The Lost Pilot

The art of creating a pilot is tricky because the way American television is created is insane. A show has to compact its entire essence and original cast of characters together into one episode that is enjoyable to watch and feasible to the studio at the same time. Because it's so difficult, a ton of shows get canceled after only a few episodes. That's also why HBO, Showtime and Netflix hardly ever cancel shows. They don't use the pilot process, saving a lot of people stress and disappointment. I don't know what would've happened to Silicon Valley if they weren't allowed to run with it a little.

This is usually easier for sitcoms because they have less story to explain and can land a lot of jokes early without too much character development.

Several programs have made it past mediocre pilots to become great. The Office pilot was pretty terrible and the Seinfeld pilot nearly got it canceled (thanks to Uproxx for this one). Generally, shows that are going to be successful manage to make an okay pilot, and hit their stride soon after.

The best shows, like Mad Men, Walking Dead and Archer instantly hit their stride and glide seamlessly into a storyline. The pilot that most people would agree is the best in recent memory is predictably Breaking Bad. However, I'm going to take the rare step and disagree. I've never been as 100% gaga about Breaking Bad as everyone else. It's a great show, but there's more weakness there than people seem willing to admit.

Instead I offer the Lost pilot as a shining example for every writer to strive for. It expertly does the three things every pilot has to do: introduce the characters and situation, entertain viewers, and leave the audience wanting more.

The first point might be its most impressive accomplishment. The list of main characters in Lost is staggering, second only to Game of Thrones, a show that, thank god, is on HBO and didn't have a pilot. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Charlie, Claire, Sayid, Jin, Sun, Boone, Hurley. . .  the list goes on. Each one of those characters is more or less introduced in a way that makes them easy to remember. Hurley passes out at the sight of blood. Jin yells at Sun and she quickly buttons the top button of her shirt. Most notably Jack runs around doctoring and is pretty much a superhero to everybody. They all play their part in a seamless, organic way.

The situation of the survivors of Oceanic 815 is pretty simple at first: they've crash landed on an uncharted island. Great, memorable visuals like the plane engine exploding and the man with shrapnel in his gut serve to make the dire nature of their condition clear. However, things take an even more interesting turn when the survivors have their first few encounters with the infamous smoke monster, (on any list of most creative TV villains, smokey/the man in black should be close to the top). The early introduction of the mysterious supernatural elements of Lost are where its genius lays.

All of this information is delivered in such an organic and devious manner, that the pilot easily covers the second and third points. Concerning point 2, people will certainly be entertained by the various cast of characters and compelling visuals. For point 3, the uncharted, mystical nature of these characters' surroundings makes their future very uncertain, and so audiences will undoubtedly come back for more.

That's my pitch in favor of the Lost pilot being the best in modern television. Here's some superhero Jack for us to watch and be mutually nostalgic.

I'm going to go try and watch all of  Lost now, although I'll probably end up skipping seasons 3 and 4 because ugh...

Comment below with your thoughts on Lost and other great pilots.