What the YouTube re-cap does not show is the manner in which characters are introduced along with their back-story/history, and that many characters have been in the same place at the same time in the past, with some having more than “coincidental” shared experiences. Even as I type this, it doesn’t capture the tone and uniqueness of the show. However, i agree that it sounds stupid, because it is really REALLY REALLY stupid, but I love it.
That’s a lot of hours being wrapped up in 8:15. It’s like if you tried to explain the last 3 years of “Days of Our Lives” to someone…even if you’re a fan of the show, explaining it quickly and out loud makes it sound really dumb.
There’s big mysteries we won’t discover answers to any time soon. There’s little mysteries that come and go within a few episodes. There’s that human element that keeps us wondering which way each character will go. There’s characters you love and characters you hate - or better yet, love to hate.
There are a lot of reasons to watch the show every week. A lot of reasons to talk about it. Definitely not something you can capture in 8:15 - all you can do is roughly outline the plot.
I wouldn’t say the show seems “stupid.” Confusing as hell if you just come in the middle, I agree. But being the clever sort of person you are, Jodi, I’d be surprised if you weren’t more intrigued after sitting down and watching say the first 5 episodes.
Oh, not necessarily. I know a few people ( with ostensibly decent taste ) who just never could get into the first season at all, even after watching the whole thing. Folks that get frustrated with slow plot progression in particular are apt to get a bit annoyed by the way the show doled out little tidbits in most of season one and to some extent season two ( of course it really ramped up in that regard in season three ). Heck you can see it in the comments in the weekly threads. One friend only decided he really liked the show ( to the point of it being buy-worthy ) THIS season, having just tolerated one, been mildly intrigued with two, liked three and now really having enjoyed four. It is a show that rewards long-term viewers with a steep upwards curve in plot reveals as time goes on.
But it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. I really like it, though and everyone knows I have utterly impeccable taste in TV :p. But I’ll also agree with vetbridge…
This really helps a lot with “slow moving” ( so accused, anyway ) series like Lost or cult semi-favorite Carnivale.
Personally, I watched the first ten or so episodes and while I was intrigued, I was more annoyed with the soap-opera-style writing and acting, which I just couldn’t stand.
Maybe it’s actually good writing and real people in that situation would do that, but I have a hard time believing it.
Example:
We have one minute of battery life in our makeshift radio. The most important thing, everyone agrees, is that we deploy these three radio thingies about the island and simulataneously fire them up (I was always a little fuzzy on that) so that we maximize what we can accomplish in that one-minute window. It’s probably our one chance to get off the island. Otherwise we’ll be stranded here forever, just like the people who set up the distress signal that’s been playing for sixteen years. Do you want to be on the island for sixteen years? I didn’t think so.
So how do they handle this extreme precise operation? They assign the lifeguard who has already proven to be an incompetent lifeguard, who is obviously desperately trying to prove himself, to set off the flare on the beach. Okay, that’s not too bad. Why exactly we didn’t look for someone a tad more mature among the other thirty-five people we haven’t met yet, I couldn’t say, but anyway…
The other two traipse off into the woods where a large monster lives.
Then the frighteningly stereotypical bad ass shows up, claiming he wants to help. Instead of sending him away, we give him an unimportant job to do, setting up one of the radio transmitters. Because that’s the smartest way to deal with someone who seems just nihilistic enough to cut off his nose to spite his face and strand us all here forever. But whatever.
Then Jack, on the other part of the island, gets trapped in cave-in, and instead of letting those aforementioned 35 idle people deal with, hero-boy lifeguard runs off to help dig, leaving his screamingly incompetent spoiled-brat teenaged sister with the mildly important job of setting off the flare.
But there’s more. Then Kate, in the woods, hears about Jack’s cave-in and tears off because she’s the only one who can truly save him, with the power of true love apparently, completely forgetting about the one important thing, which is the one minute of battery time they have to get themselves all rescued.
And it just goes on and on like this, episode after episode.
I watched the first two episodes and my reaction was :rolleyes: , and never tuned back in. Reading the summaries here makes me sure that I made the right call, at least for me. But to each his or her own, YMMV, &c.
Well, I appreciate that. 
But honestly, a show where you’re three years in and still don’t know what the fuck is going on – that’s not going to be my cup of tea. I’m not that devoted to any form of entertainment. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have become as good and hooked as everyone else if I’d watched it from the beginning – but I didn’t, and at this point, three seasons of “what the hell???” doesn’t seem worth catching up on to me. I have no doubt the show is very enjoyable – millions of people would not watch it so devotedly if it wasn’t – but I think you kind of had to be on the ship since it left the dock.
In all fairness, since they put an end date on this thing, the plot is a teeny bit more cohesive. They even answer questions in the very next episode sometimes.
After reading this thread, I was going to say that it sounds pretty cool to me, but Jodi, I think you’re right - I’d have to have been in on it from the get go.
I came in at the end of season three, caught up on DVDs, and I absolutely love it.
so from the get-go isn’t absolutely necessary.
Actually to the point the show is it at now a lot of questions have been answered.
What made the plane crash? Answered.
Are they all dead and in purgatory? Answered.
Who are these Others? Answered.
What’s in the hatch? Answered.
What is a polar bear doing on a tropical island? Answered.
So from the beginning of “Where the hell are they, why did they crash here, why is weird shit happening?” we get some base answers of an island that is a scientific anomally, is known to exsist by few including an extinct group of scientists who used to run lots of expirements here, has a cultish group of people living there who seem to know some extended secrets, a powerful man off the island who hates the cult and it’s leader and is trying to secure it somehow, and some crash survivors who have different links to the island via realtives and other odd ways.
I actually didn’t start watching it regularly until the middle of Season 2. I had snagged all the previous episodes and watched them obsessively one Thanksgiving weekend.
I wonder if the appeal of Lost is not so much the story but the style of show. I am one of those people who loves to be left confused by TV and movies, and then turn to The People On The Internets to tell me what just happened. I also think all the extra non-television bits and pieces are interesting. I just love the whole “watercooler” aspect of the show, since I don’t have a watercooler of my own (I work at home, alone).
Some people don’t have extra time to invest in a show, or just aren’t interested in investing time to a show past the 30 or 60 minutes it’s on. I can understand that. Most other shows don’t require any legwork to follow, thus are pure entertainment and that is the essence of TV.
Perhaps Lost is that perfect meld of TV and Internet interaction, and that’s why I’m drawn to it. I do love both TV and Internet. And the interaction is different than just fan-wank…it’s almost necessary to be able to enjoy the show.
I still contend it’s not silly 
I thought I’d seen every episode, but I don’t know why there’s a polar bear on the island. Why?
I think I’ll just watch it like this. I’ve tried several times to get into the show based on recommendations (and so i could be ‘with it’ when the final season/finale come around), but I can’t stand the dialog, acting, don’t sympathize with any of the characters…
They escaped from the zoo on the second (smaller) island.
Now, why the Dharma people brought a couple of polar bears to a tropical island in the first place…
So it’s Gilligan’s Island, without the humor?
There’s a note on the blast door map to the effect that they were breeding them to adapt to a warmer environment.
Hey, David Lynch kept stringing people along for a season and a half, and he’s not even very commercial.
The last episode of the first season is worthwhile to watch just for the writer’s in-joke about the other non-essential “red shirt” characters. (Technically, you need to go a couple episodes back to get the whole thing.) And Evangeline Lilly replaces Ali McGraw on the short list of women who I can never get tired of looking at in any state of dress. But other than that, it was quite apparent to me before the middle of Season 1 that the writers, if not actually making it up as they went along, were painting themselves into the same “spurious explanation” corner that other conspiracy-minded shows do. I liked the style and structure of the show–that is, the revealing of character backstories in flashback–but even if there is some legitimate connection between these characters, it should have been revealed a long time ago. That’s the problem with suspense; it carries well for a while, then it just becomes tiresome ambivalence.
But hey, Evangeline Lily in a tight orange t-shirt! Tune in next week for another episode.
Don’t knock Gilligan’s Island; there was plenty of sinister events going on behind the facile hijinks, which is obvious if you start asking a few simple questions (like, “Why do the Howell’s have a suitcase full of cash?” or “How can the Professor repair electronics with nothing more than palm fronds and coconuts, but neither he nor the Skipper can rig a simple patch for a comparatively small hole in the hull?”).
If the writers of Lost had any guts, they’d end the show with the characters discovering a skeleton with a tattered red shirt and a white fishing cap buried on the beach.
Why would you want to breed polar bears for a warm environment?
Stranger
It’s complicated.
So…something Denise Richards could explain. Gotcha.
Stranger
That youTube link just saved me about 20 hours of my life by not having to watch the third season. (I gave up at the end of season 2 when I realized the writers were just making it up as they went along) I thank you.