The Vagaries of TV Time

The premiere of Lost last night was superb. As promised, we did get to see what was in the hatch, and the teases of information Abrams and company spooned out to us were just enough to keep us hungry. And the reveal at the end (keeping spoiler-free here) was excellent. The excellence of the episode aside, though, it got me to thinking.

Television shows traditionally, if very roughly, follow a "school-year" calendar. Premieres often take place in a September timeframe and season-finales usually take place in the late Spring. Major holidays (Christmas) often get referred to, and we often see the changing of the seasons reflected in shows as the seasons change in the real world. The reason for this is obvious, of course, given that the shows are merely reflecting the timeframe of when we watch them. Now, cable's different schedule--usually 10-15 episodes released every week, as opposed to 22 doled out over eight months--has changed those guidelines somewhat (The Sopranos follows whatever timeline makes sense for that season, for example), but network shows still, again, roughly, adhere to this schedule.

Now, you will see often enough a season finale cliffhanger that leads directly into the season premiere--no "summer break" in storytime. But even in cases like this (Gilmore Girls both this and last year, for example) the show eventually "makes up time" and by Christmas, usually, they are back on a real-world schedule. Lost, of course, is different. The entire first season was only supposed to span maybe a month, and of course the season premiere picked up directly after last year's finale. One can easily imagine seven seasons of Lost that only take up, in the show's world, several months. Which could be bad news for Walt.

As a kid, he's going to age, a lot, over the next few years, but on the show that much time presumably won't be passing. The very structure of the show would seem to spell an early end (or escape?) for Walt. It'll be interesting to see how the writers address this as the season(s) progress. (And let's hope they do--my suspension of disbelief will be strained past its breaking point if I'm asked to accept a 15-year old Walt). At least for now, the actor who plays him hasn't aged appreciably, so they seem to have some time to play with. But puberty is a fast worker; they might have less time than they think. Time, of course, will tell.

Until Whenever