Quantum Storytelling

There are dozens of things that the TV series Lost does well, beyond the familiar cast-away premise with a more-to-the-island twist.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks have been a fundamental part of the Lost’s hour-long story template, and one of the foundations for compelling characters in the show. What I find most interesting about the use of flashbacks in Lost is that they go beyond mere backstory. The flashbacks often define and explain every character’s motivation in the present.

As conflicts & complications ensue, the attitudes and decisions characters make are often driven by what has happened in the flashbacks. This seems to happen in one of two ways:

1. The character is maladaptive, has a bad attitude, or holds a grudge because of something that happened in their personal past.
2. The character is adaptive, has the right attitude for the problem, and knows exactly what has to be done because they have already learned the lesson in the past — usually in the flashbacks for that episode.

“What is it?”

Lost has a very strong mystery element and this can be boiled down to the a few core types of question it forces the viewer to task. One of them is “What is it?” And another variant would be, “What does it mean?”

Without spoiling anything, there are many points throughout the show when the characters discover something on the island that begs the question, “What is it?” or “What does it mean?”

Mysterious items or locations are usually the subject of such questions. The nature of such items or locations are often confounding to both the characters and the viewer — there is usually no superior position. Neither the audience nor the character has any idea what “it” is, nor what it means.

The audience is compelled to take the journey with the characters. Superior position or not, isn’t that what every writer hopes to achieve?