Its Lord of the Flies time! Possible spoilers (Lost (Season 1))

Member Name: PyrettaBlaze

Product:	Lost (Season 1)
Date:	06/12/07 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: amazing, complex storylines, wonderful 3D characters, gripping, lots of hot men!

Disadvantages: Let down by later series, powerfully addictive.

When I first heard of Lost, I was so behind that there way no point trying to catch up. I remember trying to watch an episode a few weeks in, and having not followed the beginning, I was totally lost (sorry). It was only when I got hold of the DVDs for cheap that I became obsessed with the strange, beautiful and wonderful world that is lost, with its myriad of multi-layered characters and the weird and wacky island, which is like a character in itself. Now I am totally and utterly hooked, and although I found series two disappointing, series three is living up to my expectations. But in my view, series one is so perfect that it will not be bettered.


The plot

A group of strangers are involved in a plane crash, and mysteriously, forty odd of them survive, despite the plane falling from a great height and being torn in half. They find themselves on an island they initially think is deserted, but soon after arriving, things start to go drastically wrong, and things get stranger and stranger for our castaways as the inner secrets of their own lives are revealed amidst dangerous revelations about their new home. Polar bears, whispers in the jungle, quarantine hatches and something very large and very loud that kills people and likes to tear up trees are all common features of their humble new abode.


The opening scene

In my opinion, the finest one ever seen in the show so far. We open with a very good-looking man in a black suit. He finds himself lying flat on his back in the jungle, promptly spots a yellow labrador retriever, and gets up and starts running...past a trainer attached to a tree branch. Eventually he finds himself at a beautiful and deserted beach. Among the crashing of the waves there are machine and mechanical noises and numerous screams, and we find him running along the beach and finding himself amongst the wreckage of a plane crash, with broken bodies and bloody people everywhere. The reason this scene rocks is that it sets the agenda for the programme. It takes a good few minutes for us actually to get a full view of the destruction, instead our first sighting of it is Jack (our hero) racing past a burning engine. What this lets us know is that Lost is not a programme that is planning on letting us know the full extent of what's going on for a very long time. And this is what keeps people viewing compulsively, even myself after I became somewhat disillusioned by the second series.


Some of the great mysteries of lost

What is the "security system"?
How did Locke's miracle occur?
Why is it that the aeroplanes I go on are full of screaming kids and families, and this plane was full of some of the most beautiful people EVER?
Why does the jungle whisper?
Why do all the girls look so well-groomed, and the guys all look so artfully and sexily scruffy?
Why does no-one ever mention that after months on an island, they'd all have ran out of antiperspirant and stink of BO?
Why did the plane get ripped in half?
Why do polar bears live on a tropical island?


Our characters

Jack Shepard: Our hero. Good looking, tattooed and common to many men on the island, possessed of a beard that never seems to grow longer than sexy stubble despite the doubtless lack of razors on the island. A top spinal surgeon, Jack is brave and strong and a bit on the pig-headed stubborn side, but with a gentle streak that makes everybody love him. Despite this, Jack is not portrayed as the perfect valiant hero, he too "is no saint".

Sawyer (James Ford): Our anti-hero. Sarcastic, rude, seemingly uncaring and judgemental, Sawyer often finds himself as Jack's nemesis, and occasionally the entire population's. A con-man on his home turf, Sawyer steals, hoards and delivers devastating witticisms. He truly represents the bad boy so many women are drawn to and cant resist. As Jack is not the perfect hero, Sawyer is shown to show an all-too-human side that means you can't help but love him.

Kate: Our mysterious and beautiful fugitive Kate, provides the main element for one of the show's most gripping storylines...who will she end up with? The good boy or the bad one? Peel the layers from Kate and you end up with more layers. She is a truly multi-dimensional and human character, a good heart that ended up with a bad life. She is typical of the multi-facted characters the creators of Lost have come up with.

Locke: A walking, talking miracle, Locke is the "great white hunter" who knows everything about tracking and surviving in the wild. An invaluable asset, his strong opinions and sometimes worrying deification of the island will often leave him at odds with the other characters. Without Jack, he would probably be the "leader" of the band of Lost survivors, but he often finds himself overshadowed by Jack's assumptious desicision making.

Charlie: Heroin addicted ex-rock star Charlie is a dark, seething mass of anger and family resentment. He feels he is not responsible for the way he ended up in his current state, and the lack of responsibility sometimes results in him flying off the handle at people for no good reason. However he proves himself to have more strength of will than he thinks. The character with good intentions who nevertheless always manages to screw things up is one of Lost's main comedy characters. And like so many comedies, he sometimes borders on tragic.

Claire: The wonderful mother who never wanted to be one, Claire is alone and pregnant on the island, and is befriended by Charlie. Despite the fact that is unsure whether she wants her baby, when it comes everybody knows she will make a wonderful mother.

Boone and Shannon- the rich-brat pair of step-siblings whose relationship is more complicated than it appears. Boone is a do-gooder, wanting to be seen as useful on the island but often being overlooked for the handy-in-a-punch-up Sawyer and tomboyish Kate. Shannon, on the other hand, appears to be nothing more than a spoiled selfish brat who is wonderful at manipulating her brother into doing whatever she wants.

Sayid- a Gulf war veteran (fighting for the other side), Sayid is strong, resourceful, courageous and honourable. Although he has a dark past, he proves himself to be truly humane and a valuable asset to Jack and Locke with his military knowledge.

Jin and Sun- A korean couple who have lost their way, their previous great love having been reduced to bossing around and defiance. Sun holds many secrets from Jin, understandably given the way he has treated her in the past, but she is no saint either.

Michael and Walt- an overprotective father who has only just recieved guardianship of his son after his mother's death,and a defiant son with a strange and unnverving talent who denies his father at every turn, thinking that Michael never loved him. Walt will become one of the great mysteries of the series.

Hurley- Hurley is another comedy character on the island, and the one who is in on all the secrets and spills them all to everybody else. A big cuddly bear, everybody loves Hurley.

It is the characters that make Lost. They are so real compared to some of the flat, one-dimensional characters found in so many television programmes. Not one character is portrayed as either all good or all bad. Jack, despite being a spinal surgeon and a hero, often fails to take into account anyones opinion, is too willing to risk himself and thus everyone on the island (with him being the only doctor) and often cracks under the strain of being everyone's hero. Sayid, despite having tortured dozens of men in his native Iraq, is one of the most sensitive characters on the island, the first to see something other than a spoiled child in Shannon, and quick to comfort Charlie after he takes a human life. Locke is one of the most fascinating characters. Often his knowledge of knives and guns, his "tough love" outlook that leads to tying Boone up in the jungle, and his eerie belief in the island as a deity, and the concept of sacrifice, can make him appear scary, but in fact his views can make him one of the islands most lovable characters. It is this quirky, contrary and oh-so-human representation that makes Lost so wonderful. Admist the backdrop of murder, mayhem and tree-eating monsters the characters are what drives the story, and so should it be.

We have a wonderful variety of relationships between the characters developing on the island. Jack and Locke, as the series goes on, finding themselves at odds more and more. Jack is unnverved by Locke's strange spirituality, and Locke is plain annoyed by the way Jack has to be linear about everything. This leads to a power struggle and great dissention in the ranks. Meanwhile, Jack tries to fight his feelings for Kate, who seems drawn both to him and Sawyer in equal measure. She is going through a great personal struggle...pick the man who she knows can love her and treat her well, or continue on her dark path with the brooding and magnetic Sawyer. Instead of the typical spoon-fed TV story where the lady eventually makes the right choice and stick to it, in Lost there is no clear answer for Kate, making this one more reason the show is irresistable as the tension between the three of them ebbs and flows but never abates.

To contrast the tempestuous love triangle, we have the sweet and slow-burning relationship building between Charlie and Claire. Claire is scared and confused and Charlie often finds himself living a very dark life, so even though they are the "sweet" couple on the island, watching them never becomes boring (even if Claire is the character I personally find most annoying). Sun and Jin may be a very unhappy couple, but it is easy to see, that like so many real life couples, the problems is not lack of love but lack of communication and misunderstanding. Jin, although initially portrayed to be a nasty character, is actually very honourable and wishes he could do better by his wife. As for Sayid's new choice of partner, many were confused given the courageous freedom fighter who was his previous lover, however it points out the fact that we generally arent attracted to the same sort of person time after time. Again, its the very humanistic aspect which makes these relationships so watchable.

The plot is a myriad of twists and turns, mysteries leading to deeper mysteries, with very few answers or explanations revealed. The massive online fanbase that Lost has is just loaded with theories as to what the hell is going on. Some think the characters are being punished in hell for their previous sins, some think they are part of a huge experiment, have landed on another planet or are stuck inside a computer game. Some think even the director has absolutely no idea what is going on. Lost is far more than your typical stranded-on-an-island story. In this one, the island knows how to fight back. The mysterious others, the hatch and Walt's strange abilities are mysteries that are never totally revealed (at least not so far). Lost treats the viewer as a person, not an idiot. Explanations are not spoon fed to the viewer, the viewer is left to make up his or her own mind. And that is what is so lacking on todays television...a programme that lets you make up your own mind. There may be one true answer, but personally I believe that whatever YOU believe is the truth, which makes watching Lost an extremely personal experience.

And last but not least, its full of damned hot people. Come on, you were all thinking the same thing!

Lost is possibly the most flawless show I have ever seen on TV. It has it all...romance, drama, mystery, amazing special effect and wonderful characters, all set against the backdrop of this glorious, beautiful island. It keeps you guessing and the end of almost every episode drops a bomb that keeps you coming back for more, and more, and more. The island itself holds beauty, mystery and danger, and is so multi-faceted that is almost qualifies as a character in itself. What the hell is going on? Well, what do YOU think?


Footnote: Sorry if its a bit long, this show has the tendancy to make me rant on.

Summary: The sexiest group of people EVER get marooned on an island...I eagerly await the porn parody