No Man Is Just a Number

Last night, ABC reran the first episode of "Lost." I still haven't figured out the show, and that's frustrating. I can usually detect a plot within the first 5-20 minutes of any movie or television program. I think the main reason why is that the whole series spends so much time backtracking, via flashbacks, rather than projecting the story though ongoing action in the fictional present.

Anyway, thinking about "Lost" also got me to considering an old series from the 60s, "The Prisoner," starring and created by Patrick McGoohan. There are similarities, whether intentional or not, I cannot say. I bet the writers of "Lost" have seen a few "Prisoner" episodes, however.

First of all, both stories take place in a mysterious "Erewhon" environment. An Island that seems out of place and out of time. In both series, the island is not the simple place it appears to be at first contact. Machiavellian, Darwinian and Kafka-esque forces pull the strings behind the curtain. The castaways and Number 6 are there for a reason--a reason not revealed. In both cases, they cannot escape their emprisonment. "Rover" lurks the Village; the mysterious, as yet unseen "Monster" prowls the castaways' terrain. The Monster is a security system; that much has been revealed.

More thoughts on this later. Dinner is served at the Chez David.