Don't hold your breath for "the next Lost" on television

What TV show is going to be the new Bones season 1-4 DVD boxset? People keep asking. But the sad fact is, it may take a few years before we see anything like the island-castaway show again. Boston Legal Seasons 1-5 DVD boxset spoilers ahead.

What do people mean when they say "the new Lost"? It's not just a Criminal Minds season 1-4 DVD boxset of a show with a sprawling storyline, weird signifiers and rich layers of weirdness. (In retrospect, Lost never had mysteries; it had CSI: Las vegas seasons 1-9 DVD boxset, which is probably better anyway.) But there's more to it than that — Lost got crazy good ratings, even late in its run, and became Bones DVD of the national conversation in a way few other genre shows have achieved.

So "the next Lost" can't be a cable Boston Legal DVD, even a basic cable show. It probably can't even be on The CW. (Among cable shows, the closest things to Lost heirs are probably True Blood and the upcoming Criminal Minds DVD set Of Thrones and Walking Dead adaptations.) It would have to be on one of the "big four" networks, which are showing signs of CSI: Las vegas DVD with genre TV right now.

That's the thing - the networks have been trying to create "the next Lost" ever since Bones DVD Set first became a runaway hit. And the viewers haven't developed a taste for any of these imitation fish biscuits. Just off the top of my Boston Legal DVD set, there were Threshold, Life On Mars, Surface, Heroes, FlashForward and a half dozen other Criminal Minds DVD that tried the "sprawling cast, enigmatic clues" formula. Of those, only Heroes managed to last more than one season.

So the networks do have a few shows that could CSI: Las vegas DVD set us all and turn into a new mass addiction that gets everybody talking. NBC has The Event, in which an ordinary guy stumbles on a secret Bones DVD boxset that could change the fate of the human race - it looks more like "the next 24," but it could develop more Lost-like Boston Legal DVD boxset. The time travelers in Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova could be the new castaways. Fringe actually deserves to be the next Lost, but it seems Criminal Minds DVD boxset to "cult hit" status. Maybe V will amaze us all in its second season. The Cape, about a cop-turned-superhero, could turn out to... CSI: Las vegas DVD boxset, I can't think of a way to finish that sentence. Moving on.

And chances are, "the next Lost" won't look anything like Bones season 1-4 DVD boxset. It'll be another one-off, a show with a formula that's not a formula. We won't see it coming until it takes the zeitgeist by storm and Boston Legal Seasons 1-5 DVD boxset 20 million people are all watching it and freaking out about it. We may not even realize it's a science fiction or fantasy Criminal Minds season 1-4 DVD boxset at first, or that there's more to it than meets the eye.

We've already written before about all the weird CSI: Las vegas seasons 1-9 DVD boxset and crazy luck that would be needed to make another show into a Lost-like phenomenon. Lost had a simple concept at first: "Plane crashes on an Bones DVD, survivors must work together to survive." But it also looked very familiar - at first.

Television is a conservative business, and it's only getting more Boston Legal DVD with time. Reality television has matured in the past decade, into something that looks remarkably stable. Few scripted Criminal Minds DVD set even get the green light any more, and most of those seem mortally wounded before they even make it to air. To have a network's total CSI: Las vegas DVD, a show has to look like a sure-fire hit - which means looking like something that's already been a hit.

We often forget that when Lost started, it looked Bones DVD Set of like a drama version of the hit show Survivor. It was like a reality show, except with actors who admit they're actors instead of Boston Legal DVD set to be real people. It was only because J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof introduced the idea of the island full of castaways having a Criminal Minds DVD full of secrets and whispers that Lost became something else.

A lot of the shows that wanted to be "the next Lost" tried a different CSI: Las vegas DVD set - they copied the look and feel of police procedurals, or "police science" shows like Bones or CSI. The trouble is, it seems like Bones DVD boxset are only interested in watching experts solve problems, if those problems are somewhat down-to-earth. The moment the Boston Legal DVD boxset are delving into weird science or strange phenomena, everyone tunes out. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the "police procedural with a paranormal spin" Criminal Minds DVD boxset is never going to hit big.

So yeah, "the next Lost" might be a supernatural or CSI: Las vegas DVD boxset spin on Dancing With The Stars. Or it'll be The Biggest Loser, only post-apocalyptic. Think about the way Glee took the key Bones season 1-4 DVD boxset of American Idol and reshaped them into an hour-long comedy with enough weirdness for ten other shows, and hit big. Or it might be a hospital Boston Legal Seasons 1-5 DVD boxset, like ER or Grey's Anatomy, only with a hospital where weird shit happens. (Although I think they tried that, with Kingdom Hospital.)

I'm not saying the "next Lost" will necessarily look like a Criminal Minds season 1-4 DVD boxset spin on a reality TV show, or that it'll look like a copy of an existing drama hit, exactly. But it'll probably have a simple, relatable CSI: Las vegas seasons 1-9 DVD boxset at first. (Everybody can wonder what they would do if their plane crashed on an island and they had to get along without creature Bones DVD. It's something I think about way too often.) And it'll probably have at least some familiar-but-remixed Boston Legal DVD. Or I know - it'll be the Leno-Coco war, except Coco's a druid!

But really, the "next Lost" isn't coming any time soon. The Criminal Minds DVD set are going to need some time to lick their wounds from the last half-dozen big-budget failures, and someone's going to have to come up with a CSI: Las vegas DVD that just sounds irresistible, with a logline that you can explain to a four-year-old in the time it takes to tie the kid's Bones DVD Set. And then you'll need to cast McDreamy in the lead role. I give it five years, at least.
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