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Lost - Complete Seasons 1-5 [DVD] [2004]


RRP: £174.99
Our Price: £82.97 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Season 1
And so it begins. It’s hard to pinpoint just when you realise how good Lost actually is. Granted, the opening episode is an astonishingly assured way to start, replete with an almighty plane crash on a seemingly deserted desert island. Yet as those who have followed the hype are well aware, there’s far more on offer here, with carefully woven plotlines introducing a series of characters who are slowly and intriguingly fleshed out throughout the 25 episodes in this set.

At its best, Lost is a delicately layered adventure, laced with some stand-out moments. You’ll find ample instances of them here, as well as umpteen examples of the quality of writing that underpins the show. Far fetched? Yes, occasionally, and you could also argue that it takes a while to recapture the energy of those dramatic opening episodes. But this is still a lavish, compulsive show that benefits heavily from its clearly substantial production budget.

Naturally as there are more episodes made and planned, there are plenty of building blocks being put in place for later on, both through the evolving life on the island and the plethora of flashbacks that back it up. Yet it’s at this point that the quality of Lost really hits home, thanks to lots of short term excitement with plenty still to enjoy as the show progresses. That makes Lost Series One a rewarding purchase, and one that promises even greater things ahead.--Simon Brew

Season 2
Season two of the television phenomenon that is Lost is where the questions, in many senses, started to be asked. Picking up directly after that first season cliffhanger, it sets off at a belting pace, continuing the adventures of a group of people stranded on a desert island following a place crash. Only, as becomes increasingly clear, the island is a mysterious place, and the survivors appear not to be alone.

In true Lost fashion, the second season of the show is far better at firing out fresh questions than resolving previous ones, although again, it delights in throwing out clues that the web-inclines can research across the legion of unofficial fan websites. For the viewer of the second series of Lost though, there’s plenty to like, and plenty to tear their hair out over.

On the downside, after an intriguing beginning, too much of the second series settles into a comfortable rhythm, conforming too rigidly to a recipe of plenty of backstory, and not too much advancement of the main narrative. It’s a device that worked first time round, but becomes tiring during the saggy middle episodes. It’s a fair argument too that things move far too slowly and for little good reason.

The upsides? Again, quite a few. There’s little doubt that the premise still holds intrigue, and the top and tail of season two are excellent. The last quarter, for instance, is both meaty and very entertaining, even offering clues to how the whole show may eventually end. So while even the Lost purest will surely conclude that season two is an uneven dish, there’s still much to feast on, albeit with the hope that season three gets round to answering a few more question. Please. --Simon Brew

Season 3
There’s a steady pattern forming to seasons of Lost, where the narrative by turns manages to enthral and frustrate with equal measure. And the show’s makers are clearly wise to this, as while elements of the third season revert to type, there’s a clear and genuine effort to energise a programme that continues to stretch its simple premise as far as it can.

So while Lost still compromises of a group of plane crash survivors marooned on a mysterious island, there’s plenty else being thrown into the pot. Season three finds new characters, greater exposition of the mysterious ‘others’, the obligatory background character work, and a pronounced fracturing of relations between many of the survivors.

It too also manages to hint at some answers to the many conundrums that it continues to pose, not least a concluding episode that itself should keep fan debates fuelled until well into the next series. And, chief among its accomplishments, Lost still manages to keep us interested, and leaves plenty in the tank for the future as well.

In short, there’s little danger you’ll be short-changed by Lost season three thanks to its ideas, its nerve, and the continued clues it teasingly leaves along the way. As fascinating as it always was. --Jon Foster

Season 4
Anybody whose faith in Lost was beginning to waiver will surely appreciate the fourth season of the show. For this is Lost firing on all cylinders, showing a willingness to answer a few more questions than usual, while not being afraid to deepen elements of the mystery of Ocean 815.

The big new idea for Lost season four, as introduced in the cliffhanger at the end of the previous run, is flash-forwards, where we see some of the characters after they?ve left the island. This freshens the show immensely, and gives the writers some much-needed new meat to chew on. As a result, characters are more convincingly fleshed out, and more fun is had with the narrative in general.

There are still a few of the ailments that have hindered Lost in the past. Whenever Matthew Fox's Jack takes centre-stage, for instance, it still tends to be an episode to forget, while one or two sub-plots are allowed to meander a little more than they should. Yet it's a transitionary season, moving the show towards its final two years by beginning to fill in some of the blanks we?ve been lacking. And with a cliffhanger at the end that, once more, has the potential to firmly pull the rug from under your feet, it?s very clear that Lost has plenty more tricks up its sleeve to come. A terrific season of an increasingly bold show. --Simon Brew

Season 5
Since Lost made its debut as a cult phenomenon in 2004, certain things seemed inconceivable. In its fourth year, some of those things, like a rescue, came to pass. The season ended with Locke (Terry O'Quinn) attempting to persuade the Oceanic Six to return, but he dies before that can happen--or so it appears--and where Jack (Matthew Fox) used to lead, Ben (Emmy nominee Michael Emerson) now takes the reins and convinces the survivors to fulfill Locke's wish. As producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse state in their commentary on the fifth-season premiere, "We're doing time travel this year," and the pile-up of flashbacks and flash-forwards will make even the most dedicated fan dizzy. Ben, Jack, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) arrive to find that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) have been part of the Dharma Initiative for three years. The writers also clarify the roles that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) play in the island's master plan, setting the stage for the prophecies of Daniel's mother, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), to play a bigger part in the sixth and final season. Dozens of other players flit in and out, some never to return. A few, such as Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), live again in the past. Lost could've wrapped things up in five years, as The Wire did, but the show continues to excite and surprise. As Lindelof and Cuse admit in the commentary, there's a "fine line between confusion and mystery", adding, "it makes more sense if you're drunk". --Kathleen C. Fennessy


brilliant..
Review date: 2010-08-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

was great to be able to watch the series again. the bonus features are good that i have seen but there is tons so not had chance to watch it all. great buy - just cant wait for season 6 now!!

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Reviews


Lost Box Set
Review date: 2010-07-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

Bought this after hearing about Lost through my wife,who watched it when on TV.Essential viewing,each episode makes you wanting to watch the next.The good thing is you don't have to wait for a year for the next season.Great value.

Sleep depriving!
Review date: 2010-06-24 Rating: 10 out of 10

I'd never seen an episode of this but after just a matter of weeks we've already got to Season Four.

A great price from Amazon too!

Still lost
Review date: 2010-05-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

It's a vast mass of mysteries, bizarre twists and supernatural occurrences -- and it's brilliant. "Lost: The Complete Seasons 1-5" has some bumps along its way (particularly in the second season), but it blossoms once it finds its footing, and starts working towards a brain-bending, epic clash between the forces of light and darkness. Think of it as "Swiss Family Robinson" by way of Stephen King.

A plane crashes on a remote tropical island, leaving a terrified band of survivors including a doctor named Jack (Matthew Fox), a spoiled brother and sister, a single dad and his strange son, an Iraqi ex-soldier, a Korean couple, chubby lottery winner, an escaped prisoner, a hostile con-man, a man cured of paralysis, and a junkie rocker.

Unfortunately, the island has countless perils that crop up as the survivors try to survive there, and strange people are hidden in its depths. What's more, the island has a history that stretches back countless years -- there are remnants of a powerful organization called Dharma, a collection of "Others" living in a luxurious modern village, a metal hatch with a button that MUST be pushed, and ancient statues and temples from ancient times.

The survivors do their best to keep alive and to fight back the Others, but they lose many of their number -- and when a small band of them do escape, they find that they have somehow disrupted the island's primal forces, and the fabric of time itself. But even when they fight their way back to the island, they find that not all is as it should be -- and in an effort to set things right once and for all, they must take the ultimate risk and set off a terrifying series of events...

Yes, it's a weird show -- "Lost" might make more sense if you're drunk or stoned, because it can swing wildly from the downright surreal to the mundane. But in the midst of shallow sitcoms and endless reality TV, it's refreshing to see a twisty-turny show like this one. J.J. Adams, best known for "Alias," outdoes his first hit TV show with something totally different -- not just from his past work, but from everything else on TV.

The gorgeous Hawaiian landscape is a contrast for such a dark storyline, although the writers do stumble occasionally (the first half of the second season is a total misfire). Adams never reveals everything, which keeps up the suspense, and he twines together dozens of mysteries -- the island's nature, its prior inhabitants, and its countless mysteries. Some mysteries have been answered, and some are left dangling for the sixth and final season -- and every time Adams unravels one puzzle, it just reveals a new one.

And "Lost" is truly an ensemble show -- every character gets to shine (including some we don't care about), and flashbacks (and flash-forwards) reveal what makes them tick. And some, like Jin, Sun and the haunted, smart-alecky Sawyer are evolved far beyond their original characterization.

Matthew Fox is given a lot of attention, and he is a good actor... even though the self-righteous Jack eventually gets kind of annoying. Fotunately, there's a brilliant supporting cast -- Dominic Monaghan, Jorge Garcia ("Dude, that was a Jedi moment!"), Terry O'Quinn, Evangeline Lilly, the brilliant Naveen Andrews and Josh Holloway, Yunjin Kim, Elizabeth Mitchell, Daniel Dae Kim. Two brilliant supporting roles are Michael Emerson as the creepy-eyed Other leader, and Henry Ian Cusick as the tormented ex-soldier/monk Desmond -- and there are a LOT of memorable supporting characters.

"Lost" is a well-written, well-acted show that brings a bit of mystery back into prime-time television. Creepy, funny, romantic, tragic and sometimes just weird -- and be prepared for the mother of all cliffhangers.

How not to make a TV series?
Review date: 2010-04-01 Rating: 4 out of 10

That might be harsh, and as I write it I feel harsh saying it, but it is true. Now I would be lying if I said I haven't enjoyed fleeting moments of this overhyped TV show, but as the series have progressed these moments have gotten thinner and thinner.

There was a point during the second series where there were accusations pointed at the writers of 'making it up as they go along'. This seems very very apt all the way from beggining to end. Ridiculous plot twists and turns, anything for a cliffhanger no matter how absurd. Character after character after character turn up and join the parade and we see their back story, their future and their present. We have to memorise all of this, with only 1 episode per week on TV, this becomes increasingly hard. As each series moves forward, the annoying lack of any character 'culling' becomes unbearable. No-one dies on this Island, even if they have been shot 10 times and macheted, the writers will still find some way of shoe horning them back in.

The plot lines have got more and more absurd as time has gone on, with some seemingly forgotten by the writers altogether. What was all that thing about Walt about? The Polar Bear anyone? Maybe things will become clear by the end of the last series, in which case I will bake the humble pie myself.

But for now, I have gone from liking the show at the beggining to actually hating it every week I watch it. I have no time for any of the characters apart from maybe Sawyer, who provides the only dramatic entertainment. The trouble is, the more new characters the writers have tried to introduce (wave after wave of new 'gangs' and 'outsiders') means the main characters have got increasingly marginalised and thus less interesting.

If you want to watch an interesting, well written, well acted TV series which sustains it's power over it's whole run then go buy The Sopranos, or Dexter or Deadwood.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Daniel Dae Kim
Naveen Andrews
Matthew Fox
Jorge Garcia
Josh Holloway

Creators:
Jorge Garcia (Primary Contributor)
Naveen Andrews (Primary Contributor)
Larry Fong (Cinematographer)
Damon Lindelof (Writer)
J.J. Abrams (Writer)
Jeffrey Lieber (Writer)

Recording label: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
EAN: 8717418225049
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 30
Format: Box set, PAL,
Release date: 2009-10-26
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 4272 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2004
Language: English (Original Language)

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