The Lost Room
Everyone, literally everyone, sci-fi fans and sci-fi haters alike, has had the same reaction when I have played this show for them:"Can we watch the next episode? Like, right now?"
The Lost Room centres on a group of Objects (capital O) that were all at one point in a motel room just outside of Gallup, New Mexico. This motel room somehow vanished inexplicably, and, according to the manager, "never existed." The Objects, however, not only continue to exist, but they now exhibit strange properties. Not all of these are inherently useful: the Umbrella makes people think they know you, the Clock sublimates brass, the Watch Box inhibits entropy...the list goes on. As people acquire the Objects, their lives are changed irrevocably, and often not for the better. Above all, there is the Key, which can open any tumbler lock, transporting the user to the titular Lost Room: #9 at the Sunshine Motel.
I'll admit that I'm kind of cheating by including The Lost Room on a list of "science fiction TV shows", because it was a mini-series, not a full series. My understanding, however, was that this was to be the launching point for a series much in the same way that the new Battlestar Galactica emerged from a successful miniseries. However, due to a lukewarm reception, the series never panned out. Currently, there are rumours of a comic book sequel, but it is unlikely The Lost Room will return to TV.
Which, to my mind, is probably a good thing. Let me explain.
What made The Lost Room an ingenious show was that it established, very firmly, a set of rules for the universe it created. To understand these rules, we're given a protagonist who is experiencing them himself for the first time, and he has the perfect background. He is best summarized in one of the show's earliest exchanges:
"I'm Detective Joe Miller."
"A cop. Interesting angle."
And you know what? It really, really is. It's not only an interesting angle, it's just the right angle for looking at the events that transpire. The Lost Room feeds us just the right amount of mystery to keep us asking "what happens next?" and a detective is the perfect character to move us forward by asking "how do we get there?"
As Joe Miller (played with effective everyman aplomb by Peter Krause) investigates, the audience investigates with him. The strength of these clues is that once they're established, they're not forgotten, or broken. The rules in The Lost Room are absolute.
That, in my opinion, is what sets it apart from other shows that revolve around feeding the audience "mystery", like Lost. The problem I always had with Lost, and still do, is that the rules in Lost would frequently be broken, changed, or altered. The writers always claimed umbrage under the idea that the characters "had just scratched the surface", or some such nonsense, but to me it always felt like rubbish storytelling. The other problem I had with Lost (and again, I still do), is that the motivations for the characters to actually INVESTIGATE was murky at best. Survival? Religion? Because we'd have no plot if they didn't?
In The Lost Room, Joe Miller initially seeks the easiest way out. He doesn't want anything to do with the Objects. However, when his daughter, Anna (Elle Fanning), becomes trapped in the Room, Joe has to keep digging to find a way to get her back. It's a simple framing device, but it's convincing motivation due no small part to the relationship between Joe and Anna. The series is very well-paced, taking time to establish the father-daughter dynamic before plunging into the depths of the mysterious culture surrounding the Objects.
The side characters of this show are also well played, well thought out and above all else have believable motivations and objectives. The cast includes Kevin Pollak, Julianna Margulies, and a slew of others that will have you going "That guy! From that thing!" There's not a miscast role to be found here; these actors inhabit the characters they play like a second skin.
The direction and cinematography is top-notch, with a great colour palette used in every shot, excellent action sequences balanced with great drama. This is all complimented by an eerie, unsettling musical score that has echoes of The X-Files and The Twilight Zone.
So why, having raved about The Lost Room so much, would I not want to see it return to TV? Well, it boils down to what I was saying about established rules and a bizarre, but logical order of things. I know that if this show were ever syndicated, the stressful demands of churning out a 20+ episode season would strain those boundaries. Producers would increasingly step in to make the show more appealing to a broad-based audience, and that - let's be honest here - would mean dumbing it down considerably. Their presence is already felt in the form of a romance between Joe Miller and Margulies' character that feels horrendously tacked on and out of place. I have no doubt that some executive stepped in and ordered that the "sex meter" be dialed up for network television.
The other reason I wouldn't want this series to come back is that there are just the right amount of unanswered questions. At first, I was deeply disappointed knowing I would never find out what happened to some of the show's more villainous characters, that I would never know WHY the Room vanished, or if God was dead, or any number of things. Then I realized: therein lies the appeal. The truth is almost never satisfying. The Lost Room gives us just the right amount of information to paint a portrait of a frantic father searching for his child, and never strays from that goal. What happens in the end? What is found, what is Lost?
You'll have to watch to find out. I defy you not to do it in one sitting.
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