Read the book before you start worrying about aliens causing the blackout. One of the great things about Sawyer's books is that they're grounded in real science. The "mystery" behind the flash-forward is a scientific one.

I'm definitely on board for this series, but I'll only give it a few episodes and if it looks like they're going to deviate too much from the novel on which it's based then I'm tuning out. You can't take a novel of a few hundred pages and stretch it out over several seasons without really deviating some from the original material, but if they try something stupid, like aliens for example, then I'll be done with it.

I just want to add that I read the book and I LOVED it! Sawyer has a very unique take on Sci-Fi, and the characters are very understandable. I'm actually quite excited about this.

One of his books, Calculating God, actually made me rethink some things about religion...a Sc-Fi book for craps sake!

Pick it up for Christmas! Then decide if the series seems like a good pick (I say YES!).

If this is well written, it can be really good. It sounds very promising.
If course, if this turns out to be the new Nine (Ten?), it could really suck. Flash forward to next year, and the answer is....?

Not only that but viewers like the 1 hour episodes each week where they can figure out the illness or the killer and get all excited because they figured it out. Rather than being challenged by a long story line arc that involves you remembering past stories and characters. It's all very frustrating. I think Lost is the last of these shows to work well for network TV. Cable TV is the only place where a show like this can be given the opportunity to sustain an intelligent audience for a long period of time. I'll tune in but I can't feel strong that a show like this could survive the axe the network will use when the show doesn't retain more than 50% of the Dancing with The Stars audience or some other lame reality or procedural that people flock to like mice to cheese.

Surely ABC has realized that sci-fi/thriller shows don't lead out of Lost very well. After people watch Lost they need something slower. Going from one insane mystery to another is exhausting. You would have thought that Invasion, Daybreak, and The Nine would have been enough to convince ABC.
Oh well.

I'll never get sick of shows that stretch my brain but the same can't be said for the general viewing audience. They want their episodes tied up in a neat little package (CSI style) or, at best, the ongoing "mystery" of who will be the next person kicked off/out of the island/house/stage. Then, of course, there's the other end of the spectrum. I think there's quite a few viewers who are frankly too critical of shows that attempt to engage our brains. They expect a masterpiece each and every episode or they are not satisfied. The net result is that I fear that this genre is doomed except for a few shining stars.

"With The X-Files, Lost, Fringe, Heroes and dozens of other sci-fi shows, hasn't everything already been done already?"

Uh, this question is a joke, right?

Why bother with another intellegent, well written and interesting show when ABC will simply cancel it when we are hooked. Yep, still pissed about "Pushing Daisies," "Eli Stone" and "DSM!" And no, I WON't get over it.