[caption id="attachment_4248" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel"]
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Stewart Mandel is a professional writer from New York. For the past decade he has written about college football and basketball for SI.com and Sports Illustrated. Mandel's first book, Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls: Tackling the Chaos and Controversy That Reign Over College Football, was published in 2007. In 2008 he took first place (enterprise category) and second place (game story) in the Football Writers Association of America's annual writing contest. He also placed first in the 2005 contest (columns).
In addition to being one the nation's top sports writers, Stewart is a LOSTaholic (lucky us!). He recently started a weekly podcast, The Mandel Initiative (also available on ITunes), which will focus on Lost (as well as football). You can follow Stewart on Twitter here.
Q: How long have you been watching Lost?
A: This is probably going to seem like blasphemy to anyone reading this blog ... but the beginning of season five. Obviously, I'd seen previous episodes here or there, but I didn't become a regular viewer until January '09. I went from newbie to obsessed rather quickly, watching 2-3 old episodes a night on line to catch up.
Q: How did Lost get its polar bear claws into you? What about it got you hooked?
A: I know a lot of the show's critics didn't like the time-travel, but I found it fascinating. I am genuinely in awe of the writers' story-telling inventiveness. The fact that there's so much thinking that goes into consuming the show is one of the things I enjoy most about it, and when I found myself trying to dissect Farraday's initial "record spinning" explanation, I knew I was hooked. I also think it's the most visually appealing show on TV, especially in HD on a big-screen.
Q: Favorite character?
A: Hurley. I'm much more a comedy guy by nature, and he plays that character so perfectly. The scene last year in 1977 when he's looking at his hand, waiting for it to disappear a la Back to the Future, is the epitome of that character.
Q: Least favorite character?
A: Sun. She brings nothing to the table. How many times do we have to hear her say, "Have you seen my husband? Do you know how I can find my husband?"
Q: Favorite episode or season?
A: Through the Looking Glass. It had everything -- "Not Penny's Boat," the first flash-forwards and of course Hurley saving the day.
Q: Least favorite episode or season?
A: Most of the episodes with the tail section survivors. Unless we soon see a dramatic return from Ana Lucia, Libby or Mr Eko, that's going to go down as a pretty worthless period.
Q: Are you Team Jack or Team Locke?
A: I'm not sure which Locke we're referring to at this point, but even the "evil" Locke is more intriguing than Jack.
Q: If you had to be one of the following, which would it be and why: an 815 survivor, an Other or a member of the Dharma Initiative?
A: It would have been really cool to a member of the Dharma Initiative up until the whole mass-murder thing. So I'll have to go with 815.
Q: Tell us a bit about your podcast.
A: Since Lost's season conveniently lined up with the start of the college football offseason, I thought it would be fun to do a podcast that centered around Lost. We still talk football a little to start the show, and I'll bring in whatever other "newsy" stories are going on that week, but the hook will continue to be Lost for as long as the season runs (or for as long as my bosses let me keep doing it, whichever lasts longer).
Q: What are your favorite online Lost communities, blogs, podcasts, etc.?
A: I read every episode recap I can find the next day, starting first and foremost with Doc Jensen (whose Totally Lost videos are a must, too), New York Mag, Best Week Ever, and a bunch of others people wind up forwarding me. Since we started doing the podcast, I've also been checking out other Lost podcasts as well, starting with the official Cuse/Lindelof one.
Q: Tell us something interesting/scary/amusing/downright weird about how your time in the Lost fan-verse has changed your life.
A: Well this happened just recently. My fiancee and I have been talking about a spring vacation to Argentina (where a friend of hers lives) for a long time now, and last Sunday, we finally sat down and picked the dates and booked the tickets for May 21-31. Two nights later, after the Lost premiere, on Jimmy Kimmel, the producers announce the date of the finale: May 23. I was horrified. The next morning, I sent her an email explaining that, I know you're going to think I'm crazy but we need to reschedule the trip. There's no way I'm going to be out of the country for the series finale. It took a day of emails and calls to win her over, but she eventually came around. The tickets have been changed.
Q: You’re in an elevator with someone who has never seen as much as a second of Lost. You got on in the lobby and you’re both headed to the fifteeth floor. How do you convince them to buy and watch all the DVDs before the elevator gets there?
A: I think I'd just tell them that story. Hopefully they'd realize that any show that could take over your life to that extent is worth watching.
Q: Has watching Lost sparked any creative inspiration in your life, i.e. writing, media, art, etc.?
A: The column I wrote wrapping up college football Signing Day, which was less than 24 hours after the season premier, was constructed entirely around the same premise. I began with a flash-forward, then introduced a flash-sideways. People who watch the show appreciated it, and people who didn't never knew anything to be different.
Q: How do you plan on combatting PLDS (Post Lost Distress Syndrome) or do you think we’re all destined to end up continously re-watching our Lost: The Complete Series Ultimate Box Set for the rest of our lives?
A: It's going to be tough, no question. I can't even begin to comprehend it. For me, it's like, what if there was no NEXT football season? Incomprehensible. But this is a golden era for television, and I'm sure I will develop a new addiction soon enough.
Q: What do you think will be Lost’s legacy?
A: Good question. While the show is very popular, it doesn't have the same mass appeal as a Seinfeld or Friends, so I don't know whether it will be viewed as the same cultural phenomenon. I do think it will forever be a standard bearer for that genre -- any future sci-fi/character-driven action shows will be compared to Lost. The show itself will almost assuredly retain a cult following, and I could even see future fans who never watched it at the time picking up the DVDs and getting hooked.
Personally, I look at Lost like a modern-day version of great literature. Since nobody reads books anymore (except my co-host Mallory Rubin), I wonder if Lost will one day be discussed in classrooms and amongst thinking people like a classic novel. Because to me the writing is absolutely on the same level creatively.
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Thanks Stewart from everyone at the LOSTBlog.com!
