Sunday, January 15, 2006

LOST catholics

I have told Krista for a while that it is pretty clear that are one or more Catholics writing for my favorite tv show, LOST.

For some reason, Catholics seem to be better writers and better able to write about themes of redemption and spirituality than Protestants (here is my obligatory paranthetical telling you this is, of course, a generality). Whether it's Charles Williams'thrillers and horror novels, or Brian Lumley, or J.R.R. Tolkien (it seems like cheating to add the incomparable Flannery O'Connor and G.K. Chesterton), the Catholics rule when it comes to quality fiction with strong Christ figures, great entertainment value and powerful stories of people wrestling through life as spiritual beings.

This week the writers of LOST really outdid themselves this week with an episode called "Psalm 23" and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. I can say without exaggeration that this is probably the best, most realistic, most positive and well-rounded portrayal of a Christian character I have ever seen on television. I am dying to share more details here, but I don't want to put spoilers in here, because it will be better if you see it for yourself. Basically, it's a redemption story (two intertwined ones, actually) where one man decides in the end to embrace a deep relationship with God and another continues to use religion as a cover to hide his own emptiness and addictions. It was powerful! And it culminated with the two characters quoting THE ENTIRETY OF PSALM 23. Not just "the Lord is my shepherd" but every word of it.

I told my buddy Dan (hi out there Dan) that this episode should be required viewing for Christians who want to be writers or filmmakers. Somehow someone snuck the Bible into one of the most-watched shows on television. I think that's better than the "Apocalypse" movies (personal opinion, of course).

2 comments:

  1. it was a good episode, but I can't get over how they set a gasoline fire in the forest thinking it will just burn up the plane.

    just for that act of stupidity, it should've killed off everything in the island ... including the weird creatures and the others

    yes ... a gasoline fire in a dense forest, very smart!

    ReplyDelete
  2. But you know it rains buckets every other episode... any time something creepy is about to happen.

    ReplyDelete