Influx

The movies and television shows Crash, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Syriana, Loggerheads, Nine Lives, Lost and Six Feet Under, all have multiple layered narratives, according to a recent New York Times article.

The movie Syriana, which opens next week, is the latest proponent of this trend according to the New York Times’s piece, screenwriter Stephen Gaghan wrote the first 30 pages over 50 different ways. The Times makes some suggestions as to why this trend is happening; screenwriters’ dissatisfaction with the single plot, a desire to present more complex issues or the fact it’s just a symptom of a more disconnected society.

The article neglects one thing, the increasing sophistication of the audience, which is a big part of Steven Berlin Johnson’s perspective on the current state of pop culture that he outlines in his book, “Everything Bad is Good for You”

In the book Johnson talks about the ABC show Lost and its plot complexity.

“Thirty years ago, of course, no American show would have dared to put twenty recurring characters into a network drama. (Even the socially complex prime-time soaps like Dallas tended to max out at around ten primary characters, while the sitcom’s sweet spot seemed to be at around six: just enough for a nuclear family and the wacky neighbor next door.) But no show back then would have dreamt of submitting the audience to so much deliberately murky narrative information.”

To prove that Lost was doing something interesting with its audience and the audience is doing something interesting back, Influx tracked down some of the more creative websites created by Lost fans:

Lost and numbers

Lost character profiles

An encyclopedia of all things Lost

Hatch map and theories

The airline website

A 12-step program for Lost addicts

Lost fans podcast

Lost is a perfect example of an idea that weaves multiple plot lines and also playing with the audience interactively to get them engaged and involved in the show. It’s like video games, the internet, Tivo and television are all used and blended together to create a unique experience.

In an age where there’s often a tendency to simplify and dumb things down, Lost is a great example of an idea that respects its audience and encourages them to play with its complexity.