The Lost World

One thing I haven't seen mentioned about Lost is its international flavor. It's maybe the only television drama I've ever seen that makes people of different nationalities and cultures an integral part of the storyline.

I mean, think about this for a bit. Besides the American, English and Australian passengers, there are two Koreans, an Iraqi, and a Nigerian. At least two, perhaps three, of the Americans have lived abroad (Walt in Amsterdam and Australia, Shannon in Paris, and maybe Jack in Thailand), and another two (Hurley and Ana-Lucia) are of Hispanic descent. They're all stranded on an island in the South Pacific along with a French woman and a secret project founded by two American researchers with Dutch names and funded by a Danish arms magnate. The secret project takes its name from a Hindu (Indian) term; its logo is Taoist (Chinese) in origin. There is a computer that counts down to zero, and if the proper code isn't entered in time, Egyptian hieroglyphics appear. A map to the island on a blast door is covered with inscriptions in Latin, along with at least one name in Greek. And somewhere on the island, someone is raising genetically modified polar bears.

What other show pulls so freely from so many cultures, and explicitly acknowledges that we no longer live in a segregated world? Not sure what it all means, but it's worth noting.