10 Thoughts After Rewatching ‘Lost’ Season One

By Ryan O'Connell on 10/28/2024 • ( 0 )

In the middle of the summer, amidst the Summer Olympics in Paris, a Presidential election, and the ascension of Chappelle Roan, Netflix announced that Lost would finally be available to stream. The news, if it penetrated the wall of noise created by the events above, was mainly met with the Jack “we have to go back” gif, even if some didn’t intend to go back and watch the show. Sometimes, the gif is right there, and you’d be foolish not to use it, whether you mean or not.

As someone who travels somewhat frequently for work and has found that shows and not movies, are the best travel companions (along with Cliff bars and the knowledge of a destination’s marijuana laws,) I found the idea of rewatching Lost somewhat appealing. On a scale of heck no to heck yeah, it landed somewhere around a heck, sure why not. I had watched the first two seasons when they aired, but I remember getting frustrated with the show during the front nine of season 3, eventually cutting ties and moving on. When it came time for the final season, I think I checked in on the fifth season, before catching up on that final season and then watched the last few episodes in real time.

And then when it was done, I was also kind of done with Lost. It was never a show I was interested in jumping back into. I appreciated, and dutifully placed it on my list of best shows ever (behind The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Seinfeld) and that was it.

Well, that was it until this summer and then yes, Jack, I felt the need to go back.

However, to clarify, I didn’t fully intend to back. At first, my intentions started and ended with the two-episode pilot, arguably one of the best pilots ever as well as one of the best episodes of television of all time. I should have known better than to think I’d be able to dip my toes in the murky, yet alluring waters of Lost and think that would be it. You can’t watch something like those first two episodes and then be on your way. That’s why they’re considered a classic!

I was hooked. I was in. Would I watch all six seasons of Lost now? I don’t know…probably. Who knows? But I would at least start season one and take it from there. And that was the right approach and leads me to the first of ten things from a rewatch of Lost season one that jumped out to me.

1. God, It’s a Long Season

Lost aired on ABC and as a result, it’s a bit of an undertaking following Jack’s lead and going back. You’re playing by network television rules kid, not HBO or any of the streamers. What that means is that if you’re going to embark on a rewatch of Lost, you best buckle up because there’s a pretty legit commitment involved.

Season one of Lost premiered on September 22, 2004 and 25 episodes later, wrapped up with Locke and Jack staring down the Hatch on May 25, 2005. That’s nine months! And while yes, they took a few weeks off around Christmas, there wasn’t any kind of mid-season break involved. Looking back at this, it’s easy to then see how the show took the country by storm and was all anyone could think about during the last few months of 2004 and the first couple months of 2005. Good God, that’s a baseball season, not a season of television.

2. Because of the Length, There’s Definitely Some Fat As Well As Pacing Issues

One episode is mainly about Sawyer chasing a boar he thinks has it out for him. Another has Sawyer dealing with headaches and needing glasses. I don’t mean to pick on Sawyer, but those are just the first two examples of episodes that could have been yadda, yadda’d. The first season of Lost leans heavily on character development with sprinkles of weird shit scattered around the fringes. I suppose that makes sense as they want you to care about the characters and I think it’s tough on a rewatch because no offense to the characters, but I’m more interested in the weird shit. Knowing that it comes later is fun, but also kind of frustrating.

With that being said, when they first discover the caves and the two skeletons in the cave, knowing who those skeletons are is fun. It’s stuff like that that encourages you to keep going through one of the slower episodes.

And yeah, speaking of slow, the show definitely moves slowly at times and the pacing feels outdated. I think we’re just spoiled now. We have shows like Ozark that burn through half of a season in one episode and we’ve been conditioned along those lines. So when we spend two minutes of an episode of Lost that is just one character staring out at the ocean, we can certainly pick things up a bit.

3. Slow Episodes but Fast Running

The poor castaways literally never stop running. They run this way, they run that way. They run through the jungle. They run across the beach. They run into the ocean. They run, run, run. It seems exhausting. But also good exercise, so I don’t know. Just a lot of running. That’s the point.

4. The Jack Conundrum

I don’t think anyone runs more than Jack. My man logs at least two miles per episode, give or take. And it’s not his fault. He’s the only doctor and there’s a medical emergency two or three times a day. Pregnancies, headaches, heroin withdrawal, poisoning, too much fruit, heat rash, gun shots. The list never ends and so does Jack’s running.

To be honest though, Jack is kind of a rare bird for a hero of a show because he’s kind of annoying. He hits everything at a thousand miles per hour and much like running constantly running around a weird ass island, that can get exhausting. I get that it’s part of his deal and maybe it hit different the first time around, but with a rewatch and some light binging, it can become a bit much.

5. Locke Though…

Whoever decided on the scar placement for Locke should have won an Emmy because it’s fantastic.

Locke was probably the biggest winner of a rewatch. When the series ended, he was…well, you know…not Locke anymore and Jack’s enemy. So it was refreshing to go back to peak Locke era, where he said little, but did a lot. I found myself always happy when Locke was involved and I think that has something to do with my hunger for more weird shit. No one embraced the weird shit of Weird Shit Island faster and with bigger open arms than John Locke.

6. And Yeah…Kate

As a character, I was up and down with Kate. Mostly up, but sometimes down. Evangeline Lily, though? Well, I quickly remembered why a younger Ryan had such a big ol’ crush on her.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

7. The Giddy Up America Award for Excellence During a ‘Lost’ Flashback Goes to

Jin’s dad. No brainer.

Sidenote: At a certain point, skipping through the flashbacks helped move things along and I would recommend this to anyone embarking on a rewatch.

8. Tough Luck for the Faceless Castaways

You would see them every once in a while, whether it was helping build the raft or washing their clothes or being freaked out by something, but there were other survivors of the plane crash beyond that core group and beyond getting a nice vacation to Hawaii, tough draw for those folks. I for one, appreciated when the late Dr. Arzt called attention to it during part two of the finale, pointing out that there are other people beyond those running around from adventure to adventure.

Of course, then Arzt blew up, so I don’t know. Maybe the lesson is to enjoy being a background character. Who knows? Lost makes you question a lot of things.

9. How Big Is the Island?

On the one hand, you tend to think of islands as small. On the other hand, thinking can be dumb.

Weird Shit Island is actually pretty damn big.

I made a map of The Island from Lost
byu/Witty_3D inlost

It is kind of funny they didn’t do more exploring. Only Sayid set out on any kind of mapping expedition and Locke did some, but then he got hooked by Hatch fever. Oh well, thankfully there are five more seasons and I don’t know, 200 more episodes give or take.