We have to go BACK

June 12, 2019 8:43 PM

Any interest in a Rewatch series of posts on "Lost"?

I'm rewatching it and finding it's holding up pretty amazingly well - would people be interested in

It seems to be streaming on several services (Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, iTunes).

Not sure if an episode-by-episode posting approach is feasible if conversation is scant - might be better to lump a few episodes together per post (?).

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (14 comments total)

Geez, I thought I edited this post - "Would people be interested in joining me on the island", I meant to write.

A podcast has prompted this query: A Storm of Spoilers , which is pretty good.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:45 PM on June 12, 2019

I just started re-watching this a couple weeks ago and am only on episode S1E16. I Have Thoughts :tm: and I woudl definitely love to see it on Fanfare!
posted by Tevin at 5:04 AM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Been there. Done that. (SPOILERS)
I was free-lance writing for one of NBCInteractive's websites when Lost was roaring toward its timely end, and my editor wanted as many article ideas as her freelancers could come up with. My idea was to write about Hurley, the most sympathetic of the survivors (at least after John Locke's body was taken over by an evil spirit) and was surprised when my pitch was accepted... especially since I'd only actually watched 3 episodes of the 6 seasons to that point. So I set out on a Binge Watch of near-epic proportions to capture the essence of the show and the character. The result is linked above and the fact that nobody I was aware of attacked me for "totally missing the point" was a good sign and that the last couple episodes after my piece was 'weblished' didn't contradict me was a major relief. This went far toward burning me out on writing about TV. (The last straw was reviewing the 20-so-far seasons of The Simpsons to assemble a multimedia list of the Top 10 Couch Gags, that didn't survive the migration of MSNBC.com's Entertainment section to Today.com)

That said, do I want to go back? Well, even if the rewatch is a half-season per week, it'd be more leisurely than I did before.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:01 AM on June 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Okay one or two comments is enough for me to proceed.

I think I'll start with an episode-by-episode posting and see how it goes; there's a TON of stuff online (of course) written about Lost and I think each episode will have numerous links to include.

If anyone is interested in posting give me a memail or comment here. My husband might take a few as he's watching it with me.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:44 AM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

I don't have time to follow along right now, but I'll be interested to see everybody's takes on the whole deal and may try to catch up when things are less crazy. (I'd certainly like to talk about a few specific moments?)

Also: it's been awhile, but I agree about Hurley, oneswellfoop. I liked your piece.
posted by mordax at 8:57 PM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Hm. I got really turned off of this show, but I'm not sure how much of that was because I was out of the US for much of it, so I was a little out-of-synch from any community to share it with. I'd be interested to see whether it'll work better (not to mention to see how much of its... ad hoc nature is evident as we go along).
posted by Etrigan at 7:57 AM on June 14, 2019

Etrigan, what were you turned off by?

I was listening to the podcast the other day and they mention how the flashback format of seasons 1+ allowed the show to play with different genres (westerns, Korean soap, whodunnit, crime dramas, etc.). This perfectly nailed one of the most appealing aspects of Lost for me: the flashbacks and how they not only take the audience to a whole different world, but to a whole different *feeling*.

Anyways I think I'm going to nope out of this as I've had second thoughts about the time/commitment to this - it would be a huge undertaking. Sorry folks.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:04 AM on June 14, 2019

I've been thinking about doing a LOST re-watch, too. If it were done here on Fanfare, I'd be more likely to participate if we did somewhere between episode-by-episode and season-by-season. Maybe every 3-4 episodes?

And can we skip the episode that features the demises of Nikki and Paulo? It's been 12 years and I'm still annoyed by them.
posted by Gray Duck at 1:12 PM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Etrigan, what were you turned off by?

As noted, the increasing obviousness that they (at worst) never had a plan for an endpoint or (at best) several of the writers had different and possibly contradictory endpoints in mind, and there was a lot of course-correction every time anyone else got to steer for a little while.

Also, it felt like they were treading water a lot in the last third of each season (Kristen Bell has said that she feels like the last third of any 22-episode season is mostly treading water, which is why her contract for The Good Place has a hard limit of 16 episodes per season, so the network can't order more solely because they want to fill Thursday nights).

But I admit that I may well be wrong, and maybe watching it more bingetastically and/or with the knowledge of the endpoint might raise my opinion retroactively.
posted by Etrigan at 1:26 PM on June 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

But I admit that I may well be wrong, and maybe watching it more bingetastically and/or with the knowledge of the endpoint might raise my opinion retroactively.

For what it's worth, this was also my impression.

I consider Lost to be a truly fascinating hot mess. There's a lot of really good stuff going on undercut by JJ Abrams' love of gobbledygook mystery box plotting - great cast, iconic moments, etc., but with the obvious 'nope there is no plan, also everything the showrunners are saying is nonsense, also we didn't need an origin story for Jack's tattoos.'

At the time, I actually dropped it for almost a year, and only came back when a friend told me about Expose, (the Nikki/Paolo episode), after which I went ahead and finished it out. I later found out most people hated that one, which baffled me.
posted by mordax at 11:04 AM on June 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

I've been enjoying a "rewatch" by way of watching the weekly reaction videos by The Normies (primarily two newbies and one experienced viewer who clears up confusion and offers relevant side info such as informing them of the effect of the writer's strike, etc). Watching people lose their minds at major moments on the show is delightful. They're almost at the end of season four now. It's definitely made me want to actually rewatch the show again, so I'd be up for it!
posted by acidnova at 12:04 PM on June 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm down for a rewatch - I dropped out sometime after they discovered the other people on the island and it turned tribal and between the marketing hype and the 4-6 week holiday breaks, ugh.

I mean, I dropped out of Heroes as it aired for more or less the same reasons (YOU WON'T BELIEVE HOW HIRO GETS OUT OF THIS, TUNE IN NEXT YEAR! oh piss off), but it was tolerable when I watched it every night, not giving my brain time to really notice when they started treading water.

But that points more towards a bunch of fairly quick 5-6 episode roundups rather than the one-per-week lethargy of some rewatch posts. :) I totally get that nobody would want to make 120 episodes back to back to back, and a full-season thread might be too broad a target, but I'm not likely to force myself to slowly watch it over the course of 2+ years, either.

MAH BAYYYYBEEEEEE oh god I'm getting flashbacks already
posted by Kyol at 6:37 PM on June 19, 2019

At the time, I actually dropped it for almost a year, and only came back when a friend told me about Expose, (the Nikki/Paolo episode), after which I went ahead and finished it out. I later found out most people hated that one, which baffled me.

"Expose" was the absolute best episode of LOST.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:24 AM on June 24, 2019

I loved Expose when I first watched it but enjoy it less on subsequent viewings because Nikki and Paulo are so unpleasant to spend any time with and knowing the ending kind of makes me anxious to just move on to the next thing. But yes, I am baffled by people who hate it on the first viewing. It's like Lost did a take on the Twilight Zone (or perhaps Tales from the Crypt) and it's awesome in its own way.
posted by acidnova at 1:21 PM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]