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March 28, 2024, 08:51:18 PM

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Reevaluating Lost

Started by Ja'moke, December 10, 2020, 03:49:17 PM

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Ja'moke

As the lockdown continues and scrolling through Netflix to find something new/good to watch becomes more and more difficult, I decided a couple of weeks ago to start rewatching Lost for the first time since it finished airing back in 2010. And I thought it might be a good idea for a new thread looking back at the show.

I was obsessed with Lost from the moment it started back in 2004; in fact, it was around the same time I joined this forum. I know there were many others on CAB that were big Lost fans too and contributed to those excellent Lost threads. Regardless of what the show became or how it ended, I had so much fun discussing the various theories and rumours every week, something that doesn't really happen these days when most new shows drop entire seasons all at once.

I think Lost gets a bad rap for the way it ended and it perhaps sours a lot of people on the idea of a rewatch. Some of that criticism is certainly deserved, though I personally enjoyed the finale episode itself from a character stand-point (the final season as a whole, however, was underwhelming). But even if "the answers" weren't all satisfying or if Cuse and Lindelof strung things out unnecessarily, there are still so many fantastic episodes, moments, and characters in this show.

Last night, I finished my rewatch of Season 1, and I still believe it's a perfect season of television and one of the best first seasons of any show ever (definitely one of the best pilot episodes). It's a show that instantly grabs you, not just with the concept, but the characters. And I think that is where many of the "Lost-wannabe" shows that popped up afterwards (Flashforward, The Event, the V remake) failed -- they were too focused on the "mystery" without the compelling characters. Lost is full of great characters: Locke, Jack (season 1 Jack is ace), Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Hurley, Sayid, Charlie, Michael, Walt, Rousseau, Claire, etc. And that's before we're introduced to the likes of Ben, Desmond, Juliet, Mr. Eko, Daniel Faraday, etc, in later seasons.

I'm still early in my rewatch, and I'm interested to see if my opinions are the same today as they were back when I first watched. From what I remember, these were my original thoughts when watching back when it was airing:

Season 1 - Fantastic
Season 2 - Still pretty great and intriguing
Season 3 - First half was annoying and felt like the show was stalling. The flashbacks became tiresome. But the back half of the season had some incredible episodes
Season 4 - A big improvement over Season 3 as now the show had a confirmed end-date and the "flash-forwards" made for a refreshing change to the flashbacks
Season 5 - Not as good as Season 4 but still enjoyable
Season 6 - Underwhelming on the whole, but I liked the finale

Season 1 certainly still holds up. So many belter episodes. The Locke and Jack dynamic is incredible. Charlie's arc with the drugs. The Locke wheelchair reveal. Boone's death. Sawyer being a scavenger. The whole Michael and Jin arc. The soundtrack. The French woman. The Hatch. Kate is the only real dud, though she isn't as annoying here as she becomes in later seasons. It also surprised me how much was set-up in this season that does eventually have a payoff.

Anyway, feel free to share your Lost memories or join in on this rewatch.


Malcy

I was really into it when it was first on. I can remember it was being discussed everywhere and there was a real buzz about it but I gave up I think during series 5. I'd just had enough. I've been considering watching it from the start again and finally finishing it but it just feels like it will be a huge slog to get through it so haven't.

I think it did well to have so many interesting characters with great backstories and to keep adding to them. I still remember a lot of it so I'd rather wait until it's a distant memory. Think I'd enjoy it more that way.

Deanjam

Quote from: Ja'moke on December 10, 2020, 03:49:17 PM
Season 1 - Fantastic
Season 2 - Still pretty great and intriguing
Season 3 - First half was annoying and felt like the show was stalling. The flashbacks became tiresome. But the back half of the season had some incredible episodes
Season 4 - A big improvement over Season 3 as now the show had a confirmed end-date and the "flash-forwards" made for a refreshing change to the flashbacks
Season 5 - Not as good as Season 4 but still enjoyable
Season 6 - Underwhelming on the whole, but I liked the finale

I've watched Lost in its entirety four times now. The last most recently alongside this reaction channel.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb0y0xQ9hKfsvIT3Dt4wBf-7mLuM4u8Ej

It's a good channel to watch the show along with. The guy running it is a big fan and is showing it to his friends for the first time. They have some good discussions about it too.

Anyway, I largely agree with your breakdown of the seasons there. Season 1 is a great year of TV, but weirdly most of my favourite characters (Ben, Mr Eko, Juliette, Nikki & Paulo, Desmond) don't appear. Any episodes with those characters or Sawyer, Sayeed or Locke are usually great.

The Jack & Kate will they, won't they is beyond tedious. Kate is so badly written. I feel bad for Evangeline Lilly as she does a good job in the part, but the character is beyond hateful.

The central mysteries are pretty good. They do explain almost everything, although the answers aren't always satisfying.

I hate how they ended Locke's story.

"Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?"

Bazooka

I know it's an integral element,but I didn't like any of the flash backs.

Captain Z

I remember sticking the first episode on out of bordeom, hoping that after the relentless trailers it would turn out to be crap. Actually I was gripped, and really enjoyed the first series. The second was OK but didn't move the situation on as much as I'd hoped. I gave up 4 episodes into series 3 because I was really bored of the 43 minutes of padding/2 minutes of SUDDEN SHOCK ENDING formula, none of which ever got addressed in the next episodes. Also because it moved to Sky so was having to rely on torrents/low-quality Youtube videos that would quickly be removed.

Always been tempted to catch up but I'd have to start over again now. From what I've heard I didn't miss out on much by bailing at this point, and I generally felt happy that I instead chose to spend those hours concentrating on my degree, going out and having fun and lots of sex watching repeats of Friends and The Simpsons.

Ja'moke

Quote from: Bazooka on December 10, 2020, 05:15:21 PM
I know it's an integral element,but I didn't like any of the flash backs.

The flashbacks definitely get tiresome eventually, especially by the third season. But there are some great ones in the first season, Locke's, in particular, really stand out.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I hated Locke. He ran around, doing whatever he pleased - including attacking his fellow passengers, sabotaging their rescue attempts and spiking Boone with hallucinogens - to satisfy his messianic delusions. Then he turned around and beat up Charlie for trying to baptise a baby.

Then there was that one flashback in which he got all mystical about the child's board game Mousetrap. That surely had to be a pisstake.

DrGreggles

I liked Lost a lot, but I only realised on a re-watch that most of my favourite characters (Ben, Desmond, Juliet, Faraday) weren't even in the first season.

The pilot is a fucking classic though.

QDRPHNC

Start of season 3 was where I gave up. Clear they had no plan and it was all very superficial.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: QDRPHNC on December 10, 2020, 05:51:24 PM
Start of season 3 was where I gave up. Clear they had no plan and it was all very superficial.
About where I was, but I was already getting bored towards the end of season 2. I kept up with the plot by reading the occasional recap and got back on board for the last season, which was interesting in places but the ending was both crap and what a ton of people had guessed right at the beginning (not me, I'm very bad at predicting TV). Its children ruined TV for the next five years or so, too.

DrGreggles

The start of season 3 was when they had a "mini season" of 6 episodes of FUCK ALL because they were negotiating with the network over how long the show would run.
Luckily it picked up again for the rest of the season*, and the s3 finale was amazing.


*apart from the tattoo shit

Utter Shit

Absolutely loved it when it was (mostly) a show about adapting to a new life in the aftermath of a disaster, building a society from scratch, learning to understand and trust each other etc. Gradually went off it as more and more sci-fi shite was added, finally turned it off in disgust when one of them turned a big cog and they were suddenly moved to some snowy place instead, or something like that anyway.

Those first few (three?) seasons before it went all-in on the sci-fi were so good.

druss

Overall it's a good show that always had well written and intriguing characters. The ending wasn't the best and I remember being pretty annoyed at the time. But compared to how Game of Thrones ended it was practically a masterpiece and still had the characters acting in ways that felt believable to who they were.

The mystery stuff ended up being utter shite, I think I'd struggle with a rewatch knowing that they didn't have a clue where they were going with more than half of it, but I am tempted to give it a go for the various character arcs that have been mentioned.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: druss on December 10, 2020, 06:23:40 PM
Overall it's a good show

Going to have to disagree with you there. It's a well-made show, certainly.

Ja'moke

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on December 10, 2020, 05:27:13 PM
I hated Locke. He ran around, doing whatever he pleased - including attacking his fellow passengers, sabotaging their rescue attempts and spiking Boone with hallucinogens - to satisfy his messianic delusions. Then he turned around and beat up Charlie for trying to baptise a baby.

Then there was that one flashback in which he got all mystical about the child's board game Mousetrap. That surely had to be a pisstake.

I think that is what makes Locke such an interesting character, though. On the island he comes across to the others as this incredible survivalist/hunter type guy that knows so much about seemingly everything. He has an almost mystical quality.

But the truth is, in real life, he's just a boring guy that worked at a box company, who is also easily gullible. He lives in a fantasy world, dreaming of a life where he is this amazing survivalist out in the wild, but in reality it's all in his head or in the boardgames he plays with his work colleague.

The island gives him a chance to live out his fantasy, which is why he is so desperate to preserve it. But just like in his regular life, he is still insanely gullible and fooled by the island and his own warped idea of what the island means.

El Unicornio, mang

Loved it. Great setting, some good characters and twists. The story did trail off towards the end but the overall experience was worth it. Not sure I could be bothered to rewatch it all again though.

Lord Mandrake

I loved all the dharma initiative instructional videos.

Nice to see no one has gone for the view that a poor ending 'ruined the show' as that always irritated me. I had several years of enjoying Lost (half of season 3 and the last series aside) and it strikes me as as odd that people would forget that enjoyment: the same happened with Battlestar Galactica (which truly had a shit ending compared to Losts 'meh'.

Also, it seemed clear from quite far out that the creators had no real clue where they were going so I can't remember being that disappointed.

I remember loving the series back in time (4?) but can't imagine watching the whole thing again, too many filler episodes which 2nd time round won't have the thrill of the unknown or the hope of a reveal to push me forward.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: QDRPHNC on December 10, 2020, 05:51:24 PM
Start of season 3 was where I gave up. Clear they had no plan and it was all very superficial.

Me too. Once it diverged from what was working, once it flat out wasted time with filler episodes and unfulfilling side-plots, once it made characters start behaving completely differently with no justification suddenly just to suit the plot there wasn't any energy left in me to care about what happened next. It wasn't even as though I just couldn't get hold of the latest episode or series. I had the box set to watch, and just ditched it and gave it back to my brother.

And instead of these key weaknesses being an object lesson for a defining improvement in the standard of multi-series TV drama, it became the template.

Clearly I am in the minority because the same problems have been going on in the 15 years since and people keep sitting there churning through entire week's worth of TV like blobs. The ratings justify this crap.

Ja'moke

One thing I forgot about and which surprised me is that they must have had the time travel stuff planned from the first season. They find those "Adam and Eve" skeletons in the caves early in Season 1 and it's clear it's meant to be Jin and Sun, the discovery happens in their first flashback episode and the hints are all there.

bgmnts

Season 1: Unanswered questions.
Season 2: More unanswered questions.
Season 3: Even more unanswered question.

As far as I got.

Also, I know it's even humorously referenced on the show, but the fact that big boy Hurley stays morbidly obese brings you out of it a bit.

Menu

We watched it from the beginning but I was getting really itchy feet during Season 3. It just seemed the same old shit again and again. Boring flashbacks, not enough island mystery.....

That was until one of the best moments in television I've ever seen. The first flash forward. It literally knocked all my socks off.

From that point on I was properly hooked. The show was now focussed on the island and its mysteries for three seasons. Watching an episode and then seeing some erudite theories posted immediately on the web made it even better. You felt you were watching something substantial.

Tbh, I don't even remember what the ending was, but I don't recall being disappointed. What was the ending?

PS. Also I was offered a chance to be in it. As a minor character in London but I turned it down due to family illness. Still bugs me when I remember.

Ja'moke

Quote from: Menu on December 10, 2020, 11:41:46 PM
We watched it from the beginning but I was getting really itchy feet during Season 3. It just seemed the same old shit again and again. Boring flashbacks, not enough island mystery.....

That was until one of the best moments in television I've ever seen. The first flash forward. It literally knocked all my socks off.


I'll always remember the end of Season 3. Not just because of the amazingly shocking cliffhanger, but because immediately after I finished the episode I accidentally spilled a drink all over my laptop and destroyed the fucking thing. Meaning I couldn't jump onto the forums and read everyone's reactions and theories.

Menu

Quote from: Ja'moke on December 11, 2020, 01:29:29 AM
I'll always remember the end of Season 3. Not just because of the amazingly shocking cliffhanger, but because immediately after I finished the episode I accidentally spilled a drink all over my laptop and destroyed the fucking thing. Meaning I couldn't jump onto the forums and read everyone's reactions and theories.

Now I'll always remember that too. Thanks for ruining it.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Twit 2

Gave up early in season 1 because it was shit. Seems like that was a good decision.

touchingcloth

I gave up some time during series 4, if I remember. I seem to recall that around that time the show got commissioned for a LOT of seasons, when originally it had been conceived and plotted as a three series arc, so I made the assumption that from then on they were going to be making it up as they went along. I'm quite glad I bowed out when I did having read what the conclusion of the story was, but like the OP I still think the first couple of seasons were phenomenal.

AsparagusTrevor

I was a huge fan of the show back in the day. I binged the first three seasons before catching up to TV pace. I haven't done a rewatch since it ended as I was quite disappointed by the final season. However, like many said, it's about the journey not the destination, and it was a hell of a journey. The time might be coming up to give it a rewatch.

I thought the show was much more interesting when it was sci-fi, rather than going full-on fantasy towards the end. I was always more interested in the Dharma stuff than the Jacob stuff. It says something when one of the most acclaimed and arguably best episodes, The Constant, was complete sci-fi. I especially didn't like the resolution of the whole thing just being handwaved away with magic wine. The smoke monster just being a dude who washed down a magic plughole, such a disappointment.  I must admit, I did like the purgatory ending though, sappy as I am.

I remember being bored with the start of season 3 like a lot of people. Too much sitting around in cages, nothing much happening. Then when it kicked off, it had some of the best episodes, and the finale was spectacular.

Gulftastic

Am I wrong in remembering that in the end they sort shit out by turning the island off and then back on again?

timebug

Loved series 1. Started watching series 2 and realised after a couple of episodes that they were taking the piss,and I bailed out.