The Lost Room: The Complete Season
October 22, 2019 6:08 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Police detective Joe Miller stumbles into the world of the Objects, powerful artifacts of an inexplicable Event.

The Lost Room aired on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy) in 2006, and is now available on Amazon Prime. Note that there are two different versions on Amazon -- the version with six one-hour episodes is streaming for free via Prime, while the version with three two-hour episodes (as it originally aired) is available to rent.
posted by Etrigan (16 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I admit, I'm posting this largely as evangelism. I caught The Lost Room by accident years ago, and it has always fascinated me. It seemed like they clearly wanted it to become a series, but for whatever reason decided not to (this was right around the time that the network went big on this sort of science-fantasy with Eureka and Warehouse 13).
posted by Etrigan at 6:38 AM on October 22, 2019 [3 favorites]


The Control video game fandom has been talking up this show as a closely related show and a possible inspiration. Didn't know it was on Prime, I'll have to check it out. I mean, Margaret Cho?
posted by tobascodagama at 7:47 AM on October 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


I liked this show and the magical realism ideas behind it, and I've forgotten enough about it that a rewatch is perfectly-timed. Thanks!
posted by destructive cactus at 10:53 AM on October 22, 2019


I have a definite soft spot for media in this (meta?)genre of objects with weird powers in an otherwise mundane world. Other examples are Friday the Thirteenth: the Series, The Breech (and sequels) by Patrick Lee, and the SCP wiki. Many of the items from the Lost Room would make excellent SCPs.

A year or so after this show aired, I ran an RPG campaign inspired by it. I had a totally different origin for the objects, and didn't reuse any objects from the series (as tempting as some of them were). Also, I set it in the eighties rather than the (then) present. I think my players had a good time and frequently wanted to kill me. In other words, a successful game.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 11:29 AM on October 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


I haven’t actually watched this BUT I have probably spent more time reading its wiki than the actual airtime.
posted by adrianhon at 1:09 PM on October 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


I really enjoyed this show when it came out, and I haven't rewatched it in a few years, so thank you for reminding me of its existence (and letting me know it's available on Prime). I liked the mythos and wished there was more of it, even though it resolved satisfactorily.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:13 PM on October 22, 2019


This was a great show that I found consistent enough to follow, yet confusing enough to enjoy puzzling out. Some of the artifact powers were so specifically unusual that I wanted to see the backstory regarding the discovery process - sublimating brass? really?

Sadly, my friends mostly disagreed on the awesomeness.
posted by Marticus at 4:29 PM on October 23, 2019


So I started watching this last night and WOW it's awesome! I don't know how I missed this, but thank you for putting it back on my radar. I'm enjoying it immensely.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:31 PM on October 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


Ooh, thanks Etrigan! Had never heard of it before.

At the point where Proxy Snyder Wally explains the objects to Miller, and I'm hooked.

The objects are super 'Roadside Picnic' and 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R.' - that's cool, because the concept is cool, and it's done well.

Haven't gotten to the part with the sublimating brass, but there is a real-life counterpart; RODI (reverse-osmosis, deionized) water is so pure that it will eat away brass pipefitings by sucking copper and zinc ions right out of the metal.
posted by porpoise at 5:10 PM on October 27, 2019 [2 favorites]


Just watched the first episode. This is a great premise. I'd love to see it re-made prestige TV-style.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:29 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I like it as it is. I mean the cast is stellar and it had an actual finale.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:31 AM on October 28, 2019


Wow, the ending. What a neat story.

Not entirely satisfying, though. But I agree with miss-lapin; this aged well enough and not sure how much more art we could get from this by throwing money at it. Take 'The Prisoner' (1967) and 'The Prisoner' (2009).

"an actual finale", this thing is a pet peeve of mine common in the the 90s, the cheep "ha ha, final twist at the end, nothing's changed, we can make a sequel but we won't because this is an art film"

Peter Krause and Kevin Pollak had great chemistry; Pollak is great again. Peter Jacobson being Peter Jacobson, but I can't find fault with that.

Good riff on 'Roadside Picnic' through a mid-2000's American cable TV miniseries lens. That the characters thought objects were (Judeo-Christian) divine but then/ new discoverors decided "whatever"/ "not" was interesting.

I was going to ask why I haven't seen more of Krause, but he's a TV guy? and I'm not his show's demographics? He's incredible here and in 'Six Feet Under.'
posted by porpoise at 10:19 PM on October 29, 2019


Yeah, this was great, but honestly? I'd rather have had 3 or 4 seasons that ended sub-optimally than these 6 hours that tied things up neatly. There was so much potential there! I really liked the interplay of the different factions and key (heh) figures. Could have been a nice "procedural with mythos" like the X-Files or similar, where each episode involves a new Object.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:57 AM on November 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Krause is definitely more of a tv guy. He's currently on 9-1-1. If you like his work, you might want to check out sports night.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:07 PM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]


They should make a follow up show to this, but cast Joel McHale as Joe Miller.

Given that he's an object now he won't age, and 2006 Krause looks eerily like 2019 Joel McHale (to me anyway).
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:53 PM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


Definitely a face resemblance with younger Krause and early mature McHale, but McHale's rather taller and insanely bulkier than Krause.

It's been 13 years so Krause was 41 in 2006; McHale's currently 48, but still looking well.
posted by porpoise at 7:24 PM on December 3, 2019


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