TP is my #1 show of all time, but I enjoy Lost as well.  It is a strange mystery show where the whole series is one long story like TP and is not something you can just "jump into."  Why has Lost been so successful and been able to eventually last for 6 seasons whereas TP was only allowed 2 seasons and a prequel film?

It's hard to say. The Lost creators have definitely done a brilliant job at making something which is really popular whilst also having a great mythology and great character development and also having a relatively slow pace, similar to TP. Also, although I wasn't around in the early 1990s, I can imagine that there would have been many watchers of TP that didn't care about any of the mysteries in TP apart from the central "Who dunnit?" regarding Laura's murder and if they lost interest in this then they would likely lose interest in the whole thing. Lost however has many different mysteries and questions which means they can answer some while leaving others hanging or opening new questions which does frustrate some people although I can't see why. 

If I only was interested in TP to find out who killed Laura I probably wouldn't be rewatching it. I just love all the characters and the show's ethos and atmosphere.

Ratings plummeted when the story lost steam, DL had moved on to other works already. THere was no reason for the networks to keep it on the air.  Lost has been, from what I gather, a cash cow. 

I guess, too, that the growth of the Internet has helped maintain public interest in Lost.

That's true, I know I definitely wouldn't understand alot of the easter eggs in Lost if I didn't research it on the net.

I just wish TP could have gone on longer like Lost and yes, TP was full of many mysteries as well.  But I think TP was in a more creepy weird territory whereas Lost is more of a mainstream type of weird that doesn't get TOO disturbing like TP.

I think if you were really into the show, by the time the supernatural stuff started you'd be more intrigued than put off but it depends on the person I suppose. I know one of the primary reasons I haven't introduced more poeple to TP is that the premiere is feature-length and it's quite heavy stuff.

Lost has actually been criticized for stretching out its mystery with no definitive "answer", just as Twin Peaks was before Lynch and Frost were finally forced by the network to solve theirs. But for some reason, viewers seem more tolerant of an endless mystery today. There are a lot more people online now than in the early 90s, and maybe that has something to do with it. Half the fun of Lost, perhaps, is speculating about what the hell is going on, and a lot of that takes place online. What it comes down to, I think, is that Peaks was ahead of its time.

Lost has actually been criticized for stretching out its mystery with no definitive "answer", just as Twin Peaks was before Lynch and Frost were finally forced by the network to solve theirs. But for some reason, viewers seem more tolerant of an endless mystery today. There are a lot more people online now than in the early 90s, and maybe that has something to do with it. Half the fun of Lost, perhaps, is speculating about what the hell is going on, and a lot of that takes place online. What it comes down to, I think, is that Peaks was ahead of its time.

I still think Twin Peaks is the best show ever created but I have to admit that Lost comes really close (and 24 isn't too far either). Or actually I don't know whether Twin Peaks stands on it's own against all the newer tv-series with higher production values as what I like in Twin Peaks is the whole package: the books, the tapes, the movie, the series, the scripts. Those things together makes the world of Twin Peaks absolutely fascinating but when looking at the series at it's own, there is a lot of stuff that isn't as great as it should be. Even some of the highly acclaimed first season is slow and uninteresting. I like the intentional "slowness" in some of the scenes but, for example, everything about the Packard sawmill is quite boring in the first season (although in the finale of the first season it starts to get a bit more interesting, I finally got interested in that story when Andrew arrived).

Comparing to Lost and other newer series to Twin Peaks I can't deny the fact that the production team has the equipment and is more capable on doing things that can hold the viewers attention much longer than most of the shows in the 70s, 80s and 90s could do. They know better what strings to pull. I know that some of the modern series overuse (and misuse) the tricks and make it hard to watch but especially with Lost and 24 that is not the case.

I actually didn't care much about Lost and 24 when they first began. I started to follow 24 when it's 4th season was aired and I did watch Lost from the beginning but didn't like that much it's first season. The second season grabbed my attention immediately and after seeing the 2nd and the 3rd seasons I'd really like to see the 1st season again.

The difference between the mysteries in Twin Peaks and Lost is that on TP the best things were laid out more intuitively whereas Lost has done it more purposefully. There are things in the beginning of Twin Peaks that were done without knowing what they mean but what starts to make sense later in the series. In Lost, there are things brought up in the first season that don't have an answer yet but, according to the creators, were made with a thought-out purpose and will be explained before the end of the series. Both styles can be honored. I takes a certain something for a man to be able to create something from his subconscious and it's also amazing to be able to think the whole thing through and start bringing these things up so that in the end it all makes sense.

Twin Peaks is disturbing and doesn't apologize what it shows. Same could be said about Lost too. They could do things easy for the viewer and let every good people live and every death to be mild and mellow but so far we've seen several very surprising deaths of characters we didn't expect dying, or at least not so soon and we've even been shown two people being buried alive (I was so sure that they wouldn't pull that off but damn it, they did!)

It has also helped Lost that they've been open about the fact that it is going to end and they've even given us the number of seasons it takes to tell the story. Twin Peaks was meant to be going and going and going. The viewers might've been thinking that the weird things are too much especially when they are not going to be sure if those things will be explained at all. In the case of Lost, people know that the answers will be given eventually. On the other hand, much of the greatness of Twin Peaks comes from the fact that they didn't manage to give up the answers. Explaining things in the end might cost a lot for Lost but it's also possible that they'll be more vague with the answers by telling us just enough and not too much.

I love TP and Lost as well. I think Lost has been more successful because TP kind of paved the path for it. Twin Peaks eased a lot of people into weirdness...this is where Lost basically stepped in and reaped the benifits. They are both great shows...I would have loved to see Lynch or Frost's touch on a show like Lost!

ABC was intially supportive of Peaks, but many of the powers that be changed during the 2nd season & they were not so friendly anymore. Yes, the ratings dropped, but not so bad as  to mandate cancellation. And ABC's screwing around with their prime Thursday slot & moving it to the Saturday graveyard certainly didn't help keep the viewership up. Haven't watched Lost since it's initial season, so I can't comment on it's progress...

Think about it, the tv watching public has changed over the SEVENTEEN years since Twin Peaks aired. They always said Twin Peaks was cutting edge, and groundbreaking sort of avant garde tv.

People are more excepting of odd tv shows now, thanks to twin peaks. 

I like Lost too, and I guess TP did it's own part in making way for more "weird" shows. But there were mysterious, surrealistic shows long ago before TP started. Check out The Prisoner. Now that's propably the greatest TV series there is.

Jared is probably correct. There's been almost 20 years between then and now, and think of all the shows that have led us to Lost (which is a great show). You have TP, X-Files, Buffy (I know I know -- but this show did really well with on-going storylines for the viewers which is why it's listed here), The Sopranos (and other cable shows) all of which have pushed the edge for viewers in some form or another. Strangely, and I'm generalizing here a bit, TV viewers have matured since Twin Peaks and our tastes have increased and been perfected toward the need for better shows (thank you original cable TV shows) - IMO.

Viewers have been prepped for the type of shows like Lost. TP was too different too quickly while Lost has been able to achieve success because of the type of shows over the years.

The internet helps tremendously. It keeps the biggest fans going from week to week with discussion, etc. Just imagine the discussions we'd have online now if we were trying to determine who killed Laura!! TV shows now are able to pay attention to fans through boards which helps them see what fans are thinking and what they are doing (and complaining about - like with Heroes which helped the producers retool the show a bit).

Not to mention that unlike TP, Lost writers/producers/etc have focused together, and pretty much know where they are going (esp now that there is a ending point for the series). TP lost its focus in the second season after the murderer was revealed -- Lost folks haven't lost focus too much.

It also helps that Lost is willing to lose some of its bigger characters to keep things interesting. (Still annoys me that Charlie was killed...)

It also helps that Lost is willing to lose some of its bigger characters to keep things interesting. (Still annoys me that Charlie was killed...)

I feel like TP relies too much on a central mystery to be a long running show. In it's first season it was mysterious, exciting, fast paced, and amazingly consistent: there's not a weak moment in the entire season. Worst of all it seemed to be building up to a big reveal, which was why people got restless when the killer wasn't revealed... there's only so much story that can be milked out of a murder mystery, even with all the other subplots going on, before it starts to feel a ridiculously drawn out and pointless. Lost doesn't rely on a single huge mystery, but several. The Laura Palmer mystery held the whole show together, and in some way connected to every other storyline, and made people care about the other stories. Don't get me wrong, I love all the S1 subplots, but they would seem kind of pointless without that central connection. Lost has whole episodes constructed around a single event, they hold back important information for seasons sometimes, and most episodes have a very slow pace compared to most TV shows. TP (and this is part of why I love it's so gripping) wants to keep the intrigue going during the first season, they never want a boring moment. This is part of why the latter part of S2 suffers so much in comparison. Lost is slow burning, it takes an entire season to get people totally involved, whereas TP grabs you right away. It's just different techniques and types of shows: Lost is designed for a long run, TP was not. To make things clear, I love Lost, but it's nowhere near my adoration for TP...