One of the most amusing special features on the DVD box set of Lost's first season is the Q & A with the cast, in which Harold Perrineau reveals no one really knew what the show was about when they first auditioned. They just went for it because they heard J.J. Abrams, still benefiting from the success of Alias, was involved as a co-creator and executive producer (plus, he won an Emmy for directing the pilot). It's probably the same thing that happened when people watched the show for the first time: they didn't quite know what to expect, but trusted Abrams to deliver something special. And boy, did he deliver.
The first episode of Lost is remarkable for one reason: no matter how much time has passed since it originally aired, it still impresses. Then again, how many writers could get away with pitching a series about a group of people who survive a plane crash and end up on a desert island? Considering America was still recovering from 9/11, such a scenario was risky. Which is why Abrams added that extra ingredient, which makes these first 40 minutes of the show every bit as thrilling as all that has come after-wards: the island ain't normal. Okay, so that fact is shown to a minimum in the first half of the pilot, but there's a definite sense of bizarre mystery to the misadventures the stranded passengers of the ill-fated Oceanic Fight 815 must face.
The first episode focuses mainly on three characters: Jack Shepard (Matthew Fox), who is revealed to be a doctor in the show's trademark flashback sequences, Kate Austen (Evageline Lilly), the first person he encounters on the island, and Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan), a has-been rock star who joins them in order to kill time. We get a glimpse of the other survivors as well, especially in another flashback which depicts part of the actual crash (the plane went off course while flying from Sydney to Los Angeles).
The complicate time structure is, by itself, a very good reason to watch the series: whereas most mainstream shows, both past and present, insist on linearity, Abrams and Damon Lindelof's willingness to trust the audience to connect the dots, reminiscent of Chris Carter's pact with viewers regarding the mythology arc of The X-Files, gives the program a sense of real, unpretentious intelligence. The huge ensemble cast is also very good, and it is to Abrams' eternal credit that he manages to give everyone (even Terry O' Quinn, who has about a minute of screen time in the first part of the pilot) at least one attention-worthy moment over the course of 40 minutes.
And then, last but not least, we have the suspense, the Twin Peaks-like questions which pile up and spend a lot of time unanswered. "Guys, how does something like this happen?" one character asks regarding the final events of Part 1. Referring to the series, the answer is deceptively simple: it just does.
The first episode of Lost is remarkable for one reason: no matter how much time has passed since it originally aired, it still impresses. Then again, how many writers could get away with pitching a series about a group of people who survive a plane crash and end up on a desert island? Considering America was still recovering from 9/11, such a scenario was risky. Which is why Abrams added that extra ingredient, which makes these first 40 minutes of the show every bit as thrilling as all that has come after-wards: the island ain't normal. Okay, so that fact is shown to a minimum in the first half of the pilot, but there's a definite sense of bizarre mystery to the misadventures the stranded passengers of the ill-fated Oceanic Fight 815 must face.
The first episode focuses mainly on three characters: Jack Shepard (Matthew Fox), who is revealed to be a doctor in the show's trademark flashback sequences, Kate Austen (Evageline Lilly), the first person he encounters on the island, and Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan), a has-been rock star who joins them in order to kill time. We get a glimpse of the other survivors as well, especially in another flashback which depicts part of the actual crash (the plane went off course while flying from Sydney to Los Angeles).
The complicate time structure is, by itself, a very good reason to watch the series: whereas most mainstream shows, both past and present, insist on linearity, Abrams and Damon Lindelof's willingness to trust the audience to connect the dots, reminiscent of Chris Carter's pact with viewers regarding the mythology arc of The X-Files, gives the program a sense of real, unpretentious intelligence. The huge ensemble cast is also very good, and it is to Abrams' eternal credit that he manages to give everyone (even Terry O' Quinn, who has about a minute of screen time in the first part of the pilot) at least one attention-worthy moment over the course of 40 minutes.
And then, last but not least, we have the suspense, the Twin Peaks-like questions which pile up and spend a lot of time unanswered. "Guys, how does something like this happen?" one character asks regarding the final events of Part 1. Referring to the series, the answer is deceptively simple: it just does.