TV Review: Lost

Lost has just returned for its final season (6). It has been a very long and epic story, and a lot has changed since it first began. It is the kind of story that creates questions, then answers it but only to create more questions. I like the way Lost reveals its story... it seems like they film whole sections, and then chop it up so that an episode will only reveal part of it... then a later episode will reveal the rest, and suddenly things make sense or you see things from a different perspective. It's a little hard to explain, but I think you will understand when you see it for yourself.

Lost begins with the main character Jack Shephard waking up in the middle of a jungle completely dazed. He finds that he has an open wound on his back, but can't stitch it up. As he makes his way through the jungle, he comes across a girl running past him. He gets her to stich him up, and then they hear screams for help. They follow the sounds to the beach, where the front half of a plane has crash landed and the survivors are struggling to get away to safety.

It turns out that the people on the beach are survivors of the Oceanic 815 plane crash, which was flying from Australia to L.A. The first season is mostly an introductory season, which tells the background stories of the main survivors. It also shows the basic survival stuff... like setting up a proper camp, salvaging things from the plane, hunting for food and water, etc. However, it's not as simple as just survive till rescue comes... there are no signs of any boats or rescue craft on the way, as normally they are able to track plane crashes. Also, on the first night... they encounter a mysterious 'monster' in the jungle, which make huge mechanical-like sounds. The monster makes an appearance throughout the seasons, but it's not until the later seasons that it becomes more prominent. The survivors also find out that they are not alone on the island, and they refer to them as 'the others'. Who the others are... is not certain until later on in the story, but it seems that they are kidnapping people for unknown reasons.

I'm going to briefly explain the backgrounds of the main characters. If you don't want anything spoilt at all, then feel free to skip it... but I don't think it really spoils anything, as you see all of this early on in season 1;

Jack Shephard - A gifted neurosurgeon, who becomes the leader and doctor of the survivors. He tends to everyone's health, and is quite a stubborn but caring person. He has issues with his father, who he felt pushed him very hard and never really acknowledged his abilities. His father had died prior to the flight, and he had gone to Australia to pick up his body to take it back to L.A for the funeral.

Kate Austen - She is a criminal, who was being escorted by a federal marshal back to L.A. She had killed her abusive stepfather and had been on the run. She is attracted to both Jack and Sawyer, which adds a love triangle into the story (what a naughty girl!)

John Locke - Normally referred to as 'Locke', he had previously been paralysed from the waist down, but miraculously healed when arriving on the island, and was able to walk again. He seems to be a man of faith, which was reinforced by the 'healing' of his paralysis. This causes him to clash with Jack, who is a man of science and is a bit of a realist. Locke had dreamed of being a hunter, but was unable to fulfill that due to his paralysis. On the island he is able to fulfill this dream, when he captured a wild pig.

Hugo Reyes - Commonly referred to as 'Hurley'. Prior to the flight, he was a lottery winner. He used a set of numbers that a man at a mental institution was constantly repeating. These are referred to as a special set of "numbers" which continues to be part of the storyline's mythology. After winning the lottery, Hurley started having constant bad luck, which started giving him paranoia. I guess crashing landing on a mysterious island didn't help him on that note either.

Jin-Soo Kwon - A Korean man, who doesn't speak English. He was from a family of fisherman, but he had ambitions to become more than that. He moves to the city and falls in love with Sun-Hwa, and they get married. However Sun's father allowed the marriage on the condition that Jin worked for him, and Jin soon finds out that the line of work Sun's father wanted him to do was that of a mob enforcer. On the island, his fisherman background comes into play and he becomes the primary fisherman for the survivors.

Sun-Hwa Kwon - Sun is the rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer. She had an affair prior to the flight, because Jin was growing distant due to the work that her father made him do. She had learnt English because she had planned to leave Jin by escaping to America. On the island, she pretends to not understand English because she is scared of Jin. They soon reconcile their marriage while on the island.

Sayid Jarrah - A former military communications office, and an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. He is haunted by his dark past and wants to get away from it. Despite doing so many terrible things, he is actually a good person, and he is filled with regret. He is very gifted with electronics, and he tries to establish radio communication to get rescue.

James "Sawyer" Ford - Usually just referred to as Sawyer. He was a confidance man (con-artist) prior to the crash. He was orphaned as a child, when his father killed his mother, and then committed suicide. The reason was because another man named Sawyer had conned his mother into giving him all his money after having an affair with him. James' father found out, which resulted in the killings. James then took on the name Sawyer, and goes on to con women into giving him their money. The routine is he will have an affair with them, then arrange for the women to run away with him. After the women withdraw all the money ready to run away, he takes it and promises to meet them somewhere, but obviously never does. He had travelled to Australia to kill the original Sawyer and avenge his parents. He kills a man that he thought was Sawyer, but it turns out that it was just an innocent man. On the island, he is a bit of a lone wolf, as he appears to be self-centred and antisocial, but he is actually a good person on the inside despite his rough behaviour.


There is a ridiculously huge cast, but these are probably the most prominent characters throughout the show. While it may seem that the descriptions might spoil their storylines... it actually doesn't. It is just the beginning of the storyline, and it keeps developing further as the seasons go on, so don't feel like anything is ruined.

A lot of people don't like Lost because they think the story is too long, but I prefer long series... as I hate it when shows end. Also I think the storyline is really well thought out, and shown in such a way that there's always suspense, and keeps you wanting to know what the full story is. For this reason, I give the show a 9/10, and I recommend it for those who love epic storylines like I do. It's really quite amazing to see huge storylines come together bit by bit.