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A few words about...™ Lost: The Complete Fifth Season -- in Blu-ray

post #1 of 14
12/26/09 at 6:07am
Thread Starter 
Lost via ABC, and Disney,  may well be one of the greatest series to ever hit the airwaves.

It is also one of the most frustrating to watch in broadcast.

Just when you believe that you have some real understanding of whats occurring, the cinematic rug is pulled out from under you, and you find yourself (once again) in a kind of storyline swamp, never knowing what is coming next.

Season 5 takes everything that has come before, takes it apart and stands it on its head.

Traveling back and forth through time and location, Lost 5 is like an unstoppable locomotive -- without rails. 

Viewing this fifth season I find myself continually in awe of the production team.  Dealing with actors, props, make-up, sets and locations, all which can be dealt with in a normal narrative, but now being continuously re-visted -- years later.   Even with production groups working on different shows concurrently, the concept of returning to a place from season one or two, and a character unseen since season three must be mind-boggling in production.

The nice thing about Blu-ray is that it gives one the ability to sit through a frustratingly confusing season in a few sittings rather than waiting for one's weekly bit of the story.

Still apparently photographed on Kodak stock in 3-perf, Lost continues to be a sumptuous feast on Blu-ray.  A bit of harsh grain in extremely darks areas looks fine, while the sunlit exteriors glisten with gorgeous colors -- some probably unknown in nature.  The look of these episodes continues to be one of the greatest aids to Hawaiian tourism ever invented.  Now if one could only get there on Amtrak.

Edit:  After viewing the entire season 5, with a season closer that must be among the visceral and
cliff-hanging endings in television history, I must move my recommendation from a Highly to a Highly +
Recommended.

I have little control over this change.  The Island made me do it.

Highly+ Recommended.

RAH
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Lost: The Complete Fourth Season [Blu-ray]
Lost - The Complete First Season
Lost - The Complete Second Season
post #2 of 14
12/26/09 at 9:50am
A couple of weeks ago, Amazon Gold Box had a deal where you could pick up Lost seasons 1-5 on Blu-ray for $108.  I have the first two seasons on DVD, so I believe I qualify for two $20 rebates on the purchase price, so the net cost will be $68 for all five seasons.  That is just $24 more than the stand-alone price for Season 5!

I have blasted through the first three seasons, and am taking a Christmas break.  I should be up to Season 5 next week.  I can't wait!  It will be quite an adjustment to go to watching the series weekly when Season 6 starts up in February.  I am used to watching 4-5 episodes at a time.

Anyway, thanks as always for the review. 

-  Steve
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post #3 of 14
12/28/09 at 8:23am
What's the deal with this "Mysteries of the Universe" - was it a real program from the 80's? If it was, there goes my praise for the creators of Lost and thinking that it was an awesome original idea.
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post #4 of 14
12/28/09 at 10:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luisito34 View Post

What's the deal with this "Mysteries of the Universe" - was it a real program from the 80's?


No, it was created for the DVD/Blu-ray release and made to look like it was from the 1980's.
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post #5 of 14
12/28/09 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisR View Post



No, it was created for the DVD/Blu-ray release and made to look like it was from the 1980's.


They sure as hell fooled me! Everything looked authentic right down to the promo for "Matt Houston" and the crappy 80's-era picture quality. Holy Christ. I even paused the video when the copyright thing came on to find out what year it was from but it was illegible. But why does the name of the show sound so familiar?
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post #6 of 14
12/28/09 at 11:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luisito34 View Post

But why does the name of the show sound so familiar?

 


The title sounds like Unsolved Mysteries (with Robert Stack) but, to me, it looked more like the 1970's In Search Of... (with Leonard Nimoy). Having grown up watching those shows, Mysteries Of The Universe was a lot of fun and a dead-on 'parody' of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsolved_Mysteries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of..._(TV_series)
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post #7 of 14
12/28/09 at 12:58pm
"Mysteries of the Universe" has to be a fake show, for obvious reasons: all that Dharma Initiative stuff, references to characters on the show (Alvar Hanso), plotlines, etc. The thing that has me a little unconvinced is how REAL everything looks. For example, you know how those Orientation films on Lost featuring Marvin Candle were shot in a way to make it appear the films were made in 1980, complete with a copyright notice at the end, scratches and reel changes, whatever. You and I and everybody else know that stuff was
fake, shot in 2004 but made to look vintage by adding scratches. Those "Mysteries" clips actually look authentic, just too good to be a concoction, know what I mean?
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post #8 of 14
12/30/09 at 12:22pm
I know Robert may have alluded to it... Is it just me, or do all the scenes in the jungle look awful to anybody else? Looks like a display set in a "vivid" or similar mode, faces way too red, greens too green, etc. But the other scenes look decent, though softish. Is there an artistic reason for this vividness that I'm missing? (I have only watched the first 3 discs so far...so no spoilers please.) Is it maybe to separate the different jungle time frames? (I haven't tried to correlate.) A hint would be nice so I could rest easier knowing there's a purpose for offending my eyes...   [FWIW, I thought S4 looked best, very closely followed by S1-2, then S5, finally S3 the first season to BD. Overall look.]

Having the advantage of watching S1-4 immediately before S5 over 2-3 weeks, a lot of "surprises" are not so surprising, there really are a lot of clues and many of them were pretty clearly laid out, short of reaching through and slapping you in the face.
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post #9 of 14
12/30/09 at 1:50pm
Glad to hear Robert enjoyed Season 5. I can't wait for the show to come back.

Maybe the colors have something to do with the turning of the wheel and other time hopping adventures?

Looks like Amazon might have a lightening deal on the Dharma Initiative Orientation kit thingy in a few minutes. I already picked the regular Blu-ray set up but don't intend to rewatch the season until closer to February.
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post #10 of 14
12/30/09 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray H View Post

Maybe the colors have something to do with the turning of the wheel and other time hopping adventures?

This is what I was thinking. But there sure is a helluva lot of the "vividness" in the first 3 discs, and I first suspected most of it represented things taking place on the island in the past. But I don't know, yet, and may be best not to tell me after all. (Before I got the amazon S1-5 bundle I knew nothing about Lost, except that some people were lost LOL.)
Edited by CraigF - 12/30/09 at 2:44pm
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post #11 of 14
12/30/09 at 2:49pm
It's not the discs, it's the way that those episodes were shot. They had a different DOP for episodes 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 this year and he definitely chose a different palette for those episodes. They had their regular DOPs for the rest of the episodes.
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post #12 of 14
12/30/09 at 4:01pm
Well, if the DOP actually thinks that looks good, and it wasn't done for any other story reason, he'll feel right at home working the floor at Best Buy when his Lost gig ends. But...I'm pretty sure what I'm talking about is spread through ALL the S5 episodes (up to 12 anyway)...so maybe the same DOP for most of the island shooting, which would make sense. Even the sand looks all blown out white, whereas before you could see the grains; makes the water look pretty inviting though.

Edit: I still have faith there is a good reason for it. Considering how generally good the rest of the S1-5 looks, there must be a reason. Or are they screwing with me?? I do have a calibrated display, and I can see bad color like this in the worst un-cal mode (apparently a popular look with the general public from what I've seen). FWIW Robert's "allusion" was "gorgeous colors -- some probably unknown in nature.". He is way more diplomatic than I am.
Edited by CraigF - 12/30/09 at 4:41pm
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post #13 of 14
12/30/09 at 7:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigF View Post

Well, if the DOP actually thinks that looks good, and it wasn't done for any other story reason, he'll feel right at home working the floor at Best Buy when his Lost gig ends. But...I'm pretty sure what I'm talking about is spread through ALL the S5 episodes (up to 12 anyway)...so maybe the same DOP for most of the island shooting, which would make sense. Even the sand looks all blown out white, whereas before you could see the grains; makes the water look pretty inviting though.

Edit: I still have faith there is a good reason for it. Considering how generally good the rest of the S1-5 looks, there must be a reason. Or are they screwing with me?? I do have a calibrated display, and I can see bad color like this in the worst un-cal mode (apparently a popular look with the general public from what I've seen). FWIW Robert's "allusion" was "gorgeous colors -- some probably unknown in nature.". He is way more diplomatic than I am.

 


If the change in color schemes (like blindingly white skies) was to help the audience know where they were, I didn't notice the same thing on John Bartley's (the regular DOP) episodes. That's not to say that I'm definitely right, I'm just saying that I only noticed it on the even numbered episodes that I mentioned above.
Edited by TravisR - 12/30/09 at 7:52pm
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post #14 of 14
12/30/09 at 9:41pm
^ Talk about lost... I had in fact only seen 7 of the S5 episodes when I posted the above stuff. You get a bit lost when using SeasonPlay, might be nice if they had episode titles/numbers displayed. That's my excuse anyway. Hope to get a couple more eps in tonight, I will pay better attention to color and circumstances...

Edit: the color "aberrations" are most noticeable before ep. 8 after all (first 2 discs), lots of in-the-past jungle scenes there that bothered me (not the "flashes"). So I am OK with it, I still think it has a story purpose and was not just a specific DP's "opinion", but I'm not going to go back and re-watch the first 7 eps. just to verify... Other than these parts that bothered me and apparently nobody else LOL, the PQ is generally quite good and nothing to complain about (in case I gave the wrong impression).
Edited by CraigF - 12/31/09 at 1:26pm
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Lost: The Complete Fourth Season [Blu-ray]
Lost - The Complete First Season
Lost - The Complete Second Season
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › Blu-ray › A Few Words About By Robert Harris › A few words about...™ Lost: The Complete Fifth Season -- in Blu-ray