Forty-two students gathered eagerly in the Game Room of Newcomb Hall Wednesday to watch the season premiere of the hit ABC series “Lost.” The gathering represented the first official meeting of Hoo’s Lost, a club dedicated to watching and discussing the complicated and engrossing TV show for which it is named.
The room was decorated with banners depicting scenes from the series and emblazoned with the club’s name. Members sat in lounge chairs enjoying pizza. “This is our first meeting,” said President Matt Sutton, who was sporting a T-shirt with the Oceanic Airlines logo, the airline featured on the series. “We’re very excited.”
With so many students on Grounds who enjoy watching “Lost,” the Hoo’s Lost club provides a place for people to come together to theorize, analyze and view the show with other dedicated fans. Sutton, a first-year College student, came up with the idea for the club last semester with two friends, first-year Engineering student Matt Jungclaus and first-year College student Travis Dennis. “I’ve found people really enjoy watching the show together,” he explained. Although just watching the show with a small group of friends can be fun, Sutton said that the club makes viewing the episodes more of a “big event,” adding that it is a great way to reach out to the University student body.
Sutton said he, Jungclaus and Dennis decided to make the club an official student organization after they discovered there was a lot of interest in the show from University students on Facebook. “We did a Facebook survey and found that over 500 people in the U.Va. network had [“Lost”] listed as their favorite TV show,” he said.
Although he first thought the club would just be “a little thing with a couple of friends,” Sutton said the response has been very enthusiastic. “Interest [in the club] has been more than I expected,” he said, explaining that the club already had 40 official members before the first meeting Wednesday.
In addition to Facebook, students heard about the club through the signs posted around Grounds and word of mouth. “I live on the same floor as the guys who started the club, so I was bound to hear about it,” first-year College student Rolfe Garcia said.
Many attendees at the premiere came in large part for the group atmosphere, which was one of anticipation and high energy. First-year College student MacGregor Hall-Wurst, who was first introduced to the show by Sutton, explained that the club offered an “exciting environment” in which to watch the episodes. Garcia agreed, adding, “It’s a lot more fun to watch with other people who like ‘Lost.’”
Some of the club’s success may come from the nature of the show, which seems to lend itself to group viewing and discussion. An extremely involved series with continual plot twists, “Lost” provides viewers with a large amount of material to explore. As a recent New York Times article on the show noted, “few if any shows have twists and turns as byzantine as those on ‘Lost.’” The many flashbacks and various plot lines can make watching the series confusing, and Hoo’s Lost gives students a chance to discuss details and voice questions. First-year College student Matt Diton said that the club offers a great forum in which members can “bounce theories off each other because [they] don’t really know what’s going on” in the show.
Regardless of whether they understand all aspects of the series, the members of the Hoo’s Lost are addicted to “Lost” for a variety of reasons. “‘Lost’ is the best show on TV,” Ditton said, adding that he enjoys the mystery: “You don’t know where it’s going next. It’s like a roller coaster in the dark.” The intellectual level of the show also seems to draw in much of its dedicated fan base. “The show is rich with literary allusions,” Sutton said, explaining that he loves all the hidden details and references to pop culture. Hall-Wurst added that he’s intrigued by the “underlying theme of science versus religion.” Garcia voiced a simpler explanation. “It’s just an awesome show,” he said.
For the rest of the semester, the club plans to meet every week to watch the new episodes of “Lost.” Sutton said he’s looking forward to expanding the membership base of the club, as well as ordering T-shirts. Those in the club are all looking forward to the new season, anxiously awaiting revelations that are sure to come. “Some [characters] have gotten off the island,” Hall-Wurst said, but explained that though they have seen flash-forwards, the audience doesn’t know all the details. “I want to see what happens in the intervening years.”
Read More
Breaking my silence
By Cecy Juárez | YesterdayI, Cecy Juárez, am one of the three “squirrels of U.Va.” running the @thesquirrelsofuva page.
Lending a hand during the finals push
By Abby Snowdon | 2 days agoThe race to the end of the year has begun, and University groups have set up pit stops along the course to help students get to the finish line.
The spring fashion trend for you based on your college lifestyle
By Malone Morchower | 3 days agoIn 2024, decades of different styles have come back, culminating in a casual yet exciting fashion.
