Lost on the web … but for how long?

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, May 20, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

This coming Sunday, I and millions of other people will be planted on our couches and chairs, our eyes fixed on our television screens as we watch the final minutes of a television that has captivated us for almost six years.

Lost was something special in television storytelling: a show that grew many times more complex as it wore on, that widened its scope in successive seasons, drawing in influences from arcane corners of knowledge but (as we’ve been finding) boiling down its references to key legends and myths that have been part of human storytelling for millennia.

It’s how Lost told those stories, though, that made it remarkable … and part of that has been its up-to-the-minute use of the web to entertain, illuminate and tease its audiences.

It’s a pity, though, that many of the web components created for the show have already vanished, like a puff of smoke, to use a Lost phrase. Indeed, I’m wondering what will be left online as the months pass.

 
Lostpedia
Lostpedia, a site created and maintained by fans, has emerged as not only the best repository of countless number of facts about the show and its Dickensian list of characters and situations, but also a guide to how the show has used the web.

Lost’s producers did more than just baffle their viewers from the start with one mystery after another, peeling the plots back like onion layers. They also used the self-directed aspects of the web to make the experience of following the show that much richer, if not addictive.

One of the most engaging of the official sites was called oceanic-air.com, named of course for the fictional airline that crashed into The Island. As with others, it looked like something else, leaving the user to figure out what was happening. For instance, there was a seating plan, not to mention a seemingly endless number of clues you were meant to stumble across.

Unfortunately, the site is currently down. You can read about it on Lostpedia, but clicking on the link leads to ABC’s official site. Speaking of which …

Lost
As official show sites go, Lost’s is pretty darn good. There’s lots to read (less to watch, unless you can jerry-rig your IP number so you can see the U.S-restricted episodes), and you have the benefit of knowing that the recaps are official descriptions of what actually just happened. (In the Lost universe, that can be mighty important.)

The sad thing is that a number of Lost-related web enterprises have been transported, like a polar bear in the middle of a tropical island. Sites for the Hanso Foundation and game-within-a-game sites like Let Your Compass Guide You are no longer active. Granted, a good few of them were created as diversions between the long months between seasons, while the show was on hiatus. Nonetheless, it’s a shame there isn’t a more apt legacy still online about Lost, which was so brilliant in its approach to interactive media.

Elsewhere this week

Times Skimmer
I’ve been talking this site up lately with my media colleagues: a concise, visually attractive way to scan what’s on the New York Times site. In fact, this is how I prefer to start with the NYT each day. It’s also customizable, and breaking-news junkies will appreciate the “most recent” tab on the bottom right.

75 Things You Can Compost
The full title of this feature, on the Planet Green site, includes the words “but thought you couldn’t.” It includes one of the items that was a revelation to me when I started composting: dryer lint. You’ll find 74 other things here that you can pick up around the entire house and not have to put in a garbage bag.

Sad Trombone
Having one of those deflated, depressing days, when nothing seems to be going your way? Celebrate it, friend, with this sound effect … ready to be hit at a moment’s notice. (On the plus side, it’ll cheer you up. I guarantee it.)

John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and works with CBC News. John is on Twitter right here.

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