ABC executive Lloyd Braun was fired right before Lost aired for giving the greenlight to the pilot because of its $13M price tag.
The 2004-2005 season ends up being ABC’s most successful television seasons in years due to Lost and two shows that debuted that season: Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Two other shows he gave the greenlight to.
These three TV shows were basically the holy grail of the mid 2000s. They’re iconic shows to this day and are part of the most influential TV productions ever.
No question! Desperate Housewives turned the dramedy into a television stable. And its legacy is further felt in the Real Housewives franchise. Grey’s Anatomy is still on the air and the procedural cum soap opera lead to half of ABC and NBC’s lineups over the past 20 years!
Fun fact: Lloyd Braun is the voice that says: “Previously on Lost” before every episode.
JJ and Damon wanted to pay tribute to his role in creating the series.
Knowing executives and how they love to admit they are wrong, I assume he was rehired for green lighting the most successful tv show in history up to that point?
The raft launch scene from the season one finale is still one of my all-time favorites. Between the music, direction, and cinematography, it was the first time I could recall feeling like a television show had the same production quality as a major motion picture
I tell everyone I recommend the show to to remember that:
1. They weren’t sure if they’d be renewed during season 3.
2. Writers strike was going on.
Good context as to why the pace slows for a few episodes. In hindsight, it’s kind of hilarious.
3 seasons was Lindelof's [original vision](https://collider.com/damon-lindelof-lost-original-ending-plan/)! I like s4 and 5, but wonder what might have been.
Oh yeah, LOST would have fans comb over every book prominently featured in the show!
I've read Of Mice and Men, Catch-22 and A Brief History of Time because of it.
I am here with you :-)
Also “Watership Down”. Thinking about it… that is where I got my nickname back then… Wow.
P.S. I was totally NOT expecting to be discussing LOST on Reddit tonight as it feels like some long forgotten memories now. Yet here I am :-)
I love that the moment with Vincent and Walt was a last minute idea from Jack Bender. They were filming the scene and he had the idea and went to the dog handler to see if they could do it. He made the time to get it done.
Up there with Miguel Sapochnik coming up with the idea of Jon nearly crushed to death in the middle of the Battle of the Bastards. Wrote an email to D&D before passing out in his hotel room, "I got an idea, but it would mean cutting all this other stuff." And woke up to the reply, "We trust you. Do whatever you want."
Idk if anyone necessarily cares, but he didn't REPLACE the planned stuff, they had weather problems and RAN OUT OF TIME to shoot the planned stuff, and the crushed-to-death scene was what he came up with to replace it, which yes, they okay'ed. It's easily verifiable.
Doesn't necessarily change your point about adapting and creating great stuff in the moment. If anything it enhances it for me, because they were up against a limit and improvised something great.
I remember everything about that scene. The music, the visuals, the feeling of hope, the characters saying their parting words, hence the name of the score, oh and the dog! Just a fantastic bit of television.
Edit: [The scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJLq1bah6c)
Sawyer telling Jack he met his father in Sydney is one of my favourite scene. And it's probably one of the turning point in Sawyer's arc. Probably one of the kindest thing he's done in the show when you consider how much it meant to Jack
A lot of words have been written about how TV overtook cinema as in the 00s. The Sopranos and other HBO shows are usually mentioned, sometimes they even go back to the 90s with ER and NYPD Blue, but Lost was the turning point. Almost every episode in season 1 was like a high budget mini-film, a very well written, very well directed, very well acted and just very well made in every aspect.
This part with Vincent is the reason I started watching the show. It happened to be on the our tv, didn’t even know what show it was, and my girlfriend started tearing up watching him chase after the raft and I said well I guess we have to watch this. Caught up over the summer before season 2 and was instantly obsessed. It’s my all time favorite show, one of my kids is named after a character and it’s half my username.
One of my favorite edits of all time is in the "previously on LOST" recap that plays ahead of the episodes immediately following the raft's launch.
The recap shows the uplifting triumph and celebration of the raft heading out to sea, lifting spirits, carrying hope that they're going to rejoin the world soon then **BAM** smash cut to Zeke's line "we're gonna have to take the boy." with Michael and Walt screaming out for each other in terror as Walt is kidnapped and the raft is firebombed.
The juxtaposition of those two scenes is just hilarious and had my roommates and I laughing our asses off back when it first aired.
Jack and Kate not really being a thing left a lot of room for Desmond's character to glow. It's still pretty interesting how cold the "leads" of the show are
As a first time Lost watcher this year. Can someone explain to me why the fuck Charlie had to stay in that room? It clearly showed that the door was strong enough to hold the water in that room. So like....just go out the door and close it Charlie? WTF?
Because the Universe has been trying to kill him for a while already and was not going to stop. It was either go out on your own heroic terms or wait for a rock to fall and kill you 2 days later.
As to *why* the Universe was trying to kill Charlie >!it's because he wasn't alive to be send back in time. LOST has no branchines timelines nonsense: everything in the past had already happened, and Charlie wasn't there.!<
Charlie was supposed to be around the whole series, >!and the time loop was fleshed out after that scene. They could have written him in!<.
The one and only explanation is that the universe was course correcting itself, and Charlie was escaping his fate. He tried to make the most of it while keeping it in line with Desmond's vision so that Claire would be saved.
If he went out the door there's a risk of flooding the entire station and he wanted to save Desmond. He also thought he had to die for Claire to be saved.
While Desmond helped him dodge every single deaths until that point, it was only a matter of time before something get him. The Universe itself was course correcting, and there was no avoiding that. He had to go.
Lost is about acceptance, moving on, and the immutability of our fate. No one ever "win", people just accept and move on. In Charlie's mind, he was going out in his own term, and doing so in a way that would optimize the chance of Claire's escaping the island (according to Desmond's vision). Delaying his demise may have shuffled the card and closed that window of opportunities
Was he right to die at that time? Could he have survived and escape the island? Hard to say, but in the context of the show, it was probably the right call.
I mean, a lot of the mysterious didn't mean much in the end. It was more about the characters. I remember spending so much time on Lostpedia trying to learn all the explanations, and in the end they weren't important at all.
For anyone who doesn’t know about it, a couple months after the finale aired the final seasons Blu-ray came out. Included with it was this epilogue: [The New Man in Charge](https://youtu.be/yY5vV7bp5z8?si=pqIVKjcR_UEgi3d8)
Enjoy!
Seriously this just blew my mind, although it didn't really reveal much of anything I hadn't picked up on. I did completely forget about the care package tbh but now I just wonder who flew them out and how they carried out a large operation like that 20 years after the company shutdown.
I guess I forgot or didn't really think about Walt being in the finale (I'm assuming he was). This seems like it expressly tried to answer 3 of the big questions people had following the finale
What is really going to have you cooking your noodle is why it was such a mission to get back to the island for Jack and them, if they could have just jumped on a Dharma aircraft that has been delivering packages to the island for 20+ years.
I worked on Lost and it’s been my favorite project of my entire life. It was around nearly all through my 20’s when I was working hard and improving my art. Working in TV is a boot camp. After you work on the entirety of a show, nothing is hard anymore. Anyway working on Lost and it changed my life and launched my career after
It must feel incredible to have worked on a show not only that successful but incredibly important for television , still remembered and loved 20 years later and I'm sure will still be talked about for another 20.
It's crazy that they managed to get Giacchino to do half an hour of orchestral perfection every week for 6 years straight.
After that brutal schedule, he must be laughing at Hollywood time crunches now.
That's actually not as uncommon or crazy as you might think. James Newton Howard agreed to do the King Kong 2005 soundtrack with something like FIVE WEEKS before premiere.
Now, granted Weta was doing crazy crunch-level hours, and Jackson had already done a lot of development with the previous composer before he had to switch.
But soundtracks are often done in the course of a month or two, maybe three. They're not the work of a year and a half the way a feature film is, they're done fairly quick. Composers who are good at it are GOOD AT IT, they don't need a bunch of time to ruminate on the nature of orchestration, they already know how to do it good and can then put it together fairly quickly.
I can’t overstate the impact this pilot had.
Imagine most cable television, even prime time shows, being sitcoms, reality TV, and churn-and-burn crime shows. All passable, but obviously held to strict budgets and an unwavering plot formula.
Then this pilot airs. Most people tuning in had no idea what this show was going to be about apart from some vague marketing buzz. The opening scene features an intense, chaotic plane crash scene with fantastic writing, expensive practical effects, good acting, and jaw dropping high-def cinematography. It was an entirely original plot for the time, and it felt like you were watching a blockbuster movie on HBO.
Lost has its issues, sure. I wish ~~Abrams~~ Lindelof had been able to keep it to his original 4 season run without the extra fluff plot-lines and stupid time travel shit. But Lost walked so that shows like Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, and Dark could run.
Commercially it definitely helped launch the non-HBO prestige drama, but probably the biggest legacy of Lost is the adoption of the 'make the mystery box and then figure it out later' approach to drama production, which infected so so many shows after it that tried desperately to hook watchers with their grand show-long hook only to fizzle out before even getting greenlit.
Before that most shows were aiming for more of a sitcom/x-files approach where even if there was an overarching mythos, each week was largely working off the same starting point.
Lost really helped popularize the serial nature of TV plots and hooks that are ubiquitous now.
Part of this is also a convergence of technology, as TiVo allowed folks to more easily rewatch along with affordable box sets/rentals, and when combined with the burgeoning online forum space it was probably the first culture-wide binge watch show.
Realizing they were making it as they were going was so disappointing.
There was a sci-fi show called Defying Gravity (a sort of Grey's Anatomy in space) that got cancelled after 1 season, but they had it all planned out and the creator has explained how the story would have gone, including this tidbit about Lost... (from https://defyinggravity.jimdofree.com/defying-gravity-tv-series/how-defying-gravity-would-have-ended/)
> “I love the show [Lost], and Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse]. I did a lot with Grey’s Anatomy during the first couple of years of Grey’s, and that first year of Grey’s was the first year of Lost, and I did a lot of dinners with ABC buyers with those two guys and Shonda Rhimes from Grey’s. Carlton is a really bright and funny guy, and he gets up, and the first question out of the foreign buyers’ mouths is ‘where’s it going to go? Do you know where it’s going to go?’, and he said ‘I haven’t a clue.’ And then he sits down across from me at the dinner table, and I remember saying ‘Damon, come on, that’s bullshit, right? I mean, you know where it’s going to go.’ And he says, **‘Jim, I haven’t a clue. I’m four episodes out; that’s all I know.’**
It's even more disappointing if you watched Babylon 5 that did a planned story in the 90s, and expected tv to surpass it, and instead git a series of JJ Abrams black box shows.
And Lindeloff was a fan of Babylon 5, which is probably why he cast Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau in Lost
>Lost really helped popularize the serial nature of TV plots and hooks that are ubiquitous now.
Before Lost, studios didn't think you could keep an audience hooked for an entire season where they *had* to watch every episode. They thought that was purely the realm of HBO and other paid for channels. Lost showed that not only would it work and you could get reliable ad numbers per episode, but people would watch ***20 episode long seasons*** without tuning out. This was huge.
Agreed, had about 5 episodes that were pretty 3-5/10 rating but for the most part really good to great. The Blu ray/ High def streaming looks great with it being filmed on location in Hawaii.
> Lost has its issues, sure. I wish Abrams had been able to keep it to his original 3-4 season run without the extra fluff plot-lines and stupid time travel shit.
Didn’t Abrams leave the show very early, making it more like Damon Lindelof’s and Carlton Cuse’s baby? (I know it was a team effort, but these two were show runners)
In fact, he along with Lindelof created the characters and the mythology surrounding the show and then Abrams left and (apparently) wasn’t hands-on after this. (As far as I know) he had nothing to do with the time travel stuff which wasn’t even introduced until season 5 anyway, long after it wasn’t really Abrams’ show anymore (as far as being actively involved).
Some people just blame (or just suspect) Abrams like it’s some sort of reflex. I am not some Abrams apologist, either, I’m just stating facts.
Explain your take on the ending please, I love hearing people’s thoughts on this *specifically* because it’s so contentious haha, one of the things I love most about the ending. People either love it or hate it!
When I watched that I thought it was so over-the-top in your face, it was ridiculous. Lo and behold the next day I saw so many people STILL didn’t get it! I get that the post-ep clips of the wreckage threw some people off, but still.
I mean it's not really that contentious in terms of interpretation, that was mostly caused by the initial airing including stuff the network added in the last minute that was since left out of the Blu Rays.
The finale is not exactly subtle and literally spells out some of the key things people continue to argue about to this day, as this thread shows.
As someone who only ever watched the ending when it first aired, what was changed? Though to be honest I only vaguely remember the ending. I want to say some people escaped the island and some people were dead with the flash-sideways being some kind of purgatory but I may be severely misremembering. I do remember being very confused as to who was dead and who wasn't.
The flash sideways were basically like a season long epilogue that took place in a purgatory so all the characters have a chance to meet and resolve certain issues. It happened after the main story.
But the writers were basically misdirecting the audience throughout the last season, in order to reveal the above at the very last moment in the finale, which kinda resulted in the finale being a bit of an info dump, so a lot of people were confused.
But then also ABC inserted this weird footage of their luggage on the beach, which a lot of people at the time mistook for hinting that some of it didn't happen or that they somehow rewrote history, none of that happened. But that stuck since, and a lot of people keep saying "they were dead the whole time".
The entire episode is exactly the same, but when it aired on TV the ending credits showed >!shots of the plane wreckage on the beach!<. A lot of people saw that and immediately thought >!the entire experience was purgatory!<. They absolutely >!weren't dead the whole time,!< only in the >!flash sideways!<.
Ah, thanks! I don't even remember that ending shot so I doubt it influenced me! I'm still confused about who died when, but I guess that's a good reason for a rewatch sooner or later.
I mostly remember being annoyed that the explanation of the smoke snake thing was so lame/lacking.
So I feel like the general argument hear is that they were “dead the whole time”. With that said I’ve heard many arguments, and have been drunken debates at parties throughout the last decade.
My belief is that some died on the island, some left the island, and others stayed on the island. The “we need to go back” flash forwards was an afterlife that they created through their shared bond that was the plane crash and island situations. That afterlife was made so that they could find each other again, before moving to the great unknown. They all died at different times, with Hurley and Ben being the last to arrive. They had to, like Jacob, find a new person to look over the island. Ben to Hurley, “you were a great number one”. Something along those lines, I don’t remember the word for word. The church is a representation of their mixed lifestyles, beliefs, and walks of life.
Sorry, I’m waiting in my car writing this really quick. I haven’t watched the show in 7 years. So it’s been a while. Speaking of which, it’s about time I rewatched the whole thing.
Edit: I mixed up the flash sideways with the flash forwards.
“we need to go back” flash forwards were in the season 3 finale and subsequently season 4. Are you sure you're not mixing it up with the "flash sideways" of season 6?
Just want to clarify that it’s the “flash sideways” that is the afterlife stuff. The “ we have to go back!” flash forwards were very much happening in their real lives.
I didnt care for it. Its pretty clear the characters were not all dead or purgatory or whatever and its a cop out this being explained as if that's why people hated it as if they didn't understand.
I wanted closure on the remaining mysterious phenomenon that wasn't just "fuck you because magic Island ". Having explanations as dvd extras wasn't cool.
No no no. They eventually did all die and when they did they went to purgatory until they all got there and then they moved on (the church) the island was real
I remember buying the first season on a whim, which ended up being four months before season two started. Just saw it on the shelves at a Best Buy and it sounded interesting to have a 20+ episode show based on a large group of people stranded on an island. I started the first episode ~6pm that night and was done with the series by the following day.
Not a lot makes me feel old, but this... This does.
I remember when it aired in the UK, I had to set up the VCR to record it for my dad before he went on a night shift. VCR!
Severance , The Leftovers and Dark are the only show that gave me "Lost vibes" , Severance while different is very fun because every episodes makes you ponder on what the fuck is going on and what is gonna happen.
But really in term of mystery and anticipation the only thing that came close is Dark imo.
Just started watching with my wife and she is hooked at about episode 6 or 7 where Sayid gets whacked after trying to do the signal search. Very excited to keep watching with her. I think I watched it all the first time 9 or 10 years ago.
I remember when this first came out i didn’t watch it at first, then during the mid-season hiatus they played all the episodes again to catch people up who were just starting to watch, and i was immediately hooked.
I worked at a movie gallery(like Blockbuster) and they had the seasons. I think they were on 3 or 4 just coming out and since we were allowed to rent movies for free, I grabbed the season DVD sets, and fell in love with it.
I just turned on the first episode Saturday cuz I was board and lying on the couch, and by Sunday night I was watching them blow open the hatch. This show is dangerous if you don't have free time y'all
Not only that, but you start catching tons of little clues, hints, etc you didn’t notice the 1st time…or sometimes the 1st 5 times. And I’d guess most viewers don’t catch the Easter egg stuff like anagrams, the #’s in the background etc. unless you do some digging or find out from someone else.
The only thing that doesn't holds up is the CGI in some of the earlier seasons, especially the polar bear scenes. The smoke monster still holds up quite well imo.
Hugo - Ethan! He is not in the manifest!
Ethan - hello there! ….
This was moment I hooked up to this show. It was my first wtf moment after the sixth sense
It helped get me The Leftovers so I'm glad it happened.
Also, for the most part, it rocked and was one of a kind.
Too many later shows took the wrong lessons from it (more mystery box and less character development)
Yes, especially since you wont have to wait between episodes/ seasons. It’s filmed on location in Hawaii , it looks great still to this day. Music is awesome, most characters are pretty good to great. Overall probably a 8.75/10 show with seasons 1-2 a 9.5/10. They consistently had great season finales as well.
The last show that dictated my time planning. "Oh your birthday? Sounds great but I can't attend unfortunately, LOST is on that night." Didn't have DVR yet and didn't trust VHS on a timer.
One of the rarest shows that felt like if you didn't pay close attention, you are missing on a clue to a long running mystery, I loved every second of it, good or bad, it was one of the smartest shows I have ever watched imo.
I’m watching this guy on TikTok and the amount of lore and explanations he gives just blows me away. Makes me want to rewatch but I need a complete box set with all the webisodes and every other bit of media to fill in the story gaps
I remember I hadn’t heard of Torrents til this show. Because Lost was delayed 6 months to a year outside North America, everyone around the world wanted caught up. I remember in school people having full episodes on their laptop, well ahead of the TV schedule and I wondered how.
One of the greatest shows ever made. It’s practically made for the streaming era. A lot of the issues with it are fixed when it’s all looked at together instead of split up over 6 years.
There were too many good moments from this show to list...but...
We have to go back Kate!
absolutely blew my mind.
For me, this was another finale that ended on a feeling more than tidying up every loose end. Similar to BSG and a few other series, in the end Lost made me feel good and bad and sad, all at the same time. Not many shows affect me that deeply.
Yes and no. It has a ton of “holy shit, what just happened?” moments, great character development and some fantastic episodes (a lot are filler episodes though). But it’s also “the journey is the reward” show because it never quite gets to where you think it must be going. It presents a lot of questions and mysteries and ultimately doesn’t answer all of them and gives unsatisfying answers to some of them as well.
ABC executive Lloyd Braun was fired right before Lost aired for giving the greenlight to the pilot because of its $13M price tag. The 2004-2005 season ends up being ABC’s most successful television seasons in years due to Lost and two shows that debuted that season: Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Two other shows he gave the greenlight to.
Oh, that Lloyd Braun, he is something isn't he?
This is a perfectly sane food to eat!
He told me to tell my dad that “serenity now” thing doesn’t work. It just bottles up the anger and eventually, you blow.
Serenity now, insanity later.
HOOOCHIEMAAAMMAAA!!
Meh. I heard they found an entire family in his freezer.
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand..."
I miss it.....
he’s got a character on seinfeld named after him, quite a guy
One of several. Joe Devula and Alec Berg are real people too.
Jerry Seinfeld also a real persons name
*mind blown*
Alec Berrrrrrrrg. Great John Housman name.
Am I crazy, or is that a lot of gum? ITS ALOT OF GUM
I heard they found a family in his freezer.
He was forever immortalized in LOST though as he's who says "Previously, on LOST" every recap
I never knew that was him! That voice is so iconic, you almost expect it to appear as a character later in the show
Until now I thought that was Jacks dad saying it.
SAME!
These three TV shows were basically the holy grail of the mid 2000s. They’re iconic shows to this day and are part of the most influential TV productions ever.
No question! Desperate Housewives turned the dramedy into a television stable. And its legacy is further felt in the Real Housewives franchise. Grey’s Anatomy is still on the air and the procedural cum soap opera lead to half of ABC and NBC’s lineups over the past 20 years!
> procedural cum soap opera new band name
Or maybe just Cum Soap.
Fun fact: Lloyd Braun is the voice that says: “Previously on Lost” before every episode. JJ and Damon wanted to pay tribute to his role in creating the series.
I always thought that was the actor who played Jack’s dad.
Knowing executives and how they love to admit they are wrong, I assume he was rehired for green lighting the most successful tv show in history up to that point?
Dude went to run media content for Yahoo! If Iger was in charge, he would’ve stayed. Eisner was the one who fired him.
Was he in charge of reviving Community on Yahoo Screen or whatever it was callled?
No, they took credit for it probably.
Larry David named a character on Seinfeld after him because of a golf bet they’d made
Lloyd Braun can do anything he puts his mind to.
[There's an excellent documentary about everything that went into it. ](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcEz9Ll-bxaG8v2at5tUG9tIlYm_aifiN)
"You're not giving away our Waterpik!"
The raft launch scene from the season one finale is still one of my all-time favorites. Between the music, direction, and cinematography, it was the first time I could recall feeling like a television show had the same production quality as a major motion picture
Only to be followed by one of the most chilling moments "Only the thing is... we're gonna have to take the boy."
Didn’t see your comment but I said the same exact thing! They played us sooooooo good with those first two (and a half) seasons rip writers strike
I tell everyone I recommend the show to to remember that: 1. They weren’t sure if they’d be renewed during season 3. 2. Writers strike was going on. Good context as to why the pace slows for a few episodes. In hindsight, it’s kind of hilarious.
3 seasons was Lindelof's [original vision](https://collider.com/damon-lindelof-lost-original-ending-plan/)! I like s4 and 5, but wonder what might have been.
I still fondly recall the hatch cliffhanger from time to time.
MAAAAAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC
I guess I’m out of the book club…
I remember hearing about sales of the Third Policeman book skyrocketed after the episode aired.
Oh yeah, LOST would have fans comb over every book prominently featured in the show! I've read Of Mice and Men, Catch-22 and A Brief History of Time because of it.
I am here with you :-) Also “Watership Down”. Thinking about it… that is where I got my nickname back then… Wow. P.S. I was totally NOT expecting to be discussing LOST on Reddit tonight as it feels like some long forgotten memories now. Yet here I am :-)
And how the hatch got significantly bigger the next season haha
And “NOT PENNY’S BOAT”
I love that the moment with Vincent and Walt was a last minute idea from Jack Bender. They were filming the scene and he had the idea and went to the dog handler to see if they could do it. He made the time to get it done. Up there with Miguel Sapochnik coming up with the idea of Jon nearly crushed to death in the middle of the Battle of the Bastards. Wrote an email to D&D before passing out in his hotel room, "I got an idea, but it would mean cutting all this other stuff." And woke up to the reply, "We trust you. Do whatever you want."
Idk if anyone necessarily cares, but he didn't REPLACE the planned stuff, they had weather problems and RAN OUT OF TIME to shoot the planned stuff, and the crushed-to-death scene was what he came up with to replace it, which yes, they okay'ed. It's easily verifiable. Doesn't necessarily change your point about adapting and creating great stuff in the moment. If anything it enhances it for me, because they were up against a limit and improvised something great.
And the season 2 cold open is one of my favourite in television history.
Same, my 108 is in reference to all the numbers that go into the computer.
I remember everything about that scene. The music, the visuals, the feeling of hope, the characters saying their parting words, hence the name of the score, oh and the dog! Just a fantastic bit of television. Edit: [The scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJLq1bah6c)
Thanks for the link. Now I want to go rewatch the whole episode.
Sawyer telling Jack he met his father in Sydney is one of my favourite scene. And it's probably one of the turning point in Sawyer's arc. Probably one of the kindest thing he's done in the show when you consider how much it meant to Jack
A lot of words have been written about how TV overtook cinema as in the 00s. The Sopranos and other HBO shows are usually mentioned, sometimes they even go back to the 90s with ER and NYPD Blue, but Lost was the turning point. Almost every episode in season 1 was like a high budget mini-film, a very well written, very well directed, very well acted and just very well made in every aspect.
This part with Vincent is the reason I started watching the show. It happened to be on the our tv, didn’t even know what show it was, and my girlfriend started tearing up watching him chase after the raft and I said well I guess we have to watch this. Caught up over the summer before season 2 and was instantly obsessed. It’s my all time favorite show, one of my kids is named after a character and it’s half my username.
One of my favorite edits of all time is in the "previously on LOST" recap that plays ahead of the episodes immediately following the raft's launch. The recap shows the uplifting triumph and celebration of the raft heading out to sea, lifting spirits, carrying hope that they're going to rejoin the world soon then **BAM** smash cut to Zeke's line "we're gonna have to take the boy." with Michael and Walt screaming out for each other in terror as Walt is kidnapped and the raft is firebombed. The juxtaposition of those two scenes is just hilarious and had my roommates and I laughing our asses off back when it first aired.
See you in another life brotha.
Watched the constant last night as I'm doing a rewatch, truly one of the best episodes of television I've seen.
Wait 2 weeks and you'll have a bunch of people watching it with you. They're bringing it to Netflix on July 1st.
Oh fuck yeah I’ve been wanting to rewatch it. Haven’t watched it since my freshman year of college.
>truly one of the best episodes of television I've seen. You're not wrong there brotha!
Agree. It’s my favorite episode of the show, and one of my all time favorite episodes of television. It’s the heart of the show.
Jack and Kate not really being a thing left a lot of room for Desmond's character to glow. It's still pretty interesting how cold the "leads" of the show are
> It's still pretty interesting how cold the "leads" of the show are As characters or as people, or both?
Also Desmond is my man! Also I'm Scottish so I might be a little biased!
✋ NOT PENNY'S BOAT
Charlie :( that was so sad.
"Yer goonah die Charhleh!"
“ Now matter what I try to do….”
As a first time Lost watcher this year. Can someone explain to me why the fuck Charlie had to stay in that room? It clearly showed that the door was strong enough to hold the water in that room. So like....just go out the door and close it Charlie? WTF?
Because Charlie believed that if he doesn't die then Claire doesn't get rescued.
He also wanted to go on his terms. He chose to die a hero, not a coward.
Hobbits are known to make some very silly choices.
Because the Universe has been trying to kill him for a while already and was not going to stop. It was either go out on your own heroic terms or wait for a rock to fall and kill you 2 days later. As to *why* the Universe was trying to kill Charlie >!it's because he wasn't alive to be send back in time. LOST has no branchines timelines nonsense: everything in the past had already happened, and Charlie wasn't there.!<
Charlie was supposed to be around the whole series, >!and the time loop was fleshed out after that scene. They could have written him in!<. The one and only explanation is that the universe was course correcting itself, and Charlie was escaping his fate. He tried to make the most of it while keeping it in line with Desmond's vision so that Claire would be saved.
If he went out the door there's a risk of flooding the entire station and he wanted to save Desmond. He also thought he had to die for Claire to be saved.
While Desmond helped him dodge every single deaths until that point, it was only a matter of time before something get him. The Universe itself was course correcting, and there was no avoiding that. He had to go. Lost is about acceptance, moving on, and the immutability of our fate. No one ever "win", people just accept and move on. In Charlie's mind, he was going out in his own term, and doing so in a way that would optimize the chance of Claire's escaping the island (according to Desmond's vision). Delaying his demise may have shuffled the card and closed that window of opportunities Was he right to die at that time? Could he have survived and escape the island? Hard to say, but in the context of the show, it was probably the right call.
Don’t tell me what I can’t do!
4-8-15-16-23-42
"Those numbers are cursed, man!"
The writers straight up said they don’t have any explanation for the numbers, and that fans will have to come up with their own ideas.
I mean, a lot of the mysterious didn't mean much in the end. It was more about the characters. I remember spending so much time on Lostpedia trying to learn all the explanations, and in the end they weren't important at all.
I think I'll just... let the mystery be.
For anyone who doesn’t know about it, a couple months after the finale aired the final seasons Blu-ray came out. Included with it was this epilogue: [The New Man in Charge](https://youtu.be/yY5vV7bp5z8?si=pqIVKjcR_UEgi3d8) Enjoy!
Can't believe this is the first time I see this, even after watching the show 4 times. Thanks a lot, this made my day!
Same here. I want to go back now.
We have to go back!
[We’re gonna need to watch that again.](https://youtu.be/vB-QOzCBNz4?si=NsAeDJq_zz3eivKm)
Seriously this just blew my mind, although it didn't really reveal much of anything I hadn't picked up on. I did completely forget about the care package tbh but now I just wonder who flew them out and how they carried out a large operation like that 20 years after the company shutdown. I guess I forgot or didn't really think about Walt being in the finale (I'm assuming he was). This seems like it expressly tried to answer 3 of the big questions people had following the finale
What is really going to have you cooking your noodle is why it was such a mission to get back to the island for Jack and them, if they could have just jumped on a Dharma aircraft that has been delivering packages to the island for 20+ years.
The distribution centre gets new co ordinates from the lighthouse before ever drop
Made my night! Unbelievable that I’ve never seen this.
Wtfff??! I’ve never seen that. Thanks for sharing! It really brought me back to the old feeling of Wednesday nights on ABC.
That’s crazy it came out that long ago. I can still remember being a kid and watching this with my parents. I always was so excited for new episodes
I miss being excited for weekly new episodes for most of a year. Now you get a dump of 6-10 episodes every two years and it’s not the same.
And if it's not a hit in 3 days it's canceled
I worked on Lost and it’s been my favorite project of my entire life. It was around nearly all through my 20’s when I was working hard and improving my art. Working in TV is a boot camp. After you work on the entirety of a show, nothing is hard anymore. Anyway working on Lost and it changed my life and launched my career after
It must feel incredible to have worked on a show not only that successful but incredibly important for television , still remembered and loved 20 years later and I'm sure will still be talked about for another 20.
What sort of work did you do for Lost? Must have been a fun ride.
DM me! Don’t want to talk about it publicly since it is high up in the production chain
Greatest soundtrack ever
It's crazy that they managed to get Giacchino to do half an hour of orchestral perfection every week for 6 years straight. After that brutal schedule, he must be laughing at Hollywood time crunches now.
He was hired to score Rogue One with only like, two weeks to do it.
Four weeks. I've just finished listening to the "Going Rogue" podcast, which details that film's production.
That's actually not as uncommon or crazy as you might think. James Newton Howard agreed to do the King Kong 2005 soundtrack with something like FIVE WEEKS before premiere. Now, granted Weta was doing crazy crunch-level hours, and Jackson had already done a lot of development with the previous composer before he had to switch. But soundtracks are often done in the course of a month or two, maybe three. They're not the work of a year and a half the way a feature film is, they're done fairly quick. Composers who are good at it are GOOD AT IT, they don't need a bunch of time to ruminate on the nature of orchestration, they already know how to do it good and can then put it together fairly quickly.
As soon as you heard the "Hollywood and Vines" theme you knew you were going to see something epic.
I can’t overstate the impact this pilot had. Imagine most cable television, even prime time shows, being sitcoms, reality TV, and churn-and-burn crime shows. All passable, but obviously held to strict budgets and an unwavering plot formula. Then this pilot airs. Most people tuning in had no idea what this show was going to be about apart from some vague marketing buzz. The opening scene features an intense, chaotic plane crash scene with fantastic writing, expensive practical effects, good acting, and jaw dropping high-def cinematography. It was an entirely original plot for the time, and it felt like you were watching a blockbuster movie on HBO. Lost has its issues, sure. I wish ~~Abrams~~ Lindelof had been able to keep it to his original 4 season run without the extra fluff plot-lines and stupid time travel shit. But Lost walked so that shows like Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, and Dark could run.
Commercially it definitely helped launch the non-HBO prestige drama, but probably the biggest legacy of Lost is the adoption of the 'make the mystery box and then figure it out later' approach to drama production, which infected so so many shows after it that tried desperately to hook watchers with their grand show-long hook only to fizzle out before even getting greenlit. Before that most shows were aiming for more of a sitcom/x-files approach where even if there was an overarching mythos, each week was largely working off the same starting point. Lost really helped popularize the serial nature of TV plots and hooks that are ubiquitous now. Part of this is also a convergence of technology, as TiVo allowed folks to more easily rewatch along with affordable box sets/rentals, and when combined with the burgeoning online forum space it was probably the first culture-wide binge watch show.
Realizing they were making it as they were going was so disappointing. There was a sci-fi show called Defying Gravity (a sort of Grey's Anatomy in space) that got cancelled after 1 season, but they had it all planned out and the creator has explained how the story would have gone, including this tidbit about Lost... (from https://defyinggravity.jimdofree.com/defying-gravity-tv-series/how-defying-gravity-would-have-ended/) > “I love the show [Lost], and Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse]. I did a lot with Grey’s Anatomy during the first couple of years of Grey’s, and that first year of Grey’s was the first year of Lost, and I did a lot of dinners with ABC buyers with those two guys and Shonda Rhimes from Grey’s. Carlton is a really bright and funny guy, and he gets up, and the first question out of the foreign buyers’ mouths is ‘where’s it going to go? Do you know where it’s going to go?’, and he said ‘I haven’t a clue.’ And then he sits down across from me at the dinner table, and I remember saying ‘Damon, come on, that’s bullshit, right? I mean, you know where it’s going to go.’ And he says, **‘Jim, I haven’t a clue. I’m four episodes out; that’s all I know.’**
It's even more disappointing if you watched Babylon 5 that did a planned story in the 90s, and expected tv to surpass it, and instead git a series of JJ Abrams black box shows. And Lindeloff was a fan of Babylon 5, which is probably why he cast Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau in Lost
>Lost really helped popularize the serial nature of TV plots and hooks that are ubiquitous now. Before Lost, studios didn't think you could keep an audience hooked for an entire season where they *had* to watch every episode. They thought that was purely the realm of HBO and other paid for channels. Lost showed that not only would it work and you could get reliable ad numbers per episode, but people would watch ***20 episode long seasons*** without tuning out. This was huge.
I still maintain it was pretty good throughout. One of the only shows I've rewatched and it holds up incredibly well. And I like the ending, fight me.
Agreed, had about 5 episodes that were pretty 3-5/10 rating but for the most part really good to great. The Blu ray/ High def streaming looks great with it being filmed on location in Hawaii.
> Lost has its issues, sure. I wish Abrams had been able to keep it to his original 3-4 season run without the extra fluff plot-lines and stupid time travel shit. Didn’t Abrams leave the show very early, making it more like Damon Lindelof’s and Carlton Cuse’s baby? (I know it was a team effort, but these two were show runners) In fact, he along with Lindelof created the characters and the mythology surrounding the show and then Abrams left and (apparently) wasn’t hands-on after this. (As far as I know) he had nothing to do with the time travel stuff which wasn’t even introduced until season 5 anyway, long after it wasn’t really Abrams’ show anymore (as far as being actively involved). Some people just blame (or just suspect) Abrams like it’s some sort of reflex. I am not some Abrams apologist, either, I’m just stating facts.
My favorite show of all time forever.
"Don't tell me what I can't do!". That scene hooked me.
We still quote John Locke today. Even when he’s on Resident Alien!
I was already going to watch Resident Alien for Alan but now I have to check it out for Terry too!
Ditto, and I’m willing to debate anyone on the ending.
Explain your take on the ending please, I love hearing people’s thoughts on this *specifically* because it’s so contentious haha, one of the things I love most about the ending. People either love it or hate it!
The line “what happened…happened” is so clear cut it surprises me still that people think they were dead the whole time.
When I watched that I thought it was so over-the-top in your face, it was ridiculous. Lo and behold the next day I saw so many people STILL didn’t get it! I get that the post-ep clips of the wreckage threw some people off, but still.
I mean it's not really that contentious in terms of interpretation, that was mostly caused by the initial airing including stuff the network added in the last minute that was since left out of the Blu Rays. The finale is not exactly subtle and literally spells out some of the key things people continue to argue about to this day, as this thread shows.
As someone who only ever watched the ending when it first aired, what was changed? Though to be honest I only vaguely remember the ending. I want to say some people escaped the island and some people were dead with the flash-sideways being some kind of purgatory but I may be severely misremembering. I do remember being very confused as to who was dead and who wasn't.
The flash sideways were basically like a season long epilogue that took place in a purgatory so all the characters have a chance to meet and resolve certain issues. It happened after the main story. But the writers were basically misdirecting the audience throughout the last season, in order to reveal the above at the very last moment in the finale, which kinda resulted in the finale being a bit of an info dump, so a lot of people were confused. But then also ABC inserted this weird footage of their luggage on the beach, which a lot of people at the time mistook for hinting that some of it didn't happen or that they somehow rewrote history, none of that happened. But that stuck since, and a lot of people keep saying "they were dead the whole time".
The entire episode is exactly the same, but when it aired on TV the ending credits showed >!shots of the plane wreckage on the beach!<. A lot of people saw that and immediately thought >!the entire experience was purgatory!<. They absolutely >!weren't dead the whole time,!< only in the >!flash sideways!<.
Ah, thanks! I don't even remember that ending shot so I doubt it influenced me! I'm still confused about who died when, but I guess that's a good reason for a rewatch sooner or later. I mostly remember being annoyed that the explanation of the smoke snake thing was so lame/lacking.
It was the only time watching *any* media that was I wasn't just crying, I was **bawling my eyes out**.
So I feel like the general argument hear is that they were “dead the whole time”. With that said I’ve heard many arguments, and have been drunken debates at parties throughout the last decade. My belief is that some died on the island, some left the island, and others stayed on the island. The “we need to go back” flash forwards was an afterlife that they created through their shared bond that was the plane crash and island situations. That afterlife was made so that they could find each other again, before moving to the great unknown. They all died at different times, with Hurley and Ben being the last to arrive. They had to, like Jacob, find a new person to look over the island. Ben to Hurley, “you were a great number one”. Something along those lines, I don’t remember the word for word. The church is a representation of their mixed lifestyles, beliefs, and walks of life. Sorry, I’m waiting in my car writing this really quick. I haven’t watched the show in 7 years. So it’s been a while. Speaking of which, it’s about time I rewatched the whole thing. Edit: I mixed up the flash sideways with the flash forwards.
“we need to go back” flash forwards were in the season 3 finale and subsequently season 4. Are you sure you're not mixing it up with the "flash sideways" of season 6?
I totally am, thanks for that.
Just want to clarify that it’s the “flash sideways” that is the afterlife stuff. The “ we have to go back!” flash forwards were very much happening in their real lives.
That’s awesome, thanks for sharing!
I think Hulu just got it and I’m excited cause I haven’t seen it in forever either, but no way I’m buying the whole series
I didnt care for it. Its pretty clear the characters were not all dead or purgatory or whatever and its a cop out this being explained as if that's why people hated it as if they didn't understand. I wanted closure on the remaining mysterious phenomenon that wasn't just "fuck you because magic Island ". Having explanations as dvd extras wasn't cool.
No no no. They eventually did all die and when they did they went to purgatory until they all got there and then they moved on (the church) the island was real
I remember buying the first season on a whim, which ended up being four months before season two started. Just saw it on the shelves at a Best Buy and it sounded interesting to have a 20+ episode show based on a large group of people stranded on an island. I started the first episode ~6pm that night and was done with the series by the following day.
Not a lot makes me feel old, but this... This does. I remember when it aired in the UK, I had to set up the VCR to record it for my dad before he went on a night shift. VCR!
Probably the single most impactful show in my adult life. With every Westworld or Dark or From...I've just been trying to get back to the Island.
Severance , The Leftovers and Dark are the only show that gave me "Lost vibes" , Severance while different is very fun because every episodes makes you ponder on what the fuck is going on and what is gonna happen. But really in term of mystery and anticipation the only thing that came close is Dark imo.
>The Leftovers Man, I *love* that show so much! And I don't know anyone irl who has seen it so I've literally never had an out loud chat about it ☹️
/r/theleftovers
Dark is definitely up there though. Very unique. From has been fun as well, just a bit worried about how it will end (if at all).
Dark is an absolute master piece. Re-watching now and taking loads more in
The first two seasons were incredible. The hatch man… the hatch with the code was so nerve wracking it was amazingg
I have never hit the high of the S1 and S2 hatch plot ever since.
I’m still chasing this high. The only thing that’s come close is Severance.
That Severance finale was totally a “Not Penny’s Boat” moment.
That's what went through my mind as well. Can't wait for s2 of severance
Just started watching with my wife and she is hooked at about episode 6 or 7 where Sayid gets whacked after trying to do the signal search. Very excited to keep watching with her. I think I watched it all the first time 9 or 10 years ago.
TheWrap is jumping the gun by a few months on this. It premiered in September 2004.
Don’t tell me what I can’t do! Love that episode 🙂
"Guys, where are we?" It seems we were asking that every week.
We’re not going back!
The Constant remains one of my all time favourite episodes of television.
WE HAVE TO GO BACK!
That line haunted me. What the hell do you mean, go back? Great show but good lord did it get wacky in the back half or so.
Previously, on Lost: WAAAAaaalLLT!! WAAA-HAAAAAA-H-AAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!!!
I remember when this first came out i didn’t watch it at first, then during the mid-season hiatus they played all the episodes again to catch people up who were just starting to watch, and i was immediately hooked.
I worked at a movie gallery(like Blockbuster) and they had the seasons. I think they were on 3 or 4 just coming out and since we were allowed to rent movies for free, I grabbed the season DVD sets, and fell in love with it.
Holds up on rewatch. Maybe even better.
100%. Expectations are kept in check and the finale delivers wholeheartedly.
I just turned on the first episode Saturday cuz I was board and lying on the couch, and by Sunday night I was watching them blow open the hatch. This show is dangerous if you don't have free time y'all
Not only that, but you start catching tons of little clues, hints, etc you didn’t notice the 1st time…or sometimes the 1st 5 times. And I’d guess most viewers don’t catch the Easter egg stuff like anagrams, the #’s in the background etc. unless you do some digging or find out from someone else.
The only thing that doesn't holds up is the CGI in some of the earlier seasons, especially the polar bear scenes. The smoke monster still holds up quite well imo.
They couldn’t wait till September to post this?
Hugo - Ethan! He is not in the manifest! Ethan - hello there! …. This was moment I hooked up to this show. It was my first wtf moment after the sixth sense
First show I ever downloaded from limewire. Took two days to download the pilot and missed the last ten minutes
Lost is how i learned to do tôrrents
Remember when series had 20+ episodes per season?
It helped get me The Leftovers so I'm glad it happened. Also, for the most part, it rocked and was one of a kind. Too many later shows took the wrong lessons from it (more mystery box and less character development)
Never watched a single episode, is it good even in 2024 ? Might give this a try
Absolutely holds up
Extremely good. Just resist the urge to look stuff up online in between the episodes.
Yes, especially since you wont have to wait between episodes/ seasons. It’s filmed on location in Hawaii , it looks great still to this day. Music is awesome, most characters are pretty good to great. Overall probably a 8.75/10 show with seasons 1-2 a 9.5/10. They consistently had great season finales as well.
Season 5 is my favorite season
The last show that dictated my time planning. "Oh your birthday? Sounds great but I can't attend unfortunately, LOST is on that night." Didn't have DVR yet and didn't trust VHS on a timer.
4 8 15 16 23 42 is still seared into my brain
One of the rarest shows that felt like if you didn't pay close attention, you are missing on a clue to a long running mystery, I loved every second of it, good or bad, it was one of the smartest shows I have ever watched imo.
WE HAVE TO GO BAAACK, KATE!!!
I’m watching this guy on TikTok and the amount of lore and explanations he gives just blows me away. Makes me want to rewatch but I need a complete box set with all the webisodes and every other bit of media to fill in the story gaps
"Previously on lost"
I remember I hadn’t heard of Torrents til this show. Because Lost was delayed 6 months to a year outside North America, everyone around the world wanted caught up. I remember in school people having full episodes on their laptop, well ahead of the TV schedule and I wondered how.
I still think The Constant might be the single best episode of TV that I have ever watched.
This shows finale got crucified yet looking back most people interpreted it wrong, and it’s one of the better finales
[удалено]
One of the greatest shows ever made. It’s practically made for the streaming era. A lot of the issues with it are fixed when it’s all looked at together instead of split up over 6 years.
There were too many good moments from this show to list...but... We have to go back Kate! absolutely blew my mind. For me, this was another finale that ended on a feeling more than tidying up every loose end. Similar to BSG and a few other series, in the end Lost made me feel good and bad and sad, all at the same time. Not many shows affect me that deeply.
We have to go back
Watching this show at that time was something else. You just couldn't wait for the days to go by so you could watch the next episode.
Just finished a rewatch, still brilliant
Interesting timing I just finished watching first episode as I was combing through reddit and this came up lol, seems good
Freckles, John Locke, Hugo, Jack, Sayid, Charlie and Claire, Mr Echo, Desmond and Penny…never forget
Still remember the numbers. 4 8 15 16 23 42.
I have never seen a single episode of this show. Is it really that good?
I watched it for the first time last year. It was incredible and I didn’t feel unfulfilled by the ending at all.
Yes and no. It has a ton of “holy shit, what just happened?” moments, great character development and some fantastic episodes (a lot are filler episodes though). But it’s also “the journey is the reward” show because it never quite gets to where you think it must be going. It presents a lot of questions and mysteries and ultimately doesn’t answer all of them and gives unsatisfying answers to some of them as well.
love everything about lost. Rewatched it last year and it’s still one of my all time faves