Synopses & Reviews
This book is a comprehensive guide to the one of the most successful TV dramas in global television history. Created by wunderkind J.J. Abrams, the award-winning series Lost began in 2004 and will end after its sixth season in 2010. Reading Lost delves into the aspects that attract 15 million viewers a week: cinematic visuals, complex narrative, and a diverse, international cast. Also addressed are the show's multitude of mystifying elements and plot twists including the polar bear, the four-toed statue, and the "Others." The book also includes an up-to-date episode guide.
Synopsis
Lost, created by wunderkind J.J. Abrams and aired on the US ABC network and Sky in the UK, began in 2004 and will end after its sixth season in 2010, hopefully with the answers to myriad questions. This book not only offers a rich understanding of the multi-media phenomenon that is Lost, but is also a valuable demonstration of how the contemporary American television industry works. Lost is perfectly designed to serve the new multi-channel, 'multi-plaform' mediascape.Its cinematic visuals and complex narrative place it above the competition, its international cast and ostensibly worldwide locations (actually Hawaii's Oahu island) give it global distribution. Lost continues to fascinate - and mystify (that polar bear, that four-toed statue) - today's technologically savvy 'forensic fandom', whose members mobilise i-Pods and cell phones to watch episodes and revel in the complexities of 'The Lost Experience'. These and many more issues involving Lost's production, distribution, narrative, and audiences are addressed by this essential book.
About the Author
Roberta Pearson is Professor of Film and Television Studies and Director of the Institute of Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham. She has authored, co-authored and co-edited numerous books and articles, including American Cultural Studies,A Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory and Cult Television. She is currently editing the forthcoming Companion to Television Genres.
Table of Contents
* Introduction: Why Lost? -- Roberta Pearson * Production/audiences * How Lost Found its Audience: The Making of a Cult Blockbuster -- Stacey Abbott * The Fictional Institutions of Lost: World Building, Reality, and the Economic Possibilities of Narrative Divergence -- Derek Johnson * Television Out of Time: Watching Cult Shows On Download -- Will Brooker * The Gathering Place: Lost in Oahu -- Julian Stringer * Lost logos: Channel 4 and the Branding of American Event Television -- Paul Grainge * Text * Lost in a Great Story: Evaluation in Narrative Television (and Television Studies) -- Jason Mittell * Chain of Events: Regimes of Evaluation and Losts Construction of the Televisual Character -- Roberta Pearson * ‘Do you even know where this is going?: Losts Viewers and Narrative Premeditation -- Ivan Askwith * Lost in Genre: Chasing the White Rabbit to Find a White Polar Bear -- Angela Ndalianis * Representation * Lost in the Orient: Transnationalism Interrupted -- Michael Newbury * Were Not in Portland Anymore: Lost and Its International Others -- Jonathan Gray * ‘A fabricated Africanist persona: Race, Representation, and Narrative Experimentation in Lost -- Celeste-Marie Bernier * Queer(ying) Lost -- Glyn Davis and Gary Needham * Contributors * Index *