What to Watch (or, Why "Lost" has lost me)

Capitalizing on the success of one of my favorite shows, "24", ABC launced an hour long serialized drama, "Lost" from J.J. Abrams of "Alias" fame. I never watched the first season of "Lost", but I started watching at the beginning of the current (second) season. I was hooked immediately. And then...nothing. Weeks of reruns or other shows on in its place. And weeks of questions with no answers. Look, the American attention span is not that long. We can't be invested in something this engrossing without getting our questions answered. We can only focus for so long one one thing before we have....by the way, what's up with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? Is that weird or what? See. :)

"Lost" is losing viewership faster than Bruce Willis lost his hair. And it's all because "Lost" isn't what "24" is. A satisfying show week in and week out. "Lost" is losing to "American Idol", a crappy show but brilliant in its execution.

"American Idol" works so well and has for so long b/c of several simultaneous factors:

1. The judges. Simon’s the prick you love to hate, Paula’s increasingly becoming unhinged and you can’t wait for her to meltdown completely. Randy’s just…there.
2. The competition. American’s love competition. Period.
3. The auditions. While they’ve become almost cliché, it’s still the best part of the season for me. Which leads to…
4. The contestants. Some of them are wacky, some are trashy, some are bitchy, some are sweet. While they’re good, there’s always one or two that you know don’t belong but you watch to see if/when they’ll be voted off. Which leads finally to…
5. The power of the vote. “American Idol” empowers people to pick a performer that they like, to launch the career of a talented kid and give them their big break. That’s intoxicating to most people.
   

Now, while there’s no accounting for the taste of the American people, they also usually do a lousy job of follow through with buying the albums of what I refer to as America’s Best Theme Park Performers. Look at the millions and millions of votes each week. Look at the millions and millions of viewers. It’s a pop culture phenomenon. So you’d think that each winner would sell tens of millions of records, right? Wrong. Kelly Clarkson has exploded because she’s broken free from the Idol machine. Reuben went absolutely nowhere, in part, I believe, because he’s probably borderline retarded and has the personality of a wall…a big fat wall. Clay Aiken has a core set of fans and did better than Reuben (and better than every second place finisher to date) but he’ll never really break out. Fantasia has done okay, but revealing her illiteracy probably did more harm than good. She’ll do well, probably, when she gets away from the Idol machine, too. Carrie Underwood’s success is a bit of an anomaly. But only because she’s a gorgeous white “country” singer. She’s good, but c’mon. Country fans eat her up with a spoon. And that “Jesus Take the Wheel” song makes rednecks and soccer moms cream their jeans.


“Idol” is not watchable for me, but you can’t argue with its success or the absolutely brilliant marketing and the product placement by only a few major sponsors (Coke, Ford, Cingular/AT&T).