Television and New Media by Jennifer Gillan

Author:Jennifer Gillan [Gillan, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Performing Arts, Television, General, Social Science, Media Studies, Technology & Engineering, Telecommunications, Television & Video
ISBN: 9781135965679
Google: -OeSAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-10-18T05:41:27+00:00

The mythology series and alternate reality game

Such worries already started to be expressed in the middle of the first season when commentators wondered if Lost would disappoint in the same ways that most of broadcast television’s long-arc serial mysteries had done before it. Viewers did not have to look far for an example since Lost was paired with Alias starting in winter 2005. The spy-fy serial had started out strong but by its third season in 2003–4, it was already showing signs of fraying from constant revisions made to its structure in an attempt to balance creative and industrial demands. The network’s hopes of attracting and maintaining casual viewers to Alias conflicted with the production team’s creative desire to offer loyal fans a slowly unfolding, complex serial mystery in the style of The X-Files, but wrapped in a Jane Bond spy adventure and extended via a series of hidden websites. Tinkering with the series to make it more accessible to casuals weakened its initial effective structure, especially after the writers got rid of the cliffhangers that had made the series have an addictive quality similar to some of the twice-weekly reality TV series as well as dramatic scripted serials. The changes did little to attract new viewers and ended up alienating core fans.

Lost fans were anxious that the same thing could happen over time to the new series. Its good reviews came with the caveat that the reviewer would not be surprised if the series encountered the same trouble as one of the long-arc serials that preceded it. Aware of these concerns, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said that in the fall of 2004, he and the producers often discussed how to balance the mysteries with “the reveals.” In terms of the pacing, McPherson said he was always concerned with “how much we’re giving, how much we’re not giving.”110 By April 2005 Entertainment Weekly fretted: “we all know how this can end, don’t we? Marooned on a spit of frustration. Like Twin Peaks. Like X-Files. Shows that come dressed in alluring mystery, but eventually reveal themselves to be sporting emperor’s clothes.”111 Yet, the slow reveals of backstories kept the series from becoming too mythology focused. In a long-arc mystery the trick is to keep audiences interested in solving the puzzle and playing along without becoming frustrated by the predictability of the twists or by the overly convoluted nature of the plotlines.

Like the characters in Lost who cyclically have and lose faith that there is indeed some larger plan for them in relation to the mysterious island on which they are stranded, the series’ loyal viewers try to maintain their faith in a grand plan, despite moments such as “the reveal” of the workings of the hatch in season two when they became worried that perhaps producers had no grand plan after all. This anxiety stemmed from experience with earlier shows, including Alias. Fans are willing to put in the time to figure out the mysteries of this kind of series,

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