I’m a pretty down to earth guy, really; aside from the fact that I spend several hours a day devoted to this little television program titled LOST. I eat, I play with my cat, I tease my wife, teach my kids to read (phonetically), and do just about everything else you would expect a normal guy to do. But something happens to me when LOST goes on hiatus. I’m overcome by a feeling of mysterious emptiness. I’d rely on cliché’ and say it’s a “void” but it’s more like a soul sucking black hole of doom. Like most LOST-addicts a hiatus means that for a period of time I will not be teased with tenuous information, no more ‘new mysteries’ will be unleashed to test the conundrum-holding-capacity of my noggin. Instead, week after week of wild speculation; I’ll start to actually believe the internet theories; I may even start to have dreams of Dharma logos… Am I sick? Probably, but I’m not alone. In just two weeks, about fifteen-million people will know exactly what I’m talking about… give or take a million. November 8th is the last day of the LOST mini-season – a straight shot of six episodes which – supposedly – contain a complete story arc. If there is anything resembling the shape of an arc embedded in the four episodes that have gone by so far, I’ve yet to see it; unless, of course, Sawyer, Kate, and Jack were kidnapped for some other reason other than to sit in cages. (wink wink). Regardless of how the mini-season turns out, LOST fans who barely made it through the summer hiatus are faced with one horrifying conclusion: after November 8th, LOST is off the air for twelve-weeks. Now I, can handle it. My therapist has convinced me of this and my new meds are supposed to make me more accepting of circumstances I can’t control; but somewhere inside me, I feel that awful vacuum force beginning to collect again. To make it worse, the producers have stated that the final scene of the mini-season will be one that completely redefines our perception of the 815’rs and their island paradise in a way that will make us doubt everything we have thought before. Yippee. A lot of folks are starting to hedge their bets: every new season of LOST has started out a little lower in total viewers then the last; credited mostly to this imaginary factor of “stalling the story” (if the naysayers had their way, the mystery would have been solved in season one and we’d all be watching ‘Gilligan’s Island’ for the Y generation now…) Will another hiatus, so soon after opening a new chapter, and presumably ending it in another place, push the threshold of those already nearly desensitized to the shows tease-and-deny ways? Will the beginning of the second two-thirds of LOST’s third season – what a concept – be viewed as a ‘second season’ opener, giving the Nielsen’s another opportunity to cut a swath out of the already shrinking base of devoted viewers. Absence, in some cases, may make the heart grow fonder, but in the case of LOST… it’s another factor for the shows growing contingent of naysayers to draw inspiration from. Regardless of how you weigh it, the impact of these hiatuses, two this year, proves, if nothing else, that LOST continues to make a profound impact on its fans; albeit not always in desirable ways.