The LOST Experience (Premium E267)

Jake: John Locke was a Christlike figure Liv: that’s a bit on the nose Me, screaming: THERES LITERALLY A CHARACTER NAMED CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD

Why does the guy at 37:30 sound like Jerma lmao

Myst mentioned

What a great show you guys did. Yep that TV show lost was on. I was too caught up with work back then. Didn't have time to watch it. Some of my Mates did. They were really dissipated with the ending. I has to listen to them whining about the ending for weeks. I didn’t know about the game running on the side though. I don’t think they did either. I never heard him talk about it anyway. It definitely sounds like a precursor to what we’re putting up with now. I might myself go back and watch it now. I do have time up my sleeve. Cheers thanks for the show.

Shit you not, I wrote my university dissertation (in 2006) on the Lost Experience as a viral marketing tool and internet fandom. I was one of those forum bakers - the nostalgia is real.

The gangs reaction to this quiet typical ARG has convinced me that they're all infact very cooked. This wasnt the proto-Q, its was a creative marketing tie in with a generic conspiracy storyline. To say this relates to Q in any real way is like pointing at any late 90's or 2000s conspiracy movie and saying the same. Kinda dissapointing to see you all take it so seriously

Just watched all 121 episodes of Lost just so I could listen to this. I have no regrets

This whole thing really felt like a warning for what was about to come for LOST fans

i feel like Jake would probably enjoy the MMO The Secret World (now the Secret World Legends) just for investigation missions. lots of baking-adjacent mysteries there

So glad to see this ARG recognized! Throughout the Qanon era, I thought of The Lost Experience many times and how it was so much more impressive than Qanon. Check out Andrew WK's Steev Mike conspiracy ARG for an even earlier example of this type of thing. And of course Ong's Hat!

I think...this might be a top 10 episode... There is some serious synthesis about the main topic of the podcast...

You were watching 'Lost'. I was watching 'Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast'... We are not the same ;p

I submit 'Battlestar Galactica' as a 'ship show'.

The rise of Qanon has actually had an effect on my enjoyment of some sci-fi... realizing that some writers were sharing because they truly believed in 'special indigo children' or 'extradimensional demons', and of course the eugenics in a lot of older stuff... yikes.

I used to tell my friends that Alvar Hanso was the voice in the beginning of every episode that says, "previously on Lost".

Finding the Hayabusa helmet in Halo

Jake, Would ‘Raised By Wolves’ by Ridley Scott be a Ship Show?

Started Silo, told my wife I hope it isn't a ship show. Had to explain the concept, she was only annoyed during the explanation. Also, Mr Robot turned into a ship show (derogatory), and Legion was a ship show (complementary) .

Of course Elon would miss the point of Judge Dredd.

Wasn’t Blueanon Jim Stewartson an ARG developer? I remember reading him talking about how you had to sandbox people or they would get totally out of hand and go to places that you never intended. That’s why when he discovered QAnon. the first thing he said was “this is a weaponized ARG”.

I was watching the latest episode of From on MGM and all I kept thinking was "this is a ship show"

The Terror s1 is the ultimate ship show

I remember when ARGs were THE thing to show that your media property was cool. My first cell phone was a flip phone my dad received from The Dark Knight's ARG and we have a sick poster that we won from TRON: Legacy's.

The amazing British series Utopia seems to have picked up the vaccine conspiracy trope seven years later!

We all remember the classic novel that ends 'at last the cows came home to milk.'

Is raised by wolves a ship show?

“30th anniversary” terrified me for a moment where I thought I lost a decade

Me and my buddy were huuuuge Losties! I got the numbers tatted on my knuckles. Loved playing the ARG too. Lemme tell ya, the Hanso family was super shady.

Cloverfield did a small version of this. It was dope./

My zoomer ass would have been ecstatic hearing Rachel Blake at SDCC. That seems like it was a pretty cool setup.

i take it all back, jake and his antics must be curtailed

liv agar (sorry i am late)

Jake is talking quite a lot.

I don’t think I understand what a ship show is.

If you want another example of a show prepping people to be conspiracy theorists - check out Utopia (both the british and the really bad american versions).

I'm just glad that, after all his crimes, Jimmy has finally been milked

I only hear Brace's characters name "Racial Jake" lol

I'd love to spoil the ending of the show for Jake, but it's super convoluted and I haven't watched it since it aired, so...

I will preface this by saying I am a huge Lost fan, but just wanted to stop by and say this is the best premium episode you've done in a while. So great! Also, I'd like to put in a request for Liv to do a Costco-verse episode as I find their rise so fascinating.

Wow! I started tracking ARGs back pre-911 with MAJESTIC and warning the alt-media community about their potential for misuse. Y'all did a great job with this one, as always. Thanks!

I would of loved a mention of the Jeep official tie in, letyourcompassguideyou.com https://lostpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Letyourcompassguideyou.com

So this is just like that Sherlock tv show Johnlock conspiracy. We'll, not just like but people getting way too involved in their entertainment to the point where it has negative impacts on their lives.

"Don't apologize for entertaining the audience" 🥹

I think you’re doing a big disservice to Station 11 by categorizing it as a ship show. That show is so painfully good on so many levels.

what did the hippie say when you told him to get out of your house? "namaste."

I thought ship show was going to be like...you wanted Jack and Sawyer to kiss

I honestly thought a ship show was going to be one with multiple love triangles, where the audience roots for their favorite couples (which was a big thing on Lost). Top tier episode. Classic Coke !

totally reminds me of jkr’s website in the early aughts. She had secret things to click on and passwords and codes that would unlock new hp related information [obligatory fuck jkr note]

Jake is going to get permanently stuck in Trump voice any time now.

What are the odds that the early people involved with ARG went on to work with Cicada? I am in a rabbit hole and they kind of feel like the same vibe.

“From” is an excellent ship show.

Hmm, correction to the 35.25 voicemail clip: it does not start with the german national anthem. It’s just a jingle for the closing segment of some old Danish radio show. I don’t recognize the hosts voice nor the show but my guess is it’s from the 70’s or 80’s. His pronunciation is old Danish. The clip is def from a private or local radio channel because it has commercials. All the best Danish radio channels are public service without commercials;-) Translated directly from Danish the clip says “that’s everything from me tonight. And stay tuned because here comes the news followed by classic rock from the 60’s and 70’s including an exclusive playback of Geronimo Jackson’s first complete album Magna Carta, right after a couple of words from our sponsors”. Then some weird rap clip and the Verizon weirdness. The whole voicemail is just word salad. Three clips put together with no total meaning.

Thank you Jake! The Myst reference ruled. That game used to scare me. It also had Ship Show vibes.

i understand the shipshow category, but i just call them bad

Damn I was really hoping we'd get a reprised Jimmy Kimmel impression by Julian

“This was supposed to be a fun episode” and yet it was the most terrifying because it is literally explains how capitalism birthed Q 😭😭😭

If we're recommending Ship Shows, I go with RUBICON. Oh and that one where JK Simmons plays alternate versions of himself in different dimensions

This "ship show" term is deranged. "Shipping" is already a term in pop culture discourse, OBVIOUSLY a ship show is a show which sustains its viewership via the fandom obsessively hoping and pushing for the show to become a romance show, especially if it was supposed to be about something more high concept but lost its focus as it devolved into bait for the horny fandom. We're talking Supernatural after season 5 when Eric Kripke bailed, Sherlock after season 1, Adventure Time from whenever they gave Marceline and Princess Bubblegum a backstory.

Jake I'd love a "Ship Show" podcast, hell I'd co-host one! Julian nailed it with Silo. I think interstellar is considered hard sci-fi which could still overlap with ship show I guess... Would Avenue 5 be like a parody of ship shows?

Makes me think of Meow Wolf Omega Mart. I went to it/one at Area 15 in Vegas. Basically a surreal escape room with lots of these themes. Super fun and pretty deep immersive experience

I'm picturing Arrow as my ship show

I remember having so much fun baking Mr. Robot. The last show I’ve ever baked any takes about

Why do Jake and I have all the same interests…? Weezer and LOST foreva!

Would The Peripheral be considered a ship show? Bummer the second season got canned.

One of my favorite episodes in awhile that wasn’t current events related! Insane how Q just follows the same contours of ARGs.

House is a ship show

Jake’s gotta read Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, that novel set the template for this whole thing

Hey, I understand this might be a little controversial, but it really needs to be said. Liv Agar

How did Jake not bring up Weezer’s “Hurley” album???! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurley_(album)

Is XFiles an OG ship show??

Ozark takes place on a lake, thus ship show.

BTW- the idea of using a vaccine for secret population control is the core conceit of the excellent British TV show Utopia (it also got a US remake). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(British_TV_series)

When it comes to media aping reality, this feels like a great moment to recommend The Lovecraft Chronicles- BBC Radio 4 adaptations of classic Lovecraft stories in the form of a true crime podcast. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p06spb8w

For teenage girls, Pretty Little Liars was THE baking show

I miss ARGs. I spent some time in Perplex City and wished I was in San Francisco for the thing that became The Institute and then became Dispatches From Elsewhere. That was much more wholesome with no fake vaccines in Africa or product placement and I endlessly recommend it to people. So, check it out.

Shoutout to Felix from Chapo Trap House referring to the mystery subplots in Lost as "enrichment exercises for the lower primates".

I listened to the Bad Twin audiobook when it was first released and my one overriding memory is that the phrase "apropos of nothing" was thrown around far too much. Fringe is a ship show, though its forerunner (and sneakily in-universe companion) The X-Files is not (but has ship show elements).

Listening for a second time and another perfect ship show popped into my mind: Jonathan Strange and M Norrell. Elements of science v magick with a k, grey palette, some actual ships, it’s perfect!

This episode ruled

This episode made me feel OLD. Because I was like 24 for the Lost Experience :___

I blame Racial Jake

Silo is great in my opinion

Outer Range is a Ship Show, and a great one, because Josh Brolin

I watched Lost (I think it's the first show I started torrenting) and was tangentially aware of the ARG, but man that was a wild ride. I might just start watching it again. I will say the conspiracy theory elements matching QAnon is because those are conspiracy theory pillars already. The game Deus Ex had them in the plot and that was 1999 or 2000 if I recall correctly. And they were drawing from what conspiracy theorists were saying.

Jj Abrams did something similar with cloverfield

Haven't listened yet, but Sherry Turkle's 2011 book Alone Together used the online LOST experience as an example of the new kind of communities the web made possible. As a sociologist who's been writing about online identity since the days of MUDs and BBSs she might be an interesting guest for the pod if you could get her.

No need to spoil the end of the show, the writers did a great job ruining it

Severance is a ship show. Need a name for the Arcane/Fallout/Vox Machina category!

This might be out of left field... but the way this episode explored how some early (relatively) lighthearted internet mindfuckery prefigured Q reminded me to tell you guys if you're ever looking to do more reviews on media eerily prescient of the current moment, and/or if any of you are anime-heads (and even if you aren't), I highly recommend doing something on Serial Experiments Lain. It basically foresaw from 1998 how the Internet would eventually suck everything and everyone into it, rewrite reality and identity, and universalize paranoia. It really captures the haunted, lonely vibe at the core of modern life (and of course, at the core of Q). And btw, great episode, Jake! It helped make an awful work night bearable. I also endorse the Ship Show thesis.

This is like what The Boys are doing with social media and vought

I've remembered that sequence of numbers for 20 years, it's never left me. I'd hoped that one day it would pay off. Today it did, when I said them aloud, along with Jake. I felt a tiny pride, and a feeling of kinship, because we likely have similar mental health issues.

The Prisoner (1967) was a Ship Show. Oldest one I can think of, but maybe there are older.

I stopped after the penultimate ep and have never felt any compulsion to finish. Peace of mind intact.

Prometheus is a ship show

"Ship show" is the best way to describe these kinds of shows. Watching them is like boarding the titanic you never know when things will hit the iceberg. This terminology will up one day. From on MGM is another ship show and it takes place in a nightmare land where qanon natural law applies

How many ships can a ship-show shit if a ship-show could shit ships? But seriously, The Last Ship is a seriously great ship-show. It's got an easily followed plot, and it's got hunky Chad's (Captain Rock Chunkchest is my favorite 😍) delectable lady sailors ,tons of guns, missiles, and set on a gorgeous Arliegh Burke class destroyer. All served smothered in a rich gravy of a pandemic. Lord have mercy. Great pod. Nice break from the election.

Did Jake switch his medication recently?

Lost was the fever dream of a golden retriever that startled itself awake and ran into a wall

I feel like Jake is stuck in the mindset that this was 30 years ago and not 20. One of his lines is about “modems connecting”. This was 2007. Broadband was a thing for most people by then. Not at the speeds we have today but I feel like a some sound was already something considered antique by then.

To the point where we might need a "this is not that" dedicated series episodes

Btw, you guys have got to find someone who can tell you all about The Secret World/Secret World Legends! It's so far up your alley you gotta turn around to see it behind you.

I would totally spoil the episode for Jake, but as one of Julian’s strongest soldiers I haven’t even seen enough Lost to remember who is who

the funniest part about Jake’s “ship show” classification is that he didn’t mention the best example of this genre imo, a Spanish show about a group of people stuck on a boat during the apocalypse called El barco (in english, The Ship)

I watched Lost from beginning to almost-end when it aired, but I can't spoil the ending because I never watched the last episode. Other shows I watched 99% of, but not their last episode: Battlestar Galactica (the remake), House, Dexter, Fringe, Warehouse 13, Dark Matter... It's not even intentional, it just keeps happening.

Excellent episode!

Not Penny's Ship Show

this is my ship show

I loved LOST when it was running live until season 4, hung in till the ending and got my heart broken. This episode is a soothing balm to the psyche.

Not-ship not-show ship show - The Prestige. Amazing work

I just finished watching this whole show, it’s great if you take its campiness in stride. I have been blessed with a good episode today fellas

Jake I know exactly what you're referring to when you say "Ship Show" and it has an actual name: Mystery Box: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_box_show?wprov=sfla1

I thought a ship show was a show whose fans ship the show's characters. Like, Star Trek: TOS is a ship show.

Not sure if anyone (oughts gamers) remembers this, but it really reminds me of this thing that happened near the release of Halo 2, very close to the same time. At the end of a Halo 2 trailer, “ilovebees.com” briefly flashed on the screen. When you logged onto that website, it was this broken, seemingly hacked website about bees. And people baked the hell out of it, there was a countdown clock, weird writings popping up on certain pages of the site, etc. i never could figure out the connection to the game, but its so similar.

LOST the series may not have held up, but season 4 episode 5 The Constant is one of the better self contained sci fi episodes ever filmed.

The original ship show was Twin Peaks and it also has a lot of Q DNA buried in its lore. I think the idea that Q is always present but can only make itself known with whatever media is available is quite persuasive.

You need to do a bonus ep where we get Jake's take on the ending!

Highly recommend what went wrong podcasts 2 episodes on lost. Explains the tension the writers had between fan service and knowing where the story was going. Impossible ending to land.

Yer talking about the numbers

Jake has baked entertainment and discovered the origin of Qanon. Is QAA over now that you solved the mystery?

Turns out I’m a Ship Show Head. Meanwhile, my *actual* ship show (I call it Big Dumb Boat Show) is Dr Odyssey

Thanks for this Jake. Please do the leftovers next. You know you want to and the themes fit on point 🙏

OK I was obsessed I had 5 different podcasts I listened to and one of my favorite recap websites: Ack Attack who would sum up each episode with gifs and with a true disdain for Jack to the point where shipping and slash fiction was used as a joke for Jack/his tears which became Jears http://www.theackattack.net/?tag=lost-season-1

I remember playing the original ARG (now called "The Beast"　I think） that was developed as a promotion for Spielberg's A.I., and year it was pretty thrilling. IN fact, I like it better than the movie.

It sometimes feels like Jake is the result of a lab experiment who is willingly presenting himself for us to dissect.

OH MY GOD YES

BSG the ultimate ship show

I thinnnnnnk what Jake calls ship shows are what I've been calling "tasteful" scifi, i.e., sci-fi that conforms more to the conventions of literary fiction (prestigious because it's the one non-genre genre) than sci-fi (which is a less prestigious genre). It's often explicitly marketed as "genre-defying" scifi for ~discerning~ viewers who don't usually like genre fiction, and it tends to be muted & minimalist in tone, scope, and color palette. Honestly, they're kinda anti-ship shows because they absolutely will not under any circumstances show you a cool spaceship. (Except Arrival, but at least it's an elegantly minimalist spacecraft.) Most importantly, though, tasteful scifi has as little worldbuilding as the writers can possibly get away with, and it refuses to get weird with it. The OA is a fun (counter)example because it lulls viewers into a false sense of security by seeming to be tasteful scifi early on, but then veers off into gloriously over the top strangeness.

I’m going to piss my pants on the bus Jesus Christ

would amc’s the terror count as a ship show? there’s even a ship in it. two, in fact

Is Gilligan's Island a ship show?

Need a Jake’s Takes on Ship Shows.

liv agar

You guys are the best. This is the only podcast that's guaranteed to make me laugh. Where else do you get episodes about paradox sandbox games?

Oh. MYST. Now I'm going to have to go get it on Steam. >.<

Ending of lost: everyone dies someday bro

I remember a great article on this arg in wired mag in like 2006 I think it was the same comp who did the nine inch nails arg

I never watched LOST but Heroes had a similar thing where you texted a number with your theories about the ongoing season that was tied in to the comics posted on NBC's website, but there were no TV ads. I have to imagine it was determined that the monetary benefit of theoretically extra attention to ads didn't generate enough revenue to overcome the loss of a 30 second ad slot that could otherwise be sold.

Dark is such a good show!!!

QAA is my favorite ship show podcast

LOST was such a big thing that I would have to negotiate with coworkers about who would have to take the thurs night shift or whatever night it was on. There was a calendar and everything. Fuckin loved that show, have all the fun watching Jake

Well, that was a bolt of mortal panic when I heard and momentarily believed that Lost was 30 years ago.

Julian ILYSM

Galactica also had a ship in it!

More of this type of stuff, less election talk - somehow already beaten to death after less than two weeks Although gonna pretend I didn’t hear Julian call Silo crappy

I got into Lost back when I smoked weed. I have no attention span, so the way they never resolved any plot lines was perfect for me

I loved this era of ARGs! It was such a mind blowing concept to 13-year-old me.

Yes melt my brain 🧠🧈