Rewatching Lost - is it worth it?

Donegal Dan

Ive never been as engrossed in any show before or since, with the possible exception of The West Wing, but that show finale was a serious letdown.

Ive had mixed feelings about rewatching it because of the

non purgatory purgatory

of the the last episode that left more than a few fans a bit pissed off.

And then there's the magnificence of it; the scenery, the characters, the twists, the music and the writing (for the most part).

Has anyone rewatched it now knowing the ending? Anything to look out for second time around that shows, even back in - for example - the first episode, that the writers had a long term plan in mind?

Richard Dower

no

ronnie3585

Hell no!

BlaasForRafa

Only if you've got no paint to watch going dry.

bumper234

Watched every episode and loved it. Then saw the last episode and felt like i had been robbed. Would never watch again even if i was paid.

snausages

Season 1, sure. It's been so long that there's bound to be some interesting stories that you'd have forgotten (assuming you watched it during its original run). After that I'd just stop.

Outkast_IRE

Am currently re-watching season 1, about an episode a week.
Loads I had forgotten, season 1 is really good TV, I will see how I feel about the show as I move on though, im in no rush .

don ramo

Richard Dower wrote: »

no

youve never watched it, so sush

how was it non purgatory purgatory, it was straight up purgatory, it was them all assembling after the last of them had died so they could all meet up before heading to the ever after together, with each of them reliving their lives after the island to show them that they were at their best on the island, and when they were together,

i would have loved to see a spin off showing what happened after they all left the island and Hurley and Ben were running things, and seeing what exactly lead to Hurley and Ben dying seeing as they should be immortal like Jacob was,

ill definitely be re-watching it at some point, just far to much TV on these days,

Dublin Red Devil

I watched it live for about 2 and a half seasons and I enjoyed it. But during the 3 season it just got so ridiculous and I got board with it.
I came back to it a few years later when I got the boxset as a Christmas present. Board off my ass one wee I decide to finish watching it.

Donegal Dan

Just got Netflix yesterday and all episodes are on it, so the temptation is rising!

GottaGetGatt

Donegal Dan wrote: »

Ive never been as engrossed in any show before or since, with the possible exception of The West Wing, but that show finale was a serious letdown.

Ive had mixed feelings about rewatching it because of the

non purgatory purgatory

of the the last episode that left more than a few fans a bit pissed off.

And then there's the magnificence of it; the scenery, the characters, the twists, the music and the writing (for the most part).

Has anyone rewatched it now knowing the ending? Anything to look out for second time around that shows, even back in - for example - the first episode, that the writers had a long term plan in mind?

What about Breaking Bad,Homeland,Sopranos,Game of Thrones,Suits..... i could go on

Kirby

He didn't say best show. He used the word engrossed.

You listed Suits which is a bad example. I watch Suits. It's a great show but it isn't in any way engrossing. You watch it, and then you don't think about until next week. It's not engrossing in the same way a Game of Thrones or Lost is.

These are shows you talk about with other people and occasionally think about when they aren't on. This describes Lost to a tee. Thousands of websites examining Dharma easter eggs, speculation about the hatch, about the smoke monster, etc. It was one of those rare shows that got people talking.

So you are right, you could "go on" and list a bunch of great shows....but that list would be a bit pointless as that wasn't really his point.

FortuneChip

I watched it again last year.
Some great scenes, the acting was always near perfect, and engaging characters.
All the best moments are just as good as they were first time around, even the big reveals & twists.

But honestly, there were plenty of times I thought "Ugh, next episode please"
I don't think the 6th season was as bad as some people might say, in particular the off-island scenes (I'll admit there was a lot of nonsense going down on the island). The problem with the off-island scenes is that they were too disjointed from the rest of the series, it could have been made as a standalone show elsewhere and maybe worked.

All in all, is it worth it? Only if you think there's no other shows out there that rival it.

And honestly, there are a lot of engrossing shows out there. Breaking Bad is top of the list, and you're guaranteed closure from it!
Game Of Thrones is definitely in the same field, a big fully realised world with a history and plenty of unique characters, all the building blocks for an engrossing show!

I'll agree shows like Suits are entertaining, but procedurals are hardly engrossing. They're just fun takes on a profession really.

Battlestar Galactica could defintely be an alternative to re-watching Lost. It's got the grand scale of Lost, lots of lore, good character developments (mostly), and even themes to rival Lost's (science v faith, good v evil)


Oh, they shoe-horned stuff in to season 6 in a vain attempt to make us think they had it planned.
Don't let them fool you, they didn't!

Donegal Dan

I took the plunge last night and Im already 7 episodes in on the first season. So many things that Id forgotten about. I'll stick with the rewatch till it gets boring and I might consider skipping the last season entirely.

With Lost on US Netflix is anyone watching it for the first time/rewatching it?

Butterface

I was a big Lost fan for the first few seasons. By the beginning of the last season I had completely lost interest so never got past episode 1.

I actually asked friends on Facebook recently to tell me what had happened in the last season and if I should bother watching it, and the overwhelming response was NO!!

fruvai

Just read The Third Policeman instead

EdmondShiels3

I don't think I could watch it again because I would not be looking forward to what was going to happen. It is the best tv program I have seen and no program has come close. I looked forward to seeing it every week and would be wondering what was happening till the next episode. The same cannot be said by other programs I am watching now. I taught that the end was very good and did not ruin the whole program.

jenjenten

no

Little Acorn

My all time favourite show. Never ever got so attached to a story and characters in any other tv show. So sad when it ended. (I actually only watched the entire series long after it had ended but worked very hard to avoid spoilers).
That show brought everything from me, sadness, laughter, suspense, theories about the mystery and even philosophising about life in general. A lot made me think about family members I lost.
I used to have dreams some nights that I was on the island when watching it!
About 2 years since I've watched it all through together, have the boxset and planning to watch all seasons again maybe sometime around christmas.:)

Blazer

No..no no no no ****in no no no no no no no no no no no no no

I hope the writers of Lost and Mass Effect 3 burn in hell for all eternity.

Fago123

Yes. As you get towards the latter seasons you'll realise the majority of people who cry "but they never answered x mystery!" were either not paying attention or dipped out & came back in the final few episodes of the last season. I'm a huge fan and the amount of people who say in a discussion "I can't believe they were dead the whole time" is staggering.

DubTony

My wife and I went through some old box sets last night, and I pulled Lost out of the unit. "Will we watch this again?"
We both laughed for ... aw ... ages.

When I saw the polar bear in the first episode way back when, I said "F*ck this", and didn't bother watching. But I got caught up in the hype and eventually did.

I couldn't believe they were dead the whole time.

Snake Plisken

Great show actually one of the few I would consider watching again, and I was happy with the ending , great performances charecters that you really care about, and show runners who weren't afraid to kill them off! So yes well worth a rewatch!

Donegal Dan

As I go through this re-watch Im reminded that so many questions were unanswered and so many major plot points were superfluous by the time season 6 rolled around.

Damon Lindelof cant seem to able to ever pull off a satisfying Act 3 in his body of works to date.

Pretty.Odd.

I tried rewatching a couple of times and didn't make it past season 2 but I'm currently rewatching again and I've just finished season 3 and it's amazing how into this show I still am. I remember watching it the first time and how much it made you care about the characters and I'm still the same now even watching it for the second time. It actually gives me chills. I still don't understand how people think they were dead all along. Definitely my fave tv show and nothing has come close since. Really miss the anticipation of waiting til next week to see what happens. I'll admit there were and still is some points where I rolled my eyes and shook my head but that's definitely trumped by a lot of moments of sheer genius. Definitely worth rewatching.

Dublin Red Devil

Lost summed up in 3 min

StompToWork

During it's original run, Lost angered me. At the end of each and every episode, I would be left exasperated, frustrated, and throwing the remote at the TV in the confused rage that each and every episode left me in. That meant I LOVED IT. My frustration was at having to wait until the following week to see what happened, which invariably meant I would be waiting 3 or 4 weeks for the story to come back around. It was infuriating but good fun.

Then, the finale happened. Christ on a bike, what a waste of 5 years of my life that was.

I, personally, will never go through all that again, when I know there is a $hit ending!!

Donegal Dan

Now upto season 4 and just enjoying it for what it is season by season rather than the overall clusterfúck it is.

The_Honeybadger

Loved the show initially but gave up midway through the last season as it just got so daft that I lost interest in it. I think the broad consensus is that the last season was a big disappointment and the creators missed the opportunity to cement the show as one of the greats. It's like the writers were told during the latter seasons to keep the show going no matter what so they added lots of unnecessary sub plots and fillers. It just got boring for me after the third season but I persevered until I just couldn't be arsed with it any more. Must get around to finishing it at some stage but there is just so much choice with netflix etc that it may never happen.

Adamantium

Watch Firefly, BSG, Friday Night Lights, anything but rewatch it.


Jericho is a fantastic example of how to deliver ominous mystery/anxiety and consistently pay off in exciting and meaningful ways. If you haven't done so watch it

Hell I'd rather rewatch 24, than Lost.

A part of me wishes that they kept it more grounded in a castaway/survival drama because I did feel that's where it was always at its strongest. I don't think TV has ever had a set of characters in the beginning that were so iconic as the main cast of Lost.

I wrote this a while back:

I remember finding Season 4 of Lost absolutely remarkable in how it good it was. It genuinely felt like a conclusion was in mind.

I really hoping a war would come to the island (with a huge budget) and the Oceanic Airline and the US Army would be huge conspirators behind Dharma.

Gah but damn the way they handled season 5 and 6. Jesus. I suppose its selfish because it didn't go how I wanted it to go.

One of the favourite aspects to the show was the snowglobe nightmarish aspect and there was certain keyholes on how to exit and get a signal in or off the landmass.

For me the speculation in the first 3 seasons was huge as to what the worldwide reaction would be if such a bizarre landmass was found and publicly revealed/leaked and the ensuing media and personal chaos for the survivors. Yet it was never really hinted at or developed all that much and would have placed the show in a larger context. What would you do with such a place if it cured cancer, made people walk, what would it mean for humanity and who would control/have a right to it? Yet, It was a launching ground for great ideas that, honestly .....went nowhere.

A GREAT WAY TO WRITE A SCI FI SHOW Would have been to have ACTUAL SCI FI WRITERS.

It could gone in a Jurrasic park esque direction. ****in hell it even was fimed in Hawaii

Hell in the first few seasons it had a wonderful Spielberg sense of wonder and humanity with
sci fi elements/survival elements. This could have been the better direction.

Bloody hell could have been a Star Trek for the 21st century.

Despite that long ramble nothing on earth will compare to those earlier mindblowing seasons as a 13 year old, I thought it was the most amazing thing i ever saw on Film/tv. I literally couldn't believe what they were doing

Sort of like watching Star Wars at a certain age.

AND DESPITE ALL THAT...

I have such contradictory feelings about the show and maybe that's a good thing, it made me think, it pushed me, it had allegories, it had everything, it was humanity, and isn't that all we could ask for in our media. It was brave and fearless and frustrating.. It had metaphysics and multiple realities, stuff that goes way way over the heads of 90% people and these guys thought hey we're making a primetime network show, let's include this. I do like how we were allowed to interpret what we saw.that is the beauty of Lost, it is a very different experience for different people and therefore the experience becomes very personal.

It's a very literary, novelistic show. Anyone read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace? It's one of the best books of the last 30 years and its absolutely nuts and sprawling and dense, and feels like the book will collapse in underself in a good and bad way. Lost is like that.

It transformed the medium of television into something literary. It made us think, it made us look at just how deep and complex we are despite the vacuous nature of modern life, it made us think about our perception of time and of consciousness and of our place within both. Christ it had metaphysics! There is no one rigid, guaranteed way to write about metaphysics!

tunguska

Watched Lost again recently. First time since it ended and hard to believe its been 10 yrs since I saw some of those episodes. I loved it on its first run and I loved watching it all over again. I know a lot of people hate the ending, so much so that they've vowed never to watch it again and thats fair enough, but for me I think there was so much great stuff going on there that Im not too bothered by the outcome. The acting was great, the dialogue fairly tight, and it was genuinely exciting a lot of the time.

Agent Smith

There. I just saved you the time.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

he really has....

touts

No. Anyway I hear they have started to show it in purgatory after you die as a way of making 5 years feel like an eternity while you wait to go to heaven.

don ramo

its simple really, if you enjoyed the show and liked or didnt mind the ending, yes its worth re-watching, i know i will re-watch it at some point,

the ending shouldn't take away from what was a great adventure:)

Donegal Dan

Ive just seen the Jacob/MIB origins story "Across The Sea" on my rewatch and it reminded of when I started to get worried about the ending of this show when first viewing it in 2010.

Whats that Damon?

Oh you fúcked it up?

Yes. Yes we know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5chCMRsEVo

Fago123

Donegal Dan wrote: »

Ive just seen the Jacob/MIB origins story "Across The Sea" on my rewatch and it reminded of when I started to get worried about the ending of this show when first viewing it in 2010.

Whats that Damon?

Oh you fúcked it up?

Yes. Yes we know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5chCMRsEVo

See this is exactly what frustrates me when it comes to the Lost ending as I mentioned on the previous post.

Here is an interviewer, from the first time I laid eyes on him I thought "now, this guy knows what he's talking about", yet around the 7 minute mark he shows he has clearly misinterpreted the ending. Completely. Whether you like it or not, this is an ending I don't think is particular complex?

He didn't think the island was real?!?!

Snake Plisken

Fago123 wrote: »

See this is exactly what frustrates me when it comes to the Lost ending as I mentioned on the previous post.

Here is an interviewer, from the first time I laid eyes on him I thought "now, this guy knows what he's talking about", yet around the 7 minute mark he shows he has clearly misinterpreted the ending. Completely. Whether you like it or not, this is an ending I don't think is particular complex?

He didn't think the island was real?!?!

Yep what a stupid interviewer, he really didn't grasp the show at all, I would love to see an interview conducted by someone who loved the show and accepted the ending!

Donegal Dan

Considering what a TV juggernaut it was for them Im surprised ABC havent done a "Lost: 10 years On" type documentary for the fans.

WeHaveToGoBack

As I'd evident from my username, yes, you should go back and watch it again. I am currently and its great.

Bowlardo

I would say "**** no!" to the op

sunbeam

Donegal Dan wrote: »

Considering what a TV juggernaut it was for them Im surprised ABC havent done a "Lost: 10 years On" type documentary for the fans.

I think Lost was about 15 years ahead of its time. I always found the online speculation far more complex and entertaining than the actual show itself. Ideally the writers should have found some way to let it shape the development of the show instead of giving us what we ended up with.

Adamantium

Fago123 wrote: »

See this is exactly what frustrates me when it comes to the Lost ending as I mentioned on the previous post.

Here is an interviewer, from the first time I laid eyes on him I thought "now, this guy knows what he's talking about", yet around the 7 minute mark he shows he has clearly misinterpreted the ending. Completely. Whether you like it or not, this is an ending I don't think is particular complex?

He didn't think the island was real?!?!

Lindelof comes across as very likeable and courteous, and for the fact I loved Prometheus until the internet said it was wrong to do so.

I wonder what the reception to Prometheus would have been like if it wad released in thr 1980's? Middling I say. Not

I like getting what I want, but what I like even better is somebody being creative and giving me something I never could have imagined myself.

My favourite stories generally do involve sincere themes, but ambigous, yet real characters,, and BSG and Lost provided that.

His comments in the nature of seeing the iceberg and hating an episode months before it'd air are very heart on sleeve

Literalism is killing storytelling stone cold anyway.
Human beings respond to symbolism and themes far more strongly than plot explanations in storytelling. Its just what we are.

Comic book movies are a prime example of this.
How did Batman pump the tires on the batmobile?

Donegal Dan

Well after devouring the first 5 seasons in weeks Im now down to one episode a week, if even, with season 6.

Its a bit like getting to have sex with this for 5 years




And then having to face this




Sure. You'll sleep with it, but it wont be as much fun.

Mr.Nice Guy

Would you not consider consciously uncoupling yourself from Season 6? There's still time.

Donegal Dan

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Would you not consider consciously uncoupling yourself from Season 6? There's still time.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Getting through the entire series myself again at the moment. Just re-watched The Constant... easily one of the best episodes of television ever. The phonecall between Desmond and Penny gets me every single time...

If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.

Donegal Dan

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Getting through the entire series myself again at the moment. Just re-watched The Constant... easily one of the best episodes of television ever. The phonecall between Desmond and Penny gets me every single time...

If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.

A great episode! The editing alone is superb.

whiterebel

A perfect example of the writers having a good beginning and end, and the network telling them to fill out out with 5/6 series of crap in the middle.

Thargor

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Getting through the entire series myself again at the moment. Just re-watched The Constant... easily one of the best episodes of television ever. The phonecall between Desmond and Penny gets me every single time...

If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.

Problem is when you really think about it it was all just nonsensical filler gibberish with gaping plotholes.

Liamalone

Thargor wrote: »

Problem is when you really think about it it was all just nonsensical filler gibberish with gaping plotholes.

I was hooked badly for the first five series, procured each episode asap after it aired in America and spent way too long on various forums only for many questions to be left unanswered as the sixth series played out.

Looking back, your statement above sums it up pretty well.