Some people are stuck on an island and...

I was going to write a "Why I Hate Lost" post before the premiere, but I didn't get around to it. Turns out that's a good thing. After watching last night I realized that I don't hate Lost. I just don't like it. And I finally figured out why. I'd previously been under the impression that I didn't connect with any of the characters so I didn't care what was happening to them. I didn't feel one hundred percent certain about that as the cause because I've always liked Sawyer and have at times liked a random assortment of the other characters, but that was the best answer I could come up with. Until now. After watching two hours of a group of characters, some of whom I actually like, go through some pretty crazy and interesting situations and developments on the island, in addition to their similarly crazy and interesting situations in the flash-alterna-verse, I finally realized why I'm so bothered by Lost:

I don't know what the show is about.

Obviously I understand what's happening in the show, on a literal level, at least. I know that in the beginning a bunch of people crashed on an island. I know what they've been doing since then. I know what I've been shown in the flashbacks and flashforwards and flash-alternative-pasts. But I don't know the point of the show.

I feel like I should illustrate. Below are my interpretations of what an assortment of hour long "dramas" that I watch(ed) are about.
Battelstar Galactica: A group of humans travel through space looking for a new planet.
Veronica Mars: A teenage girl solves mysteries.
Bones: An FBI agent and a group of scientists solve crimes.
Supernatural: Two brothers hunt demons.
Doctor Who: An alien travels through space and time "helping" people.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles: A woman fights the oncoming apocalypse.
Dollhouse: A woman tries to recover her lost identity.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A teenage girl fights demons.
Glee: A group of high school students sing to cope with the problems in their lives.

And so it's not just skewed towards my taste I'll throw in some shows I don't regularly watch.
24: A government agent hunts terrorists.
Castle: Amusingly mismatched people solve crimes.
NCIS: Amusingly mismatched people solve crimes.
The Mentalist: Amusingly mismatched people solve crimes.
Lie to Me: Amusingly mismatched people solve crimes.

And when I try to describe Lost in the same manner this is what I get:
Lost: A group of (amusingly mismatched) people are stranded on an island.

There's no action. If you want to be more descriptive of the show you can amend it to "A group of people are stranded on an island and weird shit happens". But even then, the weird shit is happening to them. There's no action on the part of the main characters. Stuff happens to them and they react and then more stuff happens and they react again. And the reason that this stuff is interesting is because the situation the people are in is particularly unusual. Usually that's called a sitcom. But, in case it's escaped anyone's attention, Lost is not a comedy.

It's possible that it's not really important for a show to actually be about something active. After all, it does work for sitcoms. Maybe it's just an unconventional way to tell a dramatic story. But aside from having no clear activity, there's another way that I don't know what this about. I feel like all of the shows I listed say something to me. I'm able to interpret a deeper meaning from what I'm watching. In the case of the procedurals it's usually just the idea that with perseverance the truth will be revealed, wrongs will be righted, and there is such a thing as justice. In the genre shows it's something more like the idea that humans possess an inner strength that allows them to keep fighting for what they believe in, fighting to save the world, or fighting to save themselves.

Individually, the not-so-procedural shows can even be thought of as experiments in the human condition. Sarah Connor Chronicles shows you what might happen to a person who knows and has to fight against a future that no one else understands. BSG shows you what might happen when the survivors of a catastrophe have to move forward and rebuild after the loss of everything they knew. Veronica Mars shows what might happen to a young person who's world view is jarringly upended. Etc.

My point in all that is that I don't feel any of those things about Lost. It's certainly not indicating that wrongs will be righted and justice will prevail. I don't feel like it's telling me about the strength of humanity in the face of adversity. If it were an experiment in the human condition it would basically be showing me what happens when people are trapped on an island and weird shit happens to them over and over and over again. When I watch Lost I don't feel anything except frustration that the show isn't satisfying me the way it seems to be satisfying everyone else.

So that's it. That is my problem with Lost. I don't know what it's about. That certainly won't stop me from watching it. But apparently it means that I won't enjoy it.