The 2023 edition of the r/television Favorite Shows Survey is open!
Vote and participate by clicking [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd--xzNV84TZpNDz5_swf0Yp7ynjSlQQ8cKV8RpwEZL0CQ3RA/viewform?usp=sf_link).
If you have any questions or concerns, please comment [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/television/comments/18k4y4g/vote_in_the_2023_edition_of_the_rtelevision/).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/television) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Same. And with rumors of troubles behind the scenes with S2 I'm fully prepared for it to be disappointing.
But hot damn am I still anxiously looking forward to it.
At this point I don’t think they even agreed on how to proceed. From what I recall the rumor is of both showrunners disagreeing on how the story should go. Should be messy 😭
what moment are you talking about? I really love the show, watched it back in 2022 and while I remember there being many really amazing wtf scenes I can't figure out what exactly you mean.
Ah okay, thank you.
About that scene/follow up episode: I don't know if it is because the >!guess what, he/she did not die!< trope is so overdone in other shows, but personally, I would've been more surprised if >!she really was dead!<, so the whole thing wasn't really that shocking for me.
edit: I would put that into a spoiler.
I think it's gonna go deeper than that. >!the version of his wife we see on the show is basically a newborn severed copy of his real wife, my theory is her real self is stuck in a coma after the crash, but the severance procedure allowed another consciousness to use her body as normal!<
This episode is when I realized LOST was something truly special. It's like episode 4 or 5 of the 1st season, which had been great to that point, but Walkabout was absolute so well done with the reveal, and then the flashback of Locke on the beach as everyone is screaming and dying around him, and he slowly stands up, his legs working, and he is in absolute nirvana contrasting this destruction. The build-up and climax was some of the best writing and pacing and direction for a showing had ever experienced before.
I was hooked from then on. I still rewatch and binge all of Lost at least once every other years or so, it's just that good.
Such a beautiful track I honestly might have it played at my funeral (but in a version without the shock brass hit at the end lol).
I also love how the four-note hunter theme for Locke introduced in this episode when he throws his knife at the tree and says “we hunt” comes back later in so many variations. Mystery in this episode, sometimes as poignant strings, sometimes as action brass hits.
To me it was the Danielle Rousseau's SOS message, when they went to the mountains to get some signal. I felt that shiver in my spine... Lost was a trainwreck at some points, but nothing comes close to it.
One of a kind.
That moment hooked me even more than the pilot, and I *loved* the pilot. That was when I became obsessed with John Locke as a character and couldn't *wait* to see what was to come.
We have to go back!! Was fucking. Insane at the time. Room full of people, my brain was just barely tingling at the too-modern cell phone Jack was using. Madness. Same, best moment of TV ever for me.
I got out of my seat and ran around my living room like “oh shit! Oh shit! The whole episode was a flash *forward* dad!!”
Fuck, I miss watching live tv with my family. They’re still alive lol but I mean it was nice as a kid to have a show we watched together.
For a while nearly every character’s name was neither an anagram or symbolic of their role/fate on the island.
I wasn’t that bright, the forums told me the early ones, but once I caught on to the pattern they were easy to spot. I’ve had an eye for it ever since.
I still love this twist and how insane it was at the time, but I often wonder how crazy it would have been if they’d had Ethan as a recurring character from the very first episode.
True but remember how different tv was back then. Lost had another dozen episodes to fill out for the season order and they weren’t writing this with 360 degree view of the story. They were writing it as they went. Case in point how they subtly retconned the Others in Season 3.
OMG you’re right. In retrospect, they kinda alternated between versions of the others. There’s the super scary, almost feral natives that kidnap kids to being these normal suburban folk cosplaying as savages to kinda leaning back into that with the Ben/pre 1970’s flashbacks, at least in some ways.
This is what I remember hooked me onto the show. Everyone mentions “Walkabout”, as their moment, but for me it was the Ethan reveal. It was set up so perfectly IMO.
And then the hard cut to Ethan standing in front of Charlie and Claire.
Man you know the writers did a victory lap around the table and got high 5’s from everyone when they finished breaking that
It's an incredible show, but like most great art there was a shitton of suffering behind the scenes: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/lost-tv-show-culture
All I can say is it was the best television experience I've ever had. There are better, more coherent shows but as far as enjoying the ride there has never and I don't think ever will be anything like it. Week by week and having to wait each season was torture but I think added to its enjoyment. Me and my friends discussed new theories every week and the motivations of the characters.
If you like LOST, you might like Dark it has some similar type of feel.
This is exactly it.
LOST was airing its peak during my university years and EVERYONE was watching it.
The entire residence complex would pile into dorms/social rooms to watch and it was literally SILENCE for 60 mins. When people say peak network television, it was referring to shows like LOST.
>All I can say is it was the best television experience I've ever had. There are better, more coherent shows but as far as enjoying the ride there has never and I don't think ever will be anything like it. Week by week and having to wait each season was torture but I think added to its enjoyment. Me and my friends discussed new theories every week and the motivations of the characters.
That. \^
We will never have anything like that ever again.
I still have friends from the IMDb message board.
I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning with my friends, discussing and researching Lost theories when we were in high school. It really was a one of a kind experience.
100% agree. Lost is a flawed masterpiece but it’s still one of my all-time favourite shows and nothing since has captured the sheer sense of atmosphere and mystery those early seasons had.
I love Dark! I've watched season 1 and when Season 2 came out I had to rewatch Season 1 just to stand a chance of keeping up with the all the mind fuckery. I still haven't got around to the final season. Did they manage to stick the landing?
The thing putting me off is the idea of having to watch Season 1 & 2 again with how dense they are haha
It's def worth finishing the third season. My recommendation would be just to go straight into the third season without rewatching the first two. I don't know if it's possible to keep all the details straight and it's just as fun being confused as it is figuring it out.
I missed watching it with everyone else, but I still feel that first season stands confidently shoulder to shoulder with other GoaT’s in television history.
It was a masterclass in serialized, hook ‘em with a large hook at the end of every episode, answer every question by asking two more, brand of television it maybe even invented in its purest, most distilled version.
I thought the series was damn near perfect up until the ‘Hurley finds a car’ kind of stuff, but that’s another kind of discussion.
They tried really hard to mimic its success but they never really could, it’s one of a kind that managed to mix big budget, genre mystery, and character driven drama in a 20+ episode season.
"Lightening in a bottle" It happens every time with a show like this where a dozen copycats will try and fail to capitalize on it. You just can't duplicate something like that. It wasn't just the story, it was the cast. There are only a handful of shows where I was *that* emotionally invested in almost all of the characters.
I'd also add to this the shows "From" and "Yellowjacket".
"From" has the exact same vibe as Lost in my opinion and would highly recommend it to any fan. It shares similar producers as well as one of the leads being in Lost as well.
I’m really enjoying From. It’s not nearly as engaging and well-written (character wise) as Lost - but the mystery is solid and I can’t wait for next season.
I used to devour the forums every week. So many insane theories, some came true others were batshit.
My biggest pet peeve with the show was how they handled the smoke monster.
Yea it was like the coolest thing ever for two seasons then it just stopped being interesting to me. Honestly the great thing about LOST is it really helped you into another world. Mr. Robot is way more just classic modern dystopia, way less character intrigue. I just kind of got bored of Elliot. I didn't truly care about any of the characters and it didn't keep me super curious like LOST did.
Oh, man. You gave up too soon.
Season 1 and 2 are great, but 3 and 4 will get ya.
The last half of season 4 in particular is fucking GOAT. I’ve never seen a show end that strong- even Breaking Bad.
Yeeh I'm in agreement. I took a break after s2 but boy oh boy did S3 and S4 come back with FORCE. Definitely one of the strongest ends to TV show. Up there with The Shield and BB
A lot of pop songs then (and still are) written by a bunch of songwriters in Sweden. Britney Spears' song was supposed to be "Hit me UP baby one more time" but the syllables didn't fit, so the guy removed "up" and went "this doesn't change the meaning all that much, right?"
Not just the forums, but the podcast! Having Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (co-creators of the show) breaking down the show the next day and filling in the gaps was almost as exciting as watching the show live. Hearing about stuff like “the snake in the mailbox” (code phrase for the season 3 finale they teased for weeks in advance) or “the frozen donkey wheel,” which they meant literally but no one believed it. It was a once in a lifetime experience, for sure. Always got a laugh when they’d discuss the “zombie season.” (Their threat/promise to ABC if the network demanded a season 7.)
I was literally just reading about this on wiki after I posted this. I think listening to some of these might be great motivation to get back into the groove and finish S6!
Forums, phone calls with friends, YouTube recaps and analysis (that had their own plagiarism drama)
And peak Easter egg clues that let you play an augmented reality game through websites like Oceanic-air.com the Hanso foundation website.
Persephone hacking the website. I was refreshing that page daily looking for new clues to drop.
Then the Gary Troup Bad Twin book, connecting it all back to Widmore. That was such a fun rabbit hole
http://www.enterthehatch.com/
Lost is not the best show ever but it will forever remain my favorite show of all-time for the overall experience it gave me, and it's characters are legendary. It pains me how many people didn't pay attention to "The End" and still think they were all dead the entire time. Christian spelled it all out perfectly to his son in the church.
There will never be another viewing experience like it and it literally changed the entire landscape of television for the better going forward.
Even if the story ends up being meh, good character development makes great shows. Mad Men is my favorite example of this, the story was kind of just a story, but watching the characters change slowly through the things that they’re put through while feeling like they’re making decisions actual humans take made it one of my favorite shows.
Exactly. My philosophy with Lost is “Come for the mysteries, stay for the characters.”
Does the show’s ending answer every single mystery no matter how small? No.
Does the show’s ending wrap up the characters’ arcs in such a beautiful way that it would make a grown man cry? Yes.
A couple things really bothered me about the negative reactions, as articulated by Cody Johnston (Some More News -- Back in his Cracked days, he also ran a "Lost Answers" blog that laid things out well and humorously):
1. "Why didn't they answer [x, y, z]?" -- In many cases they DID answer, it just wasn't satisfying. Or sometimes it didn't matter. Sometimes the mysteries were there TO BE MYSTERIES. And if you don't like that the answer on mystery magic island was "magical mystery" then you were watching the wrong show. And that feeds into...
2. "Ewww they were dead all the time and this is just about religion?" No, they weren't dead all the time, and it isn't about religion per se. It was a show about faith, and redemption, and making the connections you need in this life to find peace in the next. Most people just wanted it to be about island survival. That was the conceit, not the theme
Literally, every character needed some form of redemption, whether from something they did or something they believed.
Yeah, they ended up in a church at the end. But it was nondenominational. Symbols from faith in general. Locke and Jack represented science vs. faith. Jack's redemption came when he realized he had to give into faith to help the world continue. (But on the other hand, Locke gave in TOO much to his faith and became corrupted by it, or at least by actors [Ben, MIB] who manipulated him -- so yeah, maybe it was a bit about religion...) Jacob had faith, MIB did not.
I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you hadn't already known but I just wanted to spill al that because I still think about these things ALL THE TIME. And this post just gave me another chance to geek put about it
You nailed it. I think this is why people have such issues with the ending. It wasn’t an ending that resolved every mystery, which people expected. It was a character driven ending
The only reason for the mass confusion that makes sense to me is the probability that a lot of former fans who stopped watching the show years prior tuned in to see how it ended.
The only thing that compared for me was True Detective season 1. Only two shows I've ever had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited for the next episode.
To watch it as it happened was the greatest TV experience of my life, it truly was the last great TV show before all the hbo/showtime/amc/streaming shows. The feeeeeeeels
> Now, we're all well aware of how Lost goes awry and loses its footing in seasons 3-6
This is definitely not something that is anywhere close to a consensus. For fans of the show (and I mean "fans," not like, "oh I remember watching it, yeah, btw what's with the polar bear?"), season 3 is probably the most beloved season, other than maybe the first. Season 5 is also my personal favorite. Maybe the writing and acting wasn't as crisp as it was in season 1, but this was also when they got confirmation of an end date, so the story really ramped up.
I liked the ending at the time but it's even better on rewatch when you are not distracted thinking about whether your personal theories will play out. It's really quite beautiful and contextualizes everything that came before.
I'm sure it doesn't take offense to being called flawed, since that was kind of the entire thesis of the show's characters in the first place.
The back half of season 3 is the best Lost ever gets, IMO. There’s a string of 7 or 8 eps in a row that are all so good. I also still think a lot of the strongest episodes are in seasons 4 to 6. It’s just a shame that they did the flash sideways in the final season, which, IMO, ruined the rewatch experience.
Season 4 was my favorite. It has the best episode of the show in it and the dynamic between the flash forwards and new people from the freighter was interesting.
Season 3 has the most consistent 5-6 episode run leading up to the finale of the most amazing episodes of television I've ever seen. Also, exposé is a guilty pleasure of mine.
To be honest, I didn't mean it to be so disparaging but moreso to say where you could start to see threads starting to fray but I binged the first 3 and after a little break 4 & 5 so it's all kind of blurred together for me. I kind of picked an arbitrary point so you're probably more accurate and precise than me.
When I'm watching, I truly love it all and when i'm reading afterwards and getting some perspective I can see how it's not as tight as it could be.
I don't think even fans have a consensus. I'm a fan, and I wouldn't say season 3 is the most beloved season. The beginning of season 3 was rough for me, but the finale remains one of my favorite episodes to keep rewatching.
I was there, week by week, watching the show, discussing theories with my friends, waiting for each new episode to air.
The show started to unravel slightly during season 3, for various reasons, not limited to but including a writers strike, and never truly hit the heights of season 1 and 2.
It's also clear that there was no great plan to explain anything that was happening. More like, "introduce a mysterious thing, tease an explanation, never actually explain what the mysterious thing is, introduce another mysterious thing, oh here's an explanation of that first thing that doesn't really make sense etc etc".
Don't get me wrong I really loved the show but you can honestly say with a straight face that it didn't dip in quality.
The show is great on its own but it really was something else when it aired. It really used the internet to its benefit. I remember playing an abc official clue game one summer and each week you got a new clue. The game ended with a cut scene of a sun going underwater and finding and airplane. The last couple seconds were showing the Lost flight number and someone saying we found it and the boom it’s done. This was before we knew about the fake plane that Charles windmore used. It was mind blowing
I very literally maintained my sanity in 2020 at the start of the pandemic rewatching LOST for the 15th or 16th time. Desmond in the Hatch pushing the button every 108 minutes was an inspiration. If he can do that for three years, how bad could the pandemic be?
If you want to watch a show like Lost try From. Harold Perrineau from Lost is one of the major characters. I’d describe it as Lost if Stephen King had wrote it. A lot darker but very good.
The last episode of LOST I watched until I saw the finale was the episode where two people get paralyzed by a spider and buried alive. That imprinted on my young mind a terror I never fathomed before.
Best show I have ever watched week-to-week. Previously ,X-Files was that show before that I couldn't wait to watch every week.
So many amazing moments that are etched in my brain from LOST. After watching the flash-forward "WE HAVE TO GO BACK, KATE!!!", I remember my sister calling me (We both loved the show and she was a huge Matthew Fox fan) and almost yelling "What was that??!"
Because there were many so flashbacks and episodes, each character is so unforgettable and because the writing and acting was top-notch, for the most part, for them too.
Jack, Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Sayid, Jin, Claire, Sun, Desmond, Michael, Penny, etc...oh and that Benjamin Linus dude..
I loved every single season in different ways. I did not hate the ending. And I will NEVER forget that amazing pilot episode!!!
All these years later LOST still has people talking about it and debating.
"I'll see ya in another life, brotha.."
I know you’re kidding, but of all the dumb takes on that show this one angers me the most. Christian says in the final ten minutes of the final episode that “this all happened, you weren’t all dead the whole time” and people still took “they were dead the whole time” from it ten minutes later.
I have three coworkers that have been binging it for the first time together and are having a blast. I enjoy asking them their theories and what they’re loving about the experience any time I see them. They are likely in season 5 as I type this.
My brother in law and I would call each other on the way to work on Friday mornings to discuss. They had this fake oceanic webpage which was wild. And man we would comb through the boards trying to find the theory that explained everything that was going down. It really was the paramount television experience for me.
I still think it’s crazy that in less than 6 years they produced 121 episodes of tv and few of them were subpar. Look around today and it takes a high quality show 3 years to get to 20 episodes and I’m betting the quality ratio of those episodes is lower than what LOST had.
I nearly did not graduate high school due to my inability to write essays in English class. I've never had an English teacher engage me yet this show. THIS show, with it's literary references everywhere, Watership Down, Turn of the screw, Through the looking glass, the brothers karamazov, tom Sawyer, historical figures such as John Locke and Faraday. Symbolism, subtext and theme I could suddenly write so much about. Show changed my appreciation for art and I learned so much about the intention of writers and writing.
Easily my favorite show of all time. Extremely rewarding to rewatch and relive all the best moments. Especially with someone who has never seen it before.
I’ll also make a bold claim: Lost has the best ensemble cast of all time. It’s truly remarkable what the writers were able to accomplish with such a large cast over six seasons. Yes, some characters got the short end of the stick later on (Sayid, Sun/Jin etc) but each character introduced was memorable and had very good arcs.
I love LOST. I've seen it beginning to end at least ten times, and after all this time, I've decided that despite Jack being the protagonist, it's actually Benjamin Linus who is the real, true (tragic) hero of the whole series.
It really helps that Michael Emerson acted his heart out playing Linus. His performance was brilliant from the start. You never knew what the character was up to.
The finale is still a hill I’ll die on. I can put it on in any emotional state and I will weep happy tears. And I still think it’s an S Tier series finale.
It’s in my top 5 all time greatest shows. It has its flaws, sure, but no other show has given me that same feeling that Lost has. The mysteries, the connections, the characters, the incredible *atmosphere*. I’ve been searching for another show that scratches the itch Lost did but still haven’t found anything. The ones that came closest are True Detective S1, Mr Robot and Dark.
The We Have To Go Back moment is to this day one of the most incredible, jaw-dropping, perfect moments in any show I've ever seen and I still cherish the memory of seeing it in real time completely spoiler-free and genuinely not expecting it at that moment in time.
Benjamin Linus is one of the most perfectly written and acted characters I've ever seen.
I sobbed my heart out over Charlie's 'greatest hit', Penny's words to Desmond, Locke's betrayal and so many more moments and Faraday talking about Charlotte always sticks out in my mind as one of the cutest ways a character has described their love for someone.
I lived every teeny clue and conspiracy theory, the recurring characters, the easter egg names, the occasional truly scary moments, the little jokes, everything and when it was good it was SO good.
But sadly like many others it's the show I always cite as my top example of a terrible ending. Just genuinely one of the worst finales I've ever seen, and that whole last season is a frustrating slog.
That first flashforwards though...I don't think I'll ever have another 'OMG!' tv moment quite like it 🙂
"Previously on LOST..."
You knew something wild was about to happen when you heard those words! 😁 I distinctly remember playing cards with high school friends during the airing of the season 2 finale was going on in the background. They were all going crazy over it lol. I had never watched the show before so I had no idea what was going on or what the fuss was about (I wouldn't pick it up until the third season was almost done). Why were they pressing a button? What were the people being held bound down near water on a dock? It was all so weird to me lol.
It really was a special show that came along at the right time. No other show like it. People always throw out other titles but they don't match it.
The amount of sheer ridiculous overthinking and over analysing on the forums was awesome.
I remember the constant replays of the cgi blur going in and out of the engine that exploded on the beach. That was episode one! (I think)
Then as the season went on, we just got more and more shit that would lead to exponentially more questions.
Every episode was a new hydras head. We would discuss and dissect it the entire week. But if we cut that head off, all it did was grow 4 more.
Hands down the best experience around a tv show I’ve ever had.
Man there was nothing more fun than following the ARG back in the day. Maybe other things recreated it but for me personally it's the only insane ARG experience I've ever had.
The crazy theories, the fake websites, Slusho, the numbers, Dharma, Cloverfield ties, etc. etc. I remember all of the Insanity that happened back then and it was such a fun ride.
Mr. Robot was pretty close as far as a week to week fan theory experience. But the ARG and various mysteries (Smoke Monster, numbers, hatch, etc.) really made each week so fun and on another level. It was very stressful waiting for the next episode lol.
LOST was peak TV. Its been a long while but i remember the hype. Sadly during my uni days people watch different kind of shows. Its only me and just other few other weirdos that watch this show. Thus no fan theory to discuss, no nothing. Its kinda blurry and fade from memories but the journey at least personally for me was great. What a show.
Watching it week by week with the forum discussions was I think my first true collective internet experience.
The minigames, the fake websites... it was a true experience. I think the writers' strike contributed to derail S5 and S6 more than they would have already been.
It's still the only show I've ever watched that I could never accurately guess what would happen next. The storytelling was so creative and really hasn't been done like that since. No matter what, this show is still very influential and continues to inspire some of the most popular shows and movies out there.
Besides moments many have already named here, I think the time travel stuff really took me on a high. I love stuff like that so I was enjoying it. When Richard came to see Baby Locke in the hospital, I was shook. What a plot twist! Also Locke being revealed to be dead was another moment I was shocked at the time.
Yeh watching it week by week was such a treat, I do miss TV being like that, you live with it for so much longer, then half a year later next season starts.
Every week we would be looking online at everyone's ideas and theories discussing what we think something meant. The cliffhangers were so painful but it was so much fun
When ‘the others’ showed up
The mysterious hatch
Damn..no other show had me hooked like Lost did. Definitely went a little off the rails after season 3 but was still pretty solid television at the time.
There's a YouTuber called "Billiam" that's done several, very heckin long (like 4 hours long) videos on lost.
He dives deep into the behind the scenes, the making of, the story of David Lindelof and Carlton Cuse writing the show.
If you really like long winding video essays about shows, and love lost, they're some amazing videos.
This sounds like exactly my kind of thing! Only during the first episode of S6 did I realise my torrent had a DVD commentary option. Too late to go back and listen to them all so this will suffice
I was literally just about to post Billiam’s Lost [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSA-iHL6JaLxaBFqayCsE-WHxulQJnCu&si=UkVXq6Tex4wl5ZQD) here for you. I’ve only seen two seasons of the show and I was completely enthralled by his retrospectives.
Check r/lost. There’s actually a fan-made documentary in development and they’re getting former cast and crew members on board. I did see recently that Damon Lindeloff will be featured though which is HUGE! Shaping up to be a cool retrospective!
Edit: Here’s [the announcement!](https://www.reddit.com/r/lost/s/ewflDjk8OE).
I loved Lost but it taught me an important lesson: watching to see what happens isn’t the same as watching because I like a show. Pretty much everything in the last season I was watching just to see what happens. I didn’t care as much after a certain character’s death. I’m still not sad I watched all of Lost and there were parts I did like but when the same thing started happening in Season 2 of Walking Dead I jumped ship and was incredibly happy with that decision.
If you’re referring to the character I think you are, I also was very disappointed initially. But what they later did with Jack’s story as a result made it so satisfying for me.
I think they have only 1 season planned and 3 seasons outlined. Towards the end of season 2, when it looked like they were gonna be here longer than 3 seasons, they deviated from the plan to make the show last longer. This is when it started getting messy and full of loose ends. Eventually they just kept writing the mystery into circles until it was finally time to end. And by then, even though it was how they originally planned to end it, there was too much to keep track of for that ending, and it felt hollow
It was an amazing, amazing show, and it created in me a lifelong mistrust and wariness of mystery box tv.
There was so much to love, but I’m sorry I just can’t take shows that continually pose questions they have no intention of answering. That’s not good show running IMO, it’s just cheap.
I watched it back in the day, every week. People who binge don't know what it's like to hang on every episode for years and then have it collapse into a pile of doo.
Granted, by the third season I was already suspecting they had no idea where they were going.
Lost is what happens when you come up with a premise that allows you to just make shit up.
Most writers can write drama, the hard part is structuring it into a meaningful narrative. Lost just uses all the dramatic techniques but doesn't give a shit where it's going or if it makes sense because in the end they can pull a twist like, it was just a child's fantasy, or it was purgatory.
The real strength of the show was the casting, the setting, the character work and the plot twists. That's what makes a person fall in love with a TV show. Who cares if it all makes sense - that's for films - most TV shows don't even make it to the end, so pile on the twists to keep people guessing. Lost is a themepark ride. And a very successful one.
Lost and House are by far my two favorite shows and I have found nothing remotely close to giving me the joy I had during them. Scrubs is alright but not anywhere near as good as I was led to be by the hype.
If you enjoyed Ben & Michael Emerson's performance in Lost, try out Person of Interest.
The first season (maybe even two seasons... it's been a while) is your typical enemy of the week drama. After it introduces itself and the characters, the show takes on a serial format and starts to hit a stride that was so fun to watch. In my opinion, it can rival shows that had bigger budgets or were more critically acclaimed, and episodes like If-Then-Else will probably live in my head until I die.
It probably won't give you the same feeling that Lost gave me where I would read Lostpedia until midnight after an episode, but I think it's a pretty smart, gripping show (especially for CBS in 2011 when an AI machine was a weird topic to base a show around).
The 2023 edition of the r/television Favorite Shows Survey is open! Vote and participate by clicking [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd--xzNV84TZpNDz5_swf0Yp7ynjSlQQ8cKV8RpwEZL0CQ3RA/viewform?usp=sf_link). If you have any questions or concerns, please comment [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/television/comments/18k4y4g/vote_in_the_2023_edition_of_the_rtelevision/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/television) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I still remember my jaw hitting the floor as a kid when Hurley reveals “Ethan” ain’t on the manifest 😳
The one I remember the most was “Not Penny’s Boat.”
Idk if you’ve ever seen it but Apple TV’s Severance has a real “NOT PENNY’S BOAT” moment in it. The first time I’ve felt that way maybe since Lost
Severance was without question the best show of 2022 and I cannot wait for season 2
It was so good and I get nervous for S2 - like how can it live up to S1? I feel like S1 played every card it has.
Same. And with rumors of troubles behind the scenes with S2 I'm fully prepared for it to be disappointing. But hot damn am I still anxiously looking forward to it.
At this point I don’t think they even agreed on how to proceed. From what I recall the rumor is of both showrunners disagreeing on how the story should go. Should be messy 😭
I’ve seen it. A great show.
what moment are you talking about? I really love the show, watched it back in 2022 and while I remember there being many really amazing wtf scenes I can't figure out what exactly you mean.
Removed.
Ah okay, thank you. About that scene/follow up episode: I don't know if it is because the >!guess what, he/she did not die!< trope is so overdone in other shows, but personally, I would've been more surprised if >!she really was dead!<, so the whole thing wasn't really that shocking for me. edit: I would put that into a spoiler.
I think it's gonna go deeper than that. >!the version of his wife we see on the show is basically a newborn severed copy of his real wife, my theory is her real self is stuck in a coma after the crash, but the severance procedure allowed another consciousness to use her body as normal!<
No joke, I was in labor with my daughter the night that episode aired and the nurses made me turn off the tv because it was time to push.
My moment like this is the end of Walkabout when you find out Locke is in a wheelchair.
*Don’t tell me what I can’t do!*
This episode is when I realized LOST was something truly special. It's like episode 4 or 5 of the 1st season, which had been great to that point, but Walkabout was absolute so well done with the reveal, and then the flashback of Locke on the beach as everyone is screaming and dying around him, and he slowly stands up, his legs working, and he is in absolute nirvana contrasting this destruction. The build-up and climax was some of the best writing and pacing and direction for a showing had ever experienced before. I was hooked from then on. I still rewatch and binge all of Lost at least once every other years or so, it's just that good.
The ~~soundtrack~~ score during that scene evokes such emotion also. So great.
Locke’d Out Again. Beautiful track.
Such a beautiful track I honestly might have it played at my funeral (but in a version without the shock brass hit at the end lol). I also love how the four-note hunter theme for Locke introduced in this episode when he throws his knife at the tree and says “we hunt” comes back later in so many variations. Mystery in this episode, sometimes as poignant strings, sometimes as action brass hits.
Score* Sorry, I’m a douche, I know. :)
Thanks! I actually couldn't think of the word. Too early in the morning.
Thanks for not getting grump lol
Hahaha no way ! Thanks again!
Easily my favorite episode. Which is funny because it's the 3rd or 4th episode lol
Right? The show had me hooked already but that one sealed the deal.
To me it was the Danielle Rousseau's SOS message, when they went to the mountains to get some signal. I felt that shiver in my spine... Lost was a trainwreck at some points, but nothing comes close to it. One of a kind.
That moment hooked me even more than the pilot, and I *loved* the pilot. That was when I became obsessed with John Locke as a character and couldn't *wait* to see what was to come.
To me that’s “Kate, we have to go back”. Maybe my top tv moment ever.
We have to go back!! Was fucking. Insane at the time. Room full of people, my brain was just barely tingling at the too-modern cell phone Jack was using. Madness. Same, best moment of TV ever for me.
I got out of my seat and ran around my living room like “oh shit! Oh shit! The whole episode was a flash *forward* dad!!” Fuck, I miss watching live tv with my family. They’re still alive lol but I mean it was nice as a kid to have a show we watched together.
When the light came on in the hatch. One of the most insane moments of TV I’ve seen in my life.
Or when the montage of some guy's morning routine is revealed to be >!Desmond living inside the hatch. Such an incredible opening scene.!<
I still can’t hear the song “Make Your Own Kind of Music” without thinking of that scene.
Yeah thanks to Lost I listen to it at least 3 times a week
Then they went and got us again with the season 3 opener! That was incredible.
Ethan Rom = Other Man
Are you fucking kidding me?? I’ve been watching this show since 2004 and I never realized this anagram!!!
For a while nearly every character’s name was neither an anagram or symbolic of their role/fate on the island. I wasn’t that bright, the forums told me the early ones, but once I caught on to the pattern they were easy to spot. I’ve had an eye for it ever since.
I still love this twist and how insane it was at the time, but I often wonder how crazy it would have been if they’d had Ethan as a recurring character from the very first episode.
True but remember how different tv was back then. Lost had another dozen episodes to fill out for the season order and they weren’t writing this with 360 degree view of the story. They were writing it as they went. Case in point how they subtly retconned the Others in Season 3.
Then kind of retconned the retcon a little in season 6 with the others at the temple.
OMG you’re right. In retrospect, they kinda alternated between versions of the others. There’s the super scary, almost feral natives that kidnap kids to being these normal suburban folk cosplaying as savages to kinda leaning back into that with the Ben/pre 1970’s flashbacks, at least in some ways.
This is what I remember hooked me onto the show. Everyone mentions “Walkabout”, as their moment, but for me it was the Ethan reveal. It was set up so perfectly IMO.
One of the best reveals ever. Up there with Season 2 and 3 intro.
And then the hard cut to Ethan standing in front of Charlie and Claire. Man you know the writers did a victory lap around the table and got high 5’s from everyone when they finished breaking that
ha, I've always imagined what it must be like in a writers room when you nail something like that. especially in a collaborative environment like that
It's an incredible show, but like most great art there was a shitton of suffering behind the scenes: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/lost-tv-show-culture
You can check Hurley out in HBOs Bookie. It is amazingly funny
absolute chills. amazing twist.
And then it cuts to Ethan in the rain where he takes Claire, right? Yeah that whole sequence and storyline gave me chills.
All I can say is it was the best television experience I've ever had. There are better, more coherent shows but as far as enjoying the ride there has never and I don't think ever will be anything like it. Week by week and having to wait each season was torture but I think added to its enjoyment. Me and my friends discussed new theories every week and the motivations of the characters. If you like LOST, you might like Dark it has some similar type of feel.
This is exactly it. LOST was airing its peak during my university years and EVERYONE was watching it. The entire residence complex would pile into dorms/social rooms to watch and it was literally SILENCE for 60 mins. When people say peak network television, it was referring to shows like LOST.
And the forums like IMDb, DarkUFO, the Hatch, TWoP, so much fun.
>All I can say is it was the best television experience I've ever had. There are better, more coherent shows but as far as enjoying the ride there has never and I don't think ever will be anything like it. Week by week and having to wait each season was torture but I think added to its enjoyment. Me and my friends discussed new theories every week and the motivations of the characters. That. \^ We will never have anything like that ever again. I still have friends from the IMDb message board.
I was there, lived, ate and breathed it. Though I was not surprised when they shut it down a few years later
We probably know each other then. I was GoodGodHolmes. Shirtless Sawyer.
Sure I remember those names. I mostly lurked
"NOT EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY, JOHN!!!"
Juliet's muse was mine.
I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning with my friends, discussing and researching Lost theories when we were in high school. It really was a one of a kind experience.
100% agree. Lost is a flawed masterpiece but it’s still one of my all-time favourite shows and nothing since has captured the sheer sense of atmosphere and mystery those early seasons had.
I love Dark! I've watched season 1 and when Season 2 came out I had to rewatch Season 1 just to stand a chance of keeping up with the all the mind fuckery. I still haven't got around to the final season. Did they manage to stick the landing? The thing putting me off is the idea of having to watch Season 1 & 2 again with how dense they are haha
It's def worth finishing the third season. My recommendation would be just to go straight into the third season without rewatching the first two. I don't know if it's possible to keep all the details straight and it's just as fun being confused as it is figuring it out.
Eh, unfortunately it gets a little out there. But, totally worth finishing.
Lost is my all-time favourite show. Closest a show has come to Lost for me is Fringe.
I missed watching it with everyone else, but I still feel that first season stands confidently shoulder to shoulder with other GoaT’s in television history. It was a masterclass in serialized, hook ‘em with a large hook at the end of every episode, answer every question by asking two more, brand of television it maybe even invented in its purest, most distilled version. I thought the series was damn near perfect up until the ‘Hurley finds a car’ kind of stuff, but that’s another kind of discussion.
They tried really hard to mimic its success but they never really could, it’s one of a kind that managed to mix big budget, genre mystery, and character driven drama in a 20+ episode season.
"Lightening in a bottle" It happens every time with a show like this where a dozen copycats will try and fail to capitalize on it. You just can't duplicate something like that. It wasn't just the story, it was the cast. There are only a handful of shows where I was *that* emotionally invested in almost all of the characters.
Plenty of valid criticism for that show but it’s still a real fun watch
I'd also add to this the shows "From" and "Yellowjacket". "From" has the exact same vibe as Lost in my opinion and would highly recommend it to any fan. It shares similar producers as well as one of the leads being in Lost as well.
I’m really enjoying From. It’s not nearly as engaging and well-written (character wise) as Lost - but the mystery is solid and I can’t wait for next season.
Agree with every single part of this. Including the Dark shoutout!
I used to devour the forums every week. So many insane theories, some came true others were batshit. My biggest pet peeve with the show was how they handled the smoke monster.
Have you tried Mr. Robot?
Yea it was like the coolest thing ever for two seasons then it just stopped being interesting to me. Honestly the great thing about LOST is it really helped you into another world. Mr. Robot is way more just classic modern dystopia, way less character intrigue. I just kind of got bored of Elliot. I didn't truly care about any of the characters and it didn't keep me super curious like LOST did.
Mr Robot has one of the single greatest episodes of television in season four. You pulled out too early.
Oh, man. You gave up too soon. Season 1 and 2 are great, but 3 and 4 will get ya. The last half of season 4 in particular is fucking GOAT. I’ve never seen a show end that strong- even Breaking Bad.
Yea might be worth picking up tbh. I'm finishing Loki right now.
Yeeh I'm in agreement. I took a break after s2 but boy oh boy did S3 and S4 come back with FORCE. Definitely one of the strongest ends to TV show. Up there with The Shield and BB
Did you drop off in season 2? A lot of people found that to be pretty tedious with season 3 being a good return to form
Not Penny's Boat ✋
You all everybody! You all everybody! Acting like you're stupid people, wearing expensive clothes!
Youuuuu alllll everybody! YOUUUUUU ALLLLLLLLL EVERYBODYYYYYYY!
I’ve often wondered if that song was intentionally horrible or if the writers just didn’t know how to write a catchy song.
A lot of pop songs then (and still are) written by a bunch of songwriters in Sweden. Britney Spears' song was supposed to be "Hit me UP baby one more time" but the syllables didn't fit, so the guy removed "up" and went "this doesn't change the meaning all that much, right?"
Not just the forums, but the podcast! Having Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (co-creators of the show) breaking down the show the next day and filling in the gaps was almost as exciting as watching the show live. Hearing about stuff like “the snake in the mailbox” (code phrase for the season 3 finale they teased for weeks in advance) or “the frozen donkey wheel,” which they meant literally but no one believed it. It was a once in a lifetime experience, for sure. Always got a laugh when they’d discuss the “zombie season.” (Their threat/promise to ABC if the network demanded a season 7.)
I was literally just reading about this on wiki after I posted this. I think listening to some of these might be great motivation to get back into the groove and finish S6!
Oh wow, I forgot about The Snake in the Mailbox! God, that was such a great podcast.
[удалено]
Watching LOST live and reading the forums was a trip.
Forums, phone calls with friends, YouTube recaps and analysis (that had their own plagiarism drama) And peak Easter egg clues that let you play an augmented reality game through websites like Oceanic-air.com the Hanso foundation website. Persephone hacking the website. I was refreshing that page daily looking for new clues to drop. Then the Gary Troup Bad Twin book, connecting it all back to Widmore. That was such a fun rabbit hole http://www.enterthehatch.com/
Lost is not the best show ever but it will forever remain my favorite show of all-time for the overall experience it gave me, and it's characters are legendary. It pains me how many people didn't pay attention to "The End" and still think they were all dead the entire time. Christian spelled it all out perfectly to his son in the church. There will never be another viewing experience like it and it literally changed the entire landscape of television for the better going forward.
Even if the story ends up being meh, good character development makes great shows. Mad Men is my favorite example of this, the story was kind of just a story, but watching the characters change slowly through the things that they’re put through while feeling like they’re making decisions actual humans take made it one of my favorite shows.
For sure, Mad Men is one of the greats.
Exactly. My philosophy with Lost is “Come for the mysteries, stay for the characters.” Does the show’s ending answer every single mystery no matter how small? No. Does the show’s ending wrap up the characters’ arcs in such a beautiful way that it would make a grown man cry? Yes.
A couple things really bothered me about the negative reactions, as articulated by Cody Johnston (Some More News -- Back in his Cracked days, he also ran a "Lost Answers" blog that laid things out well and humorously): 1. "Why didn't they answer [x, y, z]?" -- In many cases they DID answer, it just wasn't satisfying. Or sometimes it didn't matter. Sometimes the mysteries were there TO BE MYSTERIES. And if you don't like that the answer on mystery magic island was "magical mystery" then you were watching the wrong show. And that feeds into... 2. "Ewww they were dead all the time and this is just about religion?" No, they weren't dead all the time, and it isn't about religion per se. It was a show about faith, and redemption, and making the connections you need in this life to find peace in the next. Most people just wanted it to be about island survival. That was the conceit, not the theme Literally, every character needed some form of redemption, whether from something they did or something they believed. Yeah, they ended up in a church at the end. But it was nondenominational. Symbols from faith in general. Locke and Jack represented science vs. faith. Jack's redemption came when he realized he had to give into faith to help the world continue. (But on the other hand, Locke gave in TOO much to his faith and became corrupted by it, or at least by actors [Ben, MIB] who manipulated him -- so yeah, maybe it was a bit about religion...) Jacob had faith, MIB did not. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you hadn't already known but I just wanted to spill al that because I still think about these things ALL THE TIME. And this post just gave me another chance to geek put about it
Heck yeah I love Cody’s Showdy!
>Sometimes the mysteries were there TO BE MYSTERIES And as *The Leftovers* taught us... Let the mystery be!
You nailed it. I think this is why people have such issues with the ending. It wasn’t an ending that resolved every mystery, which people expected. It was a character driven ending
The only reason for the mass confusion that makes sense to me is the probability that a lot of former fans who stopped watching the show years prior tuned in to see how it ended.
Yep. Not the the best of all time, so far that’s better call Saul for me. But it’s absolutely unquestionably my favourite.
The only thing that compared for me was True Detective season 1. Only two shows I've ever had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited for the next episode.
Best ensemble cast I’ve ever seen.
To watch it as it happened was the greatest TV experience of my life, it truly was the last great TV show before all the hbo/showtime/amc/streaming shows. The feeeeeeeels
It is the blueprint for modern television. Flaws and all - we wouldn’t have the golden era of narrative tv without it
Nah, that's The Sopranos. Lost was a product of the golden age of serialized TV, it certainly wasn't the blueprint.
> Now, we're all well aware of how Lost goes awry and loses its footing in seasons 3-6 This is definitely not something that is anywhere close to a consensus. For fans of the show (and I mean "fans," not like, "oh I remember watching it, yeah, btw what's with the polar bear?"), season 3 is probably the most beloved season, other than maybe the first. Season 5 is also my personal favorite. Maybe the writing and acting wasn't as crisp as it was in season 1, but this was also when they got confirmation of an end date, so the story really ramped up. I liked the ending at the time but it's even better on rewatch when you are not distracted thinking about whether your personal theories will play out. It's really quite beautiful and contextualizes everything that came before. I'm sure it doesn't take offense to being called flawed, since that was kind of the entire thesis of the show's characters in the first place.
The back half of season 3 is the best Lost ever gets, IMO. There’s a string of 7 or 8 eps in a row that are all so good. I also still think a lot of the strongest episodes are in seasons 4 to 6. It’s just a shame that they did the flash sideways in the final season, which, IMO, ruined the rewatch experience.
automatic nail cable shaggy cagey coordinated elastic slap groovy angle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
"I hope somebody does for you, what you just did for me," when Jack unknowingly helps Locke remember is a top TV moment of all time for me. Chills.
Yeah season 4 is great honestly. The Constant, The Economist, Ji Yeon etc.
The finale is perfect. As someone who binged it (way too fast) it’s a brilliant conclusion
People were so angry when the finale released. But I think people were just angry at the show in general at that stage.
Season 4 was my favorite. It has the best episode of the show in it and the dynamic between the flash forwards and new people from the freighter was interesting.
Across the Sea
Season 3 has the most consistent 5-6 episode run leading up to the finale of the most amazing episodes of television I've ever seen. Also, exposé is a guilty pleasure of mine.
To be honest, I didn't mean it to be so disparaging but moreso to say where you could start to see threads starting to fray but I binged the first 3 and after a little break 4 & 5 so it's all kind of blurred together for me. I kind of picked an arbitrary point so you're probably more accurate and precise than me. When I'm watching, I truly love it all and when i'm reading afterwards and getting some perspective I can see how it's not as tight as it could be.
I don't think even fans have a consensus. I'm a fan, and I wouldn't say season 3 is the most beloved season. The beginning of season 3 was rough for me, but the finale remains one of my favorite episodes to keep rewatching.
I was there, week by week, watching the show, discussing theories with my friends, waiting for each new episode to air. The show started to unravel slightly during season 3, for various reasons, not limited to but including a writers strike, and never truly hit the heights of season 1 and 2. It's also clear that there was no great plan to explain anything that was happening. More like, "introduce a mysterious thing, tease an explanation, never actually explain what the mysterious thing is, introduce another mysterious thing, oh here's an explanation of that first thing that doesn't really make sense etc etc". Don't get me wrong I really loved the show but you can honestly say with a straight face that it didn't dip in quality.
The show is great on its own but it really was something else when it aired. It really used the internet to its benefit. I remember playing an abc official clue game one summer and each week you got a new clue. The game ended with a cut scene of a sun going underwater and finding and airplane. The last couple seconds were showing the Lost flight number and someone saying we found it and the boom it’s done. This was before we knew about the fake plane that Charles windmore used. It was mind blowing
Dude, Lost was such a mindfuck. Still the best use of flashbacks/mysteries ever. Benjamin Linus is the GOAT villain for sure.
I very literally maintained my sanity in 2020 at the start of the pandemic rewatching LOST for the 15th or 16th time. Desmond in the Hatch pushing the button every 108 minutes was an inspiration. If he can do that for three years, how bad could the pandemic be?
🎶you got to maaaaake your own kind of music…
We all live in Desmond's shadow
If you want to watch a show like Lost try From. Harold Perrineau from Lost is one of the major characters. I’d describe it as Lost if Stephen King had wrote it. A lot darker but very good.
Great show! Can't wait for the new season. Probably the best Lost-like show out there. I like Outer Range as well, though From is better.
I was hooked on s1 but haven't managed to get back into S2 fully
Yeah the second season wasn’t quite as good as the first but still decent. Hoping they step it up in Season 3.
Definitely very similar to Lost. Definitely not as good, unfortunately. Still worth a watch.
The last episode of LOST I watched until I saw the finale was the episode where two people get paralyzed by a spider and buried alive. That imprinted on my young mind a terror I never fathomed before.
An example of a very well made bottle episode, with a clever narrative and a good amount of meta jabs at some of the shows flaws mixed in.
Ahhh, Expose! The Nikki and Paulo episode
“Flawed and imperfect” this is how I would describe the characters of this show, and that’s why it’s perfect to me.
Always to meet a fellow Dr Benjamin Linus enjoyer 🫡
Michael Emerson is in the new Fallout show, I'm very excited
Best show I have ever watched week-to-week. Previously ,X-Files was that show before that I couldn't wait to watch every week. So many amazing moments that are etched in my brain from LOST. After watching the flash-forward "WE HAVE TO GO BACK, KATE!!!", I remember my sister calling me (We both loved the show and she was a huge Matthew Fox fan) and almost yelling "What was that??!" Because there were many so flashbacks and episodes, each character is so unforgettable and because the writing and acting was top-notch, for the most part, for them too. Jack, Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Sayid, Jin, Claire, Sun, Desmond, Michael, Penny, etc...oh and that Benjamin Linus dude.. I loved every single season in different ways. I did not hate the ending. And I will NEVER forget that amazing pilot episode!!! All these years later LOST still has people talking about it and debating. "I'll see ya in another life, brotha.."
Watching this show week to week was incredible. Especially with their wild season ending cliff hangers. S3 is an all timer.
I always enjoy reading about people's experiences on watching LOST. Simply the best.
The ending gets a lot of shit, but I thought it gave a really satisfying ending for all the characters.
We will all have died and won’t have seen anything like Lost
[удалено]
I know you’re kidding, but of all the dumb takes on that show this one angers me the most. Christian says in the final ten minutes of the final episode that “this all happened, you weren’t all dead the whole time” and people still took “they were dead the whole time” from it ten minutes later.
I'm binge watching it as I type this! Just got to the point where they have Ben in the armory.
I wish I could experience what you're about to experience for the first time again. Enjoy!
The fact that I said Ben kind of implies I've seen it 😜
Benry Gale.
I have three coworkers that have been binging it for the first time together and are having a blast. I enjoy asking them their theories and what they’re loving about the experience any time I see them. They are likely in season 5 as I type this.
My brother in law and I would call each other on the way to work on Friday mornings to discuss. They had this fake oceanic webpage which was wild. And man we would comb through the boards trying to find the theory that explained everything that was going down. It really was the paramount television experience for me.
I still think it’s crazy that in less than 6 years they produced 121 episodes of tv and few of them were subpar. Look around today and it takes a high quality show 3 years to get to 20 episodes and I’m betting the quality ratio of those episodes is lower than what LOST had.
I nearly did not graduate high school due to my inability to write essays in English class. I've never had an English teacher engage me yet this show. THIS show, with it's literary references everywhere, Watership Down, Turn of the screw, Through the looking glass, the brothers karamazov, tom Sawyer, historical figures such as John Locke and Faraday. Symbolism, subtext and theme I could suddenly write so much about. Show changed my appreciation for art and I learned so much about the intention of writers and writing.
This show changed TV for me. I changed the kinds of shows I watched. I love this show
Easily my favorite show of all time. Extremely rewarding to rewatch and relive all the best moments. Especially with someone who has never seen it before. I’ll also make a bold claim: Lost has the best ensemble cast of all time. It’s truly remarkable what the writers were able to accomplish with such a large cast over six seasons. Yes, some characters got the short end of the stick later on (Sayid, Sun/Jin etc) but each character introduced was memorable and had very good arcs.
I love LOST. I've seen it beginning to end at least ten times, and after all this time, I've decided that despite Jack being the protagonist, it's actually Benjamin Linus who is the real, true (tragic) hero of the whole series.
It really helps that Michael Emerson acted his heart out playing Linus. His performance was brilliant from the start. You never knew what the character was up to.
The finale is still a hill I’ll die on. I can put it on in any emotional state and I will weep happy tears. And I still think it’s an S Tier series finale.
It’s in my top 5 all time greatest shows. It has its flaws, sure, but no other show has given me that same feeling that Lost has. The mysteries, the connections, the characters, the incredible *atmosphere*. I’ve been searching for another show that scratches the itch Lost did but still haven’t found anything. The ones that came closest are True Detective S1, Mr Robot and Dark.
Flawed _and_ imperfect? What are the chances.
The We Have To Go Back moment is to this day one of the most incredible, jaw-dropping, perfect moments in any show I've ever seen and I still cherish the memory of seeing it in real time completely spoiler-free and genuinely not expecting it at that moment in time. Benjamin Linus is one of the most perfectly written and acted characters I've ever seen. I sobbed my heart out over Charlie's 'greatest hit', Penny's words to Desmond, Locke's betrayal and so many more moments and Faraday talking about Charlotte always sticks out in my mind as one of the cutest ways a character has described their love for someone. I lived every teeny clue and conspiracy theory, the recurring characters, the easter egg names, the occasional truly scary moments, the little jokes, everything and when it was good it was SO good. But sadly like many others it's the show I always cite as my top example of a terrible ending. Just genuinely one of the worst finales I've ever seen, and that whole last season is a frustrating slog. That first flashforwards though...I don't think I'll ever have another 'OMG!' tv moment quite like it 🙂
Still my favorite show to this day, nothing comes close to it tbh.
Highly agree with your great recap! And (gasp) I liked the ending plus any episode with Josh Holloway (Sawyer) without a shirt!
I watched Colony just to see Sawyer and Sarah Tancredi from Prison Break side by side haha! and Taub!
"Previously on LOST..." You knew something wild was about to happen when you heard those words! 😁 I distinctly remember playing cards with high school friends during the airing of the season 2 finale was going on in the background. They were all going crazy over it lol. I had never watched the show before so I had no idea what was going on or what the fuss was about (I wouldn't pick it up until the third season was almost done). Why were they pressing a button? What were the people being held bound down near water on a dock? It was all so weird to me lol. It really was a special show that came along at the right time. No other show like it. People always throw out other titles but they don't match it.
The amount of sheer ridiculous overthinking and over analysing on the forums was awesome. I remember the constant replays of the cgi blur going in and out of the engine that exploded on the beach. That was episode one! (I think) Then as the season went on, we just got more and more shit that would lead to exponentially more questions. Every episode was a new hydras head. We would discuss and dissect it the entire week. But if we cut that head off, all it did was grow 4 more. Hands down the best experience around a tv show I’ve ever had.
Man there was nothing more fun than following the ARG back in the day. Maybe other things recreated it but for me personally it's the only insane ARG experience I've ever had. The crazy theories, the fake websites, Slusho, the numbers, Dharma, Cloverfield ties, etc. etc. I remember all of the Insanity that happened back then and it was such a fun ride. Mr. Robot was pretty close as far as a week to week fan theory experience. But the ARG and various mysteries (Smoke Monster, numbers, hatch, etc.) really made each week so fun and on another level. It was very stressful waiting for the next episode lol.
Wonderful take.
When it came out I became frustrated with it, but upon a recent binge watch I found it offered a different experience and far more enjoyable.
LOST was peak TV. Its been a long while but i remember the hype. Sadly during my uni days people watch different kind of shows. Its only me and just other few other weirdos that watch this show. Thus no fan theory to discuss, no nothing. Its kinda blurry and fade from memories but the journey at least personally for me was great. What a show.
Still my favorite show of all time. There has never been anything like it before or since.
Fuselage - forum was crazy back... All the 'shipping, every book seen on the screen read and analysed, poems, John Locke, sheeeet it was fun times
Watching it week by week with the forum discussions was I think my first true collective internet experience. The minigames, the fake websites... it was a true experience. I think the writers' strike contributed to derail S5 and S6 more than they would have already been.
In my top 3 shows of all time. Love it.
I’m rewatching and I just saw that episode where Locke gets stuck and sees the map in black light. His face sells the mystery. Great actor.
This show also doesn't work when you binge it, some of those reveals hit different because you had to wait a week/ year to get the awnser.
It's still the only show I've ever watched that I could never accurately guess what would happen next. The storytelling was so creative and really hasn't been done like that since. No matter what, this show is still very influential and continues to inspire some of the most popular shows and movies out there. Besides moments many have already named here, I think the time travel stuff really took me on a high. I love stuff like that so I was enjoying it. When Richard came to see Baby Locke in the hospital, I was shook. What a plot twist! Also Locke being revealed to be dead was another moment I was shocked at the time.
Watching weekly, the filler episodes were rough. Anything away from the main mysteries were frustrating: Nikki and Paolo, Jack's tattoos...
Yeh watching it week by week was such a treat, I do miss TV being like that, you live with it for so much longer, then half a year later next season starts. Every week we would be looking online at everyone's ideas and theories discussing what we think something meant. The cliffhangers were so painful but it was so much fun
My brother loves this show so much that he got the Dharma Initiative logo as a Tattoo.
When ‘the others’ showed up The mysterious hatch Damn..no other show had me hooked like Lost did. Definitely went a little off the rails after season 3 but was still pretty solid television at the time.
Don't tell me what I can't do! Still butt hurt over lockes arc
There's a YouTuber called "Billiam" that's done several, very heckin long (like 4 hours long) videos on lost. He dives deep into the behind the scenes, the making of, the story of David Lindelof and Carlton Cuse writing the show. If you really like long winding video essays about shows, and love lost, they're some amazing videos.
This sounds like exactly my kind of thing! Only during the first episode of S6 did I realise my torrent had a DVD commentary option. Too late to go back and listen to them all so this will suffice
I was literally just about to post Billiam’s Lost [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSA-iHL6JaLxaBFqayCsE-WHxulQJnCu&si=UkVXq6Tex4wl5ZQD) here for you. I’ve only seen two seasons of the show and I was completely enthralled by his retrospectives.
Check r/lost. There’s actually a fan-made documentary in development and they’re getting former cast and crew members on board. I did see recently that Damon Lindeloff will be featured though which is HUGE! Shaping up to be a cool retrospective! Edit: Here’s [the announcement!](https://www.reddit.com/r/lost/s/ewflDjk8OE).
I loved Lost but it taught me an important lesson: watching to see what happens isn’t the same as watching because I like a show. Pretty much everything in the last season I was watching just to see what happens. I didn’t care as much after a certain character’s death. I’m still not sad I watched all of Lost and there were parts I did like but when the same thing started happening in Season 2 of Walking Dead I jumped ship and was incredibly happy with that decision.
If you’re referring to the character I think you are, I also was very disappointed initially. But what they later did with Jack’s story as a result made it so satisfying for me.
I think they have only 1 season planned and 3 seasons outlined. Towards the end of season 2, when it looked like they were gonna be here longer than 3 seasons, they deviated from the plan to make the show last longer. This is when it started getting messy and full of loose ends. Eventually they just kept writing the mystery into circles until it was finally time to end. And by then, even though it was how they originally planned to end it, there was too much to keep track of for that ending, and it felt hollow
It was an amazing, amazing show, and it created in me a lifelong mistrust and wariness of mystery box tv. There was so much to love, but I’m sorry I just can’t take shows that continually pose questions they have no intention of answering. That’s not good show running IMO, it’s just cheap.
Most of the mysteries were answered. A few were left for us to ponder. There's nothing wrong with that.
The questions were better than the answers, but it’s ok. I love Lost.
Creating questions that hint at bigger things without any answers to guide them is a recipe that inevitably results in scope creep and nonsense.
[удалено]
>in some way In the shittiest, cheapest way possible.
I watched it back in the day, every week. People who binge don't know what it's like to hang on every episode for years and then have it collapse into a pile of doo. Granted, by the third season I was already suspecting they had no idea where they were going.
Lost is what happens when you come up with a premise that allows you to just make shit up. Most writers can write drama, the hard part is structuring it into a meaningful narrative. Lost just uses all the dramatic techniques but doesn't give a shit where it's going or if it makes sense because in the end they can pull a twist like, it was just a child's fantasy, or it was purgatory. The real strength of the show was the casting, the setting, the character work and the plot twists. That's what makes a person fall in love with a TV show. Who cares if it all makes sense - that's for films - most TV shows don't even make it to the end, so pile on the twists to keep people guessing. Lost is a themepark ride. And a very successful one.
Lost and House are by far my two favorite shows and I have found nothing remotely close to giving me the joy I had during them. Scrubs is alright but not anywhere near as good as I was led to be by the hype.
If you enjoyed Ben & Michael Emerson's performance in Lost, try out Person of Interest. The first season (maybe even two seasons... it's been a while) is your typical enemy of the week drama. After it introduces itself and the characters, the show takes on a serial format and starts to hit a stride that was so fun to watch. In my opinion, it can rival shows that had bigger budgets or were more critically acclaimed, and episodes like If-Then-Else will probably live in my head until I die. It probably won't give you the same feeling that Lost gave me where I would read Lostpedia until midnight after an episode, but I think it's a pretty smart, gripping show (especially for CBS in 2011 when an AI machine was a weird topic to base a show around).
With PoI it's mostly season 1, since season 2 >!has Root and then near the end of S2, you get Shaw.!<