Simon T. Kaye

Dear Lost,

Well, here we are again. Looks like you even listened to me, tried to make a few changes after my last letter. Of course I was on the rebound from the West Wing then, I made some demands. I’m glad you listened despite how pushy I sounded.

People are losing interest in you. Oh, I know what you say, that all the people who loved you… years ago now, when you first turned up and there was just nothing in the world quite like you… All those people are still there. Just you work to a different timetable now, and they’ve stopped making the room in their lives. But, Lost, if they really loved you- loved you like I do- they’d work to be with you. Just to be with you.

But the fact is that you’ve changed. Some people just won’t be able to handle that. I didn’t think I could, for a while. But I pulled through. You had to adapt to survive. And some people would never have been happy. You couldn’t just keep piling questions upon questions, could you? But solve a mystery and you’ll always disappoint. We could always conjure up a better theory than the reality.

So it’s the bed you’ve made, Lost. And I just wanted to say that… well… I still love you. Despite being in a place where I can’t reach you now. I find a way. And everyone who appreciates the mystery, and even enjoys some of your solutions, will keep on finding a way.

But. There’s a But here. You can’t keep trying to cater to the newbies. You can’t keep telling instead of showing. Your script used to be SO GOOD. It’s not bad now… compared to the rest of the shows… but those heights of writing haven’t been reached since the end of season 1. Why does that have to be the way? Don’t you see it’s too late to attract a new audience? Aim to be the art you were, not the trademark you turned into. Remember your roots.

Faith pulls Reason back over the cliff-edge. Marvelous.

Think that way. Work that way. I’ll even be able to forgive the occasional, inevitable plot holes if you do.

Because I love you; your strong acting, your massive production values, your unreasonably high quantity of attractive female castaways, your clever, referential soundtrack, your quasi-spiritual ruminations. It was good to see a show where everybody had an agenda, and it still is. I love your monsters, your technologies and your fantasies, your conspiracy theories, your name-dropping of philosophers, your constant backstory cons, your commentary on political orientations. I love your “No! No! Oh God!” moments.

Fact is, you never needed J.J.Abrams. He used you then cast you aside like a whore.

All you need is me.

Lots of love,

Every Lost fan ever.