At the end of last week I read this article about Lost. It describes Walkabout as the most important episode of Lost. It’s worth a read if you loved the series. I can still remember the moment we discovered that Locke was in a wheelchair before he came to The Island…
Lost has now been replaced by Game of Thrones as my favourite TV series of all time. But Lost continues to be a close second. Lost is the reason we signed up for Sky TV back in the day, after Channel 4 lost out to Sky One for Season Three onwards.
The show still gives me goosebumps. The thing I loved is how the producers set about to tell a complete story from start to end. I hadn’t watched a show like it before. 24 was my favourite before. The things you knew about 24 were that something dramatic would happen on the hour every hour, and that by the end of the series, Jack would save the day. Lost hooked viewers in for the complete ride. You couldn’t drift in and out – you had to pay attention and watch it all.
The twists were superb and the way the mythology was built over the seasons was excellent. It had the biggest cast I can remember, and it was good how characters would come in to the show and then be missing from a few episodes. There was so much depth to the show that it could do that and you’d still be drawn in. In fact, with just a few episodes to go of the show ever, it abandoned the entire main cast and focused on important, yet barely featured, characters.
I still to this day find myself cross at Lost for a few things. The best ending to a season ever was at the end of Season One when Walt was snatched. And we still don’t really know why. And the entire last season was a let down with the confusing sideways flashes. And, when rewatching, I can’t believe that I was a fan of Jack when I watched the first time.
But I can see the influence in Lost in shows like Game of Thrones, with its large cast and complete story telling. (Funnily enough, people complain about GoT’s final season too.)