Netflix Sci-Fi Mystery Thriller Series Changed TV Forever And Still Wows New Fans
In 2024, serialized television dramas are all the rage, with new shows such as The Bear, Severance, and Fallout relying heavily on a linear viewing experience. While this may seem like the norm in the age of streaming and binge-watching culture, this was not always the case, as most TV shows of the past few decades needed to offer episodic formulas so audiences wouldn’t fall behind on important plot details if they missed the odd episode here and there. One of the fan-favorite series’ that paved the way for plot-heavy dramas on cable TV is ABC’s Lost, which is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Lost Changed The Game
Lost was created for television by the brilliant production trio of J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber, who have each gone on to helm numerous exciting projects in the decades since the show premiered. Lost aired six seasons from 2004 through 2010, before concluding with a massive and highly polarizing finale. Despite some issues plaguing the later seasons of the show, Lost is still widely recognized as one of the greatest television achievements of all time.
A Strange And Terrifying Island
The series touts starring performances from the likes of Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Josh Holloway, Matthew Fox, Yunjin Kim, Bookie‘s Jorge Garcia, and many others. Over the course of the entire show, the plot of Lost changes and upends numerous times, though the core premise sees a gang of airplane passengers fighting for survival after their flight goes down over an uninhabited tropical island. While struggling to find a way off of the mysterious landmass, the group begin to uncover a number of strange and terrifying secrets, which kept viewers intrigued and engaged for years at a time.
What’s In The Box?!
Despite the massive success of Lost, the show did face some backlash for offering too many so-called “mystery boxes,” which have become a trademark of J.J. Abrams’ works. These include a mysterious hatch buried in the sand of the island, a shadowy monster creature, and one particularly frustrating arc which teases the impending death of a certain character for an entire season. Still, the series touts an 86 percent certified fresh critic score and an even more impressive 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, proving that the annoying elements of the show are significantly outweighed by the glowing positives.
You’ll Lose Sleep In The Best Kind Of Way
Specifically, Lost has some of the most gripping writing of any serialized program, making it nearly impossible to end a binge-session at a reasonable hour of the night. If you do manage to peel yourself away from the screen, you may find yourself dreaming about the unanswered questions of the island, or tossing and turning as you lament the cursed phrase “We have to go back, Kate… We have to go back!”
Lost Can Be Found On Netflix
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For those who haven’t yet seen Lost, you can stream the series in its entirety on Netflix today. For others, who may have watched the episodes weekly as they aired, I would advise going back and watching the show in binge-format, as the elimination of a week-long wait in between major cliffhangers really does reduce the frustration that comes with the never-ending mysteries of the island. The show may have had many ups and downs throughout its run, but we can still mostly agree that popular programs like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and just about everything on Apple TV+ could never have happened without Lost blazing that trail.
