LOST? You Betcha.

At the risk of lowering my Geek Cred Rating, I had never seen Lost, ever. Well, actually, I had; I saw the Pilot-1 and never turned back again. The show just completely failed to grab me on that first episode; I felt bored halfway through and was just not buying the whole scenario. Mind you, this was almost at the end of Season 1, after I had been sick of hearing everyone and their mother sing the praises of the show. Whenever people wanted me to give the show another try, I'd dismiss them with, "Maybe once I can see the whole season back-to-back it'll make sense." My friend Josh called me on it, and lent me the Season 1 DVD set after he was finished hooking his wife up on the show as well.

I'd had the set for about three months and kept putting it off; I mean, have you see the size of the box? But since last week my wife has been working late completing a project, so I broke down and popped the DVD in the player, to give the show a second chance. Originally I was going to write this two days ago, when all I had seen was disc 1, the first 4 episodes, but yesterday I got through till ep. 8 (Confidence Man). The verdict?

Hung, to be honest. I have not become a rabid fan as of yet, but I am certainly intrigued by the mystery of the island. Unfortunately I know some stuff from season 2 simply from hanging out with friends and from blogs and forums I frequent that take away some of the mystery of the discoveries in season 1, though I am still intrigued in how those things get to happen.

The show so far is very reminiscent of another cult classic, (and an underappreciated, and undercredited, show) Twin Peaks, in how the story is about a mystery that unfolds through flashbacks (the murder of Laura Palmer and the events that lead to it, including the prequel movie, Fire, Walk With Me), mixes apparent supernatural stuff into an otherwise mundane situation (the lodges, the Little Man from Another Place, the giant, the owls, etc.), and in how it utilizes metareferences in order to enhance the in-show experience (Welcome to Twin Peaks guide, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer novel, etc.). Of course, Twin Peaks did it some 15 years ago, and I've yet to see any show that comes even close to matching the sheer brilliance of the concept and execution (though we do need to ignore a good part in the middle of season 2). I digress, however.

I will give this to Lost: I want to keep on watching now. Even with the stuff I know from season 2, the mystery is still there, and I want to be able to catch up so I can be on par with most others out there (and so that everytime I do a search on Lost I don't have to skip over so much of the content) and see what else comes out of it. Will I watch the weekly episodes? Too early to tell, but I'll be awaiting the DVDs of season 2.