In the first 10 minutes of Lost, you have a plane crash(ish), tail coming off a plane,

No, you don't. You have a guy waking up in the jungle, running out to see the aftermath of a plane crash, and then a jet engine explodes and it's funny. That's the teaser. It was a good teaser. But I was still filled with ennui by the end of the hour.

I'm just very skeptical that Lost was a hit because of its pacing.

I remember the last minute of the Lost pilot being the only thing that made me want to watch the show again. Then again, I still don't really watch it.

I think the pacing of the pilot was part of the reason why it hooked an audience. Of course, the pacing after the pilot is why it's loosing that audience.

The other reasons, of course, are the cast pretty, it's reasonably different to what else is out there, and it has "WTF!Homer Foot" moments which make it talk-about TV.

Now I'm trying to remember the last minute of the pilot and can't.

I watched for a while, in the beginning, then I got bored and moved on.

Now I'm trying to remember the last minute of the pilot and can't.

I think that was when they heard Danielle's message and Charlie said, "Guys...where are we?"

I might be thinking of the second part of the pilot, but what I'm thinking of is whats-her-face Kate counting, and then the title comes up.

HA! After my last post, I went over to TWOP to check out the recap for the pilot. (Though, even after reading, I totally don't remember the ending.) And this cracked me up:

"Guys," Charlie says, obviously no longer even a tiny bit high. "Where are we?"

Whew! People, give it up. Lost is pau. I'm gonna predict right now that this show has peaked, and everyone should just go back to watching Smallville right now so you won't get disappointed.

But how different would it have been had Michael Keaton played Jack and got killed off half way through the pilot (like what was originally planned)?

Personally, I think that would have been awesome.

Personally, I would have watched just to see that happen. (I have repressed White Noise issues).

That said, the guy who plays Jack, he's very pretty. I suspect that's where a lot of the audience goes. Then we have the Charlies. They made an effort to find ways to make people love the characters (which was often 'Hey, he's pretty!!', but still), which all credit to them.

So I rewatched Heroes, and I have to eat my words a bit. I was less tired and cranky this time. It's a lot better than I remember it. I didn't like the first few minutes - a scrolling introduction of self important text about how the world will change, a character being self important yada. That said, after that head trauma is over, the pace evens out, the breaks are well handled (except one), the direction is superb and it starts to hang. Still don't think it'll hit big - they've obviously put a lot of effort into the world from the pilot stage (unlike Lost), so I hope I'm wrong.