Sep 8, 2010

Lost Season One - a crash landing to the best tv series ever


SPOILER ALERT! (Some references to later seasons, too. Nothing dramatic, though.)

Number of episodes / Days it took me: 25 / 18

What goes on on season 1: The Oceanic airlines flight 815 crashes on an island. Only it's not just AN island. There are polar bears, freaky French chicks, a tree-shaking monster, visions of dead parents, whispers, and some other people, too. The survivors do their best to, well, survive - they start forming their own civilization, where doctors, hunters, con men, interrigators and French-speaking divas all have their own place. They play golf, kick each other asses, build rafts, burn them and build them again, find a hatch, torture people, shoot people, live, die, have babies, blow things up, blow themselves up, and at the end of the day sit by the fire and feel quite content. Until the next disaster arrives, of course.

Coolest new characters: Well, they are all new this season. My favourites once upon a time were Charlie, Hurley, Claire, Sawyer, Sayid, Locke (until he went a bit too nuts towards the end of the season) and Boone because I thought he was so damn cute. And he is, isn't he?

Coolest storylines: The beginnings of the biggest mysteries, like the monster, the numbers, the Black Rock... I also like everything that has to do with Sawyer and his letter. Locke is an interesting man to follow on his journey of faith. And of course the first appareances of the Others - Ethan, sweet dear Ethan, and Tom.

Coolest foreshadowings: The hatch - just think about everything it'll introduce us to later on! Many things about Rousseau - Montad's arm and the gun without the firing pin. Also Adam and Eve (though of course the writers didn't know who they'd be back then).

Coolest character developments: Jin and Sun. Many other characters are still only beginning their journeys - Sawyer is still pretty much the chain-smoking jackass, Jack is a man of science from head to toe, etc. Jin has already turned into a loving husband and Sun has showed she's not as innocent as she might seem. The dynamics between them work well, and, unfortunately, that's as good as it gets.

The "...meh" moments of the season: I felt a bit "...meh" during some mid-season episodes, like All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, Whatever the Case May Be and Special. I guess some episodes just can't handle five million rewatchs...

The "OMGSFRgtrh"#¤#T%TY!!!11" moments of the season: Dr Artz goes BOOM. The polar bear. Pretty much every appareance of the monster. It liked to destroy trees back then.

The "WHAT-THE-F..." moments of the season: The French transmission. That's what got me hooked for good. Also, the light at the hatch and finding out the numbers are written on the hatch.

The "snifsnif" moments of the season: The death of Boone, what else. He was the first major character to go, and we felt it. And the launching of the raft... "Vincent, go back!" Aww.

The "HAHAHAHAHA" moments of the season: Sayid taunting Sawyer about the boar that destroyed his tent. "Maybe it wanted to fo camping." Hurley trying to spell 'bodies' and Walt correcting him. Ouch. Walt beating Hurley in Backgammon. Charlie and Hurley trying to catch fish. Hurley asking Jin to pee on his foot. "You're gonna have to pee on my foot, man!" Hahahaa. Sawyer's glasses. Hurley singing I Feel Good to calm baby Aaron down. (Didn't work.) Sawyer "getting the evening news" from Walt. God, there are so many of these...

The "awwwwww" moments of the season: The imaginary peanut butter. Sawyer reading the car magazine to Aaron.

The moments I can't fit under any other category but want to mention anyway because they are simply awesome: Sawyer and Kate's I never game. Seriously, what a great great scene! And Sawyer telling Jack about meeting his father. And Sawyer and Jack inside the fuselage. "Me? I'm in the wild." Jack and Locke's destiny debate in the finale.

Dumbest Jack moment of the season: "Where are you going?" "To kill John Locke." Sure. You do that. ("Hey! Let's cut off Boone's leg, shall we!" was pretty close, too.)

Funniest Sawyer nickname of the season: Jackass. (Also, Freckles was a classic from the beginning.)


Best openings: Yeah, well, I have to say the opening of The Pilot, of course. Because it's freaking epic. I like every other "eye opening", too, they did a lot of them back then.

Best endings: Sure, the season itself ends in a spectacular way, in that spectacular shot. But maybe even more than that I love the ending of Tabula Rasa: Hurley puts his music on, pours the sand out of his shoe and watches people around him. It's a happy and hopeful scene - Michael gives Walt Vincent back, and Sayid throws the apple to Sawyer (that's aww) - but it ends with that creepy shot of Locke. Cool. And third, ...In Translation. A harmonious scene with Delicate by Damien Rice playing in the background ends suddenly as the batteries run out of Hurley's CD player. He taps the player, mutters "Son of a bitch", removes the headphones and continues sitting in silence. Pretty random but totally awesome. I missed moments like that in the later seasons.

Best special features: The Genesis of Lost is very interesting, and Before They Were Lost pretty nice, too. The Jimmy Kimmel clip is quite funny.

Best of the Blooper Reel: Everything Dominic Monaghan does. "I don't know my line." and "Sorry. Didn't mean to grab your ass like that." The guy's just hilarious. Also Jorge Garcia's "Dude. That was terrible." And Harold Perrineau is so much cooler than his character. "...And you stink in bed!"

Best episode: The Pilot. It's just freaking great. It's so fun to watch it and know where all those characters finally end up after six seasons. Other favourites are Walkabout, Moth, Confidence Man, Oulaws, Numbers, Exodus...

The questions I wanted aswered but they never were: Whose was that white tennis shoe?? Haha. Seriously, I would've loved to know. Also, how is Walt special again...? And where was Jack going when he got up from his seat in the plane, got pushed aside by Charlie, and returned to his seat? I guess we'll never know.

The quote to summarize season 1: "Guys... Where are we?"

Overall how it felt like to watch season 1 again: Good. Real good. Season 1 is the best of Lost. It was fairly simple, yet exciting and fascinating, all the mysteries were open and there was so much to find out and discover. After that the storylines started to get more complicated, not that I don't like complicated, but that left less room for all those wonderful little character moments. But of course, any show has to evolve, things have to get bigger and new characters have to be introduced. We couldn't have spent six seasons hunting boar, opening a hatch and struggling with drug withdrawal. But still. Season 1 is number one.


What's next: In a word... Desmond! Bring it oooooon!

4 comments:

Julie said...

I completely agree with your mention of Boone's death as the tearjerker of the season. I'll not-so-proudly admit that this is one aspect of Lost in which I am completely shallow. Boone may not have been the most interesting character, but he was definitely the hottest.
Also, I love the idea of a dumbest Jack moment of the season. I had mixed feelings about Jack, but I always got a kick out his antics.
Overall, I loved your season review of Lost, and I'm about to click through your blog to see if you have any more.

Eeva said...

Yep, I definitely missed Boone after he died, but luckily dying in Lost doesn't mean you're completely gone. I was always happy to see him again in flashbacks and visions, etc, and to adore to adore that pretty face once again. ;)

Glad you liked the dumbest Jack moment (maybe I'll even spell it right next time, haha)! There will be a post of each season as my marathon continues and I wade through the whole series... Might take a while, but I don't mind.

Harri said...

Oh great, Lost-post! I don't really have much to say about this but I still had to write a comment.

I second with you at that Sun & Jin-thing. They are definitely best characters in the season one. Though their story doesn't evolve much after this season.

And I really liked your "awww"- and "what-the-f.."-moments. :D They reminded me how good Lost actually was.

Eeva said...

Your comment is much appreciated, as always. ;)

Sun and Jin indeed get kind of stuck... Shame. Though I always enjoy their reunions, all five million of them. :D