denies the existence of free will in the "Lost" universe. At the very least, it states, "Whatever you actually do for yourself, some higher being allowed you to do it." And everyone seems OK with this! Courtesy of Ms. Terri, the common English translation of the poem adapted for the promo is, "We are but chessmen, destined, it is plain,/That great chess-player, Heaven, to entertain..." If THAT is destiny, I'll pass, thanks.

3) That money shot, in which The Hand of God places Tawaret on the chessboard of the Island, also denies human agency in a way I find slightly disturbing. One way of looking at that shot is, "It's an interpretation of the belief in higher beings causing Man to build statues in their honor." Another way is, "That higher being ensured that Man build the statue in its honor." In the former example, man had control over not only the literal edification of the statue, but also the desire to build it. In the latter, they are Muppets on a mission.

Is my interpretation of this promo colored by my desire for the existence of free will as central to the end game of "Lost"? Absolutely! But it's not just my desire for it to exist that colors my disappointment not only with this promo but fan reaction to it. Jacob himself is resolute in asserting that the major players in "Lost" have a choice. It's not about what these characters are always and ever going to do; it's what these characters are always and ever capable of doing. To put this in a more specific context: would you rather learn that Jack Shephard spent five seasons struggling to discover his purpose in life, or learn that some higher power has been messing with Jack all this time and only now is ready to show Jack the way?

Or, put even more succinctly: would you rather these characters pawns or players? Leave your thoughts below!


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Photo credit: ABC