Now you’ve got me thinking I should rewatch it… well, at least as far as Season 1 / Episode 4, the first flashback that centered on Locke’s life before the flight.
I have a friend who’s a media snob, who, as soon as LOST became popular, declared he’d never watch it.
But he came running into work one morning asking “Did you SEE that ‘Walkabout’ episode of LOST? That is the most powerful episode of any show I’ve seen!”
Want a spoiler? Too bad, you’ll have to watch it. After episodes 1-3…
Oh actually you’ve wasted the same amount of time, I think… Yep, I checked, and binging uses up the same number of minutes, with the bonus of eyestrain and headaches that too much TV can do to you.
They did do a great job telling the story. It was like nothing else that had ever been on TV at the time. It’s too bad it all went off the rails (in my opinion, at least).
Oh, that trope will always be around. It’s an easy writer’s way for a good guy to temporarily but effectively take somebody out of commission without any lasting effects.
Yeah, like I said upthread, that ‘Lost Experience’ website early on, which hinted at a plot arc firmly based in sci-fi, really messed with my expectations. I kind of wish I had never known about it.
But, It’s possible to tell a story that at its core is a battle between good and evil, with or without supernatural elements, but be grounded in a better story-telling vehicle. The fairy-tale like aspect in the final episodes, with the golden center of the island, Jakob and his brother, the explanation for the numbers, etc., all seemed very silly and tacked-on to me.
I think you’re kidding, but I know exactly what Tzigone means-- Lost was one of the classic old-school ‘water cooler’ shows, where we spent a lot of time and head space in the intervening week trying to analyze every aspect of the episode we all just watched. Binging a show is an entirely different watching experience.
Did he ever make it as far as “The Constant”? Because in my book that is one of the single best episodes of television ever.
And because of this thread, I started watching it again last night. I only got through the two hour pilot, which was just as riveting as I remember.
No, because you’ve just ignored the other part I said - about discussing and speculating (around the watercooler or on message boards or even just in your own head). That’s the more time that you spent that you don’t spend when you binge.
Thank you. That’s it exactly. For me, at least, there is just way less investment in binging a show. I like or don’t like it, but I don’t care near as much, and don’t spend near as much of my time entertaining myself with discussion, speculation, or even fanfic (probably down to the not caring as much) as with shows that we followed week-to-week. Not caring as much also makes it much easier to drop when it goes a direction I don’t like or my perception of quality declines, due the aforementioned lack of investment. Though, like I said, I’ve mostly learned to drop them anyway.
Right. There was something fun about watching a water cooler show like that and being able to discuss it the next day. That was especially a thing when there were limited television watching options (ABC, CBS, NBC and perhaps PBS but nothing else available to everyone) so at school or work the next day, there was a good chance others saw the same thing.
That’s something missing now. For one thing, there are many more places to watch shows, but there’s also the question of whether you binged the whole season or series over the weekend or saw only one episode. So you need to start the conversation by making sure you’re talking about an episode the other person hasn’t seen yet. (Though with Game of Thrones, there was still an element of that where those who had read the books knew about events that hadn’t yet happened in the show.)
This comes from the “Lost Bible” which was the treatment Abrams and Lindelof wrote sketching out what the show was about. It was written after they’d filmed the pilot but before it had premiered, so the main goal was to get the series greenlighted with the network.
I think the bible supports whatever narrative you want to present. A lot of storylines were changed as the series progressed, some very significantly. It did originally say that the mysteries would have real-world, logical explanations. The Smoke Monster obviously changed multiple times over the first 4-5 seasons, from a mechanical security system, to a mystical security system, to the embodiment of Jacob’s brother. So clearly they were making some of this stuff up as they went.
On the other hand, it was a treatise written before any episodes ever showed – of course things were going to change. As noted by several others, up until midway through season 3, they had no idea how many seasons they’d get. Furthermore, some of the storylines and overarching themes from the bible remained intact. Like @Alessan, I thought the good vs evil theme was pretty clear by the end of the first season, especially on rewatch. The theme of a magical island that must be protected and preserved was clear as well.
After my first watch, I had the overall feeling that the writers were making it up as they went, even though I still liked the show. After reading more in the subsequent years, I’ve tempered that opinion and realized that’s true in some cases and not in others. I’m enjoying getting into the details and seeing what specific things were changed with the benefit of foresight.
Anyway, I’ve started season 4 and will post some thoughts shortly.
I forgot I wanted to come back to this. I hate criticizing inaccuracies in TV and movies when they are done for a clear narrative purpose, but was there any reason for Charlie to lock himself in the room instead of running out, where he and Desmond could swim to the surface and Charlie can give more details on his conversation with Penny than three words written on his hand?
With the porthole breached, the station would flood to the top of the porthole. But there’s no way for the existing air to escape, so it won’t flood much beyond that. All I can think is maybe the station would flood rather violently as all the air escaped through the porthole and the water flowed in through the moon pool/wet porch. But that isn’t shown either, because the port was already breached before Charlie closed the door, and the moon pool level didn’t change.
I’m not missing anyway, right? It’s just bad physics?
Just rewatched the scene. It looks like the door was used to keep water from getting into the room, not out. So the door swung outward with the lock on the inside. Plus, “character not making the absolute best decision with seconds to react” isn’t really a plothole.
Ok, I just watched it again too. Charlie closes the door before the porthole is breached, so water wouldn’t rise in the moon pool and the main chamber would remain dry.
But the water in Charlie’s room still wouldn’t rise above the porthole. Charlie could breathe the air at the top of the room, and once the level equalized, leisurely swim out the porthole, even if he made the dumb decision to stay in the room.
Anyway, I reserve “plothole” for when the writers screw up with contradictory things. Ignoring a little science for the sake of drama is OK with me.
I’m now in the middle of Season 4. A few random thoughts:
Where I worked, there was a group that would take over a conference room and eat lunch together. I don’t remember how happy they were with the ending.
I’m about halfway thru S1 on my rewatch. I was surprised that it took until, I think, E13 before I heard someone say “It’s complicated.”
A fun throw-away joke that I’m sure I missed the first time around. There’s an episode where the flashbacks are Charlie dating a rich girl so he can steal some stuff from her parents’ house to use to pay his heroin dealer. When he first comes to the house, he asks where her father is, and she said “Oh, he’s off buying some paper company in Slough.” 
It’s been a while since I updated the thread, but I’m still watching. I’ve now completed seasons 4 and 5, with only 6 to go.
My views partway through season 4 that I shared above are mostly unchanged - there’s no filler, things feel like it’s all part of a plan, and Miles is awesome. The banter between Miles and Hurley as Hurley shares his plan to write the script for The Empire Strikes Back in 1977 is wonderful.
[Miles reading the script]: “Chewbacca: ‘ROAAAWR’.” <stares at Hurley>
Hurley: “Luke found out Vader was his father, but instead of putting away his lightsaber and talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off. I mean, they worked it out eventually, but at what cost? Another Death Star was destroyed, Boba Fett got eaten by the Sarlacc, and we got the Ewoks. It all could’ve been avoided if they just, you know, communicated. And let’s face it, the Ewoks sucked, dude.”
Which is a great meta-commentary on a lot of Lost - a crapload of problems could have been avoided if people communicated.
As for the overall storyline, the time travel parts were well-done and I liked them more than in my original watch. Some things made more sense this time around, which is somewhat due to knowing the story but mostly due to paying better attention. Previously I couldn’t figure out why Richard Alpert visited Locke as a little kid, or how Jacob knew to visit some of the characters before they were stranded, and it seemed like weirdness for weirdness’s sake. But this time I realized that Richard and Jacob had met the characters in 1950 and 1977, and knew they’d be coming to the island.
I’m also noticing more mysteries that are being solved – some of them obviously retrofitted, others apparently planned from the beginning. For example, the scenes with young Rousseau and her team immediately after being shipwrecked did a good job explaining how and why her team was “infected” and why she killed them. Given that the Smoke Monster changed explanations multiple times, I assume this was retrofitted in, but it was well done anyway.
A few mysteries that I don’t have much hope will be resolved:
I’ll probably come up with more as I finish the last season.
That one being dropped just has a boring real-world reason. The kid playing Walt was growing up. It’s probably something they should have considered if they hoped to be a hit show. But they didn’t and having him grow into a teenager during the in-show 100 days on the island couldn’t work. I think they did use him pretty effectively in later seasons, though.
This was sort of addressed in the epilogue episode “The New Man in Charge” which was released after the series finale.
I made it all the way through. First, my thoughts on season 6:
At the end of season 5, I was wondering why Lost catches so much grief. Yes, there are problems here and there with storylines getting dropped and mysteries forgotten, but overall, it was still a fantastic story with wonderful characters.
Then I got to season 6 and it all came back. What a hot mess. It’s like they forgot what made it so good leading up to that point. The biggest problem was the “flash sideways” that just confused everything. Is it a parallel universe? Is it a “ghost of Christmas future” thing showing them what would have happened if they didn’t crash? It made a little more sense at the end when they explain that everything on the island did happen and this was a purgatory after they each died in their own way. But you’re totally confused leading up to that point, and even once you know, it’s not very satisfying. Mostly, it just serves as a massive distraction through all the episodes until the finale.
I get why they tried this and I give props for the attempt. They had no more backstory to fill in with flashbacks, and the flash forward wasn’t going to work any more. Plus it provided a satisfying way to bring back all the characters so viewers’ last memories of them wouldn’t be their horrible deaths. But oof, it was a swing and a miss.
And even leaving aside the flash sideways, the characters were crap in season 6. The new characters they introduced like the temple dude, his assistant, and Widmore’s scientist were annoying and lame. Sayid, one of the best characters up to this point, turns evil. Claire is annoying. Desmond just seems stoned. They take an entire episode to show Richard Alpert’s backstory, which should have been like 5 minutes.
And most of the action is moving from place to place: “we have to go to the beach!” “Now we have to go back to the temple!” “Let’s go to Hydra Island!” “No, let’s go back!”
It’s all unfortunate, because I don’t think the way they ended the story was that bad. But it got a bit lost in the execution.
And finally, my thoughts overall:
I was glad I rewatched it all, because I came away a better impression of certain parts than on my original viewing. By knowing what mysteries got solved in advance, I was able to set season 6 aside and appreciate everything leading up to that point, without the final season tainting the entire series.
Never really knowing the nature of the island was fine with me. Any explanation would have been stupid. It was better to leave it at “there’s some magic in the heart of the island.” And the good versus evil battle between Jacob and his brother was fine too.
There weren’t really too many mysteries left unsolved, and I can forgive the few that were or where the explanation was obviously determined after the fact. It was a different time then and showrunners didn’t have the ability to plan out a series through its conclusion the way they do now.
And at its heart, it was mostly a great show because of the characters. It’s easy to focus on the mysteries, but the characters were really what set it apart.
I, like TroutMan, watched the series when it originally aired on ABC. We didn’t record it so I missed some episodes here and there and was less faithful in seasons 4, 5 and 6.
So a few months ago began rewatching the series with my 17 year old daughter. We would binge watch on the weekends and just finished the series this past weekend. I was surprised that it held up after 20+ years. I never provided her any spoilers and she was engaged throughout the entire series. She claims it is one her favorite series of all time.
I explained to her that people would watch the show and then it would be discussed by people at their jobs speculating on all of the mysteries over the week waiting for the next episode to come out. And that the season ending cliff hangers had to hold you over for about 9 months +/- until the following season came out. She enjoyed not having to be patient and wait.
I remember that alot of people were upset that Sawyer and Kate didn’t get back together when she and Jack returned to the island to the 1970’s and became part of the Darhma Initiative. Sawyer and Kate were only together for about 6-7 weeks before the Oceanic 6 left the island. Sawyer and Juliet had been together for 3 years while they were gone.
And honestly, they made a much better couple. Their “reunion” in the last episode is one of my favorite moments in the series.
Yes, this is similar in the case of Game of Thrones’ final season. In the first season these journey’s would take several episodes, by the final season, they were making traverses 2-3 times in a single episode.