Lost and Found In Pop Culture

Lost is one of my favorite television shows. It's just an extremely well made television extravaganza that allows complete and utter immersion into fantasy. The premise is far-fetched - depicting the adventures of a group of airplane-crash survivors on a mystical and tropical island. The acting is usually solid but occasionally borders on melodrama. The plotlines are often extreme but always engrossing.

What makes Lost relevant is how it conquered television. The show represents a prime example of counterculture creating fresh ideas, producing a high-quality product, and quickly gaining such popularity that the program itself morphed into popular culture. During the early 2000s, when game shows and reality television ruled the airwaves, Lost was a breath of fresh air, an ensemble science-fiction drama. It was a real production with real cameras and real investment.

As we all know, history repeats itself and Lost is just one example of many counterculture-to-popular culture uprisings. From Nirvana, to Punk Rock, to the Internet, we've seen it many times before and we'll see it many times again. What will offer such a threat to the kings of current entertainment, to digital social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.? Will it be a National Park movement, some sort of museum revolution, or maybe some unimaginable new platform that will connect us in completely new ways?