Monday, March 17, 2014

Golden Age of Television - LOST is One Show That Hits the Mark

It is safe to say that the entertainment industry has a multidimensional, cultural and global impact.  I say to the entertainment producers of the world, if you want to help wake up or lift up souls, give us a great film. If you want to help keep our souls awake, lifted up and reaching deeper, wider, or higher, give us a great television series.

The Golden Age of Television has traditionally been identified as beginning in the late 1940s and continuing into the mid 1960s.  However, looking over the past decade of television shows (Network, Cable, Premium), though indeed many have pushed the envelope far over the edge of what is true, good, and beautiful, it can arguably be declared that we are in a new era in The Golden Age of Television.

Many of you reading this have at least a few, if not a dozen shows over the past decade that have gripped you.  Why? Because of the shows excellence in writing, acting, and producing whose truth, beauty, and goodness have had you coming back episode by episode.  Although in general terms there is more progress needed, welcome to The Golden Age of Television!

A great film can work like a catalyst. Within 90 to 180 minutes, it can uplift a down trodden soul or spurn it into action, ranging from personal compunction (Passion of the Christ) to social reform (Films on human trafficking such as 12 Years a Slave).  However, for the most part, even a great film is here today, gone tomorrow.  The characters we come to identify with, those we loathe or fall in love with, happens somewhere within 90 to 180 minutes.

A great television series has the potential to work on us weekly, 12 to 15 or more weeks per year, and usually over 5 years and sometimes up to 8.  If the writing is well done, we are introduced to a greater depth and complexity of character development.  These characters we not only come to loathe or love, but might even try to take on certain characteristics they convey.  Now that I live in LA, I like to watch films and television shows that can give me a deeper look into this culture I now call home.  Recently, I have been tuning into the gritty, unconventional cop show, The Shield (2002-2008, Mature Audiences).  The show is in reference to the true life Rampart Division police scandal, and loosely based one of it's Strike Teams.

Though the show has certain elements folks might find offensive, how inspiring is Captain Monica Rawling (Glenn Close).  The shows writers were able to spend a whole season masterfully developing this character as a firm, courageous, yet compassionate leader who stands for the good amidst a tough and complex environment where the moral lines of good and bad are blurred daily.  I aspire and pray to have her qualities as leader.  Although, as a parish priest, I will not need to exercise those qualities exactly in the same manner she needed to - Wait, let me think...(just kidding).


New Ethos is pleased to lift up Lost (Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lendelhof) as one of the shows that deserves the New Ethos Logo of Excellence - A show that carried an overarching spirit of the true, good, and beautiful for 7 Seasons.  It is a show that  successfully explores the complexities of the human condition while connecting it with the transcendent.


Recently, Lost's showrunners, Lendelhof and Carlton Cuse had this to say in answer to claims that the show was about people who died on a plane crash and were in purgatory:


"No, no, no. They were not dead the whole time," Cuse said...But the characters definitely survived the plane crash and really were on a very real island. At the very end of the series, though? Yep, they were all dead when they met up in heaven for the final 'church' scene." Cuse also shared that Lost was metaphorically about "people who were lost and searching for meaning and purpose in their lives."


Many TV shows set out to entertain and maybe throw in a political PSA every now and then. But how many offer the service to all humanity to help reflect on the meaning and purpose of their lives?  Lost is by far not the only show deserving of a New Ethos Logo Award of Excellence.  In this current climate of television where people are rightly frustrated and violated by the many shows that have had a clear agenda to reverse some traditional values and universal truths we so dearly embrace, I am confident to say, this is the Golden Age of Television.  There are and will be others besides Lost. Use prudence and keep your hears open to "word of mouth" and do not be afraid to check out television today (or pick up a box set, "Hulu or Netflix it" to watch when time permits).  It's worth the search to keep your soul awake, lifted up and reaching deeper, wider, and higher to the transcendent meaning and purpose of life.

God Bless you and keep you in His truth, beauty, and goodness!

Fr. Don Woznicki






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