ABC’s Lost: Where’s the motivation?
One of my favorite TV shows in the recent year has been ABC’s hit Lost. I was first introduced to the show with the Season 1 DVD’s a friend decided to share with me, and since that first pilot episode, I’ve been a pretty hooked fan. However, Season 3, which is about to wrap up on Wednesday, got me thinking about one of my biggest complaints about the show: Character Motivation.
In the first season, there were essentially two main character motivations: 1 was for surivival and discovery, and the other was Locke’s obsession with the mysterious hatch. Then in season two, it became more apparent that there were others on the island that needed to be investigated, and that there could potentially be a way off the island. I highlighted that last part because in a show like Lost, the desire to get off the island should be on the forefront of every character’s mind at essentially all times.
Good science fiction authors are keenly aware of the motivation of their characters. Ender of Orson Scott Cards’ books is one of the most notable because Card provides a huge range of personal dialogue that the reader can enjoy about why Ender does what he’s doing. This motivation is apparent to the other characters over time, and to other characters doesn’t even ever seem to make sense.
However, inside the world of Lost, there seems to be obvious lulls in the storyline as the characters stop trying to get off the island, which makes viewers like me stop to ponder – then what the hell is the point?
The character of Michael, love him or hate him, at least kept this agenda his number one priority throughout his time on the island. He built a raft. It got burnt down. He built another one. He kept trying to get off the island because that’s what stranded plane-crash survivors are supposed to do. Instead, we’ve seen dozens of “extras” wander around with no clear objective, and the main characters don’t seem to be very savvy when it comes to coming up with plans to get off the island.
The problem arises in the fact that the hope of rescue should’ve faded a long time ago. These guys don’t see airplanes in the sky or ships off the horizon that often, and there have been no radio signals to the island. There was a food drop of Dharma goods, which makes even less sense now that we know that Ben & his “Others” actually wiped out the Dharma people! Why would they still be getting Dharma goods? And why would it land so close and conveniently to the crash survivors?
But I’m tangenting (like Lost makes people like me do). The point I’m trying to make is that for a show like Lost to be more plausable, there should be at least one character who’s relentless obsession is to get off the island. This might involve building another ship, or trying to construct a hot air baloon, or something worthwhile. As it stands, you end up with a bunch of people sitting on a beach not doing anything, and that’s just not believable.
A great character should have a range of motivations. With the 30 or 40 so survivors, there should be at least one who’s overriding motivation is to get off the island and back home.