I watched the first season of Lost, and really enjoyed it. Watched the second season, didn’t really enjoy it, and by the end of the season I was actively annoyed by it. So I stopped watching it. During the third season, I heard people complaining about how bad the show was, so I figured I made a good decision. Then, apparantly they turned things around at the end of the third season and it’s really fantastic now.
If I were going to start watching the show again, I’m guessing I’d have to watch season 3 to be all caught up on the various mythologies and conspiracies, etc. So what I want to know is, is it worth it? Are things so good now that I should bite the bullet and make my way through season 3?
Lost is always better when you have instant gratification. I bet if you could have watched Season 2 on DVD over the course of a month or 2, you’d have really enjoyed it. Stretching it out over 8 months is torture.
Lost is just starting its 5th season, so you’ll have a lot of catching up to do. Of course, being Lost, you can’t skip an episode or you’ll be totally lost (no pun intended).
I think its worth it, but I am biased. One of my buddies has made fun of me for years because of my Lost addiction but, after he lost his job and had plenty of time on his hands, I loaned him my DVDs and he is now hooked even more than I am.
My sentiments exactly, except that I continued watching it. I no longer know (or care) who all the characters are, and I have trouble keeping all the sub-plots straight. But some episodes are still worth watching. You could probably start watching it now, and not be any more confused than I am.
Like Panache, I still watch it, but at this point it’s just a pretty color on my TV. You’d have to pay me a lot to care or think about who is alive or dead or who the hell that particular person is, and pay me A HELL OF A LOT to waste any time wondering what this or that clue might mean.
Yeah, I think this was the biggest problem with Season 3. It’s not so much the story was bad, it just felt like a 10 episode tale stretched to a 22 episode season. When you watch each episode individually, it feels like absolutely nothing happens. Even just watching 2 episodes a week makes it a lot better. And there are some really good episodes, especially near the end.
The basic problem with Lost is this: the writers started out with the beginning and the end planned. The middle, they made up as they went along. With no definite end in sight, they just shoved stuff in to string it out. The beginning was brilliant. The middle was weak. Now that we are coming to the end, which was planned at the start, I live in hope hope that it will be as good as the beginning was.
I haven’t been watching lost at all until a couple of months ago and I caught up on the ABC.com website while I was working. I have to say, it’s a very smart well made program with compelling writing. I didn’t notice too much suck in season three, I suppose that might be because I hammered out three or more episodes a day. It might also be because people have their pet theory and I think when something goes against what people expect they get angry.
The only problem I have with the show is the lazy-writing use of TV Knockouts. Where you hit a guy once by surprise and he’s out cold, with no lasting dizziness, brain damage, blurred vision, nausea or whatever. If it were that easy and harmless to knock people out parents would never pay for babysitters.
I fell into the same problem as the OP. Season 3 was HORRIBLE when watching week to week. However, I rewatched the entire series last year, and season 3 flowed a lot better when you weren’t constrained by the confines of an episode. And then I watched all of season 4 over 2 days (I had to watch the Constant twice cuz it was that awesome) and it had the same good effect. That’s why I’m waiting for season 5 to finish so that I can watch that at my own (probably sped up) pace too.
I’m not even sure they really have an ending, or at least not one that lives up to promises extended. At this point, I think this may just be yet another fantasy of Tommy Westphall (which would be a lame, derivative ending, but still more sensible than any other explanation). And if they do have a definite ending, the show just becomes an argument for why this type of story should not be an open-ended, multi-series show. It would have been more interesting as a 6-10 part limited series instead of an ongoing, milk-it-for-all-it-is-worth network television show. Dr. Arzt was a flash of metatextual brilliance, though.
I had a very similar experience as the OP. I have been confining myself to only watching Lost on DVD - so I am always at least a season behind.
I really enjoyed season 1, but was starting to lose it toward the end of season 2.
I received season 3 for Christmas '07. I started watching it in early '08, but just could not get into it. But a couple months ago, I decided to give it another shot (more out of concern for falling two seasons behind). And it was much better the second time. Yeah, it has mostly to do with “the others”, but they have thrown in enough twists to keep it interesting. I can see how only seeing an episode a week would have been gruelling - it is much better to blast through an episode a night.
So I would vote for watching season 3 over a relatively short period of time. There will be nights when you’ll definitely watch 2 and maybe 3 episodes. It’s getting a bit more "Twilight Zone"ish.
I’ve been slogging through it all the way. If I were you, I’d wait for it to end completely, and then ask around if the end made it worth getting through the middle.
It suffers in the first 6 episodes or so of Season 3 but really picks back up. Season 5 is looking decent, but I agree with the others, perhaps waiting to watch a full season at a time is where it’s at.
I will agree that it drags much less when you can watch it on DVD rather than one episode a week. For the first three seasons my Lost viewing pattern was something along the lines of “catch the first half dozen or so episodes, miss all but one or two in the middle, catch the last half dozen or so of the season.” For Christmas a year ago my wife and I got the first season of Lost on DVD, bought seasons two and three, and watched the entire first three seasons in the month between Christmas and when season 4 started, and I don’t think I ever felt like the story was dragging. (Plus, having a DVR at that point meant that I didn’t have to worry about missing an episode anymore.)
The show has its pacing problems, especially in the interminable middle of S2 and at the beginning of S3. But part of the problem is that the show is a lot of things to a lot of people – there’s the mystery stuff, the romance stuff, and the backstory/character illumination stuff. Most audience members like at most two of those three things – for instance, the mini-season at the beginning of S3 seemed like it was poised to explain a lot about a certain facet of the show’s mythology, but then it ended up spending most of the time on the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle. Even though I haven’t watched many episodes since their premiere, everything I’ve heard agrees with what others have said – if you don’t have to wait three or six weeks (or months!) for the next episode like we did when it was originally broadcast, it’s a lot less frustrating. For one thing, if you’re hoping for an explanatory ep and you end up with a romcom ep, it’s no biggie; you know it’s going to get back to the stuff you like soon enough – watching it “live,” especially in the early seasons, it might be a month before the next episode.
Note that also, the pace has picked up quite a bit (sometimes I think too much) in S4 and the current season because they know how many episodes they have left. I think ABC was willing to cut that deal with the show largely as a result of the vocal frustration people had with this exact problem in S2 and S3, so at least there was as silver lining.
I thought season 2 really dragged up until the introduction of “Henry Gale”. From thereon out- the show has been generally solid. (Dragging for a brief period in the first halfish of season 3.)
The second half of season 3 was very good, IMO (The season ender for season 3 was awesome.) Season 4 was also consistently good throughout. So far Season 5 has delivered.
So- my recommendation… IF you liked Season 1- stick it out and the show will start to reward you again. IF you disliked or were meh towards Season 1- probably best to spend your time on other endeavors
Lost “lost” me on the first season. Way too many WTFs for me. SWMBO watches it regularly and I will occasionally sit in the room with her while it’s on, but it’s nothing but background noise to me while I play games on the laptop.
The first couple of shows were really good. I thought it was going to be a “how do these folks survive the crash” sort of show. Then when The Others and the Dharma Initiative and all that weird stuff starting showing up, the show went out in the weeds and it has never come back.
As others have said, with just about any show with this many cliffhangers, also most notable, 24, it’s best watched on DVD after the season is released. It breaks down how much you get annoyed by the constant cliffhangers and plus you always have stuff fresh in your head as you’re watching. I’ve found that once I didn’t watch for a while I’d begin to forget some of the secondary characters that they’d role through in flashbacks or on the island that were supposed to mean something to me.