Lost: Which you will be by the end of the series (probably). (Lost (Season 1))

Member Name: Caewan

Product:	Lost (Season 1)
Date:	18/07/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Talented cast, excellent writing, beautiful sets, and thoroughly enjoyable overall

Disadvantages: Addictive, frustrating, painfully slow-paced at times and too many characters/stories going on

I was intrigued by Lost, as it began several years ago, though I never personally got into it. I was aware it was into its fifth season in the US, so I bought this thinking "how many stories can they get out of a plane crashing?" I was curious, and after watching this series, I still am.

After buying the DVD, I settled down for a night in with some snacks and a hot drink, expecting a nice lazy plot for a Sunday night and some nice beachy shots and maybe even some moist Evageline Lilly (my theory on why Lost does so well relies on her + dampness).

I was taken by surprise. The series is well thought-out, mysterious, and very realistic. I thought the idea of having two pilots from different points of view was clever and added a new dimension to what I was seeing.

The series starts when a plane from Sydney to L.A. crashes on a remote tropical island. The plane is broken into pieces in the air, and the middle section lands on the beach. As you can imagine, its chaos - fire, screaming, blood, and even a man being sucked into the engine, causing an explosion. Its terrifying and gripping from that moment on.

The characters are diverse and very "human", though with the sheer amount of characters in the show its easy to get confused. Arguably, the main characters are a doctor, Jack, a pregnant woman, Claire, two very secretive Japanese people, a fugitive, and the endlessly mysterious John Locke. There are other minor characters who feature a lot in the episodes - a brother and sister duo, Boone and Shannon; a father and son, and their dog; an Arab man, a bassist in a popular rock band, badboy redneck Sawyer, and Hurley, who is probably my favourite character.

It soon comes out that this isn't simply a story about a plane crash and a rescue. Jack, Kate and Charlie venture out into the jungle to try and find the nose of the plane to send out an SOS on their transmitter. They discover the badly injured but alive pilot, and they learn that "The plane is 1000 miles off course...no one knows we're here. They're looking in the wrong place." - but then the pilot is killed right in front of them - by a terrifying, huge beast that rips him apart effortlessly (the first taste we get of the Monster).

A lot of Lost is about people trying to survive, things like setting out tarpaulins to catch the rainfall, making fires, hunting boar, trying to save the dying, heal the wounds, and comfort the ones who'd lost a family member, with worries about water and food predominant in the first few episodes - this is both realistic, but also frustrating, as a lot of the time you want them to get on with the storyline. There are several flashbacks, or part-flashbacks, explaining the lives and experiences that led upto a character coming onto the island - the most enjoyable ones being Hurley's, Claire's, Locke's and Sayid's. The characters are individuals, you really feel that they exist, they are very well-written, very human. Piecing together their lives before the crash is almost satisfying, sitting there on your sofa thinking "so this is why..."

There are several twists within the season, including the group splitting up to live in different locations; half staying at the beach where they crashed, the others at the freshwater caves that provide shelter as well as clean water to drink and bathe. Its difficult especially with this twist, to know who has gone where; although I salute ABC's efforts to make the cast as diverse as possible, I feel a lot of the time I have no idea what's going on, especially in relation to where they're situated. Jack leads the way to living at the caves, while Kate stubbornly stays at the beach, however, most people go back and forth several times a day for various reasons.

The idea of a raft was floating around in conversation very early in the series, but it finally came to reality (not without a few hitches), as people thought they had a better chance looking for help than staying and waiting. The raft project was mainly thought out by Michael, an architect, and father of Walt, and the final product is absolutely marvellous, even to the person on the other end of the TV. You really do wonder if its made from 100% parts from the crash and the jungle, though I suppose not...

As with any series, there is a malevolent force to match the crash survivor's (generally good) efforts. The force begins to show itself in several ways, notably when Sayid's transmitter picks up a French distress signal, repeating over and over the same chilling phrase...

Sayid himself stumbles upon the "French woman" when he follows a lead into the jungle; the woman, Rosseau, is obviously psychotic from loneliness; she babbles about having to kill her crew, "The Others", and the whispering in the jungle. Sayid escapes as soon as he can, but the talk of "The Others" is not over yet...

Meanwhile, Boone and Locke were hunting for boar when they came upon a Hatch in the ground. They spend much of their time from then on digging and trying to open it.

Claire, the heavily pregnant woman, has terrible night terrors that intensify as the days go on. Jack, a physician, puts it down to anxieties over the birth, but, as with anything in Lost, It Isn't That Simple. Claire is abducted, just as they realise that the census has 1 person who wasn't on the flight register. Could this Ethan be part of "the Others"? The hunt is on for her.

As you can see, there are several on-going storylines simultaneously occurring - sometimes its difficult to keep up! The main plot twists centre around "the Others", the raft, "the Monster", the kidnapping of Claire and Walt, and the Hatch, as well as character development both individually and with each other; finding a suitable camp, investigating the island, and several flashbacks per episode. It's confusing, very confusing at times, especially with the themes such as the numbers, Claire's baby, and several overlaps and coincidences - but watching the series, especially the absolutely stunning scenery, which I believe is filmed in Hawaii, is so satisfying. Don't expect answers, though! The series ended on a cliffhanger, when Kate, Jack and Locke open the mysterious Hatch in the jungle...and like Pandora's box, only questions can come out of it.

Summary: a great TV show, very worthy of its cult-following. Very watchable and addictive. Much better on DVD, as I was up several nights in a row watching, I don't know how people waited a week for the next instalment when it was originally aired! American, so some parts very cliched (e.g. the Muslim man worked for the Iraq government, the one Australian character was a single mother, ect.), but still - 5/5.

Summary: A plane crash lands on a mysterious remote island