MODERN ROMANCE

For some viewers, LOST was a romantic adventure series.

If we examine this theme, there are many nontraditional points played out between the main characters.

First, we have the typical "girl next door" stereotype, Kate. She is from rural Iowa. She is part tomboy, part charmer. She learns early on that her feminine wilds can make men do crazy things for her. She is the last person in the world who wants to settle down with her high school sweetheart, live in a white picket fence house, and raise of bundle of kids. She starts early in criminal misbehavior by trying to steal from a local store. She implicates a boy in her deeds, learning the lesson that he can control boys.

To add to her issues, Kate did not have an ideal childhood parental structure. The man, Sam Austen,  she thought was her father was not; and the abusive alcoholic mother's boyfriend Wayne was her biological parent. This confusion led her to not trust men. In an alleged abusive relationship where Kate never learned about nurturing love, Kate let her primal dark instincts destroy her home and father as a means of running away from the societal norms of family life. Her situation was not a Rockwell family painting, but a Manson family wall scrawl.

But at one point she did stop running and opted for a "traditional" marriage to a Florida policeman, Kevin Callis. We must believe that she was in love with him otherwise she would not have married him. But for her past being unraveled by Kevin's affection and rewards, Kate thought she found her perfect hideout. She had a new name, new provider and a new life. She started to live the suburban life as Monica, but after a pregnancy scare and Kevin wanting to have a foreign honeymoon (she could not get a passport), Kate fled without a word. She abandoned her future to run away from the past. She never spoke of Kevin again. One could argue that love to Kate was a mere commodity; a means to get to an end.

And on the island there was evidence that she used her female charm to get men to do her bidding; the deal with Ben, the affair with Sawyer, and her relationship with Jack in order to take the pressure off her past problems. These men cared for her, but she cared less about them. In some ways, Kate was a modern independent woman, who got what she wanted from men: security, comfort, affection without the cultural handcuffs of being a proper woman.

Second, we have the more modern woman stereotype, Shannon. She is a rich girl who was brought up to become a spoiled brat. She was daddy's little girl until daddy suddenly passed away leaving her stepmother in charge. Shannon only had one asset to get by in this world: her body. She used her charms to seduce boyfriend after boyfriend to be with her, to support her, to love her. But in the end, none of these relationships worked out. The men who were attracted to her lacked commitment. Shannon expressed herself as being needy, wanting and selfish. It was very difficult for her to find a person who could put up with her faults.

Trust fund children often have an aura of entitlement. Life was easy for them. Money took care of problems and buried the emotional pain of having real relationships. From what we saw of Shannon, her self-centered nature repelled against the notion of having a normal family life, raising children or having a single man in her life. She liked living on the drunken edge as a party girl. Her excitement was causing trouble. But like all stale acts, men grew tiresome of her.

On the island, she tried to use her past charms but she found a limited audience. The other beach survivors were more concerned about their individual welfare and rescue than fawning over a little rich girl who did nothing to help them in camp. We cannot say for certain that her very short hook-up with Sayid was meaningful in any way because at the time she was alone after Boone's death.

Kate and Shannon started off at opposite ends of the spectrum but basically wound up in the same place with men the initially never cared for, and attempted to use for their own benefit. Many viewers still question why Kate wound up with Jack and Shannon wound up with Sayid. If modern romance tells us anything, there are no clear rules.

So it is hard to tell whether LOST has enough classic elements to be considered an adventure-romance series since the main characters relationships were more like ships passing in the night.