Lost got me obsessed with TV and I can’t help but love it 20 years later

I love Lost. Although my relationship with him changed over time, I can’t remember a time when Lost Wasn’t a part of my childhood. When the show aired on ABC, I knew about Lost From looking at the TV, how my father watched it religiously when it arrived. Lost was such a phenomenon; People talked about it everywhere. Before social media took the world by storm, there were online blog threads dedicated to Lost. I didn’t see them as a child, but I heard them very happily in my living room.

As a child, we owned several seasons on DVD, but it was not until Lost Hit Netflix that I got around to actually watching Lost. It was my dad who noticed it was on the streamer and urged me, “You have to watch Lost. It has a bad ending, but it’s so worth it.” That’s what I knew going in: prepare to be disappointed, but appreciate the ride. And so I did. Lost Was the first show I really got into, opening me up to what television is capable of, and it’s something still worth reflecting on.

Lost’s mysteries captured the imaginations of the millennial generation

Lost was a viral phenomenon before there really were viral phenomena

Although there is a lot I can say about LostOne element to start with is the show’s sense of mystery. After the main characters first arrive at their island – where they think they are far away – a series of mysteries are introduced. For one, there is the smoke monster, an aptly-titled black cloud that seems to engulf and kill its victims. Early episodes also showcase the fact that this tropical island inexplicably has polar bears on it, which lead the leads to investigate. Beyond the island itself, there are more personal mysteries, such as the significance of Hurley’s numbers.

Lost Planting the seeds early on taste, intriguing the audience from the beginning. The Show’s series of mysteries is what prompted people to flock to online forums to spread their various theories And bounce ideas off of each other. I, who caught Lost Years after the show ended, shared my theories with my father. He knew what had happened, and he said:Interesting“, bite your tongue not to spoil. I used the same response method once I got one of my best friends hooked on Lost.

Part of that makes Lost So captivating is that these mysteries are much more than short-term cliffhangers. They are presented in a series of clues and clues that unfold over multiple episodes or seasons, gradually revealing more and more of the knowledge to reveal the broader ideas of the Dharma Initiative, the others, and more. The seemingly smaller-scale mysteries are well dispersed and come together to reveal a larger plot at hand, satisfying the jump-at-the-bite audience.

Lost changed what a TV show was capable of (and its legacy still lives on)

Lost played with its own structure in a brilliant way

While LostThe central mysteries are what the audience is watching, the show is so much more than a series of​​​​”What happens next.” From the beginning of Lost Season 1, the series’ most fascinating mysteries lie not in the supernatural happenings but in the much more internal and intimate character dynamics. A lot of his initial story is told through flashbackCreating a mosaic of interweaving plotlines that help contextualize why characters are acting in certain ways.

On my own first viewing of LostThe style of the show led to my forming strong opinions about the main character. And I’m talking Very Strong. I was a die-hard chain-sour enthusiast; I hate Jack. In fact, I was rooting for his death as leads began to be picked off, dismayed to find that Jack made it to the Lost ending But beyond my Jack Shepard death wishes, I was deeply attached to Losts capital letters. When Charlie died in the infamous “Not Penny’s Boat” scene, my jaw dropped.

While these opinions have a particular zeal in my youth, I do not think that my experience watching Lost is completely unique. As much as the plot mysteries were a driving part of the intrigue, the well-drawn-out characters helped to get Lost A kind of universal appeal that few network shows have. Watching the Phenomenal (still frustrating too, but that’s a story for another day) House of the Dragon This summer, for example, I noticed how much its interplay of plot and character reflected that of Lost.

In addition to its plot mysteries and fascinating characters, Losts structure also expanded the concept of how a long-form television format could be used. in the Lost Season 3 finale, which was thought to be pre-island flashbacks to characters such as Kate and Jack were revealed to be flash forwards to the characters’ return to civilization. actually, Lost Spent two seasons establishing a flashback-based narrative language to build an expert inversion of the structure. This can be seen as a “Plot three“But I think it’s more of an ingenious use of narrative structure, cementing Losts artistic merit.

Lost was flawed, but I still love it

I can hardly forgive the ending of lost

By the end of season 5, I was completely sold on Lost. The strength of the first three seasons was never quite matched, in my opinion, but I was still fully invested in the fate of Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer, and others (and still anxiously awaiting the death of Jack). Then came the time to begin Lost Season 6, which would end in the element that I was warned about the most: the Lost Series finale.

This was years before I was a Screen Rant Writer, so even my media-obsessed self has managed to avoid Lost Spoilers up until this point. My dad warned me about the ending, so I knew I had to brace myself for potential disappointment. Still, like Lost Season 6 rolled along, I found myself absorbed in the James backstory, and unraveling what might be going on. and indeed, Lost Season 6 had some great moments. Season 6, episode 14, “The Candidate,” which sees the deaths of Son and Jean, still remains one of my favorite episodes of the entire series.

And then I came to the end. when Lost Revealing the purgatory epilogue, I have to say that I was pretty baffled. In a show wrapped in so much sci-fi lore, the religiosity of the ending felt like such a cop-out. The frustrating ending undermined everything the show had built in its sixth and final season, and it almost ruined the show. The Lost Finale felt like all the interweaving plotlines, all the deep-rooted knowledge that the creators have built up over the years were poorly established. I have watched 121 episodes of Lost For nothing?

As angry as I was, I couldn’t stop thinking about LostAnd I can not stop recommending Lost. Lost Also interested me in a world of other favorite television, including breaking Bad, Mr. RobotAnd more. For all the frustration at LostIn conclusion, the years of character building, structural intrigue and more make the initial seasons of the show some of the best episodes of television I have ever seen. Lost had a bad end. A horrible, horrible end. But as my father once told me: You have to watch Lost. It has a bad ending, but it is so, so worth it. And I still love Lost.