The world is Lost. The TV hit of the year commands 20 million viewers in the US and 2 million more in Australia. In less than a year it has beaten all comers, including this year’s other cultural juggernaut, Desperate Housewives, and is shown in 180 territories around the world.

From the first episode, in which Oceanic Airlines flight 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles crashed on a mysterious Pacific island, viewers have been spellbound by polar bears, unexpected twists and a still unseen “monster” in the jungle.

The internet is buzzing with theories: of a Dr Moreau-esque experiment, for example, or that the survivors are dead and the island is purgatory.

“It’s like unpeeling an onion,” said Dominic Monaghan, who plays faded rock star Charlie. “We don’t know where we’re going to go. We’re as much in the dark as the audience is.”

Monaghan and his co-star Evangeline Lilly, who plays Lost’s action woman, Kate, are in Sydney as part of a round-the-world whistlestop tour to promote the series.

In a break with commercial TV convention, Lost takes its cues from a rich literary landscape, including William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and even the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (after whom one of the characters is named), who contended that man was “a noble savage”, good by nature but corrupted by society.

It also dispenses with the traditional opening theme song in favour of an eerie silent title treatment. “There is something beautiful and serene about it,” Lilly said. “It represents the fact that we’re trying to make art; it’s like a painter signing their name to the bottom of a painting.”

The show is packed with clues for the keen-eyed: one survivor reads Watership Down (a book about a group of rabbits searching for a new home); another wears a shirt bearing the Chinese symbol for 84 (George Orwell, anyone?); while for another the plane crash was the end of a run of bad luck that started with a lottery win (his numbers were 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42).

“I don’t think you can overexamine the material,” Monaghan said. “Everything in the show is intentional, whether that is a certain colour or a line or a phrase.”

In Australia the first season ends in six weeks, before it picks up again early next year.

Lilly said: “Because the show is a hit, we’ll be going for season after season, so we have to settle into the comfort of ignorance or we’d drive ourselves crazy trying to work it out.”

SMH

Related posts:

1. Found: Monaghan avoids typecasting with `Lost’
2. Lost and Found
3. Monaghan got lost after ‘Rings,’ then found ‘Lost

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