Addicted to “Lost”

 

For years, my brother Aaron has been trying to get me addicted to the TV show Lost. I resisted his attempts to get me hooked because I was busy with graduate school and didn’t really understand the appeal of a show about a bunch of people stranded on an island.

Well, I finished my MBA about six months ago and my wife got me into Heroes,which I came to really enjoy. At Christmas, I told Aaron that he really needed to watch that show because I knew he’d love it. So we made a pact. He would watch Heroes if I would watch Lost. And we both got hooked.

It worked out especially well for me since I started from Season 1 during the writer’s strike, and now Robin and I are halfway through Season 2. We’re currently recording all the episodes of Season 4 on our DVR, but we won’t watch them until we’re caught up. We started in January with nearly 75 episodes of high-quality episodes, and now we’re about halfway through them. We’re watching them on ABC’s website and also renting the DVDs from Blockbuster. I have to say, it is worth the hype – it’s a very well-written, well-acted show that draws you in and really makes you want to keep watching.

And to be honest, while the stories about their experiences on this strange island are very interesting, the most fascinating part for me is the back stories on each of the characters. Each episode focuses on a different castaway and shows some compelling story that shaped them into becoming who they are. The back stories also always relate to the present situations, so there’s good continuity there. And the storytelling is excellent — I actually really care about these fictional characters. My favorites are Locke, Sawyer and Sayid. Hurley and Charlie are pretty cool too.

I’m sure I’ll be blogging more about this going forward. It’s nice to have some good-quality entertainment that Robin and I enjoy together. Harry Potter mania has now died down for me (until the next movie this Christmas) and “Heroes” Season 2 was cut to 11 episodes with Season 3 episodes not airing until the fall, so it’s great to get “Lost” in this show.

Note: If you haven’t watched Lost before, DO NOT try to start mid-series. Robin and I tried that last year and we watched the first couple of episodes of Season 3. We were “lost” and didn’t really care about the characters because we didn’t start on the journey with them. So do yourself a favor — start from the beginning. You can watch them all for free in HD on ABC.com or you can rent the DVDs. It’s well worth the time and is much better than mindless chatter and crude jokes on late night talk shows!