I wasn't part of the first wave of Lost love when it debuted in September of 2004. In fact, I didn't watch a single second of season one when it originally aired. It wasn't until the following summer that I got introduced to the show that would come to consume far too many of my thoughts. My best friend since I was 14 (I'm now months away from 30) and I were roommates at the time, and we both were drawn to thought provoking entertainment. Having heard so much about the mystery and drama of Lost, we decided during the summer of 2005 to rent disc one of season one from Blockbuster. Yes, Blockbuster. Remember those days when you went to video stores? A few hours later we were calculating how much it would cost to rent the entire season. Realizing the cost, we decided it would be much more financially beneficial for us to purchase season one. A two day marathon later, we were hooked. Watching Lost became a ritual for us, and that weekend season one viewing party we had remains one of my favorite memories of our now 15+ year friendship.
Throughout season two my friend worked days and I worked nights, so the few hour block that we were both home became prime Lost viewing/discussion time for us. The endlessly mindless night job I had became my time for reflection on whatever episode I'd just watched. To end this far too long sidebar, we both started dating women who would later become our wives, he moved out about three quarters of the way into season three and stopped watching the show due to schedule conflicts and life getting in the way. I believe his last episode was Expose, which any Lost devotee will tell you is a HORRIBLE episode to go out on. If you're reading this, I will never forgive you for losing track of the show. I had to go through the final three seasons explaining Lost to my sister, which was more torturous than the eight or so month layoff the show took between seasons three and four. Update: He's recently started watching again and I strongly look forward to him getting through the end of season three.
Now on to what this post was originally meant to be: my thoughts on season one. I've recently re-watched season one and it is so striking how much the show changed from beginning to end. FYI, if you're fortunate enough to be able to rent or buy the complete collection on blu ray, do it. It is so vivid and wonderful; it's almost a whole new experience. Final warning to those who have not watched the show and intend to do so at some point. The rest of this post will contain spoilers about season one. And away we go...
The adventure begins with Jack's (our resident hero) eye opening. He's in a jungle. You see a shoe in a tree and a dog walking by him. He gets up, appears dazed and runs towards the sound of screams. Jack reaches a clearing in the jungle, revealing a beach and complete chaos on its shore from a crashed plane. He rushes to action, helping the wounded and trying to save his fellow crash survivors. This is important to note, as salvation and Jack trying to fix things become essential to what will unfold over the course of the next six seasons.
The casual fan may not be aware that Jack was originally set to die in the pilot episode. A little background on how the show was created: Lloyd Braun (the ABC executive, not the Seinfeld character) pitched an idea for a sort of Survivor/Castaway show. The powers that be at ABC liked the idea and told him to find someone to develop it. J.J. Abrams (who I am not a fan of, more on that later) was a hot commodity at the time. He was just coming off of the successful ABC show Alias, and was asked to help develop this idea. Having a great deal on his plate at the time, Abrams agreed to take on the project but insisted that ABC find him someone to work with who could take on the burden of the day to day activities. Enter Damon Lindelof. Damon had worked on some successful shows in the past and was highly thought of by some of the executives. He was introduced to Abrams and the two creatively hit it off. They soon had a pilot script to show the network. In it, hero Dr. Jack Shephard was set to die during the now famous Jack/Kate/Charlie trek to find the cockpit. Wisely, ABC felt that killing off someone the audience would quickly identify as the hero would make them immediately lose trust in the show. They were ordered to change it, which quickly brought about a casting change. When Jack's character arc was set to be about an hour long, Michael Keaton was in talks to play the role. He, however, had no desire to work full time on a television show (Why, Mr. Keaton? Still holding out hopes for Multiplicity Two? Or perhaps you're putting pins in your Christian Bale Voo Doo doll, hoping he undergoes some sort of "accident" and you can put the Bat Suit on one more time).
Over the course of season one we're introduced to our key players through a series of flashbacks. Most episodes center on one character or couple and a bit of their back story is revealed through these flashbacks. There's Jack, our aforementioned hero doctor. We learn that Jack was bringing his dead father's body back from Sydney, Australia (where the flight took off from) to Los Angeles (where the flight was headed). He and his father, Christian, had a complicated relationship. Relationships between father and child would become a recurring topic on the show. Christian was the chief of surgery at the hospital where his son was an up and coming spinal surgeon. Jack struggles with guilt over a decision he made that ultimately ended his father's career and started him on the downward spiral that lead to his death. Jack, who had always been reluctant to take charge, is thrust into the role of leader for the plane crash survivors.
We also meet Kate, the mysterious young woman Jack connects with quickly. We soon learn that she's a fugitive that was being brought back to the U.S. to stand trial for murder. Kate is a character that I've had a lot of personal conflict with from a viewership standpoint. I don't feel that the brain trust behind Lost writes women very well, and they often struggled with what direction they wanted to take Kate.
Another crash survivor is Charlie, the drug addicted washed up rock star. His character arc is one of my favorites and definitely one of the most satisfying. Charlie struggles with acceptance, always feeling like he was in his big brother's shadow and never feeling a sense of self worth (noticing a theme?). It was a visit to his brother that ultimately placed Charlie on the doomed air craft.
Claire, the lone Aussie we were introduced to in season one, served as Charlie's first chance to feel needed. Claire is pregnant when the plane crashes and we learn that her boyfriend left her during her pregnancy. Faced with raising the child alone, Claire decides to give up the child. This leads to an intriguing story line involving a psychic that Claire goes to see (I won't reveal the end of that story line for those of you that haven't gone beyond season one), which ultimately puts her on our crashed plane.
Con man Sawyer (listen closely as he refines the southern accent over the first few episodes) quickly became a fan favorite. I wasn't as big of a fan, but Sawyer definitely had his moments. We learn that Sawyer's mother was scammed by a man of the same Twainian name, which caused his dad to snap and kill both the mother and himself. In a sad bit of irony, a lifelong quest for revenge not only forces our Sawyer to become a con man, but brings him to Australia based off of a false tip that the "other Sawyer" was in Sydney.
Lost was such a different kind of show than anything else on television that they often felt the need to conform. This sadly lead to a Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle that I pretty much had no use for, but I understand the reasoning behind it. To many viewers that sort of scenario is something they can wrap their heads around, but the show was so enthralling that I don't think it needed to use that cliche as a crutch.
John Locke, a man of faith who was paralyzed until crashing on the island, was one of the shows shining stars in the first season. So brilliantly played by actor Terry O'Quinn, Locke was a tragic figure who his whole life just wanted to feel connected to something. The island became his connection. It's this writer's opinion that Locke's character was done a severe injustice by the show's end, but I'll save that for a later date.
Hugo "Hurley" Reyes was and is perhaps the ultimate fan favorite. The portly, lovable type whom we waited seemingly forever to get a flashback for, Hurley shed light on one of the show's first mysteries: numbers. For those of you just starting your Lost journey, pay attention to numbers. You'll see the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 repeatedly. The first sign you'll get that they mean something is in a Hurley-centric episode appropriately titled Numbers. We find out in this episode that Hurley won the lottery by playing those numbers, but the new found fortune brought him nothing but bad luck. We discover that Hurley, who spent time in a mental institution, got that sequence of numbers in his head from a fellow patient. It's Hurley's search for the origin of the numbers that puts him on the ill fated Oceanic Flight 815 (8, 15...see what I mean?).
The Iraqi Jack Bauer, otherwise known as Sayid, is another conflicted soul we meet in season one. An Iraqi interrogator (aka torturer), Sayid is haunted by the evil in his past but holds on to what he sees as the one act of kindness he performed: saving Nadia, the woman he loved, from said torture. It's his hope of reuniting with Nadia that sets in motion events that bring him to the island. Sayid is another one I don't think got the conclusion that befitted his character.
Sun and Jin Kwon are a married couple who end up as castaways as well. We learn over the course of season one that they have had a complicated relationship rife with lies and things unsaid (Sun, unbeknownst to Jin speaking English being one of the key revelations). Their complex love story would come to be one of many fans favorite plot lines. I never connected as much with them, though. I suppose you can chalk it up to my distaste for subtitles, but Sun and Jin episodes always felt to me like Lisa episodes of The Simpsons feel to Simpsons lovers (of which I am not).
Boone and Shannon, step brother and sister with a strained relationship, were two other characters brought into the show to provide more romantic conflict. I was never much of a fan of either, but I thought Shannon got a bit more flack than she should have. I've developed a bit of an appreciation for some of what her character brought to the show now that I've re-watched season one. Boone provided little to the story and mercifully became, to steal a line from Locke, the first sacrifice the island demanded. Go become a vampire Mr. Somerhalder. Lord knows we need another of those in our entertainment lives.
Michael and Walt are, as we soon discover, a father and son in title only. Michael and Walt's mother Susan split up when Walt is a toddler, and Walt grows up never knowing his father. When Walt's mom dies suddenly, Michael is given custody of his son. It's this news that brings Michael to Sydney (where Walt and his mom were currently living) and puts the two of them on flight 815. We find out in season one that Walt is a boy with special abilities. He's a key part to the mystery of season one, and one of the cliff hangers of its finale is Walt being taken off of the survivors' attempted rescue boat by a creepy group of island dwellers referred to as "the others."
There are other characters you'll come to know both on the island and in flashbacks (hey is that Claire Dunphy in Jack's flashback? It is!). You'll meet Danielle Rousseau, also referred to as The French Woman, who crashed on the island 16 years prior to our castaways. Ethan Rom (Other Man, the writers love anagrams and having fun with names) is someone who poses as one of the plane crash survivors but is in fact one of the dreaded others. Mostly though, this season is about the plane crash survivors.
The most compelling character of the first season though, is not portrayed by an actor. The crucial question of the season is a complicated one. What is the island? People saw ghosts on the island. Polar bears appeared and some strange monster would pop up out of nowhere, leaving destruction and at times death in its wake. There's a centuries old ship known as The Black Rock marooned in the middle of the jungle. There's a small plane that also crashed on the island and is full of what appear to be dead priests and heroin stuffed Virgin Mary statues. Locke discovers a door to an underground hatch that will serve as the other season one finale cliff hanger. What's in the hatch? The island is full of wonderment, danger and if you ask John Locke, miraculous healing powers. Countless theories were launched by the show's huge following.
Here are some of my favorite moments/observations from season one:
The revelation that Locke was in a wheelchair prior to landing on the island.
Jack seeing his father's ghost on the island. This was your first glimpse into the "haunting" quality of the island, an element that would be important in the seasons to come.
The introduction to Sawyer's nicknames.
Sayid's struggle for self-forgiveness.
Claire's dealings with the psychic.
The discovery of Ethan as an Other.
Locke and Boone finding the hatch.
Walt's "special" abilities. By far one of the coolest mysteries in season one.
The aforementioned curse of Hurley's numbers.
Jack messing with Sawyer while diagnosing him. "Have you ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease?" One of the few comedic moments Jack's character ever had.
Exodus, the finale. Lost would become famous for their jaw dropping, head scratching finales. The season one finale was the start of that. It produced my favorite scene of season one: Sawyer telling Jack that he met Christian, Jack's father, in Sydney (which we saw in a previous flashback). This tender moment played out as follows with a very well played monologue:
Sawyer: About a week before we all got on the plane, I got to talking with this man in a bar in Sydney...turns out this guy has a son, the son's a doctor too. They had some big time falling out. The guy knew it was his fault, and knew his son was back in the states thinking the same damn thing...there's a pay phone in this bar, and this guy, Christian, tells me he wishes he had the stones to pick up the phone and call his kid, tell him he's sorry, that he's a better doctor than he'll ever be. He's proud, he loves him...something tells me he never got around to making that call.One major question would become a topic of much debate for Lost fans and critics, and I imagine even for the Lost production team. That question is a seemingly simple one, but as you'll come to know with Lost, nothing is ever simple. So I pose the question now to you, trusted reader. What is Lost about? Some will say it's about the island, some will say it's about spirituality. Others may claim it's about death. One could argue it's about science, or good versus evil, or science versus faith. In some ways there is no wrong answer. I'll save my full pontification for my end of the series post, but I will tell you this now: I think Lost was at its cinematic best when it focused on the people. Make no mistake, I was captivated by all of the island mysteries, adventure scenes and spiritual questions the show raised. I ate it all up. But it's moments like the above Sawyer monologue that were the lifeblood of the show for me. Not only did it reveal an intersection between some of the survivors' lives (something you'll see repeatedly in the show), but it gave us such a different insight into Sawyer as a person and allowed he and Jack to have a real moment that didn't feel contrived. So many of the Jack/Sawyer moments were Kate love triangle related that to see a side to these two men that involved respect and friendship was all the more rewarding.
The season one finale as a whole was perfect. New mysteries were introduced (The Black Rock), our survivors were split up into two factions with the raft group and the island group. "We're gonna have to take the boy," will go down in television history as one of the creepiest lines ever uttered, and I can't think of a better way to end season one than the hatch door being blown off and the final camera shot of our heroes staring down the hatch shaft.
There's an undeniable magic to season one. Sure, there are some formulaic television elements of the show, but I'm able to look beyond that. They were building a story, but had to build an audience simultaneously. This brings me back to my earlier proclamation of my distaste for J.J. Abrams. If you're not familiar with his work, he was known prior to Lost as the creator of Felicity and Alias. Both were highly successful shows, but fizzled out due to what I see as a lack of growth in the story telling. I strongly believe Lost would have become a much more "safe" show than it became were it not for Tom Cruise. Huh? I'll explain. Cruise, being a fan of Abrams' work, pegged him to direct Mission Impossible III. This came up just as Lost launched, and Abrams left the show mainly in the hands of Damon Lindelof. Lindelof being a first time show runner, ABC wanted to bring in an experienced TV vet. This brought Carlton Cuse onto the scene. The two of them took over as the creative heads to Lost, and the rest is history.
It has always bothered me that Abrams continued to get so much credit for a show he had so little to do with beyond season one. I look at it from a culinary perspective. If you send someone to the store to shop for ingredients and they bring you back some fresh produce and prime cuts of meat, they shouldn't get a ton of the credit for what ends up on the plate if they left the kitchen immediately after dropping off the groceries. It was the chefs (in this case Lindelof and Cuse) that transformed these ingredients into the meal at your table. But I digress.
Those of you still undecided on whether you want to watch the show, I understand. Some of it seems absurd, and it's certainly not a show for everyone. There are hidden meanings and subtle secrets laced throughout the story that require a viewer's full attention. Watching Lost is a commitment. It's a thinking person's show. Sure, there are people who don't like that sort of thing that enjoyed the show (my sister for example), but for many of you that just want simple entertainment from your television experience, Lost may not be for you. If you watched season one and thought "Man, this show is weird, I don't know if I'm into some of the odd stuff," I'll warn you now that it's only going to get weirder. Heck, season one may be thought of as the least weird season the show produced!
Lost made its fair share of missteps along the way, but very few in season one. It was a wonderful ride for many of us that decided to hop on board, and one I'll never forget.
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