Everywhere you look, there's a heart, a hand to hold on to.

February 17, 2010 3:26 AM

Lost: The Sitcom. Season 1, season 2, season 3.
posted by jbickers (66 comments total)

Oh holy shit, I forgot to watch Lost! /hurries off
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:31 AM on February 17, 2010

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 3:34 AM on February 17, 2010

This post sent me to Wikipedia to do some research on those old TGIF theme songs, confirming that yes, they were all written and performed by the same guy. Along the way, I started reading up on Family Matters, and here is what I learned:

At the end of the seventh season, Steve [Urkel] created a cloning machine, which he used on himself to create a duplicate. Faced with the dilemma created by having two identical Steve Urkels, and unable to determine which was the original and which was the clone, Laura suggested that one be permanently transformed into Stefan, who then became Laura's boyfriend.

What?
posted by cirripede at 3:58 AM on February 17, 2010 [8 favorites]

Star Trek: The Sitcom!
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 4:49 AM on February 17, 2010

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?

No, not really. Well, apparently it did that sophomore slump all shows do in the 2nd and 3rd seasons, ratcheting up the tension and ridiculous reveals until the writers were forced by a mob of villagers to actually close some of the open stories and stop introducing mysterious characters.

But by that time only the die-hard fans were left and no one cared. Now most people aren't even sure if it's on anymore.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:51 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

Slarty: It's just barely good enough this season to be worth watching. I wouldn't get into it. I regret ever picking up the season one DVDs, when I was impressionable enough to be convinced by a good pilot and mysterious writing.

These LOST sitcom videos... they're not very good, are they? People walking around to sitcom music. A bunch of shots of people. Sitcom music. When you do a redub like this, the goal is to take shots and cast them in a new light. Jack Torrance's outbursts of violence, if placed in a romantic comedy context, are suddenly hilarious slapstick. Mary Poppins floating through the sky set to a scary soundtrack is fucking terrifying. 10 Things I Hate About Commandments I need to say nothing of.

This isn't like that. It doesn't use dialogue, meaning it can't be clever. And LOST's cinematography is so generic that you can't get anything meaningful out of the shots unless you're being particularly clever with it. So I declare this FPP a meh, and substitute in my own clever LOST remake links.

If you want retro-y goodness, go with this 1967 remake of the LOST opening. It's like the FPP videos but actually good. Or, if you want an earworm that'll make your coworkers hate you, Weebl's They Are Lost is one of the best things to ever come of of the "remake LOST and use scenes out of context" genre.
posted by Rory Marinich at 4:55 AM on February 17, 2010 [17 favorites]

+1 for Nicki and Paolo's intro shot.
posted by joelhunt at 5:05 AM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

Man, lighten up!

Sure, there are better/more amusing videos out there, but these gave me a smile this morning. I think the Season 1 video did the best at making it seem like a goofy sitcom.

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?

I'm going to guess that if you stopped in Season 1, probably not. I mean, I personally continue to watch and love it, but if you got sick of it before even Season 2, I'd guess you probably wouldn't like the directions it takes later on.
posted by tastybrains at 5:09 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

People who hate LOST so much are not people I would care to have a beer with.

I mean, what would we talk about, Proust?
posted by absalom at 5:20 AM on February 17, 2010 [7 favorites]

Say what you will about Proust, at least he knew how to make cage sex sexy. Also plot twists involving polar bears and time travel.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:26 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

God, just seeing Charlie's face makes me angry. Does that actor's mug send anyone else into a rage?
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 5:31 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

You Should See the Other Guy: "God, just seeing Charlie's face makes me angry. Does that actor's mug send anyone else into a rage?"

Backpfeifengesicht.

You know who else had it? Doug Fieger. Man, did he have it.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:37 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

In another thread, I said I'd like to see a compilation of every time Character A says "I'm leaving to do something" and Character B adds "I'm coming with you" and Character A replies "No, you're not".

But now I'd also like to see a compilation of every time someone gets knocked unconscious by a gun or rifle butt to the head. There must be at least 20 times this has happened.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:40 AM on February 17, 2010 [5 favorites]

But now I'd also like to see a compilation of every time someone gets knocked unconscious by a gun or rifle butt to the head. There must be at least 20 times this has happened.

If it can happen to Mac from Always Sunny, what with his cat-like reflexes, it can happen to ANYONE.
posted by joelhunt at 5:48 AM on February 17, 2010 [6 favorites]

... someone gets knocked unconscious by a gun or rifle butt to the head. There must be at least 20 times this has happened.

"Holy shit, you see that fucking head come apart, man? Shit, I've never seen brains like that before, man. I bet that old bitch runs the whole fucking show ..."
posted by bwg at 5:51 AM on February 17, 2010

LATE is pretty good.

On whether Lost is worth getting into:

It starts off fantastic, gets absolutely brilliant at the beginning of Season 2, and then gets horribly derailed about halfway through Season 2, and doesn't pick up until the end of Season 3. It's been pretty consistently decent for the past 3 seasons, though.
posted by empath at 5:52 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

Brilliant, just friggin' brilliant! Good for quite a few laughs! Thanks. And yes, I'm a fan.
posted by mdrosen at 6:02 AM on February 17, 2010

The most jarring thing about those three videos was the realization that all those TGIF songs were done by the same artist. He must have been rolling in it in the late 80's-early 90's.
posted by moviehawk at 6:21 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

Didn't include the scene in the second season where Hurley goes off with Libby and then Jin gives him the thumbs up. That makes me a little sad.

Otherwise, just the kind of amusement I need in the morning.
posted by giraffe at 6:35 AM on February 17, 2010

Seriously! Why was this image not included?!

I forgot how godawful the theme song to Step By Step was.
posted by giraffe at 6:39 AM on February 17, 2010

lost reenactments
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 6:39 AM on February 17, 2010

Slarty Bartfast: "So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?"

Remember how The X-Files kept dragging out the "mythology" season after season until most people stopped caring? And by the time the show finally ended it had racked up so many unexplaineds that even the series creator couldn't make sense of it all?

I was confident from Season 1 that Lost was going to travel the same road and I believe it has.

Even if I retained faith that there was going to be a satisfying payoff to the mysteries, towards the end of Season 4, there's a plot development that could have come straight from Dallas. Do not want.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:59 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

LATE is pretty good.

That was radically un-entertaining.
posted by odinsdream at 7:01 AM on February 17, 2010

This just makes me happy because, after last night's episode, I'm really itching for more. Hadn't felt that at all this season yet, though to be fair, I pretty much despise every Kate episode.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:19 AM on February 17, 2010

I forgot how godawful the theme song to Step By Step was.

Ha! I always thought it was pretty much the only redeemable thing about the show.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:20 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

God, just seeing Charlie's face makes me angry. Does that actor's mug send anyone else into a rage?

I'm always disappointed when he's not credited as Meriadoc Brandybuck.
posted by Evilspork at 7:38 AM on February 17, 2010 [6 favorites]

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?

Yes. No question. The show is ridiculous, and immensely entertaining. The whole way through. It gets worse, gets better, gets worse, gets better, etc, but on the whole is exciting, silly, stupid, grandiose, funny, aggravating, and thoroughly fun. Do yourself a favor and watch it without pretensions, and just have fun with it. The last few years I've let two or three episodes go by, downloaded them, and watched them with friends with good food and perhaps another substance, and had a fucking blast every time.

But by that time only the die-hard fans were left and no one cared. Now most people aren't even sure if it's on anymore.

if no one cared, well, it wouldn't be on anymore.
posted by ORthey at 7:51 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

ORthey: "It gets worse, gets better, gets worse, gets better, etc ... The last few years I've let two or three episodes go by, downloaded them, and watched them with friends with good food and perhaps another substance, and had a fucking blast every time."

This is true. Even after I stopped caring, there was a short run of episodes in Season 3 that I had to admit were really cool. Also, a lot of the likable characters become dislikable and vice versa - so that's something.

Still, "substances" will help.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:07 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?

With no snark intended, I find it incredible that at least one person asks this in every single LOST thread.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:09 AM on February 17, 2010 [9 favorites]

So, I watched about half the pilot episode, and also that episode with that couple after that thing happened. Could someone bring me up to speed so I can watch and enjoy the new series? Is that clock still in it? I liked that clock.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, and no spoilers -- I might want to go back and watch the old episodes.
posted by logopetria at 8:37 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

My girlfriend and I just started getting back into Lost, after watching basically the entirety of the first two seasons over the course of a (very long) weekend after they came out on DVD, and then watching the third season live on TV. We're now just past the beginning of the fifth season, trying to catch up to the show which is now in the middle of season six.

The second season is really good (for the most part), and the third season has a few good parts but is mostly kind of mediocre. Season four is great pretty much all the way through, and season five seems to be good so far.

Is it worth getting back into? I'd say yes, but that depends on what you're looking for in the show. If you didn't like any of the craziness in the first season (like polar bears and black smoke monsters), you'll probably hate the rest of the show. It only gets weirder, and the plot only gets more nonlinear and confusing -- though I'd say not so confusing that it's impossible to figure out.

Plot lines are opened and closed all the time, and a lot of the episodes will answer one question and leave you with ten new ones you hadn't even thought of before. As the show progresses, more and more of the plots are centered around crazy sci-fi nonsense.

Some of the characters are really, really frustrating (e.g., Ben Linus) in a way that makes you admire their acting skills and hate the writers. It's not always clear who's "good" and who's "bad" -- people that you thought were good do things you think are very bad, and people you thought were bad end up helping other people in unexpected ways. Likable characters become very unlikable, and vice-versa. A lot of people (including some main characters) die.

Remember how The X-Files kept dragging out the "mythology" season after season until most people stopped caring? And by the time the show finally ended it had racked up so many unexplaineds that even the series creator couldn't make sense of it all?

In general, I'd say that in Lost there's not as much of a problem of that -- the show seems to be moving ultimately towards some major resolution of the biggest unexplained plot devices, in a finite and predefined period of time. The problem with X-Files was that they did all the mythology over the course of several seasons and opened up a number of plots that they never closed and rushed to explain everything in a couple of episodes. With Lost, there's a gradual explanation such that even as they open new plots they close old ones.

Plus, it's been pretty well established that Lost follows a very much serial (rather than episodic) format, and one of the main failings of X-Files is that it spent its run waffling back and forth between the two. There are fans of X-Files that liked the stand-alone monster-y episodes and fans that liked the overarching metaplot, but they tended to be in conflict. Lost is all about the metaplot.

wow, this was... long
posted by malthas at 8:40 AM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

A relic from a bygone era, when TV shows didn't have 15-second theme songs.
posted by trunk muffins at 8:40 AM on February 17, 2010

A bit late, unfortunately. But here are Lost-themed Valentine's Day cards.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:41 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

Jesus. I'm just going to link to my previous angry missive about some of you, and add that there are dozens of Lost fan sites where you can glean all kinds of information about past seasons.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:45 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

When you do a redub like this, the goal is to take shots and cast them in a new light.

That was funny for some clips on the The Trailer Mash, but I enjoyed this because it was subtle. A big part of the Lost experience is suffering through overlong periods of suspense.. distilling each season down to a handful of sitcom-perfect moments is refreshing because it lets you experience the show stripped of its primary dramatic element.
posted by eddydamascene at 8:51 AM on February 17, 2010

God, just seeing Charlie's face makes me angry. Does that actor's mug send anyone else into a rage?

Wolverine was almost worth seeing just to watch the Charlie guy get eviscerated by Sabretooth. Almost.

oh hey, spoilerz
posted by brain_drain at 9:11 AM on February 17, 2010

Jesus. I'm just going to link to my previous angry missive about some of you

Would you like your cane now, sir? Or after I've beaten the little scamps off your lawn with it?

Look, I don't really give two [items] about Lost, but you're complaining about people commenting and looking for conversation about a show... on a show thread?
posted by cavalier at 9:11 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Please beat them for me, and my complaint was not without resonance.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:16 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Lost is all about the metaplot.

I think the only more-or-less stand-alone episode is probably the most hated episode of the series.
posted by empath at 9:16 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

on the whole is exciting, silly, stupid, grandiose, funny, aggravating, and thoroughly fun

Totally. Through me, my daughter has become obsessed with the show. We sit there like huge nerds, alternately bitching about the super-crappy CGI submarines, smoke and underwater villages and then obnoxiously going "SHHH!" at anyone who dares to still be talking when the commercials are over.
posted by chococat at 9:20 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is this 'Lost' something you need an Apple II+ that requires a numerical code executed every 108 minutes to have heard of?

But seriously, I'm still watching Lost and am holding out hope for a satisfying finale. Less seriously, here's a Flickr set "Foggy Memories of Lost" depicting some of the show's most memorable scenes as 60s-style cartoons.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:22 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

One thing I'd recommend is that if you ever were interested in Lost, it's probably going to be a good idea to catch up on it before the big series finale. It'll probably be the biggest pop-culture reference of the year, like Snape killed Dumbledore.

Remember how The X-Files kept dragging out the "mythology" season after season until most people stopped caring? And by the time the show finally ended it had racked up so many unexplaineds that even the series creator couldn't make sense of it all?

All the unexplained plot I needed wrapped up happened when a fucking blackhawk missile exploded Cigarette Smoking Man's skull and engulfed his skeleton in flames. It would have been nice to see someone kick the ashy pile to be REALLY sure he's dead, but that was sufficient for me.

But yeah I agree, TV shows didn't know how to do intense metaplots back then. DVDs, "Previously on ___" catchup clips and online replays help that out a lot. I just hope people figure out how to successfully monetize internet based tv series, and allow for a more mature form of the medium. BSG, Lost, and even non-sci-fi shows could really benefit from it, like Arrested Development, which had tons of metaplot, self references, and jokes you'd only get if you'd watched the whole show.
posted by fontophilic at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Doktor Zed: "here's a Flickr set "Foggy Memories of Lost" depicting some of the show's most memorable scenes as 60s-style cartoons."

"WALT!" was painfully accurate. It deserves a companion cartoon of Claire screeching "My bay-bee!"
posted by Joe Beese at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2010

As I said to a friend at dinner last night, the problem with Lost fandom is the people who like it too much AND the people who don't like it enough. Everyone should like it the right amount -- like me.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2010 [5 favorites]

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?

With no snark intended, I find it incredible that at least one person asks this in every single LOST thread.

I can't believe they took the bait, shakespeherian.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:12 AM on February 17, 2010

I'm just thankful me wife made me sit through the first few episodes til I was hooked, but I still don't forgive her for Heroes, V, and Caprica.

Ok, she did get me into Firefly so I guess we're even.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:18 AM on February 17, 2010

THe first season of heroes was pretty good. The rest of the seasons, ugh.
posted by empath at 10:21 AM on February 17, 2010

So...I stopped watching this show in season one, is it worth getting back into?

No, not really. Well, apparently it did that sophomore slump all shows do in the 2nd and 3rd seasons, ratcheting up the tension and ridiculous reveals until the writers were forced by a mob of villagers to actually close some of the open stories and stop introducing mysterious characters.

But by that time only the die-hard fans were left and no one cared. Now most people aren't even sure if it's on anymore.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:51 AM on February 17 [2 favorites +] [!]

This sort of characterizes what I don't like about how we as individuals take on pop culture. If you don't watch a show or don't have a friend constantly yapping about it, you assume no one watches it. Which is so blatantly backwards because it only takes on a sample research size of, well, one. There is no doubt the ratings have gone down steadily (which is inherent to a serialized show that started with a ratings bang), but to call a show that still averages over 10 million viewers in its weakest season something that "no one even knows if it's on" is a little weird to me. Granted my individual perspective is skewed cause I still watch the show and almost every single one of my friends still watches the show. So I think "everyone" still watches it, which is just as flawed.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 11:17 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Does nobody else remember "Lost! On an Island!"? Someone did a whole sitcom theme song, and I seem to recall the visuals were a fair bit funnier too. I went looking for it but it appeared to have been scrubbed from the internet.

If anyone can find it, let me know. I want to make bootleg dvds with that stitched on as the intro.
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2010

These "sitcom intros" are coasting on the upbeat boogie rock theme songs; the images, even of characters smiling, aren't really persuasive as happy images. The smiley shots are medium shots or longer, with lots of surrounding scenery-- and that scenery contextualizes, balances out, and ultimately negates the impact of the smiling.

So, yeah, the "Lost! On an Island!" bit was a good deal better than these.
posted by darth_tedious at 11:32 AM on February 17, 2010

People who hate LOST so much are not people I would care to have a beer with.

I mean, what would we talk about, Proust?

This may be the only time in history in which the words 'hate LOST' and 'talk about Proust' will appear in the same sentence.
posted by iamck at 12:07 PM on February 17, 2010

Lost! On an Island!
posted by team lowkey at 12:15 PM on February 17, 2010

if no one cared, well, it wouldn't be on anymore.

I'm pretty sure this is exactly how TV doesn't work.
posted by clvrmnky at 12:16 PM on February 17, 2010

At the end of the seventh season, Steve [Urkel] created a cloning machine, which he used on himself to create a duplicate. Faced with the dilemma created by having two identical Steve Urkels, and unable to determine which was the original and which was the clone, Laura suggested that one be permanently transformed into Stefan, who then became Laura's boyfriend.

What?

The Return of Stefan Urquelle.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:20 PM on February 17, 2010

Joe Beese, have you seen Previously on LOST: What? It's almost what you're looking for, but with another of their hackneyed phrases.
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 12:49 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

It deserves a companion cartoon of Claire screeching "My bay-bee!"

Seriously. Emilie de Ravin's adorable, but that's literally the only thing I remember about her character.

"CHAH-lee! The BAY-bee! The BAY-bee, CHAH-lee! CHAH-lee CHAH-lee BAY-bee CHAH-lee!"
posted by EarBucket at 2:00 PM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

A bit late, unfortunately. But here are Lost-themed Valentine's Day cards.

It burns linking to livejournal, but bigger and better quality images, from the original source --
Part 1
Part 2
posted by inigo2 at 2:06 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Lost isn't always good, but as a whole it's terrific television. I laugh, I cry, I go "WTF". You're guaranteed to get a few mindfucks a season, and there's scifi, and every season follows a new chronological narrative format. I love all the plethora of ridiculous characters, especially the evil ones (Oh, Ben!) I love the moment something clicks into place, or when the answer to a question provokes even crazier questions.

Everything about it is ridiculously entertaining, especially the epic freakouts that follow during every commerical break where my friends and I exchange a million texts with everyone else we know who watches it. The movie theater near me shows every episode live on the big screen - it's fantastic.

So when people seem apathetic towards it, I don't really understand... but I guess it's their loss.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:40 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

A Jezebel commenter:

At this point, I fully expect the story to end with Lady Gaga riding a polar bear. Because why the fuck not.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:44 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

hilarious
posted by jrking at 3:51 PM on February 17, 2010

Holy cow, everyone who can't be spoiled, let me call attention empath's comment in the lost thread back in 2008:

If it were me writing the show, the last season would end with Locke merging with the Smoke Monster like Leto at the end of Children of Dune. He'd be walking around 20 feet tall and shooting lighting bolts out of his eyes and fighting polar bears with his bare hands.

if the first half of the sentence came true, why not the second?!
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:54 PM on February 17, 2010

I was pretty into this show for the first couple of seasons but bailed at some point during the third. However, a friend of mine had me over a season or two later and gave me a big speech about how the show had come back from the dead and how I should give it another chance, etc. So we sat down to watch that week's episode...and it turned out to be the one about Jin buying a teddy bear for his boss.

The first few and last few episodes of the first season are still some of the most enjoyable network television I ever watched, though.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:57 PM on February 17, 2010

If it were me writing the show, the last season would end with Locke merging with the Smoke Monster like Leto at the end of Children of Dune.

I'm obviously a goddamned genius.
posted by empath at 6:50 PM on February 17, 2010

This post sent me to Wikipedia to do some research on those old TGIF theme songs, confirming that yes, they were all written and performed by the same guy. Along the way, I started reading up on Family Matters, and here is what I learned:

At the end of the seventh season, Steve [Urkel] created a cloning machine, which he used on himself to create a duplicate. Faced with the dilemma created by having two identical Steve Urkels, and unable to determine which was the original and which was the clone, Laura suggested that one be permanently transformed into Stefan, who then became Laura's boyfriend.

What?
Yeah, man. Stefan Urkel was Steve Urkel's cool alter ego. The show got kinda weird.
posted by defenestration at 7:50 PM on February 17, 2010

EarBucket: ""CHAH-lee! The BAY-bee! The BAY-bee, CHAH-lee! CHAH-lee CHAH-lee BAY-bee CHAH-lee!""

The CAN-dee moun-TAIN CHAH-lee?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:40 PM on February 17, 2010

Thanks team lowkey, but sadly the theme song I'm looking for is in another castle. More a sitcom thing.

I should just commission flapjax or cortex to do one. WHO'S WITH ME?
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 11:08 AM on February 18, 2010