"...the most promising new television show of the fall season."

And that would be? According to a reviewer on NPR, it's ABC's new show, "Lost". And while I haven't seen any other new fall series (nor do I really have any desire to), and have nothing to compare it to, and so am in no place to be making judgments, I will anyway. I need to watch a couple more episodes before I know for sure, but I think he may be right.

I stumbled upon the show on Wednesday night (it airs Wednesdays at 8:00 P.M., a little early, I think) and it was compelling enough to keep me watching til the end. For those of you who don't know what it's about, the premise is as follows: 48 survivors of a plane crash on a deserted South Pacific island have to contend not only with each other and the forces of nature, but also with very scary (and so far unseen) creatures who are roaming the jungle, roaring and tearing down trees and mauling people. Among the cast are Matthew Fox (from Party of Five), great character actor Terry O'Quinn (much seen in X-Files and Millennium) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry from Lord of the Rings) and the interactions between the characters are fraught with the strangeness of it all; for example, when one of the female passengers has to remove a pair of hiking shoes from a dead body so she can have good shoes to walk around the island in, she is obviously distressed at the gruesome task. The camera cuts to a shot of O'Quinn walking by and looking at her sort of sweetly, with a half smile, like he understands. Then he lets his smile widen and he has the rind of an orange completely covering his teeth and what would have been funny at another time is clearly inappropriate here. The show is full of moments like that, that make you feel uncomfortable and are the sort of thing that keeps this show from sinking into cliche.

I think one of the best things "Lost" has going for it is also what may spell its doom - it is unlike anything else on television, and we all know how far originality and creativity go in network TV. Hopefully this one will make it.