LOST RANKS 5TH IN SCI FI SHOWS

LOST, according to a website called Newsarama, ranked the 5th best Sci-Fi TV show in history. It ranked behind Dr. Who, Star Trek, Battlestar Gallactica, and Twilight Zone/Outer Limits.

Complain all you want about the finale, we're here to tell you something: not all questions ever need to be answered and no one owes you anything. 

Part of the majesty of Lost was that it did dare to raise questions and challenge assumptions in an age where TV is seemingly ruled by a vast armada of reality TV. 

Lost was unreality TV, charging headlong into time travel, alternate realities, smoke monsters and more with abandon. Not every viewer may have been totally satisfied, but one can hardly dispute the totality of vision and the flair with which the creators, cast, and crew pulled it off. Plus, polar bears.

This short ranking justification calls out fans who did not like the conclusion of the series. The argument that the greatest of LOST was that it was anti-reality TV.

But the argument loses most value when one looks at the shows ranked higher in its own list. Dr. Who has a set of core principles including explanation of time travel and parallel universes which now has been kept in tact for 50 years. Star Trek had an intense amount of rules explaining its core scientific-fiction principles such was what was warp drive, the transporter, the holodeck, etc. Even Data's brain was explained by the extrapolation of supercomputing technologies. Battlestar also had its own universe principles on how things operated, who were the good guys, who were the bad guys. And the Twilight Zone boiled down the bizarre into understandable and believable short stories. All of these programs gave the viewers answers and explanations to the issue presented in each episode.

“ Knowledge comes by taking things apart: analysis. But wisdom comes by putting things together. ”
— John A. Morrison

This quote is what the LOST blogs, commentators and fans embraced between episodes. TPTB made comments that they were aware of the fan analysis and theories. The expectations were that TPTB would address most of the most basic questions. Without knowledge, there is no wisdom.

RANKING LOST

LOST still has some lasting impression in the Hollywood writing community. In a poll of television and film writers, the WGA announced the best television shows of all time, with LOST being ranked at No. 27.

The Top 50 TV shows were led by The Sopranos, Seinfeld, The Twilight Zone, All in the Family, MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mad Men, Cheers, The Wire and the West Wing.

The second ten were The Simpsons, I Love Lucy, Breaking Bad, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Hill Street Blues, Arrested Development, The Daily Show, Six Feet Under, Taxi and The Larry Sanders Show.

Shows 21-30 were 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Frasier, Friends, Saturday Night Live, The X-Files, Lost, ER, The Cosby Show, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Other science fiction/supernatural shows in the Top 50 were Star Trek (33), Twin Peaks (35), Battlestar Galactica (38) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (49).

Television has always been considered a commodity geared toward the lowest common denominator. Networks, in order to generate ratings and ad revenue, had to tailor their weekly shows to draw in the most diverse segments of the viewing public. So base line humor and gags would water down what writers could actually get away with in their scripts. Unless one had an aggressive star-producer, it would seem that most shows are interchangeable formatted bland fare.

Many of the shows listed were considered "ground breaking" because they changed the standard one camera sit com format, or allowed their characters do say and do things that would have been considered inappropriate or outrageous. The writers job was to put the show's characters into places and story lines which were new and exciting - - - with a grand pay-off in a laugh (in comedy) or a cry of shock (in drama). LOST certainly had a lot of characters and (almost too) many story lines which hooked viewers in for six seasons.