Hit for Myth

I like the term a TV critic uses to describe a number of my favorite television shows, including the wildly successful Lost: Matthew Gilbert looks at the intricate worlds of mythology shows.

Mythology shows tend to attract lively, game audiences. Nighttime soaps such as "The O.C." and "Everwood" require a similar commitment to ongoing plots, but they don't ask viewers to do a lot of work along the way. They explain themselves. A mythology show, however, makes its viewers into cosmic Sherlocks who must keep finding the hidden truths in an only partially recognizable universe. Mythology writers expect rigorous, un-couch-potato-like viewing -- and they get it, sometimes in spades. There are countless websites devoted to the likes of "The X-Files," "Lost," "Millennium," and "Dark Angel," where avid fans turn their theories into communal-shrine art. Many of these sites also publish "fanfic" -- fan fiction -- that finds members spinning their own tales about a show's characters. Unlike most TV viewers, mythology devotees are not passive listeners to the stories the box is telling them.

[via TV Barn]

P.S. Just the same, I'm slightly irritated with ABC at the moment. Just hen I thought they'd decided to try a new tactic in the ratings wars -- that is, putting good shows on the air -- they've returned to their lame trick of playing scheduling games with odd-length shows. They're adding a whole minute to tonight's episode, which I doubt will accomplish anything but throwing off home viwers' recording schedules.