by Barbara Webber

Created on: June 30, 2009   Last Updated: July 01, 2009

Asking what is the best television series is like asking what is the best color. It is subjective, and what is the right answer for one viewer may be way off base for the next. That is why there is so much variety in television. However, there is one current television series that stands above all others. Not everyone loves it, but everyone has to at least admit that it is smart television. It is a show filled with drama, mystery, intrigue, and comic relief. It has the power to make its audience sit on the edge of their seats anticipating what will come next. It is mesmerizing and smart, with as much drama as Dawson's Creek and as much mystery as Twin Peaks. It is the show everyone is talking about on Thursday mornings. The show I am referring to is, of course, LOST.

A new dawn in television. In the past, television dramas have had interlocking story lines where one major story permeates throughout the life of the series. Series such as The X-Files and Twin Peaks did this superbly, taunting viewers week after week with clues to the over-arching mystery. LOST is a series in this vein. However, what makes LOST different is that there are really no stand alone episodes. A viewer must have watched season one in order to truly understand all subsequent seasons. The writers expect that the viewers have been watching from the beginning. Many past series have been hesitant to go as far as LOST has because a potential viewer might be doubtful about starting to watch during season 5, knowing he has to go back and watch all four preceding series to truly understand the show. But this is just one more thing that makes LOST great.

A simple yet complex plot. The plot of the series is very simply, several plane crash survivors find themselves on an island awaiting rescue. They come to find out the island has some very mysterious qualities and they are not the only ones there. That's it! But the true question is, what is the island? It is not just an island. It has the power to heal, to make sick, to give life and to take it away. The mysterious properties of the island are seemingly endless and timeless. And who are the others that live on the island? Through five seasons the most loyal viewers still cannot answer these questions.

Educated writers. While watching LOST one gets the feeling that these writers know everything about everything! The allusions in this series are endless. There are biblical allusions to such things as Adam and Eve, Jacob, Purgatory, Jesus, The

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