Matt gets LOST
About a year ago, I was able to take the moral high ground. Whenever any of my friends mentioned the word “Lost” I was able to scoff at them with a certain disdain. Looking from the outside in, the show is a pile of nonsensical drivel that spends more time causing the viewer to scream “What the f**k?” at the television set then actually engage them in any real drama. In fact, I was always keen to point this out to anyone who dared try and promote the show to me. Unfortunately, the persistence got to me and on the 29th of March, 2009 I downloaded Lost season 1 from iTunes… the beginning of the end.
The knowledgeable amongst you will notice that that date is about the time Lost season 5 was airing in the UK (I forget whether or not the season had finished when I started watching) so I essentially I had to catch up with all 5 seasons before season 6 started. This meant that for quite a few months, I would come home every day and watch one or two episodes and at the end of each season I would go ahead and download the next season, eventually having to purchase an external hard disk so I could free up some space on the hard disk. I’d also like to point out I bought every season legitimately from iTunes, so by the time I had finished watching I had spent a fair amount for the luxury.
Another problem with catching up in this manner is that you get somewhat isolated whilst you are in the process, in fact the moment I started watching lost, many of my friends (including Josh and Stevie) groaned every time I mentioned it. Then you try and talk to the people who have already watched Lost who treat you like a small child who is yet to learn the way of the world: “N’yaww, does little Matty not know about the Others? How cute!” or in the case of one anonymous friend, try to subtly spoil the plot by saying things like “I like *character X*, it’s a shame they aren’t around for long”. Eventually, after months of watching, I finally got to the end of season 5. I was Lost.
The show itself successfully surprised me, especially once I was prepared to accept the fact that this was more of a Sci-fi show than a straight drama. Having said that, the show has pulls of a great deal of drama, looking deeply into the backstory of the major characters, most of which are fairly dark (particularly that of John Locke and the relationship with his father). There is also a constant love triangle between Jack, Kate and Sawyer (which later becomes a love quadrangle… or something) as well as various other relationships. Lost has one of the largest ensemble casts of any television show or film I can think to mention, so there is always at least one plot line that will really grab you.
Sometimes, addictions can be painfully obvious.
You’ll probably have noticed that after a relative period of quiet from Lost fans, the noise has suddenly been turned up again. This is because the final season (season 6) is starting this weekend in the UK,. I’m not going to try and explain exactly what the plot is at this point because, to those who haven’t watched it, it will make no sense but to just give you an idea: they have just exploded a nuclear bomb on the island to try and save themselves… as you do. There’s only one thing that the fans really want from this season though: answers. And lots of them. The producers have promised that most of the questions will be answered, but not all, so don’t expect the conspiracy theories to go away for ever.
Now, I have to point out at this point that Lost is an addiction, much like drugs and alcohol so as soon as your last fix is over, you start searching for the next one, which is why I decided to watch every episode again, just a couple of months before the new season started. So for the past few months, my world has been filled with sand, ocean, jungle, smoke monsters, poor cgi, flashbacks, flash-forwards, time travel and polar bears. The problem came when I realised that I was only on season 4 and I had a few weeks to go until season 6 started. Then I realised I only had one week left. Then yesterday, I realised I had until Sunday night to watch all 17 episodes of season 5. So yesterday I watched 6 episodes (4hrs 20mins for those interested) and you’ll soon see why I’m going to have to achieve the same today.
I realised, a few hours after I first wrote this post, that the season premiere does not start on Sunday, as I thought, but actually today.. at 9pm. Well, there goes the idea of watching the rest of season 5 before it starts because I’m not going to delay watching season 6. I guess that means I might be able to venture out into the real world again, rather than being sat indoors all day watching Lost… nah, I’ll watch my 24 boxsets instead.
Matt
If we haven't bored you, here is some more:
- Video of the day: Digimon Story: Lost Evolution
- Ignition 8/02/10
- Red Dead Redemption, may of lost the quick draw
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