“The End” is Near for Lost

By Rueben | May 18, 2010

On Sunday, May 23, 2010 the very last episode of the ABC series Lost will air from 9 to 11:30 PM (set your DVR’s accordingly), ending a 6-season run of this groundbreaking program which came from the mind of J.J. Abrams, the creator of Felicity and Alias, and was formulated from an idea by former ABC Entertainment chairman Lloyd Braun.

In about 12 weeks time, which is actually a short amount of time, one of the most unlikely and difficult pilots – as well as the most expensive – was conceived, written and re-written, cast and then filmed in Hawaii. The pilot aired on September 22, 2004 and drew 18.7 million viewers, the best drama series debut in nine years on the network.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or living without a television for the last 6 years, Lost chronicles the harrowing journey of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, which was to fly from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, but instead crashed nearly a thousand miles off course on a seemingly deserted island that was anything but that. The island was filled with one mystery after another, including, for a time, an unseen monster, polar bears, a band of “creepy” people known as “The Others” and the remains of the Dharma Initiative among many other unbelievable discoveries.

The cast of this history-making series was also one of the most diverse in the annals of television. Starring a bevy of relative unknown actors and actresses the series catapulted the cast into legend, making household names of Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Naveen Andrews, Emilie de Ravin, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Maggie Grace, Harold Perrineau and Ian Somerhalder. Actors Matthew Fox, Terry O’Quinn and Dominic Monaghan – who have portrayed three of the most prominent characters during the first 3 seasons of the show – were already known to audiences for their previous work (Matthew on Party of Five; Dominic from The Lord of the Rings trilogy films and Terry for his long resume of TV and movie roles).

While the first season of the show can easily be seen as the series’ best overall, because those original episodes laid the groundwork for all that was to follow, the other 5 seasons cannot be overlooked – despite the inherent pitfalls that befall any show that takes the entire populace by storm. Fans, or even casual viewers, of the show could argue the best and worst episode of each season (and in fact that was done in the pages of the May 14, 2010 issue of Entertainment Weekly); but the impact Lost has had on this generation of TV viewers will, more likely than not, be unparalleled for decades to come.

Whether you have been a fan of Lost since the beginning, turned away from the show during its “slump” period (parts of season 2 and season 3) or rediscovered the show during its later airings, you owe it to yourself to not only watch the original pilot, which will air on ABC on Saturday, May 22 from 8 to 10 PM but also watch the one-hour recap special that is to air at 8 PM before the series finale the following night.

If all of that programming weren’t enough, Profiles in History, the world’s largest auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia, will be auctioning props, costumes and set pieces from the series over the summer. You can preview many of the items that will be up for auction and get updates on the auction at the following link: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/lost-auction-preview/lost-auction-preview.

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Musician Spotlight: The British singer/songwriter Adele (sans Adele Laurie Blue Adkins) is a talented young musician with two Grammy Awards under her belt: Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single Chasing Pavements from her debut album 19.

This album debuted at number one, was certified platinum in the U.K and has sold 2.2 million copies worldwide. In addition to these accomplishments, Adele was featured as part of VH1’s Divas Live in 2009 and appeared in an episode of Ugly Betty. You can learn more about Adele at: http://www.adeleus.com/index.html