HTF REVIEW: LOST - the complete first season - ADDICTIVELY RECOMMENDED!!! (1 Viewer)

[Mark Talmadge]

What are they going to do if the series ends up being canceled midway through its series run? Shows that have started with a strong ratings ended up with weaker ratings as the series went on because of weak storylines during a third or fourth season.

Just look at shows like Farscape, Sliders, Star Trek Enterprise, Firefly which were quality shows but ended up being canceled because of low ratings despite the fact they had strong ratings or a strong plotline.

I expect that this series may last at least three seasons but anything beyond five seasons is really stretching it a bit. The only show to have survived an extended period of time is the Stargate SG-1 series which is being rumored as possibly taking it to a 10th season.

 

[JohnS]

to me, I don't think that's going to be possible.
The Season 1 DVD set has been selling oustanding and season 2 has alot of hype.
I think the only thing that will kill it, if season 2 is a real letdown and the TV set doesn't sell well next year.

I'm pretty confident we will see Lost up to season 5 or 6

I watched the first disc last night, and I also don't have the AUDIO SET UP option.

 

[Ryan_Guah]

I think Lost's fate depends on this season. MANY people that were dissapointed by the finale have swore that they'll give up if Season 2 doesn't deliver, so I think a lot hinges here.

 

[TravisR]

And I fully expect to see a good amount of them complaining about (yet still watching) the new episodes anyway.

 

[Sean Laughter]

I don't know, Lost doesn't exactly have stand-alone episodes to fill the gaps in the "mythology" arc the same way something like X-Files did, and my impression is that the Lost audience is far from as rabid or as cultish as the X-Files phenomenom was.

Lost has to start delivering on some of the mysteries or else it's seriously going to wear out its welcome.

 

[Jonny P]

This is one of the best-crafted shows to ever hit primetime network television and people are already signaling its demise?

I have been watching on DVD...I hadn't seen the eps since their original run.

This show is beautifully crafted and there are a lot of very gifted writers working on. Not only that, it is extremely well acted.

As I watch it, it is hard sometimes to remember that I am watching a "TV show" because of the excellence the show exhibits.

If all you tune in for is information about what the "mystery" is, then you'll be disappointed sooner rather than later.

It'll probably be like the "Wizard of Oz" -- the characters go on a long journey, then at the end find out the Wizard is just some little man running a machine behind a curtain.

Personally, I'd rather not know what the secret is. I'd rather always wonder.

Take "Star Wars" for example. I preferred the whole mythos of that universe "before" there were prequels.

Why? Well...the "backstory" I had created in my mind was far more compelling than the stories George Lucas finally created (in my opinion).

For years and years it created an air of "mystery" not knowing conclusively how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader.

The Art of Wondering is what makes "Lost" great.

It is obvious we live in an "instant gratification" culture when everyone "must" know the secrets soon or they'll get bored.

We all would admit that dragging this thing out past its time wouldn't be a good thing. However, none of us knows what they ultimately have in mind and what other mysteries might be uncovered the next couple of seasons.

Personally, I could go for some more twists and turns.

 

[Max Leung]

Anyone notice what looks like macroblocking in dark scenes? To be more specific, in the dark scenes it looks like the dark areas are swimming with grain. Could it be HD camera noise caused when its CCD sensor has to capture images in low light? I'm surprised no one has noticed this - it is very obvious.

I don't think it is macroblocking. In normal daylight scenes the PQ is very good - even if there is heavyily shadowed areas.

This is on an HTPC running TheaterTek 2.1, with the same projector as David's using DVI inputs.

 

[Nicodemus]

It isn't about "instant gratification", it's about the way stories should be handled. The way it works in drama is that you should always reveal something to keep the audience interested while presenting a whole new set of questions. Lost has mainly been doing the latter. If you don't give the audience anything, it's bound to lose some of it's interest.

Some minor spoilers for those who have not seen season one to follow....

While I'm watching Lost and the way they're holding all the secrets (numbers, monster, The Others, French woman, where the power line is going, Locke's evil/good side, the baby and so on - you'd think they could tell more about about just one thing instead of withholding all of it!) I just can't helping thinking that they are scared to reveal anything because they fear that that's all there is to the show. The way to handle it, in my opinion, is that they should've introduced only a few of these questions during the first season (for example just numbers, The Others and the French woman), explained them and then move on to the next set of questions during season 2.

Now it feels just like Alias where you can be dead certain that you won't ever get to know anything final about Rambaldi.

 

[Sean Laughter]

Yes, it's not about "instant gratification" for me either, I just put far too much energy into X-Files for so little storytelling payoff that I'm seriously not interested in investing into watching another show based on a central "mythology" unless I'm sure they're going to pay it off satisfactoraly and not string the audience along until it becomes nothing but a weekly exercise in frustration.

 

[Citizen87645]

I believe the review said the series is shot on film.

 

[TravisR]

You can bet that instantly people are going to be saying "That's it? That sucked!!!! It was better when it was left to my imagination! Wahhh!" I guess what I'm trying to say is that the show is 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. Some people are never going to be happy. When they have no answers, they complain. When they have answers, they'll complain.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The major problem with the series is that you can't watch one episode to know what's going on. They've set the series up so that you have to watch the series from the first episode.

The additional problem that the producers don't give in to what the Island is about is never even addressed in Season 1 and I think this may be a catalyst as to why the series might not have a long run ...

With shows like X-Files, that have a cult following, at least they always gave the fans answers to some of the running plot threads in the series. The producers of this series really need to start answering some of these questions during the second season if they expect continued support from the fans.

After watching the entire first season DVD, and I stand by my original comment that the initial episodes of the series were less-than-mediocre because they did nothing or do nothing to capture the attention of the viewer, I did enjoy the remainding part of the season but none of the questions regarding the mystery of the island were revealed at all.

1. The Others
2. The Hatch
3. Security System
4. Why the Plane Crashed
5. The Significance of the Numbers
6. Why the surivivors all had indirect links with each other in the flashbacks
7. The Monsters of the Island
8. The Experiment that the Science Team was working on
9. The core mystery of the ISLAND
10. The Black Smoke[/list=1]
    
    If they continue in this direction with the second season they are going to lose a lot of fans in the process. The whole policy of asking more questions and not answering any of the previous ones is bad scriptwriting.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'm pretty sure the show was shot on film...I see what looks like fine-film grain during daylight scenes and I don't see the usual aliasing artifacts from native 1080I broadcasts (also, I have a native 1080 24P mastered movie on DVD and it has no film grain).

Now I've sort of cheated on my PJ...because DVD has so much "nasty MPEG noise in the blacks" in general...I tweaked the color-wheel brightness (in the factory menu) of my BenQ PJ just a notch to absorb the worst of the "black mpeg noise" that's on almost every DVD anyway (viewers with digital projectors sometimes see things that other viewers don't...because they reveal grayscale details the video mastering department didn't expect anyone to see). So my image is pretty clean in the blacks (there are still DVDs that look bad...I only adjusted my PJ enough to hide the black-mpeg-noise on "average" DVDs).

Next time I get a chance I'll reverse my adjustement and see if I see the same thing...but to my eyes the compression, even in the blacks, looks decent at least compared to other "good" DVD jobs...

share more if you can!

Mark,

my hope is that all those hanging-issues are going to give steam to season 2. At least that's my hope!

dave

p.s. just got back from vacation so now to check out the special features!

 

[ElijahS]

At least a few of the mysteries should be addressed this season. I'm not 100% sure, but I do think that the hatch is one of them.

 

[Jonny P]

I realize that "Lost" IS NOT a show where each episode is "encapsulated" and that you have to watch all of the episodes to understand what is going on, but in my opinion there is nothing wrong with that.

The same is true for "24."

I didn't start watching last season until the third or fourth episode and I found it to be fascinating. It made me want to go back and see the ones I had missed (which I got to do when they were re-aired during the season).

The show also employs "non-linear" storytelling using flashbacks to fill in details as we go along. Again...that is considered a taboo in television, but it is refreshing when it is done.

Everyone assumes this show will have some sort of vague ending. I don't think that we can necessarily make that claim until we have seen more than one season.

The creators of the show are well-aware of the possible pitfalls of keeping too much a secret. They said so in an article in "Entertainment Weekly" that ran last Spring. They know that they are going to have to reveal certain things sooner rather than later. They said they've learned from "Alias" and "The X-Files" and "Twin Peaks" in that regard.

 

[Max Leung]

Thanks for the clarification on your setup Dave! I to lowered my brightness a little bit - although video black (IRE 7.5) isn't quite as dark as IRE 0. Also, I did tweak my gamma a little bit - instead of the default Gamma Index of 66 I raised it to 72, which I think takes it closer to a gamma of 2.5 instead of the Benq's default 2.6ish. I'll look at it again after restoring the gamma to the default.

Aside: I strongly suspect that people who see macroblocking may be experiencing a gamma issue - when I calibrated my projector to use a gamma of 2.2, the image looked more washed out, with black detail being extremely elevated and lots of mpeg noise will be apparent in dark scenes.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Dave, thanks for the words of encouragement.

Johnny, the flashbacks? When a series like Lost depends on such an obvious ploy because there's nothing else to run the series? Yes, you could say I find fault with this. Because, when a director or creator relies heavily on a such a gimmick doesn't say too much for the creative team for the series. While they are an unusual ploy to use, the producers are using "flashbacks" much to heavily and have become too dependent on them.

Lost Easter Eggs,

Alternate Title Sequence

To access the alternate title sequence, go to the main menu of disc 7 and press left twice from the "Tales From The Island" option. This will move the cursor next to the words "Disc 7"

French Repeating Message

On Disc 2, go to the Episodes menu. Move the selector dot to the "Main Menu" and press the right key/arrow. You'll see a new dot in the green leaves. Click it to hear the French repeating message --and the iteration count increases from 17294531 to 17294535

Alternate Deleted Scene

Insert Disc 7: Bonus Features, Choose "Deleted Scenes". Choose "The Climb", push "Select" or "Play"(Not actually required to see the egg but it will not be as funny without it.) Choose "The Climb", push the left arrow key on your remote three times. The first two will get no response. On the third a dot will appear on the screen, lit up as a selection. Push "Select" or "Play". You will see a hilarious alternate version of the end sequence of "The Climb".

Locke and the Orange

Select "Tales From the Island" on Disc 7, then highlight "Main Menu," press right, and then enter.

 

[pitchman]

Shifting gears a bit. Does anyone have first week sales figures they can share? I imagine this will be one of the best selling TVOnDVD sets yet.

 

[ElijahS]

Billboard.com usually has a record of the top 10 selling DVDs for the previous week under the Home Videos chart. It's not current for the last week, so I'd check within the next few days-week for information.

 

[KyleC]

Anyone know if they plan on releasing the soundtrack? I realy like that piano piece that they use in the bonus feature about Matthew Fox's pictures.