DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ***** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Naveen Andrews as SAYID Emilie de Raven as CLAIRE Matthew Fox as JACK Jorge Garcia as HURLEY Maggie Grace as SHANNON Josh Holloway as SAWYER Malcolm David Kelly as WALT Daniel Dae Kim as JIN Yunjin Kim as SUN Evangeline Lilly as KATE Dominic Monaghan as CHARLIE Terry O’Quinn as LOCKE Harold Perrineau as MICHAEL Ian Somerhalder as BOONE Rated TV-14 Studio: ABC Created by: Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof Back to DVD Review Home |
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A few years ago, I got the DVD “Stephen King’s Storm of the Century” as a gift. After I watched the miniseries, I listened to Stephen King’s commentary on the film. One of his opening remarks was that this was an attempt to make a novel for television. To a degree, “Storm of the Century” achieved this, but even then the two-night TV-movie format was a little restrictive.
“Lost” is the first television show that I’ve watched that truly achieves the class as a novel in the visual medium. In fact, I don’t really think of “Lost” as a television show, but rather as a series of books. Each episode is a chapter in this book.
Unlike earlier shows that are episodic with a continuing storyline (like “The X-Files” and “Alias”), “Lost” doesn’t have the obligatory episode in the middle that really could take place at any time or place. Each episode of the this show propels the overall storyline of the series. Sure, there’s a lot of detractors and side plots, but you get that with a novel. The episodic television show format allows the writers to examine characters in greater depth than a feature film.
“Lost” is an ensemble piece with a slate of great actors working in front of the camera. I purposely didn’t watch the show when it was on ABC, knowing I would get the DVD. I actually prefer to watch a show like this on DVD, unencumbered by commercials and with the choice to have an orgy of television viewing over the course of several days rather than an entire season.
Not having watched much television on the air lately, I can’t compare “Lost” to much else, but it is television at its best. J.J. Abrams’ stock has continued to rise in my book, coming from the sludge-like depths of “Felicity” to a great show like “Alias,” and now to a real piece of television art.
“Lost” tells the story of a 48 survivors of a plane that crashed on a small island in the South Pacific. However, instead of being a comedy (like “Gilligan’s Island”) or a godawfully boring film (like “Castaway”), this show is a mystery. Not only do we have the mystery of who’s who on the island, but we have the mystery of the island itself.
With the characters’ backstories told in flashbacks, these survivors discover the strangeness on the island - from a mysterious monster that haunts the jungle to roaming polar bears in the tropics. Of course, along the way, characters develop alliances, friendships and enemies. They learn to trust each other, but also keep getting reminded that they can’t really trust anyone.
The only complaint I have about this series is that the characters sometimes act purposely mysterious or suspicious for no real solid reason. Also, some of their actions defy logic, like not having any organization among the survivors. However, most of the times this is necessary to keep with the crisp (although somewhat unrealistic) nature of the show.
In the special features, creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof stressed that they didn’t want to make a movie just about people on a desert island. They wanted to make a mystery. This was the pivotal choice for this series - even before a frame of film had been shot. These mysteries are what keeps us watching.
Timed to be released just a few weeks before season two begins airing on September 20, “Lost: The Complete First Season” is drunk on bonus features. Five episodes contain commentaries from the producers, directors and stars. The commentaries for the two-hour pilot have the additional bonus of having interstitial documentaries inserted into its run that show how the episode was put together.
An entire seventh disc is loaded with hours of behind-the-scenes features. There are unaired flashbacks, deleted scenes, bloopers and a funny little bit from the Jimmy Kimmel show. There’s also hours of documentaries about the production, from the designing of the set to the audition tapes. Too often an additional disc doesn’t contain enough content to justify its existence, but fortunately this is not the case here.
The biggest problem with “Lost” is now having to avoid the show in its second season so I can have another orgy of television watching when the second season is released on DVD next year.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.78:1). English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
