History Series / Lost

On September 22nd, 2004, Oceanic Flight 815, en route to Los Angeles from Sydney, breaks up in midair and crashes on a tropical island. Initially, forty-eight passengers somehow survive. Unfortunately, they soon come to learn that this is no ordinary island.

** [[Leitmotif/{{Lost}} Leimotif]]

The show was famous at the time for its high production values (the pilot alone cost $14 million and led to the firing of a ABC executive for greenlighting such an expensive endeavor), [[SlidingScaleOfContinuity inhumanly dense plotting]], [[KudzuPlot a tendency to raise more questions than it could answer]], and somehow remaining a smash hit despite all these "hurdles". The show also heavily involved its fandom in the storytelling process through the parallel AlternateRealityGame ''The Lost Experience''.

The success of ''Lost'' [[FollowTheLeader inspired network TV to commission]] [[NoughtiesDramaSeries a slew of imitators]] (''Series/TheEvent'', ''Series/Jericho2006'', ''Surface'', ''Series/TerraNova'', ''Series/{{Invasion}}'', ''Series/FlashForward2009'', ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', and Creator/JJAbrams's follow up show ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}''), all serious and densely plotted serialized dramas based around a central mystery and tinged with a sci-fi edge. Unfortunately, most of these shows failed to recapture the lightning and almost all of them were cancelled after one or two seasons. An honorable mention does, however, go to ''Series/PrisonBreak''; while not a sci-fi show, it was the first out of the gate to capitalize on TV audience's newfound love for serialized dramas, and also arguably the most critically acclaimed and successful of the ''Lost'' clones, running for four seasons.

The success of ''Lost'' [[FollowTheLeader inspired network TV to commission]] [[NoughtiesDramaSeries a slew of imitators]] (''Series/TheEvent'', ''Series/{{Jericho}}'', ''Surface'', ''Series/TerraNova'', ''Series/{{Invasion}}'', ''Series/FlashForward2009'', ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', and Creator/JJAbrams's follow up show ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}''), all serious and densely plotted serialized dramas based around a central mystery and tinged with a sci-fi edge. Unfortunately, most of these shows failed to recapture the lightning and almost all of them were cancelled after one or two seasons. An honorable mention does, however, go to ''Series/PrisonBreak''; while not a sci-fi show, it was the first out of the gate to capitalize on TV audience's newfound love for serialized dramas, and also arguably the most critically acclaimed and successful of the ''Lost'' clones, running for four seasons.

[[white:''God loves you as He loved Jacob.'']]

An [[GenreBusting action / adventure / mystery / dramedy / all types of speculative fiction / crazy show]] (2004–2010) created by Jeffrey Lieber, Creator/JJAbrams and Damon Lindelof, and show-run by Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

'''Recaps and summation of the show [[Recap/{{Lost}} here]].'''

On September 22nd, 2004, Oceanic Flight 815, en route to Los Angeles from Sydney, breaks up in midair and crashes on a tropical island. Initially, forty-eight passengers somehow survive. Unfortunately, they soon come to learn that this is no ordinary island. On their first night, they hear the roars of a mysterious monster in the jungle [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen (which the camera doesn't seem to want to get a shot of)]] that is capable of uprooting trees. Later, this monster mutilates the pilot, but not before the pilot reveals that the plane had lost contact with the ground, before steering over a thousand miles off course prior to the crash; which means that any rescuers would be looking in the wrong place, hence the odds of rescue are pretty much nil.

Stuck on the island, the survivors must learn to work together if they want to survive in this strange and hostile environment. This isn't easy, not only due to the dangers and resource scarcity on the island, but also because the most prominent characters are [[DysfunctionJunction so utterly screwed up]]. All of them have [[DarkAndTroubledPast something they're hiding in their pasts]]. There's a [[BewareTheNiceOnes seemingly nice person]] who was actually a fugitive on the plane being extradited; a [[OneHitWonder one-hit wonder]] [[CelebritySurvivor ex-rockstar junkie]] ensnared in a battle with heroin addiction; and a former torturer desperately searching for the one they love. And that's just the beginning.

Their backstories are revealed in flashbacks, with each episode tending to focus on a specific character. In general, AnachronicOrder is to be expected with this show particularly in the flashbacks, as are other MindScrew style tricks; if there is a method of skewing the audience's perception of events by rearranging the order of the scenes, ''LOST'' has used it.

As the show goes on, the characters are forced to [[CharacterDevelopment grow and change in response to their changed lives]], and more and more questions arise as [[MythArc the secrets of the island, which seems to have supernatural properties, are slowly uncovered]]. Furthermore, flashbacks reveal more and more connections between the characters' pasts, beginning to suggest that it may be more than coincidence that this specific group of people was all on Flight 815 together with each other.

The show was famous at the time for its high production values (the pilot alone cost $14 million and led to the firing of a ABC executive for greenlighting such an expensive endeavor), [[SlidingScaleOfContinuity inhumanly dense plotting]], [[KudzuPlot a tendency to raise more questions than it can answer]], and somehow remaining a smash hit despite all these "hurdles". The show also heavily involved its fandom in the storytelling process through the parallel Alternate Reality Game ''The LOST Experience''.

[[http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Lostpedia]] (which the producers themselves occasionally namecheck in [[DVDCommentary DVD commentaries]] for its expanse of knowledge) has exhaustively catalogued (''almost'') every aspect of ''Lost''. If you want insight into the show or just want to learn some random statistics, it's definitely worth checking out.

'''Recaps and summation of the show, which still Administrivia/NeedsWikiMagicLove, [[Recap/{{Lost}} here]].'''

'''Recaps and summation of the show, which still NeedsWikiMagicLove, [[Recap/{{Lost}} here]].'''

'''Recaps and summation of the show, which still NeedsWikiMagicLove, [[Recap/{{Lost}} here]].'''

-->-- '''Kate''', [[WhoWritesThisCrap summing up the series]]

The show was famous at the time for its high production values (the pilot alone cost $14 million and led to the firing of a ABC executive for greenlighting such an expensive endeavor), [[SlidingScaleOfContinuity inhumanly dense plotting]], [[KudzuPlot a tendency to raise more questions than it can answer]], and somehow remaining a smash hit despite all these "hurdles". The show also heavily involved its fandom in the storytelling process through the parallel Alternate Reality Game ''The LOST Experience''. The success of ''Lost'' inspired network TV to commission [[NoughtiesDramaSeries a slew of imitators]] (''Series/TheEvent'', ''Series/{{Jericho}}'', ''Surface'', ''Series/TerraNova'', ''Series/{{Invasion}}'', ''Series/FlashForward2009'', ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', and Creator/JJAbrams's follow up show ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}''), all serious and densely plotted serialized dramas based around a central mystery and tinged with a sci-fi edge. Unfortunately most of these shows have failed to recapture the lightning and almost all of them were cancelled after one or two seasons. Honorable mention goes to ''Series/PrisonBreak'', while not a sci-fi show, it was the first out of the gate to capitalize on TV audience's newfound love for serialized dramas, it was also arguably the most critically-acclaimed and successful of the ''Lost''-clones, running for four seasons.

[[spoiler:''God loves you as He loved Jacob.'']]

'''Recaps and summation of the show [[Recap/{{Lost}} here]].'''