Still exciting and delightful and worth every penny. I loved being caught up in the supernatural aspect, the human drama aspect and still admire the writing that made the cast so memorable. It's rare for me to like a tv show as much as I've enjoyed Lost. Must've been the right combination of elements! A treasure.

Updated
What does QHHT and the show 'Lost' have in common? Spoilers ahead, if you've never seen the TV series, 'Lost'. I sat through the show again, just so that I could enjoy that perfect perfect ending.

I may be one of the few people who actually fell in love with the ending. But spiritual people will get this. Now I understand why I love it so much. Its message is, 'No one really dies.' All the people we loved, all the people we didn't love, all had their reasons for making their mistakes and creating whatever life they created. All are redeemed on a greater level and all are valuable. If you're thinking I’m seeing only what I want to see, sure I am, but let me tell you why.

After twenty-plus years of dealing with asthma and traditional medicine that has no cure (among other unsolvable mysteries), I recently went to a hypnotherapist to see if I could find the real cause and cure. She practiced a special form of hypnosis, called Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy (QHHT). It is still considered a "fringe" science in some circles, so don't look for traditional doctors to validate it, some do however. While "under" I was regressed to a series of significant events that I have no memory of in this life. Before any of the regression took place, my foot started hurting. I had to interrupt the process briefly because of this. Now, while under, I did not lose consciousness. I felt awake and that I could stop the process any time I wanted. Only later did I realize this was part of my validation that what I was experiencing was part of a greater reality.

I found out that in three separate "lives" I had foot trouble that came from one initial injury, but I kept creating an emotional state that kept "re-opening" that wound, so to speak. None of this had to happen, it was all based on how I was making choices at the time. Out of fear or freedom.

The initial injury developed when I fell into a watery crevice while off exploring in the Virginia mountains. I was a young coal miner, but I loved to go off by myself every chance I got. Not to make anyone sad, but I didn't make it out of that fall. I was stuck immediately and cold water quickly filled in. Don't worry, it was bad for a moment, but it was over quickly and I felt so alive and buoyant and free afterwords, that I didn't know that my body never made it out. I always used to wonder how anyone could not know they're dead, like in folklore or superstitions. Now I know, you don't feel death after death, you feel greater life because you're not weighed down by the body anymore.

I remember flying over that wooded area, enjoying the beauty, but for some reason, I didn't feel I could leave. My memory wasn't the same. I had no memory of a body, I was somehow still the me I was used to being and didn't need a body. One day, a very compassionate man came and prayed for me. He knew that I had passed and that I didn't understand. He helped me and I felt myself leaving that place to get on with my life and future. I was free.

In another life, the foot injury showed up again whenever I had to make a painful decision that kept me stuck and indecisive. Stuck and indecisive equals fear, fear of what will happen if I make the wrong decision. In my present life, I experienced feeling stuck in a "no-win" situation and the foot pain just became a part of my life. The stuck feeling, when left unsoothed or unsolved, triggered the symptoms of the initial experience, along with the injuries: cold (I've always been cold-natured), unable to breathe, injured foot, stuck. In short, a panic attack, drawn out over years. In that first injury, the cold water took my breath. My foot was wedged in such a way that there was no chance of getting out of that crevice. The key is emotions and learning to soothe them by realizing we are freer and more supported than we know. Perhaps symptoms are our body's way of reminding us of lessons we've already been through and need not suffer again.

Since that session, I have not had an asthma attack, and I was having them every day. I'm not saying that I'm cured, because the recording that was made of my voice talking, said that it will be a gradual cure if I accept it on a deeper level.

Now, what does this have to do with the TV show Lost? Everything. Lost is about simultaneous lives and how death is meaningless. Lost is a supernatural drama that starts out looking like any other drama until you get caught up in the hero, Jack Shepherd's (Mathew Fox), compulsion to save as many people as he can from a plane crash. He's injured, confused, and just doing the best he can, with a heart of gold. And he ain't bad to look at, either!

By the time his story and the other characters' are told, you end up caring for them all. Even the evil characters because there's just desperate people, not evil people. But it sure seems like it for a while. Nothing is black and white and you find yourself accepting people you initially felt you could never accept, due their corrupt nature. Like the Grinch, your heart freakin' expands three sizes.

Jack Shephard, who has a god-complex and always has to do what's right, gets a minor neck injury towards the end of the story. But that neck injury starts to appear, repeatedly, long before it is caused in Jack's timeline. It's always a mystery to him, because he doesn't yet understand that he is living simultaneous lives and experiencing bleedthroughs, literally. He's a very special man and I'm a sucker for that.

There are so many plot twists, you forget the show is more sci-fi/fantasy than traditional drama. There's a smoke monster, the question of whether none of them ever survived the crash, and dead people constantly making appearances. By the time it ended, I found myself floored by the performance of Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson), one of the cruelest geniuses I've ever not wanted to like but had to admit how perfectly he played that role. All the characters went far deeper than I thought they would and made me care. But Jack… Jack is given one of the most beautiful conscious deaths that I've ever seen depicted in film or TV. Don't worry, he doesn't die the way we're told death is. All of the characters are given this to some degree, yet the story goes on. No one really dies and yet they are finally awarded a deep spiritual peace and reunion for all their struggles.

At the very end, the characters "solve" their life issues and begin to wake up to their multiple lives. If you research it, you'll find opinions that can only accept so much of the outlandish concept, so don't limit yourself to that. The show has so much to offer, nothing I've said really spoils it. That's why I watch it over and over every few years. The ending is never spoiled for me because Jack Shephard awakens from his life-struggle illusion to a greater life.

After my QHHT session, I can now put words to why I like the show so much. It reveals more of the truth behind the daily illusions we all struggle with. All packaged just right for me. (And by package, I do mean Jack.) Why does one person appear to have it easy and another to have it so hard? Friends in one life can be enemies in another, as the show depicts. It's as if each life or timeline is only one perspective in an attempt to look at an issue from every perspective.

The minute I say I don't like something, another perspective exists where I do. I will only get to meet that part of myself if I can integrate my feelings, or the two will be separate lives to the other. If I hate doctors or policemen, I will not benefit from the natural healing and protectiveness that my other lives, where I am a doctor or a policeman, hold. On a subconscious level, the show, Lost, integrated and validated this for me. This is why it feels so good to get to the ending where all of the healing is.
If you read all this, thank you so much and bless you.

It is too early to state for certain just how good LOST is compared to the great shows in television history, but by the highest possible standards its first season has to stand out as one of the great seasons in the history of the medium. Season One of LOST was not merely good but great television, and not merely great television but great narrative storytelling. But the impact of LOST goes completely beyond its aesthetic success. Along with another show on ABC (albeit one that I do not care for), DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, LOST has managed to cause the prodigiously stupid television execs to realize that there is a huge demand for quality scripted television. After years of an endless string of simply awful reality shows, all of the networks suddenly want shows that are written ahead of time and feature casts of actual actors. Although final schedules have not yet been announced, it looks as if the 2005-2006 season is going to have both a dramatic decrease in reality shows and an increase in scripted shows. The stunning success of LOST has played a major role in this sea change.

We have in recent years seen genre shows that were huge hits with critics and managed to generate a passionate cult following. Probably no show was more critically praised than BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (with hordes of high brow critics preferring it to more respectable hit series like THE SOPRANOS), but at its peak it managed only a small audience. LOST has generated critical praise almost as strong as BUFFY, a core of fans nearly as passionate, but unlike BUFFY managed absolutely stunning ratings. It is one of the few instances in recent television history where what is arguably the best show on TV also managed among the strongest ratings. In fact, LOST would be considered a cult show based on the number of websites that it has inspired and the passion of the fans, except that the ratings instead make it a mainstream hit.

Who would have thought that a series dealing with plane crash survivors on a most unusual island would have been this successful? Before it debuted I remember people joking that it sounded like GILLIGAN'S ISLAND without the humor. But it ended up matching or surpassing the most optimistic expecations, in quality as well as in ratings. The mention of ratings is not gratuitious. So many superb shows have been cancelled in recent years (FIREFLY, WONDERFALLS, DEAD LIKE ME, ANGEL) that there was even a "Save LOST" website started . . . before the show even debuted! Luckily, the ratings have made cancellation seem not only remote but impossible.

It is almost impossible to acknowledge everything that LOST does well in the space allotted here. Above all else, it is a superbly written show, not merely on an episode by episode basis, but in the way all of the episodes mesh with one another. The continuity is the best that I have seen in a long time. For instance, the first time we see one character in the show, she is rubbing her wrist. Later, we learn that she had been a prisoner of a U. S. Marshall and had obviously gotten rid of her handcuffs just before we first met her. Almost any detail like that will be dealt with at a later date. But the scripts are just as strong on character development, humor, excitement, and adventure. I do have a tiny bit of fear about Season Two: former BUFFY and ANGEL writer David Fury, who wrote many of the finest scripts of the year, including "Walkabout," which could very well win Fury an Emmy for best written episode of the year, has left LOST to work this summer on the new FOX series THE INSIDE, before joining 24 as a writer and executive producer.

My initial fear when the show started was that the central cast was perhaps too large, but it turned out to be unjustified, and the great ensemble cast is unquestionably one of the reasons for the show's success.. Yes, there are a lot of characters, and sometimes I wish some were more central than others, but the depth and power of developing the stories of a dozen characters ended up being both unique and exceptionally entertaining. Jack is the titular lead of the show, although show creator J. J. Abrams has confessed that their original idea was to have Jack assume leadership in the first couple of episodes, and then have him die off, forcing the lovely fugitive Kate become the leader for the castaways. But they quickly realized that Matthew Fox's Jack was too valuable a character to toss aside so cavalierly. If there is a second main character, it is Kate, who is performed by a remarkable newcomer, the excruciatingly beautiful Evangeline Lily, who despite virtually no prior experience (I did recently spot her in a very, very tiny role from the first season episode "Kinetic" on SMALLVILLE, where her only task is to kiss her supposed boyfriend). One of the most consistently fascinating characters is John Locke, played by Terry O'Quinn, a veteran television actor familiar to anyone who has seen shows like ALIAS, THE X-FILES, MILLENIUM, and THE WEST WING. Although he has always performed marvelously, LOST has made him a star. Every one of the major characters has his or her own set of fans. Naveen Andrews, for instance, a Londoner of Indian descent, has been a big hit playing Sayid, the former Iraqi soldier, as has Jorge Garcia as Hurley, the obese lottery winner who is as unlucky for others as he is lucky himself. And while Dominic Monaghan shared in the enormous success of THE LORD OF THE RINGS playing one of the Hobbits, he has achieved more individual success as Charlie, the heroin-addicted bass player for the fictional band Driveshaft (one hit wonders famed for their song "You All Everybody"). So rabid are the show's fans that there are websites dedicated to Driveshaft.

Structurally, the narrative shifts between the efforts of the survivors to adapt to and understand the island on which they are marooned and flashbacks that explain the personal history of each character. Some people object to this, wishing instead that they focused exclusively on the events on the island, but I think that this is wrong. If you focused merely on the events on the island, it would be only an adventure story, but through the flashbacks we learn so much about what makes the people tick that the series becomes as much a character study as an adventure. By the end of the season, we get to know the characters so well that we can anticipate how they are going to respond to even the smallest events. We learn very quickly that the island contains a host of mysteries, including invisible monsters whose location and function remain unknown until the end of the season (if we even understand them then), other inhabitants whose intentions seem both sinister and unknown, and a lone insane Frenchwoman named Danielle Rousseau. But there is not much more than we know about the island. Rousseau talks of the Black Rock, but it isn't what we expect when we finally see it. And then there is the metal doorway that Locke discovers in the middle of the jungle. How can it be opened and what lies behind the door? By the end of the season many of the mysteries are explained, but more are left open-ended.

LOST clearly has the potential to be one of the great series in the history of television. The producers are highly ambitious, but so far their execution has matched their aspirations. I read an interview with David Fury before the first episode aired in which he said they had a plot line that runs over several years, so their clearly is a well-conceived storyline. I have only one concern with the show, and that is the executive producer and creator J. J. Abrams. Although he has two prior hit shows, FELICITY and ALIAS, he has had some problems with taking his shows to higher levels. What made BUFFY so extraordinary was that each year they managed to do something new and amazing, even if some fans were disappointed by some directions it headed. But ALIAS has started to disappoint some fans by the fact that it hasn't progressed much beyond what it was in the first season. Instead of doing strikingly new things, Abrams just tends to recycle the same general storyline. And there has not been much of a payoff for all the focus on Ramaldi (for nonfans of ALIAS, a Renaissance genius whose artifacts provide much of the narrative force of the show). Abrams clearly is brilliant at conceiving and initiating great shows, but he has not yet demonstrated that he is a great finisher in the way that Joss Whedon has. I'm forever the optimist, and I believe that Abrams either will come to terms with this or the other creators and executive producers will help LOST get to a place that we will all find satisfying.

Regardless of the future, this nonetheless is one of the most remarkable rookie seasons any television series has ever enjoyed. I'll end with food for thought. THE X-FILES, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL, and FARSCAPE, to name just a few shows, were much better in their second and third seasons than their first. What if two years from now we are able to say the same of LOST?

Lost is a series created by J.J Abrams and produced by Damon Lindelof. The basic premise is a plane flying from Sydney to Los Angeles that hits turbulence and breaks apart in mid-air and crashes on a deserted tropical island in the South Pacific more than a thousand miles off course. The series opens with Matthew Fox's character, Jack Shephard, waking up on an island. As he slowly regains consciousness, he sees the wreckage of the plane and tries to help the other survivors including Locke (Terry O'Quinn, in an exceptional performance), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Charlie (Dominic Monaghan, of "Lord of the Rings"), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Shannon (Maggie Grace). Over the course of the season, they find out that the island is not as deserted as it seems, and contains a bunch of mysteries including a smoke monster and a mysterious hatch in the middle of the woods. They also discover a distress call, in French, that has been sent from the island for years. Throughout the season multiple storylines are set up and the season ends on more than one cliffhanger with really none of the mysteries being solved.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the show looks and sounds great in the HD format. There are some special effects and they look pretty seamless. There are a ton of extras including commentary tracks on multiple episodes, several behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes, a featurette on the cast members, deleted scenes, and bloopers. So, a lot there for those who like going through the bonus material.

The first season is very strong. While Fox, Lilly, and Holloway are the main characters (and the budding love triangle between them is a large part of the series) the show does a good job balancing the very large ensemble cast. Along with those I mentioned earlier, the series also included Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim (who has probably had the largest post-lost career on TV of all the actors), Harold Perrineau, and Emilie de Ravin. There are a lot of twists and turns, and the show does a good job of not revealing too much too soon. It is definitely a unique show that was not derivative of anything else at the time it aired and remains pretty unique nearly twenty years later. It did air on regular network television so it was tamer in terms of sexual content (although there was some) and violence as you would see on a cable show. So, if you are looking for a show that is a good blend of mystery and drama, this is a good option.

Long before their Oceanic flight crashed on a remote island, the crash survivors all had something in common, yet they, nor the television viewer at home, knew just how they were connected, and even now, a season and a half later, the mystery still remains.

What is no longer a mystery however, is whether or not this show, a "scripted Survivor" if you will, would suceed. That question, unlike many of the queries on the show itself, has been answered with a resounding yes.

Lost enjoyed a phenomenal first season, teaming with Desperate Housewives to bring ABC roaring back to primetime success. The fantastic cast and incredible story lines, along with the fantastic writers and producers, helped bring about that success and viewers everywhere are hooked on the story of the crash survivors and just what the island holds for them. This DVD set certainly raises the bar for television DVD sets, with a fantastic release loaded with great extras.

The group of survivors is certainly an eclectic group. There's the reluctant hero doctor (Matthew Fox) who finds himself torn between different groups of survivors, all desperate for a leader. There's the strong, beautiful Kate (Evangeline Lilly) who we learn is a fugitive from justice, who was on the plane with a US Marshal. There's the brash, cocky Sawyer (Josh Holloway), who competes with Jack for Kate's affections and also has some dark secrets of his own. There's the Korean couple Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) who as the show starts, are isolated by the rest of the survivors because they only speak Korean. There's the pregnant Claire (Emilie de Ravin). There's the drug addicted rock star Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), desperate for a fix. There's Michael (Harold Perrineau) and his son young Michael (Malcolm David Kelly) who have spent very little time together in the past. There's brother and sister (okay step brother and step sister) Boone (Ian Somerholder) and Shannon (Maggie Grace) who share a very dark secret, one that I imagine nobody saw coming. There's Hurley (Jorge Garcia) the millionaire (though nobody knows it) who builds a golf course on the island. There's Sayid, the Iraqi soldier and torture expert. And of course, there's Locke (Terry O'Quinn), the hunter, the one who provides everyone with food, but who also provides everyone with a number of problems too.

When the show began, you had to wonder just how it would sustain, how would following survivors of a plane crash keep a show on the air for a year? But, the writers and producers had the great idea of flashbacks, where viewers get to look into the past of the castaways, see what helped them become who they are, see the reasons they got on the plane, see who they were before they were survivors. This tool is absolutely fantastic. Some of the backstories are amazing and reveal some incredible secrets, which I won't reveal here to avoid spoilers. Every major character has at least one backstory with several getting a couple. Locke's first backstory is one of the best, and certainly one of the most surprising.

The island itself is also a character on the show, quite possibly the most intriguing character. What it holds nobody knows, but the survivors do know that there is some sort of monster that terrorizes them. Sawyer shoots a polar bear (yes a polar bear in the jungle). There is a strange transmission from a French woman that Sayid picks up on a radio from the plane. Of course the transmission has been looping for 16 years. We also get to meet the French woman, Danielle Rousseau, and learn her story.

A number of survivors follow Jack to the caves to be near fresh water, while others remain on the beach with hope of being seen by a passing ship. Claire and Charlie are kidnapped by "The Others," people who were already on the island when the plane crashed. Though the two both return, Charlie shoots the captor before the rest of the group can get information from him. Locke and Boone find a hatch buried in the ground, which eventually leads to Boone being severly injured when a prop plane falls from the treetops with him in it. The hatch has numbers emblazoned on the side, numbers that Hurley used to win the lottery and numbers that he believes are cursed.

All told, things are pretty strange and when season two started, they got even stranger.

It is obvious from this DVD set that the producers of the show had a DVD set in mind when they made the show, because the amount of extras on the set are amazing. There are interviews with cast members, audition scenes, unaired scenes, a gag reel and a number of commentaries, just to name a few. These extras provide some great insight into the show and to someone who is addicted to the story, these extras were certainly very welcome.

Without a question, this is one of the top DVD television sets of the year. The quality of the production is amazing and the show is one of a kind. This set comes highly recommended for those who love the show and particularly for those who want the chance to find out what the hype is all about.

I started watching the second season on LOST on TV a longer time ago but realized soon that in order to keep track and fully appreciate the show, it seemed better to postpone any further LOST watching until Season One and Two became available on Blu-ray (i.e. HD) and watch the show in chronological order (a wise decision as it has turned out to be).

This is a unique, mesmerizing TV show with a special appeal to adult (i.e. mid-life) audiences, which among others draws inspiration from works like MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, SURVIVOR, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, THE PRISONER, various works of Stephen King and elements and clues that are reminiscent of better video games.

That LOST's main creators, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, picked supporting actors from the BABYLON 5 universe, MATRIX:RELOADED and LORD OF THE RINGS, suggested to me on a subconscious level to have faith in this TV show, which has not been disappointed. On the contrary my early expectations in regard to LOST exceeded far beyond what I thought I could possibly expect.

LOST achieves the seemingly impossible task of combining gritty reality with enchanting mystery. Just as in real-life and with friends and people we come to meet, we get to learn more and more about the characters through the means of flashbacks which eventually either turns us away from a character or establishes a bond through sympathy. Sensitive audiences may have difficulties with various scenes, especially during the first two seasons, but I felt it to be obvious that these were not intended to attract audiences hungry for blood and gore but to add to the realism (my wife had a hard time with the graphic, medical surgeries - especially in the pilot episodes - but I told her she should consider it a desensitization attempt of her fears, enabling her to provide first aid after a traffic accident...).
And instead of graphically showing the dangers and 'monsters' of the island of LOST, the creators cleverly opted to address the spectators' own imagination instead (as it usually turns out to be more frightening what we do NOT see).

The characters are three-dimensional, the (final) choice of actors is excellent and dialogues range from very good to simply outstanding. If there was any complaint I were asked to mention, it would be that I felt the romance triangle between Jack, Kate and Sawyer at times to be rather immature and not totally convincing (just my two cents). On the other hand LOST takes a firm stand against racial prejudice, with the Iraqi character of Sayid Jarrah beeing portrayed as one of the most common-sense, repentant survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 (my wife is of Christian Arab origin, she was positively shocked, because that was the last thing she would have expected from an American TV show). Through the Korean couple Sun-Hwa Kwon and her husband Jin-Soo Kwon, LOST also provides us with insights into Asian culture.

While the aforementioned elements contribute to make LOST a unique, interesting and entertaining TV show, I feel the most remarkable and outstanding characteristic is the enormous range and diversity in the way the show explores ethical, philosophical and spiritual issues (with my personal highlight being a witty, verbal punch John - faith - delivers in a short dialogue with Jack - science - in the last episode of Season One).

It seems some audiences have criticized LOST for the amount of 'puzzle pieces' the creators add on a regular basis while still beeing in the process of putting the early 'puzzle pieces' together, thus creating confusion and disorientation. Having now watched Seasons One through Three in a moderate 'marathon', my wife and I can't share this criticism.
On the contrary I hope that J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof will resist the urge to put the entire puzzle together because that'll be be like putting a lid on the show which might be counter-productive to LOST becoming a timeless cult classic (in my humble opinion some loose ends will rather contribute to keep audiences busy to continue using their own imagination and interpretation as it is and has been with Patrick McGoohan's THE PRISONER).
However, my wife found those LOST episodes confusing, that entered the realm of THE TWILIGHT ZONE where all of us were invited to deal with different scenarios of what this was all about (Hurley, Desmond and at the end of the third season Naomi, making a stirring claim which didn't seem improbable, given previous events and hints...). Ever since TOTAL RECALL and THE MATRIX, I, on the other hand, have cherished such an occasional "mindf..." and felt these episodes rather to be contributing to the diversity of LOST, than being a distraction.

Looking forward to the second part of the story of LOST (i.e. Season Four through Six), I feel it is safe to suggest that among the "100 things to do before you die" watching this TV show ranks among the top positions. This show is asking important questions - and invites each and everyone of us to answer these questions in regard to our own, individual personal lifes. This not just another TV show, it is a profound experience.

When I first saw promos for ABC's Lost, I was very skeptical about how the writers were going to carry on a show about people stranded on a tropical island for a few years, let alone only a season. I thought that there was only so many stories they could do if this was a serious drama. The show premiered to rave reviews, but I never had the time to watch. Then one of my friends told me a little bit about the show, and it sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try. Oh man, is this ever a good show, and was I ever wrong about problems with stories! In an inspired move, every episode focuses on a character, and shows scenes from their life in flashback (except for the pilot and season finale episodes, which show scenes of multiple characters). These flashbacks reveal defining moments in the characters' lives that show why they act the way they do on the island. With a main cast of 14 people (or castaways), there are a lot of interesting, sad, and dark stories to tell.

Minor spoilers below.

When we meet the characters in the pilot, we think we know them, but when we see their flashbacks, we get the rug pulled out from under our feet, for no one is who they seem to be. While about 48 people survived, only 14 are focused upon. The 14 main castaways are: Jack (Matthew Fox), a heroic doctor, Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a shy girl who develops a crush on Jack, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), a British rocker with a drug problem, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), a large man with a large heart, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and his wife Sun (Yujin Kim), a Korean couple who initially isolate themselves from the rest of the group, Claire (Emilie de Ravin), a pregnant Australian woman without a father for her unborn baby, Sawyer (Josh Holloway), a low-life who hoards the supplies from the wrecked plane so that he can barter them with the people who need them, Michael (Harold Perrineau) and his son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), who have just been reunited after Walt's mother died, Boone (Ian Somerhalder) and his sister Shannon (Maggie Grace), who constantly bicker, Sayid (Naveen Andrews), an Iraqi who fought against the US in the Gulf War and is attacked due to racism, and finally Locke (Terry O'Quinn), a mysterious man who doesn't seem to mind being stuck on the island. Of course, those are the characters that we think we meet in the pilot episodes. The people that they truly are become revealed over the course of the season.

In addition to learning about the castaways' pasts, their present situation is dealt with superbly as well. In the first few episodes, they run out of food and water, and they have to figure out what to do. Later on, they discover that they aren't alone on the island when Sayid meets Rousseau (Mira Furlan), a French woman who's been on the island for 16 years and claims that there are "Others" on the island who plot against her. When mysterious things begin happening to the islanders, they begin to suspect that Rousseau is right.

However, there are a fair share of miraculous events that occur that aren't the work of the Others. I'm not going to spoil any of them, as they are too good to reveal in this review. There are also plenty of mysteries on the island that keep both the characters and the audience perplexed. What exactly do the others want? What is the significance of the black and white rocks? Why are there polar bears on a tropical island? Where are they?

This was an amazing season of television, and it ended with an amazing season finale that is keeping all of us begging for more. This is a quality show worth checking out. I will say that it is slightly overhyped, but Lost deserves a good 95% of the hype that it receives. See you on the island...

To me, LOST is the best TV series of the third millennium, so far. Prison Break comes as a closed second and Heroes is closely behind. I am very surprised that TV series can be made this good these days when cost cutting and declining standards seems to be the norm everywhere else. But, not in the world of television, it seems.

LOST employs a cast of dozens to tell a big story. How big the story is? I don't know yet, it seems that we could have another 10 seasons and not come close to an end. But, slowly, what begins as your run of the mill airliner crash survivors story keeps adding layers on top of layers, expands, branches out in unexpected directions and, episode after episode after episodes keeps us mesmerized, guessing, mourning those lost and left behind, surprised, intrigued and always ready for more.

The first season starts a bit slowly and, speaking for myself, I didn't care much for the first couple of episodes. I will not reveal the plot but, it's probably proper to note that you are going to see peoples struggling to overcome extreme circumstances, stories of friendship, solidarity, spontaneous cooperation, the inevitable conflicts between people of many different upbringings, chasing different dreams, sometimes competing for the same rewards. Facing danger, the unknown and, what appears to be, the incomprehensible, the initial state of anarchy spontaneously gains textures and a fragile structure.

The first season is mostly about our heroes' survival and their struggle to go back to what used to be the `normal' life. Scenes of life and struggle on the island are often interrupted by increasingly disturbing flashbacks and puzzling hints that little that's going on is accidental, random or `normal'. The survivors are tied to each other in most surprising ways and, little by little, the supernatural, the mysterious and the plain unbelievable begin to manifest. We learn that the island is not what it seemed to be. There are monsters and unexpected beasts roaming in the woods, there are hints of other inhabitants and the familiar laws of nature don't seem to always apply.

LOST has an incredibly well-written story line, great acting and it's shown to us in the highest quality picture and sound. It is, without a doubt, one of the best TV series I've watched in a long, long time. If you haven't watched the weekly episodes on TV, you should consider yourself lucky. I haven't either and I am glad I didn't have to wait, week after week, for yet another mystery to solve itself in the next episodes.

If, after watching the first season, you felt it was entertainment time well spent, then you should definitely acquire the subsequent seasons because it only gets better. A LOT BETTER. Seriously.

Oh, and talking about viewing addiction, it took me a couple of weeks to devour Season One. As I was done with it, Amazon made available a Seasons 1-3 bundle and I bought that. I finished seasons 2 and 3 in the next couple of weeks. Season 4? It only took me 2 nights.

Oh, and, one more thing that you should keep in mind - but you will constantly fail at it: NOTHING is what what it seems to be and nobody is what he/she claims to be.

Happy viewing :)

A few days ago I finally finished watching the 1st season( i tried watching it slowly so i could enjoy it more, and even though i was really surprised and satisfied with the season finale, i came to certain conlusions taht are not necessary positive about the show. Sure, the photography is great, acting is top notch, direction is excellent, sound and music really good, but not everything.

First of all, people who haven't watched anything (which i believe are a few) shouldn't get their hopes up too much for the product, specially after readong a thousand reviews about how it is the best show around. This is because you will get your expectations too high and it is likely that they will not be met. That is what happened with me i guess, i came to expect too much and got a bit disappointed.

Now, the series is, without a doubt, excellent in a number of aspects, but not in everything. For example, the story and plot is REALLy good, interesting, worthy of hours of speculation, and new. However, i have rarely seen one that moves as slowly as this one, i mean, you hardly know much more than what you did the first minute of the series. That is a big drawback, really, the plot moves really slow. Actually, the first two disc are extreamly BORING (except for the pilot of course)!!! Hardly anything happens, and the only memorable part from them are those well done twist that come as you approach the end of each episode.

This lead to the next problem that viewers face, once the plots takes speed, you might be watching a series of really good, exciting and mind blowing episodes only to find that the next one is one boring piece of crap that has nothing interesting and that breaks the entire fludity of the series. And sometimes it is the other way, things couldn't be more boring and then WAM! the next episode blows you away with new unexpected things and shocking events.

Also, though the plots goes on pretty well, the writers had so much to exploit and didn't!! For example, the misterious things that happen in the island, things that shouldn't happen, are completly wasted, instead of making emphasis on them, the episode revolves around useless uniteresting, unimportant things like "why does kate want the toy airplane so badly?" So, there are times that you think that things are going to heat up fast and a new event changes everything, but the truth is that the writers choose to focus on other things. ALSO: Don't be fooled by the back of the package "...the action packed show that blablablba" there is hardly any good action, and hardly any chases.

However, despite of all this, there is one thing that the show does in superb way, unmatched in tv, and that is the development o the characters. Never before had i seen better written and interesting characters. Even the ones that you think that are going to be boring turn out to have an interesting life. Each of them is well acted and shows a convincing performance to their character's specific personality.

I must admitt that there were a fair number of episodes in which i just gasped and my jaw dropped to the floor as i saw some events in the show, the plot twists are that good. And you certainly will find yourself at the edge of your seat a few times.

In conclusion, of course i recommend the shows, it is better than most things around these days, however,keep in mind that it is not free of mistakes and errors. If you like a good story with interesting characters and mistery and suspense, go ahead, buy it, its worth it.