On Lost, a few dozen people survive an airplane crash and fight to survive on a deserted island where freaky stuff happens.

That's not an ocean surrounding their island. It's a very well-known creek, and these people are up it.

This show combines the pathos of Survivor with the terror of Gilligan's Island. It's compelling, dramatic, actiony goodness every single week.

I read that originally the show was not supposed to have genre elements. I guess they could have made that work, but who cares about reality? After all, there are some pretty big leaps of logic to be addressed. Some people would call them plot holes, like how anyone would survive a plane crash where the tail falls off. The sci-fi / horror ingredient says, "Never mind all that. Calm down, buddy. Seriously."

Dealing with the real realities of surviving on a desert island would have been less fun. Unless it was Temptation Island. Whoo buddy, the people on that show could sure commit some quality adultery.

The Lost cast is sizeable, with 15 or so characters introduced so far. Forty-eight people survived the crash, so in case they want to eat someone, the cast is full of red-shirts (and I don't mean Gilligan).

The clash of moods, beliefs, and egos shows little sign of growing stale so far. There's the leader who doesn't want to lead (played by Matthew Fox, the big brother from Party of Five and the dead-people-seeing cop from Haunted). There's a female lead who may be a murderer, a scheming jerk, an absentee father, a very pregnant woman, Merry from Lord of the Rings as a drug addict, an Asian couple that doesn't speak English, and the awesome Terry O'Quinn (Millennium, Harsh Realm) as Mr. Locke, a mystery wrapped in an enigma and smothered in secret sauce.

The writing staff includes David Fury from Buffy and Angel, who contributed the best episode so far. Imagine, a show with experienced writers and cast. I'm all for anything that's different than what everyone else is putting on TV. (Unless it stinks, which this doesn't.)

The necessary drawback of this and every Endless Quest show is that the show is over if any progress is made toward an end to the quest.

After a "Let's try to work this communicator gadget" storyline ended with a crushing defeat, the plots have moved to survival instead of attempts to find salvation. We know that can't come, unless they change the show's name.

The island itself is the best part of the show. Weird stuff happens to nearly every character, but, so far, it can be explained away or run away from.

The only clues, such as they are, are with the coolest cast member, Locke. He's one mysterious dude, and I thought he was the devil. Or an angel. Then his backstory was shown, and it turns out he's a combination of a Jedi, a Vulcan, and Rambo. He was paralyzed before the plane crash, but awoke on the island with working legs. Since then he faced down The Thing in the Woods but didn't tell anybody about it. He says things like "What's happened is impossible. But imagine if it wasn't." and "I looked into the eye of this island . . . and what I saw was beautiful."

So far there have been no answers to anything, and I like it that way. I prefer the mystery, as maddening as it might soon become.

Because if we find out that there's a dinosaur — for example — then the show becomes Jurassic Park: The Series. If we find out they're on an alternate Earth, then it becomes Lost Planet. If it turns out that everyone died in the crash and they're all in purgatory, it becomes Melrose Place.

I'm digging it. I can only hope that when they get found, they have to play basketball against the Harlem Globetrotters.