Is "Lost" lost?

I confess that when the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 first crashed onto the beaches of the mysterious island, I was completely plugged into their plight and was intrigued by their individual histories. Weekly, I perched on the edge of my seat with the rest of the world, waiting to see what secrets lay behind the hatch door; to catch a glimpse of the monster rustling in the shadows of the jungle; and to discover just exactly who “The Others” were.

But now, as each new episode airs, I meet it with an ennui I haven’t felt since the final convoluted days of The X Files – a show that became so mired in its own mythology that it simply imploded.

Despite the claims of the Lost’s producers that they have an endgame cunningly planned out, it feels distinctly as if they are making up the story as they go, adding new characters each time an actor’s off-set antics requires their on-screen persona be killed off. The back-stories that once fleshed out a character’s present situation and advanced the narrative now seem like plot-diverting filler. There are still the odd hooks here and there but I get the distinct impression that we are taking one step forward and two steps back, toward a conclusion that I care less and less about each week.

Will I hang in? Probably. At least until the island residents have to play a life-or-death basketball game against the Harlem Globetrotters.