We all have vestiges of nostalgia hidden somewhere. For me, LOST is one that's near and dear to my heart, along with Calvin and Hobbes and The Legend of Zelda. It's the first TV show that I fawned over, that I anticipated week to week, that I dreaded seeing the credits for. In my parents' house, there's a big analogue clock next to the TV. I remember wishing that time would stop during the show so that I could finally see every and last secret that the island had to offer. I didn't start from the beginning of the show, but Blockbuster DVDs filled me in during summer hiatuses. The mythology, the character arcs, the twists and turns-- I loved all of it (I'm still a little ambiguous on the ending, but that's an entry for another day).
Considering I have a few days before classes start again, I decided to watch a couple episodes of LOST. The pilot is immensely entertaining, and if I'm as enthralled as I was the first time around, why not appreciate it again? As it turns out, I wasn't looking backwards with rose-colored glasses: this show is just as good, if not better, than I remember it.
I'm a big advocate of repeated viewings/experiences of things. I can't tell you how many times I've read The Great Gatsby (okay, it's probably around 5 or 6), and Monty Python and the Holy Grail is my go-to movie when I want to kill a couple of hours. Art can't be fully appreciated in one sitting. Of course, the quality of the art in question is directly proportional to the number of times that I'll experience it (one viewing of Transformers 2 was approximately one too many). For a lot of things, it's a fantastic litmus test. While there are some fantastic movies and shows that once was more than enough, LOST has proven to be one for the repeat.
I watched the pilot and the first two episodes after it. The pilot is breathtaking in every way. Jack wandering around the wreckage for the first few minutes of the episode encapsulates the horror of the crash. What impressed me the most was how well the minimalistic approach to characterization worked. There was a lot to get to, even in an hour and a half, but all the major players got the necessary amount of exposure. The shot of Locke, smiling with an orange in his mouth, particularly struck me compared to the frenzy of Jack-- these are two very different men.
I wondered how it would be already knowing the outcome of the major events. I thought at first that it would ruin the suspense. LOST depends on suspense and the unknown to a high extent, and that to me seemed like a major drawback to repeat viewings. However, watching all the pieces fall into places is fascinating. One of my favorite things about LOST is seeing the character's motivations clash against each other in the progressing circumstances of the island. I wanted to see these moments again, and that's where the suspense came from this time. Of course, faulty as memory is, I had forgotten about many of the subtleties of the island, and I was able to experience them as if they were new.
The biggest change for me has been myself. I watched the show for the first time as a teenager. I was mostly in it for the mythology, the deft action scenes, and Kate (yeah, her story may be boring, but... wow, she's good looking). Now that I'm in my 20's, it hits harder. "Walkabout", the episode that introduces Locke, is one hell of an episode. I still get chills at the scene where Locke is rejected for the walkabout. Such a tragic character finding redemption on the island is something that I want to believe in so badly. Some days, we all need our island. This is the best one we may have.
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