Opinion: Under The Dome really has become Lost 2.0 hasn’t it?

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Before the first series of Under The Dome began in June 2013 – a rare non-reality premiere Summer series out of the USA – Producer and Director Jack Bender sat down with the Huffington Post to tell everyone that despite having worked on Lost for six years in the same capacity, the new Stephen King series would not become Lost 2.0. Well, as we get further and further into Season Two, currently screening in the US on CBS and in Australia on Channel Ten – it’s becoming a little clear that things have ended up a little bit differently. Chances are, if it’s happened in Lost, it’s happening in Under The Dome.

Now I haven’t read King’s novel, so while it is possible they are being “faithful”, here are just a few of the similarities that are a bit too hard to ignore. Oh and be warned – there are major spoilers in this that take us up to the 9th episode of the 2nd series, and if you haven’t watched Lost, I would look away as well..

Faith: The Island/The Dome is “Testing Me”

People yelling at the dome, or at the island, asking it “What Do You Want From Me?” is littered throughout both series. Men and women of faith are pitched against men and women of science, and their faiths are tested. The Dome becomes their “God” just as the Island did in Lost. And at the end of the first season, with Locke beating on the hatch, screaming, essentially “What Do You Want From Me?”, Big Jim – also bald – has been asking the same question. Over and over and over again.

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Visions of people from The Island/The Dome

In Lost, The Smoke Monster was able to turn itself into different people to lead the people of the Island in a certain direction.

Yep, that happens in Under The Dome too!

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The Dome is… Magnetic…

Early in Series 2 of Under The Dome, the dome turned white and went all magnetic, killing a main character in the process. Well, the Dharma Initiative in Lost were playing around with Electromagnetism all the time, and it led for some pretty interesting moments, and was essentially the reason the plane went down in the first place. So much death. Such magnets.

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There was a way out all along…

After meeting Ben Linus in Lost we discover he knew of a way to get off the island all along. Well, multiple ways. Firstly, he delivered the co-ordinates for escaping the island’s own dome, which allowed select members of the Oceanic Flight to sail away. Then, it turned out the island had its own “Escape Portal”, too. Right in the centre of the island, is a wheel that “moves the island through time”, and banishes the user in the desert. In Under The Dome, the discovery of the transfer point – jumping off a cliff to land in a child’s playground – sits in the middle of the “Dome” and gives its people a way out… but not within consequence.

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As soon as they leave the Dome they want to get back in…

While it took Jack in Lost a few years before he was yelling “We have to go back Kate! We have to go back!”, the terribly, terribly impatient cast of Under The Dome take all but a few minutes before they’re trying to get back in, to save everyone.

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Yep… There’s a Smoke Monster

In the latest episode in the series, “The Red Door”, we seem to meet The Dome’s very own Smoke Monster. OK, so this is getting a bit ridiculous now.

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Oh and they use the smoke monster to provide flashbacks.

Ah, flashbacks. Flash forwards. Flash sideways. Lost was wonderfully confusing, wasn’t it? I could keep going with this list, but I think I’m going to stop there for now. You surely get the point.

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Those who have been enjoying Under The Dome will know it’s not the greatest series in the world. It’s wrought with overacting and terrible scripts. But, like Lost before it, it’s a high concept show that is addictive for its intrigue and leaves us all wondering what will happen next. And something tells me, that just like in Lost, plenty of people are going to have to die – including some of our main characters – for the rest of the Island… ahem, the rest of the people living under the dome… to be saved. The most recent episode all but confirmed it.

So, what is different? Well, I guess the guy that is sort of the Doctor, is sort of the bad guy this time…?

Under The Dome airs in Australia on Channel Ten. Lost: The Complete Series is on DVD now.

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Larry Heath

Founding Editor and Publisher of the AU review. Currently based in Toronto, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @larry_heath or on Instagram @larryheath.