I'm So Lost

Okay, who out there is a Lost fan? :raises hand and waves wildly:

With every episode, I ask myself, can this show get any better? And it always, always does.

How? How do the writers manage to keep me so captivated, draw me in with baited breath as this story becomes more and more complex, without ever pushing me into a state of annoyance because they haven't given me enough?

At the end of last night's epi, I raved to my husband that this show was like a ball of yarn tossed all around the house, with knots and and threads that seemed to end nowhere but really lead to a whole other level. With every additional episode, I walk away with more questions than answers, and I'm itching to find the next piece to the puzzle.

The hubby, being the cynic that he sometimes is, wonders how much longer this show can sustain the amped-up level of mystery without starting to piss off viewers. He's got a point. There is only so much we can take, so much not knowing, before we will begin to demand some answers.

Like, who is Desmond and what is he doing in that underground bunker and how long has he been there and what, exactly, has made him so paranoid?

Who are these "others"? What do they want with Walt?

What is the deal with John Locke?

When will Sawyer lose all of his clothes and start wearing a loin cloth?

But at this point, I'm far from frustrated. Each week I get just enough that I'm still in the story. I find out enough to sustain me until the next episode.

The show does have it's faults. I cannot tell you how bored and frustrated I got with Micheal's backstory they showed last night. Not one minute of it gave me any information about Michael that I didn't already know. Yeah, his girlfriend wanted to take Walt off to foreign lands and Michael didn't want to give up his son, but in the end she guilted him into it. Didn't we already cover this way back when? I know Michael cares about his kid. I certainly didn't need ten or fifteen minutes of crap taking time away from the present to pound that anvil home.

In fact, I'd say that this is the greatest challenge the writers now face. I feel like they did such a good job introducing the various characters through backstory during Season 1 that I know all I need to know about them for what is happening in the present. Unless something in a character's past directly involves what is going on on the Island - solves some aspect of the mystery or explains some odd goings-on - I don't need to see it.

For example, I know Jack has a God/inferiority complex with regards to his role as a doctor and a leader. I know that Charlie is a recovering heroin addict. I know Michael loves Walt. I know Sawyer has major abandonment issues, and that Kate can't trust anyone. Any backstory that simply exists to further these known character traits is wasted time and highly, highly annoying.

But show me some more about Hurley and the history of that mysterious number. Show me some history on how Desmond ended up in that bunker. Show me what happened to the French woman and her team after they were stranded on the Island.

Or at least show me some more of Sayid being Sayid.

And, dang, start destroying Sawyer's clothes.