No, see, I'll make an argument on your behalf.
Family Guy is a comedy. You really have no reason to have to watch more than one episode, except to catch minor things like Chris' dirty old man, and the evil monkey. Other than that... a sitcom isn't meant to have continuity, so granted, I'd have to watch the entire season to get the "big picture" of Lost. That's what you should have said to make a proper comparison between the two.
That being said... Family Guy is a great show, and I liked it from the first episode. Now, I say liked. I didn't love it until later. The thing with the comedies, however, is that they get better as they settle into their niche. Simpsons took like 5 seasons to peak. Family Guy IMO peaked real quickly, but then you take secondary series, like Futurama and American Dad... they pretty much blew right away: First due to their own tendencies and expectations, secondly because of the audience looking for the same genius as their predecessors, as well as a step up in evolution. Futurama eventually achieved that (and cult success on Adult Swim), and maybe American Dad will eventually, as well. As it stands, American Dad IMO sucks compared to Family Guy, because it's practically the same basis -- and as long as it's on the air, they need to keep developing an identity for it, all its own.
But back to Lost... I don't know about you guys, but I have a tendency to watch Soaps from time to time. I watch the NBC soaps now and again(and even Starting Over when they had Vanessa Atler
), and when I was younger, I watched the ABC soaps. They were serials, and tended to be only good to watch if you could keep up, and maintain the continuity. The thing with Soaps is, however, that they suck viewers in with hot bitches, and extremely hilarious and absurd situations, coupled with the cheesiest of dialogue and the
looks before commercials. How can you not watch that shit?
Anyway, look at Lost: It's a show that takes itself serious, and as such, it is held to higher standards, and in an episode standing alone, it needs to be good. Every hour should be quality, because forcing someone to watch every episode to enjoy it as a whole is a trick. Wanting to know what happens next supercedes the quality of the show, and you end up saying "I like it because I wanna know how Charlie is going to overcome his Cancer and get his brothers and sisters off the island and back to the Shire with the Hobbit." Nah. You need to put the episode first. I'm going to use Boondockle's example: X-Files. Every episode was awesome. All by itself. But deep down in the heart of it, there was a conspiracy, a mystery to be solved. But that wasn't the be-all and end-all of the show. Shows like that always end up growing tired.
Take Dark Angel for example. It blew its load in the first season. The mystery was solved, and everything was resolved. Season Two was like... what? Okay, try hard. That's what happens when you take a Bruckheimer (or Jim Cameron) approach to making a show. That's what I'm afraid of for stupid Prison Break. Eventually, they will get out of prison, and the conspiracy will be settled. And if they aren't careful, they will ruin the show.
And they can't stay in prison, either. And the people of Lost can't conceivably stay on the island, either.