I contemplated voting myself off the island after the Series 4 finale of Lost.

Thanks to a pocket of negatively charged exotic matter located behind my television, I managed to bend time and space to watch the Lost's series finale a few days before it screened locally. With time to mull it over, I've reconciled myself to the fact I'll probably never learn the truth behind the black fog monster.

Plenty of my friends have given up on Lost, and I can understand why. Every week it promises to deliver answers but instead just bombards us with more questions. It's like The X Files all over again. Just like good sex, half the enjoyment of good television is the anticipation. People enjoy being strung along, as long as there is a payoff at the end. The X Files left viewers frustrated so many times that they eventually went off to find satisfaction elsewhere. I'd say Lost has fallen into the same trap.

With its mixture of flash forwards and flash backs, Lost is quite possibly the most complicated story arc ever attempted in the history of television. Obviously this means you'll lose a few viewers along the way, but I think the writers need to "put out" a little more to avoid viewer frustration. There's little point is writing the world's greatest script if there's no-one left watching by the end. According to the local TV guide, Lost doesn't even rate in the top 20 most watched shows any more.

I think one of the reasons why I have more patience with Lost than The X Files is because I'm no longer at the mercy of the commercial television networks. I watch Lost when it suits me, without ads, and I can pause and rewind at any time to discuss plot twists with others in the room. I don't think I'm alone here, as Lost is always one of the most downloaded television shows on major BitTorrent search engine isoHunt. I doubt efforts to sync up broadcast times around the world is having much impact on this. People don't download Lost because they can't wait for it to be broadcast locally, they download Lost because they can't stand watching it on commercial television.

That poses a big question for the producers of quality drama - is commercial television compatible with complex story-telling? I'd say the answer is no. Lost's falling television audience yet massive online fan base supports this argument (take a look at lostpedia.com). Commercial television is so painful to watch that it's only suited to bite-sized adver-tainment with with little plot or substance.

So how will quality drama survive? The answer has to be subscription services, either through pay television or online services such as Apple's iTunes Store. The internet offers the ultimate in flexible viewing. When the price is right, the bandwidth is available and the technology is easy to use (think Apple TV), people will flock to a legitimate television download services.

In a race to the bottom to win back the YouTube generation, free-to-air commercial television is cutting its own throat. When more people can legitimately download shows like Lost and easily watch them on their television, the producers of quality drama will be able to bypass the networks and tell complex stories without interruption. The internet may have killed the television star, but it's also going to save it.