The Lost Room (2006)

by DionysusPsyche

“If I show you what's there, there's no going back. It will make you crazy.”

I could pretty much tell any potential viewer the same thing about this show. The Lost Room is a mini-series that cronicles a man's search for his missing daughter. This show better than Alice in Wonderland, because the deeper you go into the rabbit hole, the more you want to know. It revolves around paranormal objects in a very special space and their properties within and outside of that space.

Maybe you like seeing a watch boil your egg. Maybe you need to be safe from fire. Whatever the reason, there is an object that you could likely possess that would do you some good. Yet it comes with a price which could be a great as your life or as little as a stranger's. Like a reality show, the objects can bring out the worst in people, but in this series, I found myself having a hard time holding most people's vices against them.

While on the job, Detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause's) comes across a key. He is told this key unlocks any door. Unbelieving, Joe takes it home, you know, for safety measures, and tries it out. It works. The room in between that he enters is a motel room. Due to a run-in with people who are willing to kill for it, Joe's daughter takes the key and escapes into the room created in order to save herself from those dangerous people doing anything to obtain this precious treasure. She disappears when the key locks from the outside. In order to get her back, Joe sets out on a journey to learn as much as he can about the motel key, the motel, and the mysterious, magical objects within. Each object does something different from the last, and their effects are varied across the board.

Unsurprisingly, Joe is in serious competition with collectors. These people dish out some serious bucks in order to learn knowledge, not even get their hands on the objects, just to learn the whereabouts. Joe meets interesting, obsessed, and manipulative people who are all after the key and its other objects for their own personal reasons.

This show reminds me of a creative writing class, where you take a simple idea and are expected to churn out exceptional writing. Only instead of being in an English class, sitting in your desk, wracking your brain for ideas, you're sitting on the edge of your couch glued to the television.

Even if I thought about looking away or going to bed or eating or going to the bath room, I simply couldn't. The curiosity was paralyzing. My criticism for this show was that it ended too soon and seemed to tie up without necessarily answering all the questions I had. I still have questions! Now, it was intended to be only one season, and unlike The 4400, it only amounted to one season (those bastards should have renewed, damnit! Whatever the price). Yet, it remains so action packed, full of drama, and down right exciting. It's as if the whole thing was one convuluted car chase!

The acting is solid. While the characters don't necessarily reveal a lot about themselves, their motivation behind why they want the motel artifacts is, in and of itself, intriguing and telling. It is an eternal struggle for power, and the more one has, the more likely it is to be usurped from them. In a lot of series, people can often be broken down into two main groups: those who are manipulated and self-interested and those who seek justice and honor. In this series, there are a great many people who are defined solely by their weaknesses, by what they will do in some cases to even get a glimpse at an object. Joe is by far the hero of The Lost Room. With the heroic charm one might see in The Odyssey, Joe's mission is this: he wants his daughter back. That is all. No more, no less, and he'll go to the ends of the earth to do so.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that I am a television junkie. I find a show I like, and as a mosquito attaches itself to a host, I suckle at the teat of a series (guys, it's a SIMILE here!) until I've sucked it dry. For the most part, I can break away for the bath room, some food, or to go to bed. From the moment I saw the trailer, I was intent on watching the series, and while watching the series, I didn't dare get up for anything. I was even reluctant to pause the remote! I don't want to oversell this series and create disappointment, but I honestly have a hard time believing this series is capable of serious let downs, until, well, until it ends, and there is no more. This series is excellent, and I hope you find it as interesting and entertaining as I did.