Lost: Season 2 Extended Experience DVD
Created by J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber
By Erik McClanahan
In its sophomore season, Lost balances its main theme—that it’s a small world after all—and eventually pushes it over a cliff. Whether you are willing, and not too cynical, to follow the show down the rabbit hole is a good indication of whether or not one will like this jam-packed DVD set.
I discovered Lost when I watched its pilot episode on Sept. 22, 2004. This amazing first episode absolutely blew me away with its grand cinematic approach to a television show. The opening scenes of a plane crash on an island are as good as anything you will see in the multiplexes these days. People are scrambling, confused running for their lives all while pieces of the plane are strewn about the beach. These action scenes play out with audacious authenticity and realism, courtesy of the guiding hand of pilot director J.J. Abrams (who directed this summer’s less-than impressive Mission Impossible 3). As soon as I saw a character literally sucked up into the plane’s jet, causing a massive explosion, I sat amazed and wondered: Is this really a T.V. show?
After watching that remarkable pilot episode, I eventually lost track of the show and had to wait for the DVD to come out to watch the entire season. I eventually completed the first season with my jaw appropriately dropped on the floor after its cliffhanger finale. I can only imagine what fans must feel like having to wait each week for the next episode to enlighten on the revelations of past episodes. Watching Lost is an exercise in patience and controlling ones anger over the storytelling method. If you have faith, though, the show can be a rewarding present-day fantasy/sci-fi escapist tale that is perfectly suited for television show format of which the story, and its plot twists, unfolds slowly over the course of numerous hours.
The show’s format and episodes are perfectly suited for DVD, where the viewer can immediately watch the following episode and not have to wait the agonizing week to get an explanation of what previously transpired. I can’t fathom what it will be like for yours truly when I actually have to watch the third season on a week-to-week episode basis.
That being said, after finishing the second season in just under five days, I am now an official Lost fanatic, and I eagerly await the upcoming third season (beginning Oct. 4 2006). I heard that season 2 was a bit of a let down from an array of friends, fans and critics alike. I heard criticisms that this season was full of episodes where nothing really happened (as far as major plot developments), and characters that were likable an interesting before were now becoming clichéd and annoying. I approached watching the sophomore season with an open mind, hoping to have some questions answered from the first season.
Maybe because I watched it all on DVD, and was able to see the whole in a few days, is why I enjoyed season 2 so much. I found it to be every bit as enjoyable as the first season, and in some ways more interesting because it expanded on the characters and the mythology of the show. When I watched episodes where little happened in the way of major plot development, I took this not as a sign that the writers were running out of ideas (and subsequently didn’t have a clue where the story was going) but instead saw it as thoughtful character development. Lost is a show filled with intriguing ideas and twists no doubt, but it really is a show about fascinating characters coming to grips with their pasts, and choosing to become a better person. Every perfectly placed flashback in each episode expands on the characters and explains their actions on the island.
At a time where even most movies are straying away from memorable characters and development and its importance to a story, Lost is a breath of fresh air. Season 2 even added some new characters: Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who played Wombosi in The Bourne Identity) is easily one of the best characters now on the show, and Ana-Lucia (Girlfight’s Michelle Rodriguez) is a beautiful, and dangerous, addition to the central love “square” between Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway).
The second season of the show provided memorable episodes that furthered the confusion of what exactly the island is and how all the characters ended up there. The opening chapter begins in a mysterious room in which an unknown character types the show’s all-important and re-occurring numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42) in to a computer that looks like it was made in the early 80’s. Ten minutes in to this scene, we finally realize—via a fabulous one-take shot and some elegant CGI trickery—that this is the hatch we left off at in the season 1 cliffhanger. This opening was fantastic as it showed what we all wanted to know: who or what is in the hatch and what is it there for. Other episodes that stand out are the aptly titled “The Other 48 Days”, in which we see all the important events that happened to the survivors of the tail section of the plane on the other side of the island. The most interesting, and twist-filled episode has to be “Dave,” where Hurley’s (Jorge Garcia) hospital exploits are detailed in flashbacks, and one plot twist after another is revealed and explained. This episode makes you question the reality of everything that has transpired in the show and makes for a stand-alone, unique experience.
It is important to note that Season 2 also ends in a cliffhanger that will leave audiences scratching their heads, and wanting more, as a few theories are discredited (the survivors of the crash apparently are alive, they are not in some sort of limbo-like purgatory, and the island is not in a separate world not of the earth). This ending out of nowhere serves its purpose as it leaves you hungry for more.
Lost is fantastic on many levels. It keeps the audience guessing at all times, and this can be frustrating for many viewers. If you have faith in the storytellers, and you believe that they know where all this is going, then you can enjoy the experience of the series and all it has to offer for an entertainment fan. Has any other television show been known to reference Shakespeare and Star Wars all in a single episode? Nothing comes to mind. Clearly the creative forces behind this fabulous mystery of a show have taken cues from some of the best storytellers, writers and filmmakers working today all to craft a unique and enthralling series the likes of which television has never seen. There are hints of Tarantino (showing events from multiple angles, overlapping characters and storylines, and morally corrupt characters made sympathetic for the audience), Paul Thomas Anderson and Robert Altman (Numerous characters, fate as a main driving force to tell the story, and interweaving storylines), Stanley Kubrick (close-ups on characters’ eyes, a predilection for wide angle lens photography, ambiguous storytelling) and even the work of blockbuster-makers Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis is evident when you see the scale, production value and love for pure storytelling in Lost.
All of these elements make for a show that is unequaled in T.V. today, and will undoubtedly be copied itself by lesser storytellers in the future. Watch the show with an open mind, and remember that everything happens for a reason. Lost attempts to tell us that this is a small world after all, and that humans are meant to converge and interrupt each other’s lives. In the show’s universe, everyone is connected in some way, and characters often must choose to be good or bad. It ultimately is about the big things in life: redemption, change, choice, morality, one’s purpose in the world, and the ever blurring line between what is good and evil, and how each perspective views that line. In the world we live in today, is anything more topical?
HDFEST grading scale
-Lost: Season 2 Extended Experience DVD-
Story A-
Acting B
Visuals B+
Originality A
Enjoyability A-
Overall Grade A-
DVD Extras B+
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