'Lost' along the way (or, Drinking the Katerade)

No one's ever accused "Lost" fans of being dispassionate, and there's a good reason for that. It's simply not a show that the majority of its viewers watch passively. It's not the type of show that plays in the background while you're checking email, paying bills, or performing other mundane activities.

People actively watch: combing for clues, checking for hints, and pausing their DVRs at any hint of something unusual. Afterwards, they check out blogs, message boards, or their workplace water cooler in order to discuss what they've seen. It's a show that demands a wiki-esque approach to understanding; much like the show's characters, no one person can solve the mysteries themselves.

Nothing really new or insightful there. But I think what this week of Kate Austen-centric entries showed is that when certain topics come up, the wiki-fication of "Lost" can turn wacky. If you're wondering what in the heck happened this week, I'm right there with you. Not because I'm dismissing the viewpoints of those that took great delight in dismissing my own, but I realized a cold, hard fact: we've had it pretty damn good here on the blog for a while, and I'd taken that for granted.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted this blog to be when I started out. Essentially, I got handed the keys to Zap2it's "Lost" kingdom with the message: "Go for it." No manual, no direction, no idea of what they wanted, no idea how I'd actually produce multiple entries per week, no idea if anyone would read the thing at all. Props to the peeps on high here for giving me the chance and for basically leaving me alone the entire time. Because it gave me time to figure out what I wanted to do here.

If pressed to give an analogy, I'd liken this blog on its best days to be like coming to a small party in someone's apartment or house. There's chip, dip, cold beer, some good music on in the background (currently, it'd be a whole lotta Silversun Pickups), and a discussion about the show. It's not a monologue about "Lost," it's a discussion. It's a give-and-take that feeds off each other, goes into weird tangents, hopefully makes everyone laugh, and challenges assumptions without hurting feelings. If I could write an entry that would spark that type of vibe, I'd done my job for the day.

To do so, I had to give up something early on, something that hampered the early entries and denied it any type of personality: an attempt to always be RIGHT. Because when dealing with "Lost," or nearly anything in the realm of pop culture that's worth anything, there is no "right." So much of the online communities I'd seen before starting this one consisted of people clawing over each other to reach the summit of Mt. SmarterThanYou, with scratch marks, swollen faces, and bruised egos littered along the way. Didn't seem like the way to do it. Didn't seem like much fun.

Because that's what this is supposed to be, right? Fun? Should be fun to read, but more importantly and personally to me, it should be fun to write. And in freeing myself from trying to be "right" in favor of "plausible and interesting," the blog took off in terms of its identity. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other "Lost" blogs preceded this one, and the only way I could make it stand out was to make it interesting to me. And luckily, I got a cadre of readers who not only made things interesting, they made things infinitely better.

Through collective synergy, the site turned into a true online community, one with personalities, in-jokes, and a self-regulating nature that meant that I didn't have to try and run things from on high, but rather let the tone and topics evolve organically. It was a pace for a small section of the show's viewership to express views knowing they would be heard, and not ridiculed. Debated? Certainly. An echo chamber, this ain't. I've gone toe-to-toe with plenty of you, but in a "Dirty Dancing" sorta way. My dance space, your dance space. Nobody put this "Lost" blog in a corner.

And yet, most of the comments this week tried to do exactly that, which had the effect of making me wish I'd never asked anyone for their opinions on which character should get a week's worth of entries here on this site. But such a thought is patently dumb on my part: 'tis a free country, and 'tis a free interwebs, and trying to stifle such comments is ridiculous. But trying to engage them anymore is also to me ridiculous, as this week's tone turned less into an intimate party and more like the screaming matches seen all across the country in August over universal health care. People weren't engaging each other; they were merely shouting past each other.

To me, that violates the spirit of what I've tried to establish here. Differing opinions are welcome. The refusal to acknowledge a different opinion simply isn't. Absolutely no one's forcing you to read this blog. There are plenty others out there. Trying to dismantle, discourage, and dismiss thoughts and theories that don't jive with yours without so much as an attempt to accept their validity doesn't just offend me personally, but does a great disservice to "Lost" as a show.

How many shows can inspire so many different opinions? Create so many mysteries? Present such a variety of complex, morally grey characters? Force us to think about religion, philosophy, science, science fiction, literature, and pop culture in new and exciting ways? The show's not an exercise in adamant proclamations, but rather about our preconceptions not only of the story and its characters, but of ourselves as well. It's a show in which an ageless man is looking for signs of progress so that one phase of the Island, and perhaps the world, can end and a new, ostensibly better one can exist.

I try to celebrate this as often as I can. I criticize when I see fit. But at no time do I ever try and pretend that what I am producing is anything close to a fool-proof, authoritative take on the show. No blogger than he who once proudly and defiantly predicted that the "Cloverfield" monster was indeed Smokey can ever try and pass off his work as inherently and infallibly correct. So I don't go for perfection. I go for a place in which you allow me into your brain for a bit and we collectively mind-meld for a while, all the better for having temporarily shared the same grey matter.

Hopefully, we'll get back to that soon enough. Next time I post here, it'll be from the new man cave in my recently purchased place. Maybe a change of scenery is just what's needed right now.

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.