TV and Movie Reviews! - Week 3

The Movie Maestro, Evan Wade!

I'm going to do things a little different this week. I'm just going to talk about one show. Partly because it's a 6 season show with a lot of episodes, but mainly because I just can't make this recommendation and only write two paragraphs about it. So, this week's pick is sci-fi mystery and adventure epic LOST. Written by Damon Lindelof and produced by JJ Abrams, Lost ran from 2004 through to 2010 and was very much a series like no other. Controversial to some for it's tendency to pile questions on top of questions, and of course it's very divisive ending, Lost has not been without it's nay-sayers. Pair that with the fact that it never had any sort of follow-up or spin-off in any medium and it's fair to say that Lost has somewhat disappeared into TV history in the 10 years since it's finale. But I believe that the show is as important now as it ever was.

To give a brief synopsis of the show, Lost sees the survivors of a plane crash stranded on an uncharted tropical island, forced to come together as a community when it becomes clear that rescue is not coming. With strange occurrences, such a recurring set of numbers, aggressive polar bears and a mysterious black smoke otherwise referred to as 'the monster', the surviving passengers of Oceanic flight 815 soon realise that they are not on any ordinary island as things start to get crazy.

Though some may scoff at it, the writing in Lost is still some of the best writing I have seen in television. The overall concept of a group of people from all walks of life, thrown together on an island with only what they had with them on the plane is still as interesting as it was 16 years ago. The carefully spun web of mystery and intrigue sown over a 25 episode first season is still a thrill to watch. And most importantly are it's characters. Perhaps the one thing Lost did the best out of everything was how it developed and treated it's characters. And with an ensemble cast as large as this, that was an impressive feat. There is a reason to love every one of them and absolutely none of them are without their excruciatingly real faults. The casting and acting are fantastic, of course, as every actor puts their complete stamp on their character. I still can't see Evangeline Lilly in a Marvel movie without seeing her as the iconic Kate Austen. All of this coupled with what might well be one of (if not 'the') best and incredibly beautiful scores in TV history by composer Michael Giacchino , makes Lost still stand the test of time, and will do for years to come.

In 2004, Lost's 2 part pilot was the most expensive TV pilot ever made, costing between 10 and 14 million dollars. An investment that was well made back over it's 6 season run. The series went on to be the defining show of the decade and has since gone on to influence many major shows since. It was the first show to successfully bring Hollywood to our home's by implement such themes as action, adventure, thriller, science fiction, drama and even horror, and put them all together. It also created a formula that would be used by many shows to come with it's classic flash backs that would centre on one survivor per episode and give the audience a little peek into who they were and how they ended up on flight 815. It truly set the foundations for shows like Game of Thrones, Westworld, Once Upon a Time, etc. 

I remember watching the pilot episode in 2004 when I was almost 11 and I was blown away by it. I tried to catch every episode I could, and remained with it through to the end. With streaming being so popular now, I don't think we could ever experience something like Lost ever again. A phenomena that had people tuning in every week, never wanting to miss any of the mystery and debates on online forums for months about what all the secrets could be. Over the last few months since quarantine I decided to watch it all again for the first time since, as my girlfriend Maria has never seen it, but always wanted to. Even though I know how it ends and being 15 years older, it's still as enjoyable as ever and I was sucked right back into the world like I had never left. Maria is experiencing it in a completely different way than I did, having the entire thing available to watch one episode after the other and going through 6 seasons in just over 2 months, yet she still enjoys and loves it as much as I did when I first saw it.

It's difficult to talk about Lost as a whole, the themes and ideas it explores and where it goes without spoiling any of it. But if I were to make one point overall it would be this: Lost is still as current today as it ever was because it's message about humanity and helping each other is just as important, if not more. Beyond all the genre's and mystery Lost covers, it's still at it's core a show about people, about community, about hope. About a group of strangers helping each other find the hope they need to survive in isolation and becoming a larger family. And during these times with everything that's going on in the world right now, I don't think there is any other show that reflects what people are going through and what we need in order to move past it better than Lost. whether you've never seen it before, been sceptical about watching it or just haven't seen it since it ended, now is the perfect time to go back to the island.

All six seasons of LOST are currently available on Amazon Prime Video.

Have a great weekend, and Enjoy! Until next week..