TV: Lost

I loved the season premiere of Lost two weeks ago (and was a little disappointed with the second episode, which was 50% retread of the previous show, although the other 50% contained a shark getting shot in the head, which was frickin' sweet), but apparently I missed a fairly major revelation.

I picked up on it while browsing through the boards at Harlan Ellison's site (which I was doing because of the whole "Gabe & Tycho vs. Harlan" thing). Turns out Harlan is a huge fan of Lost, going so far as to say:

...in 57 years of watching, studying, reviewing, commenting on, and abominating television, I have seldom (if ever, even counting my faves) encountered Art at such a level. LOST is to television as MOBY DICK and HUCKLEBERRY FINN and GRAVITY'S RAINBOW are to the rest of American letters. LOST is to wildly inventive and utterly mesmerizing narrative as CITIZEN KANE, THE MAGNIFICENT 7 and THRONE OF BLOOD are to cinema since Edison's "The Kiss." LOST is to artistic creativity and damn skippy inventiveness as Smithson's "Spiral Jetty," Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" and Richard Dadd's "Fairy-Feller's Master Stroke" are to painting.

Jesus! I mean, I like it, too, but... Harlan doesn't skimp on the praise, does he?

Anyway, it wasn't he that pointed out the dramatic reveal that I missed, but some guy named Adam-Troy Castro. He says that in the season premiere, in Jack's flashback, the man who dies in the ER while Jack is saving his future fiance's life is Shannon and Boone's father.

The interconnectedness of the Lost world strikes again, and I completely miss it! Did everyone else get it? Was it really obvious? Or was this a subtle thing only for super-attentive fans (like Adam-Troy, and not, apparently, me)? And if you did notice, why didn't you tell me, dude? Because that is awesome.

Maybe not "better than Huck Finn" awesome... but still pretty awesome.