The show was really built on one thing: mystery. It wouldn’t had made it if it were cheesy, poorly directed, dumbed-down, or had bad actors. But mystery IS what the show was built on.

Where was this island that Oceanic flight 815 crashed on? How did so many people survive the crash? Where did the polar bears come from? How was the paraplegic guy able to walk? What is the smoke monster? How are all of these people connected with each other? Etc…And that’s all in the first few episodes. Episode after episode and season after season Lost continued to pile one question on top of another. It is really what drove the show. People wanted to tune in the next week to see if an answer to some of the mysteries would be revealed. But usually, instead of an answer being given, each mystery and each new episode seemed to leave only more unanswered questions.

The show appeared to be about numbers, hatches, Others, Initiatives, time travel, electro-magnetic pulses, ghosts, mysterious godlike characters, and the fine blurry line between good and evil. Those are the things that the audience loved to speculate about and that drove countless hours of water cooler discussions over the course of six years.

America fell in love with Jack and Kate, Jin and Sun, Sawyer and Juliet, Claire and Charlie, Michael and Walt, and the dozens of other characters that inhabited the island and our television sets each week. There’s no question that America was passionate about these characters and how the show’s writers dealt with them. There were those who longed for Jack and Kate to be an item, and those who longed for Sawyer and Kate to be an item. I can remember dozens of conversations that I had about these people as if they were close friends whom I cared about deeply. But despite people’s passion for these lovable character’s, it was the mystery of the show that made people drool for next week’s episode.

As the end approached, people hoped that all of their unresolved questions would be answered, and expected that at least most of them would be. Even if every beloved character died a horrible death at the hands of the smoke monster on the show’s finale, people still would have been satisfied if most of the shows mysteries would have been solved.

People waited with baited breath at the beginning of the show’s finale to find out: who Jacob and the Man in Black really were, who and what was their adoptive mother and where did she come from, what is the Man in Black’s name, is the smoke monster really the Man in Black, what is the island, where is the island, what is the bright light emanating from the hole in the island, why did Claire disappear into the jungle before the Oceanic 6(including her son) left, what was the significance of Jacob’s cabin, wait…wasn’t it actually the Man in Black’s cabin, did the Others follow Jacob or the Man in Black, was Jacob actually bad, what was up with the sand around “Jacob’s cabin”, why did the Others disguise themselves with dirty old clothes when they first met the Lost’ies, why did Ben kill the Dharma people (what purpose did that fulfill?), were the Others the descendants of the people that came in the same ship as Jacob’s birth mother, were there other Others before those Others, why was Walt special, why couldn’t people leave the island under Jacob’s care, how did Jacob leave the island to touch his candidates, who discovered or made the wheels that could move the island through space and time and transport people to remote parts of the planet, what was up with the giant statue, why didn’t the giant tidal wave that washed the Blackrock into the middle of the jungle destroy everything on the island, who was Richard really working for and why was he made immortal, couldn’t Charlie have just swam out of the portal when the communication room was flooded with water to escape death and simply deliver the “Not Penny’s boat” message in person, what is the significance of the numbers, where did the “rules” come from the Jacob and the Man in Black had to obey, etc……………….……the questions could fill a 100 page small print book…really.

But when the end did come no questions were directly answered. Sawyer, Kate, Richard, Claire, Miles, and the pilot leave the island on the plane. Ben and Hurley stay behind to protect the island- taking Jacob’s place. Rose, Bernard, and Vincent stay to live a hippie’s life on the island. Locke(i.e. the Smoke Monster) is killed by Jack because he is no longer immortal apparently because the ‘plug’ was temporarily pulled from the island, and Jack stays behind to die in the same location he landed in when the plane crashed.

All throughout the final season there was a side-verse where the Lost’ies never crashed on the island and their lives played out accordingly but they all started bumping into each other in Los Angeles even though they didn’t know each other in this reality. As they bump into each other they start to remember their lives in the other reality on the island. Well, Jack is the last to remember.

Turns out that the side-verse they built up all season long is actually some kind of purgatory where apparently all of the Lost’ies appear simultaneously after they die (on and off the island in different times). They have to work out their problems and sins while they are “there” in order to “move on” (to heaven?). Apparently bumping into their friends from their ‘past life’ reminds them of who they really are/were and because of that they are able redeem themselves and find forgiveness for themselves and for the ones who have hurt them. When Jack remembers his past life, his dad shows up and lets him know that he (Jack) is dead- apparently all of the other characters figured this out (that they were dead) on their own when they ‘came to’ but Jack needed a little help. Once Jack realized that he was dead and made amends with his father, he and everyone else had a little hug- reunion and were able to “move on” (i.e. sit in a church sanctuary and watch a bright light).

This ending, however, was completely unsatisfying for the avid Lost fan because it passed over all of the mysteries and questions that the show was built on and skipped ahead to the characters’ deaths where they were all reunited. It was as if everything that took place while these characters were forming their relationships was pointless and irrelevant to the story: Jacob and the Man in Black really served no purpose in advancing the story, it didn’t really matter what the island and its inner glowing light represented, the Oceanic 6 didn’t really need to return to the island after all, the numbers meant nothing, there didn’t need to be a constant, Daniel Faraday’s research meant nothing, Miles’ ghost whispering abilities were meaningless, etc…All of the great things that had been used to tell this epic story meant nothing through the lens of the show’s finale.

But maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe all of the details and mysteries in life we spend so much of our time and energy focusing on really don’t matter to our stories at all because what matters most is the relationships we make.

I still want to know why Walt was special though. Making birds fly into windows and kill themselves doesn’t seem too special to me.

Although I do think that I would have been more satisfied with the finale if we discovered that the whole thing was just a weird dream after a night of too many milk bones and drinks out of the toilet by Vincent- just say’n.

On the Heroes team is James, a young African American from the South with a perfectly muscled male figure a little bit of an attitude; and Tom, an upper middle-aged Caucasian fire fighter from New York who comes across as being a little on the arrogant side.

Now both of these guys were exemplary in character and were great players of the game the first times around- Tom even won.

But this season, with too many cooks in the kitchen, their true colors are showing through a little too much. And because both of the guys are leaders of some sort in their own right, they’re butting heads and have polarized the team into two sides: Team James and Team Tom.

James’ style this time around portrays authenticity. He is ‘real’ with everyone on his team and is not affraid to share his true feelings and emotions with them. Often in leadership, this is a great value to show. But James gets offended easily and airs a little too much of his dirty laundry which ruffles his teammates’ feathers- especially Tom’s.

Tom, on the other hand, has a different approach. He is a type-A personality who wants to let everyone know that he’s in charge. If he has an opposing opinion about a circumstance happening in his team, he let’s everyone know and tries to bully his other teammates into agreeing with him. When someone doesn’t agree with him, even after the bullying, he foolishly acts arrogantly and childishly torwards them- eventually writing them off and treating them as enemies (i.e. James).

Both guys come across as being decent guys, especially after watching them the first time around, and especially Tom. But when pit into a group of leaders chaos ensued.

I don’t really have a statement to make, but a question. Whose team are you on? Tom’s or James’? What leadership style works best? Open, authentic, and wearing your emotions on your sleeve? Or bold, aggressive, and bossy?

Realistically, I don’t think either is better than the other. Both philosophies are flawed. I think that a leader needs to display a little of
James (authenticity) and a little of Tom (boldness). But mainly a leader needs humility, wisdom, a good work ethic, and the ability to come before God and ask for direction and help in what he is lacking.

I would love to be on the show, but because of my children’s age and current ministry situation, it would not be wise to apply at this time in my life.

This season is Heroes versus Villains: past Survivors fans loved versus past Survivors that fans loved to hate.

Funny thing is when you get a bunch of Heroes (usually classified as such for their leadership abilities) on the same team, there’s not a lot of bonding that takes place.

Leaders need people to lead. And when a bunch of them are on the same team, and no one is following because they’ve always been used to leading, no one knows what to do and the team exists in disaray. It appears that the Heroes are being much more Villain’ish than even the Villains.

Often times successful companies, organizations, and teams operate with a large mosaic of strong leaders. But instead of everyone trying to be in the driver’s seat; everyone knows their role ,what division they must lead, and don’t worry about the other divisions because they know that there are capable leaders there who they don’t want to get in the way of.

The key to a well oiled machine is to have talented leaders who can acknowledge their giftings, stick with those things, and move out of the way so other leaders can do their job well. This takes an environment where everyone appreciates everyone else’s giftings and where there is no fear of the takeover of roles and responsibilities.

More to come tomorrow-

On a sidenote- Russell did not win. Natalie did who won with the ‘strategy’ of being nice and flying under the radar. Way to go Natalie!
And as for Russell, the unethical guy I rooted for most of the season, he lost and was a horribly sore loser. I was disappointed in his total lack of sportsmanship.

So last night was the first Thursday in several months that I have not been able to feed my Lost fix. It was a rough night of withdrawals, but Last Comic Standing and So You Think You Can Dance (even though they don’t even come remotely close to the sheer awesomeness of Lost).helped me get through it. I cannot wait until January (?) of next year when our Lost’ies return!

Just recently, TV networks have finally realized that people don’t enjoy watching reruns of their favorite shows all summer long. They actually realized that it is good to have a second TV season, all be it, a short one- in the summer!

It’s great! There have been some excellent shows introduced to audiences over the summer. Last summer I fell in love with a great new series. I love science fiction, I love mysteries, I enjoy family dramas, I enjoy a little romance every once in a while, and I also appreciate smart comedy. Last summer I found all of my television needs met in one new excellent show; Kyle XY.

The show had a great plot involving an ‘escaped hybrid super teen’ with amnesia who found love and acceptance with his Washington State-appointed counselor’s family. The first season revolved around him discovering what it means to be human and learning how to do everything a teenage boy knows how to do in a very short amount of time- including talking. It had huge potential to be cheesy, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t because of exceptional writing and even more exceptional acting- Really. The acting on Kyle XY is REALLY good, especially that of the shows star, Matt Bloom, who plays Kyle, Marguerite MacIntyre, who plays Nicole Trager, Kyle’s counselor and newfound foster-mom, and Kristen Prout, who plays Amanda Bloom, Kyle’s love interest.

At first, the show seemed a little raunchy when it came to the sexual interaction between Kyle’s foster-sister, Lori Trager, and her boyfriend, Declan McDonough, (played well by April Matson and Chris Olivero), along with Lori’s trampy friend Hillary (played by Chelan Simmons) who was always trying to take off her pants for any guy that was introduced to the show. But I began to realize that those issues and characters were handled well by the show’s writers because it was very accurate to today’s teenage generation. And those scenarios transitioned nicely into serious conversations and real-to-life decisions about teenage sex and dating. 

The first season ended with a cliff-hangar, left America in love with Kyle’s innocent character, and with Kyle XY as ABC Family’s flagship show- oh yeah, did I forget to mention that this show airs on ABC Family during the coveted 8:00 PM family hour? Because it does! 

I waited nearly a year in anticipation, wondering if one of my new favorite shows would return for a season two. And when late spring 2007 rolled around, I was not disappointed to learn that innocent Kyle and his dysfunctional, yet loving family were returning to the 8:00 PM time-slot on ABC Family for its summer television season. My wife and I were thrilled!

The second season started strong with new twists and turns, new characters, and new love developing. My thoughts the previous summer of this being one of the best shows on television were proven once again to be right, but all that changed with one disgusting excuse for an episode!

Summer is far too busy at my household. I am a youth pastor and within a one moth period of time I am responsible for a three day fundraising booth at Oregon’s biggest Art Festival, a four day youth camp, and a 10 day fundraising booth at the Oregon State Fair with extensive preparation, set-up, and take-down taking place in between. While all of these things take place, I have to maintain my regular job duties as well. This summer, I have also been volunteering my time co-hosting a two hour radio talk-show everyday from 7- 9 AM while all of these other events have taken place.

I’m not saying these things to complain, just to show how much I anticipate a 1 hour break from the craziness while I watch Kyle XY.

Because of the fundraiser at the art festival and because of the youth camp that followed it two days later; my wife and I missed two episodes of Kyle XY- Thank God for Digital Video Recorders.

Finally after these two exhausting events, my wife and I had a couple of hours free to watch the two episodes of Kyle XY that we had missed. As we sat down to watch, we were totally unaware that we were about to be preached to. We wanted to sit down and watch an entertaining show, but instead we sat down to a sermon in which all of the characters on Kyle XY were the preachers- really.

We were not preached to about the environment, about domestic violence, about the dangers of drinking and driving (although that issue was cleverly disguised in the episode as a tool to preach the other subject), about pro-choice, about drugs, or even about religion. We were preached a one hour (if we wouldn’t have turned it off half way through) sermon on homosexuality. And no, homosexuality was not condemned; it was praised and held high above all other minorities (as if it was a minority to begin with- an insult to African Americans- a subject for another blog.)

The show’s premise revolved around a school dance in which the girls asked the boys out (traditionally known in most parts as a Sadie Hawkins Dance). Kyle didn’t know how to dance- like the only thing he doesn’t know how to do- so he is taught how to dance by his foster brother, Josh Trager (played annoyingly by Jean-Luc Bilodeau – ?! – ). Josh tells Kyle that dance is a form of self expression and that it essentially represents freedom. Freedom and self-expression become the themes for this episode. Josh acts awkward about dancing with another guy, which causes Kyle to question why it’s not acceptable for two guys to dance with each other and date each other and Kyle instantly, becomes ABC Family’s gay-card hero character.

During the episode Josh’s potential girlfriend, Andy Jensen whom he previously thought was a boy in an online first-person-shooter video game, mentions to him that she will not be inviting him to the dance because she already has “dates” to bring with her. (I didn’t end up watching the whole episode as I mentioned earlier, but I think that the dates she referred to were a male homosexual couple that she invited so they could come as a couple) This conversation with Josh leads her to tell everyone that she is not from a traditional family (ABC Family’s tagline is “A new kind of family” by the way), but instead has two moms. Any younger viewers who haven’t learned about sex yet are now forced to wonder why they don’t have two moms also. It must also be normal for two women to have a baby together, right? Surely that must be possible. Who gives a  #@*^% about the dad?! He was just a stupid sperm donor, right?  

Another plot detail was that Lori Trager and her slutty friend Hillary did not have guys to invite to the dance, so they wanted to come together as friends, but the school would not sell tickets to them because they were considered a ‘same-sex-couple’. This infuriated the girls and they instantly changed from selfish-self-absorbed-sleazy-girl characters to liberal-gay-rights-social-activist-protestors in about (oh?) two seconds.

So Lori, Hillary, Andy Jensen, Amanda Bloom, and of course Kyle mount a protest in the school halls during class time by hanging up posters disagreeing with the school’s same-sex-couple policy. The principle, which is betrayed as a bigot, catches them and calls them into his office- not because they were ditching class, but because they disagreed with his ‘bigoted’ same-sex-couple policy.

The next scene has the Trager kids in the principle’s office with their mom Nicole, who had been called in as well.  Mrs. Trager, being the truth-is-relative-post-modern-mom that she is, is not mad at her children and instantly begins to question the principle’s authority in front of her children. She tells the principle that the school has no right to prevent same-sex-couples from attending the dance. The principle informs Mrs. Trager that this rule is to uphold “certain moral standards”, to which Nicole Trager quickly snaps back,” Certain moral standards are your own personal prejudices!”  

So in this scene Mrs. Trager teaches her kids that they don’t need to respect authority or obey it if they don’t agree with it- this same scenario is played out at another part of the show where Amanda disobeys her mom to be with Kyle. She also teaches them, and the audience, that if someone doesn’t agree with homosexuality, that they are prejudice. And once again, to equate homosexuality with race, nationality, culture, or religion is an insult to everyone who is a true minority.

Because of what the kids did at school, the principle bans them from attending the dance all together. So in revolt to this, Andy puts together an alternate dance at the local juice shop where same sex couples are welcomed and praised. While she is talking to Lori Trager about planning this alternate dance she tells her why it is that she is planning the alternate dance: “I don’t have a lot of tolerance for other’s close-minded crap!”

Andy’s statement is contradictory in nature. She says that she does not have tolerance for other’s close-minded crap, but by saying that, she is admitting to Lori that she is close-minded when it comes to those who do not support homosexual actions. She, by her own words, has closed minded crap and is intolerant towards those who do not agree with her viewpoint.

At this point the show climaxed at the alternate dance, and of course, there were lots of kids there who thought it was ‘cool’. What happened next was appalling. Declan, Lori’s now ex-boyfriend, walked into the party to support Lori in her involvement with the dance. Declan was joined by Charlie who had previously been Amanda’s boyfriend and was villainized for cheating on her with…Hillary. Charlie then proceeds to ask Lori and Hillary when “they had hopped on the lesbian granola bus?” To which Lori and Hillary responded by saying,” oh, let’s try it” and proceeded to passionately kiss each other for 4 full seconds in front of Charlie. And when they were done kissing Lori said, “if only to never kiss a cheating-homophobic-jerk like you…”

So here the show is again preaching to the audience: saying that if you refer to someone as a lesbian ad use the word granola in the same sentence, that you are a homophobe.

It’s funny because while I was watching the show, I was taking notes on my PDA with predictive text. When entering the word homosexuality, before I even got to “H-O-M” (I had only typed in “H-O”) the word homophobe was the 4^th word choice. And when I typed in “H-O-M”, homophobe was the 2^nd word choice. And finally when I typed in “H-O-M-O”, homophobe was the 1^st word suggestion and it was actually placed into the document I was typing. As if the words homophone, homonyms, homoerectus, homosapien, or maybe…I don’t know…HOMOSEXUAL would not come up first!

My phone assumed that if anyone would dare try to type the word ‘homosexuality’, that they surely meant to type in homophobe because no one would dare type in homosexual or homosexuality. They would only type in homophobe to describe some prejudice bigot’s close-mindedness towards homosexual…I mean ga…I mean…lesbia…I mean…same-sex-couples. Yeah, that’s right…same-sex-couples because that’s the appropriate term to use now right? Because whatever anybody thinks is right, is right for them…right?

This is when I turned off the show, deleted it from my DVR, and deleted any future recordings of it from my DVR. All because the show took a break- for one whole episode- from their normally excellent story telling to preach to their audience that it is good to be a homosexual. To preach to their audience that homosexuals should be praised for their self-expressionism. To preach to their audience that it’s normal to have same-sex-parents. To preach to their audience that girls should fool around with other girls even if they’re not “lesbians.” And to preach to their audience that anyone who does not agree with homosexuality is a prejudice-bigot-homophobe-jerk!

So am I a homophobe? I don’t know. I have a gay brother-in-law who I love very much, who is a very close friend, and who I don’t act differently around. I jut don’t agree with the homosexual lifestyle. The Bible blatantly calls it sin. And if I have to side with either the Bible or post-modern-thinking, I’ll always side with the Bible because it is the infallible Word of God! But besides that I love homosexuals just as much as I love the next person and I hope the best for them, I just hope that they find Jesus and/or turn from their sins like every single person should. 

It would have been fine if the show simply had a gay character, because that’s what real life is like: there are some people who are gay out there. But it’s entirely different to preach the homosexual agenda to a national audience during family hour on a family network’s flagship show! ABC Family is a family network by their own name and now they think that they can impose certain “family values” on the families who watch their programming. ABC Family is by the way owned by Disney which happens to be the most recognizable family company on the planet, a company which by the way, has a gay pride day at their world famous theme parks. What’s next, gay Disney animated movies, Same-Sex-Couple Land at the Magic Kingdom, gay themed Disney Channel Shows? Really, where does this end?

I do foresee the day in America where any talk against homosexuality is considered hate-speech and will be punishable as a hate crime. It’s already happening in Europe. It’s only a matter of time before our freedom of speech is taken away to protect a small group’s freedom of choice- which those who would speak out against their sins never wanted to take away. This episode of Kyle XY was just a small step towards the inevitable, unless we turn to the Lord and ask for His goodness and mercy to continue to shine upon this land and prevent such things from happening.

THINK!