Lost only existed and became the show it was because network television was able to financially support the production of six seasons of about 18-25 episodes each with high production value
Witnessing so much Lost discourse on my timeline because of its arrival on Netflix is throwing me for a loop. Lost absolutely could not have survived the scrutiny of the social media age. It would’ve crushed what was special about the show.
You couldn’t produce Lost on streaming. It needed all that time and space to play and grow and be weird. Three eight episode seasons would not have covered it.
"Tricia Tanaka is Dead" would never exist in the streaming era. The episode was disliked on release, but in retrospect has become beloved and sets up the rest of the season.
i mean i stopped watching it at some point cuz it kinda went off the rails, but that show ruled. you do gotta hand it to whoever made mid 2000s TV 'weird'. love when my everyone's-watching-it TV gets 'weird'.
I marathoned it and my partner watched it as it aired, and the viewing experience even without a significant gap in WHEN we saw it was completely different.
if/when i show it to my kids i will force them to watch one episode a week only. though alas there’s just no way to recreate the community that existed online at the time
I rewatched it in 2020 along with the Storm Podcast. We would watch an episode a week and subscribers to their Patreon could join a Slack. It wasn’t the same as everyone watching, but it was a nice community around the show with live watches each weekend.
I get the nostalgia for this era, but overall I think I’ll take the current tv series where most shows is about telling a narrative that has a thought out plot and pace tbh.
Lost is such a weird, great show that is vastly improved by not having to wait week and months between episodes. The only reason people complain about “filler” is when the show teases interesting answers, but refuses to give them until the end of a season. Lost was super guilty of this.
I remember watching it with my wife after it finished and being shocked by how much is spelled out in the first few episodes. And how much more fun the show was knowing which questions would be answered.
