LOST: Found Again at 20
Breaking down the landmark show with THE LOST BOYS' Jacob Stolworthy
20 years ago today, a little show called Lost premiered on ABC and changed television — and culture — as we know it. The show holds a special place in my heart as the first serious adult show in which I got deeply involved. I borrowed the first season’s box set from a family friend, then watched the second season off DVR from summer repeat episodes, and then watched seasons 3-5 as they unfolded.
Like many people, I got way deep into all the mysteries of Oceanic Flight 815’s surviving passengers after the plane crashed on a mysterious island. Lost created one of the earliest examples of closed cultural loops I can recall. When you tried to explain what was going on in the show to someone who didn’t watch, they looked at you like you had two heads … and real sickos loved it. (It’s me, I’m sickos. Shout out to my mom who would lovingly tease me for asking if I had to go see what was going on with “The Others” every time a new episode aired.)
Then, a funny thing happened. The hotly anticipated sixth and final season premiered during the spring of my junior year in high school, which was arguably the most crucial toward determining college admission. I fell behind an episode or two and then just … never caught up.
For 14 years, I kept telling myself I would finally finish Lost. It took the show getting added to Netflix in July for me to finally buckle down and do it. (While I knew the final shot, I somehow managed to avoid any major spoilers!) Once I finished, I knew there was only one person I wanted to talk to: Jacob Stolworthy, the Chief Culture Reporter at The Independent, host of The LOST Boys podcast, and interview series Go to Bat. He frequently appears on broadcast, offering commentary on the biggest news in the world of movies and TV.
But, perhaps most importantly, he’s a friend and my former boss! (With all due respect to anyone else who does/will ever employ me, you will always live in the shadow of Jacob taking me to a pop-up Paul McCartney concert on my second day on the job.) My transcription service helpfully summarized the forthcoming interview as “a casual catch-up between friends discussing a TV show they both enjoyed,” and I hope you’ll feel the same as we break down the enduring influence of Lost on screens both big and small.
What does the show mean to you? (Not what do you think happens, what does it mean?)
Ultimately, Lost is about ordinary characters thrust into an extraordinary situation. (To be honest: most things I like, that's what the central premise is.) Lost, for me, is about these characters more than the island. Obviously, the island is the axis on which they spin. But the show hints that this is a very traumatic, but small, part of some of their lives. One you won't forget, and that's the point! It's the importance of strangers and how people who shouldn't ever come across each other do and impact each other. That's why I like the finale and the final season in general — because it knows that. By that same token, I think that's a lot of why people didn't like it at first. They were like, "But what about this mystery? What about that mystery?" It might sound like a cop-out, but for me, Lost is about these characters. That's where the heart is.
I definitely felt that clicking in the last season. It's like Groundhog Day or, more recently, Everything Everywhere All at Once where trying to work out the mechanics of it just feels like a waste of time. It's about moving beyond the chance of the world and discovering that we can only really know peace as people whenever we find all the reasons to live. Our job as humans is to reconcile those things and find order in the universe.
Absolutely, and I think the show always had that in mind. Of course, it is 80% mystery, but I think there's never really anything in Lost where it felt cheapened by a decision or an interaction. The one that I'm not so sure about is Sayid and Shannon being forced together for their moment in the finale. Because I'm so versed in Sayid's backstory with Nadia, I was not so sure about that, but it still has merit. And I think a lot of shows these days ... do not. I don't know if that's because I just love Lost and refuse to say anything is as good as it is. Lost has such a grasp on the heart of human interaction.
As someone more versed in the lore of Lost, are you aware of any times when the brain trust had to compromise the master plan due to fan pressure? I think the first season I watched live was season 3, and I can’t imagine that the visceral online hatred of Nikki and Paolo Poops-a-Lot didn’t play a part in how brief their stint on the show was.
That's completely right! I think that was maybe one of the first times you'd seen in real time the show respond to something that was happening that they didn't like. And, fortunately, it was fixable. I can see why they thought it would be a good idea, and it just didn't work. And they were like, "Well, let's turn this into (what I think is) a really great episode of TV." Season 3 is the worst and the best of Lost in one season, and I think that is because of exactly what you said. They spoke to the network and said, "Look, the first half of season three is an example of how we're going to kill this show dead and crawl towards a cancelation if you don't let us land it in the way we want to land it."
They were reading the message boards and things and knew the show's legacy was getting somewhat tainted, but as writers, they had all the tools necessary to make that not happen. They went to ABC and said, "We literally cannot send these characters on another boar hunt.” There's an episode of season three called “Left Behind” when Sawyer is the de facto leader of the camp before all the time traveling stuff. He's settling into being the new Jack, and there's a boar hunt that's a silly B-plot. And it works! But I think it's the last time it could have worked, and they knew that. They were like, "Fuck, we can't keep doing this!"
So they said to them, "We've got a season ending in mind that we want to drop, but we can only drop it if there's a finite number of episodes left. We can steer this to an end once we drop that finale, but only if you tell us we're going to end." And I think that's when they dropped the season three flash-forwards, which obviously threw the whole thing on its head. From that moment onwards, I'll never forget it, the trailers were literally counting down a set number of episodes left. The writers' strike got in the way, but I think it was originally 17 [for the last three seasons]. Lost paved the way for Game of Thrones and more, which is just one of the many reasons it changed how TV is consumed as well.
How did people respond to the finale at the time? Do you feel perception has shifted over time, especially with its most recent addition to Netflix in the US?
It's been really lovely to see that. Now, if I tweet anything about the finale being great, it blows up. When people scurry out of the cracks, I'm like, "Where were you when we were in the weeds?" I loved the finale straight off the bat, and a lot of people didn't. It was just the nature of ending anything really that's mystery-heavy and had a lot of investment. People were just so fickle, and they'll just go, "Oh, that was shit!" without breaking down why they think that. At the time, Damon Lindelof went into hiding. In 2017 or 2018, I was at a junket for The Leftovers and just said to him, "The Lost finale..." and he shuttered. And I went, "No, no, no! I'm going to explain to you how I think history is going to be kind to you." And he was stunned. He was like, "I never get that." That was seven years after the show it ended, so it's really lovely to see that.
I remember in the papers over here were just like "Lost ruins itself with shit ending" or whatever. Not that they said the word "shit," but I was like, "What the hell?!" I spoke to some fans who loved the ending, but they're few and far between. You have to grab onto them. So it's really lovely to see this now post-Netflix. You see on Twitter all the time when people are talking about rubbish finales, and I scroll as a morbid curiosity thing just to see how many tweets it takes until someone brings up Lost. It's usually three or four. It really is such a go-to! I think Game of Thrones helped with that in a big way, actually, but there are people who will not revisit it and never realize that the show actually ended well.
For me, so much of Lost was waiting a week in between each episode, savoring it, and waiting nine months in between each season as hard as that was. I guess not a lot of people have that patience, so people just wanted it. When people were waiting longer, it just increased the disappointment levels. Whereas, now, people can just tear through it. The amount of people who've said to me, "I rewatched Lost binging it and, my God, the ending is great. I didn't quite realize it because I was expecting so much more, but actually it was the best thing it could have been." And I'm like, "Yeah, but it's not designed to be binged." But maybe it is. Maybe that's just me because my journey to it was different. Maybe it's absolutely fine to binge it. I think that's the reason people are reassessing it.
There are references to philosophers, to The Wizard of Oz, to Alice in Wonderland littered all throughout Lost. To me, it established this idea that the show was a mystery that could be solved if you understood the Easter eggs. But the ending is not something you can decode. Do you think training the viewers to watch it in this way might have backfired?
I can see why people got annoyed with the flash-sideways being like a purgatory when they said all along it wasn't. All the trivia, all the Easter eggs, all the books, all the songs in the hatch ... I'd read all the books Sawyer was reading throughout. As a 14-year-old, there was no way I'd be reading Kurt Vonnegut or Flannery O'Connor if it wasn't for Lost. So in that respect, great, but I was deciphering it to see if there's any references that I could [discern]. Obviously, there wasn't because that's just an insane thought that everything they put in there was a link to Lost. The fun references do suggest that there's a mystery box element right down to the fact that they even mention this mystery box in the show. Ben mentions it to Locke, and later on when Locke brings it up, Ben says, "Oh, it was just a metaphor." You're like, "Wow, that's, that's another example of them speaking to the fandom."
So were the viewers set up for disappointment?
Lost, by its very nature, is a mystery show from its first episode to its last. The final reveal isn't necessarily, "What is this island?" It's this tussle between good and evil between two brothers, and this island is just a base where that's taking place. Maybe there is an element of them thinking there is a mystery to be answered throughout, and at the end of the show, they realized no answer will be just as good. So then they just dole out crazy little revelations like that the island can move through time, which works better for me than it does just get hit with this big explanation at the end.
The easter eggs and the trivia are so fun when I do the podcast with Jack. I'm always mentioning, "Did you see that? Did you hear that? Do you know what that's a link to?" I can certainly see why some people thought that the nods were going to amount to more. There were a lot of emotions built up that were caused by decisions made earlier in the show, and that definitely would have made up some of the disappointment at the time.
How much of modern “fan culture” do you think is built on the back of Lost’s success? Everything from the MCU to Taylor Swift seems to operate on these similarly closed loops of Easter egg analysis.
Lost obviously came at a time just before Twitter and Reddit, and it really was the first show to come lean into those online message boards and little websites set up where you could click on something and it would give you a detail that would be in the next episode. That stuff was just freaking catnip for people who were new to the internet, which I very much was in 2004, and it fed into the frenzy. Like you say, there was nothing that did it before because nothing could do it before. I'm sure if the internet was around when The X-Files was on, that would have been tapped into. Lost had a good team working on that side of things, and I'm so happy that it came out when it did.
I think if it had premiered years later when Reddit and Twitter were a thing, it might have dented the viewing experience. I think Westworld was an example of where it did. I really liked Westworld for the first two seasons, and the show's not getting an ending now. I think it's because everyone predicted the show! The writers were scrambling to do something different, and you could just tell that what they were doing wasn't their original view because it had been guessed by Reddit posts. That would have happened with Lost where people come up with ideas that are better than what you see. So, in some ways, you know, Lost really set the tone for that. But by the same token, it's like it did it and was like, "Bye!"
"Good luck having to deal with Internet ecosystem now!"
Taylor Swift's stuff, I get it, she obviously puts little references in her lyrics. Nothing is going to really mar the enjoyment of what you're listening to if you like it already. But when it comes to like MCU and things like that, if you're a writer, it's so hard because you just got to ignore it. But then you also want to be aware ofwhat's being said, and if you see something that's better than what you've done, it's just going to send you thrashing, isn't it? Like shit, this is actually better.
Lost is 20 years old this year, and it's really crazy to look back at how things have changed in that 20 years. Lost finished when Twitter was a thing, but still, not a lot of people were on it. I don't think people were really using it for everything, so it would be fascinating to see what Lost would have been like if it was on now. I feel like even I would have been as big a fan. People are fans of things now in such a superficial way.
Even down to Succession, for example, which was obviously a huge show in a cultier way; we're in like a sphere where people love Succession, but maybe the wider world is still to catch up. But in the final season, when there was a big episode where someone died, everyone in the UK knew someone had died because it had been spoken about to death on Twitter. They went into the episode knowing there was a big shock coming. The surprise of the episode is that you don't know it's coming. Lost, no one knew anything was coming. We didn't know when surprises were coming because they hadn't been foretold on social media. I think that is a spoiler: knowing something's coming, even if you don't know what it is.
You mentioned The X-Files, but even with that in mind, was there much of a precedent for anything like Lost before? I have this idea that it just wasn’t possible before DVR and the DVD box set sales of television seasons. People mention The Twilight Zone as a stylistic inspiration, but those mysteries were discrete episodes rather than this multi-year project.
I've not seen all of The X-Files, but it's just monster of the week, really. Same with Buffy [the Vampire Slayer]. Lost was the first where if you miss one, the house of cards comes tumbling down. You have to watch it. Reading up so much about the construction of the pilot, a lot of blind faith was put into place ... which is actually quite apt for the show. They were like, "Well, let's see what happens here."
The writers have spoken about how season one was just a nightmare because they were just writing and then getting made within like a week. They were writing two episodes behind, but making 24 episodes. The fact that the season was as good as it is, went on to become the biggest show the year, and won all these Emmys is nothing short of a miracle. It was very much a lightning bolt of success that even they're like, "We don't know how we pulled that off." And I think the reason why it probably became the big success it was is because it wasn't a failure. I think it would have been big if it was all right, but the fact is, it was actually really somehow very good. The casting was a big part of that as well, but because of that, I think it got even bigger.
In terms of it being made when it got made, imagine there not being DVR where you'd miss an episode and you're fucked. You just would stop watching, so they were probably feeding into that knowing people would be able to catch up. And I remember in England, no American show apart from The Simpsons or Friends was being repeated as much as Lost. Channel 4 were repeating that episode in the week to make sure we were up to date, and I would like watch every repeat. They didn't really wait for the whole season to be finished before they released a box set. It was like 12 episodes, and they released part one. Again, I don't think that had been done. It was of its time where people could catch up. The more it became a phenomenon, the more they probably fueled people through money into promoting it in that way. This was the show to catch up on. Lost happened when it did because it could only happen when it did.
Do you think Lost gets enough credit as a generation-defining TV show? I think it coming after The Sopranos and The Wire but before Mad Men and Breaking Bad is such an interesting time because I think it benefitted from the halo of the prestige era and then set the stage for the breathless recapping that followed.
My answer to the question is yes because the people who have a grasp on the history of TV more than your casual TV viewer will know the influence Lost has had because they would have seen it. It's so clear in everything you watch that comes after it, whether it's something that failed like Heroes or Game of Thrones. Jack Bender, the Lost director, did the Hold the Door episodes. And I remember watching and thinking, "That reminds me of Lost in the way that care is taken to explain a character's story, and it's got a bit of a time loop." He even said that was an influence on the episode, so it's there to see.
But also, Lost was quite easy to lampoon in shows. It still gets it. And that feeds into this thing of like, "Oh, that fucking show that went on and on and didn't have a great end." Those are people who obviously watched a few episodes and were like, "There's a polar bear, no." But same as everything, some people won't like it and some people love it. I think, sadly, there is a narrative out there that Lost actually didn't really change much [about television]. When you explain to them, they're like, "What? This show?"And that that baffles me.
So it's nice to see when you see polls counting down the best TV, Lost is routinely in the top 20. Isn't it just baffling, though, that younger generations (like my brother and sister) don't really watch anything old. Isaac, my little brother wanted to watch The Sopranos, and all his friends were like, "What's that?" I think there's a real deluge of TV now to be watched on Netflix and Amazon told in a way that caters to this generation's viewing habits. And there's also the TikTok thing to throw into it.
I think a lot of people now aren't gonna go back to watch Lost unless they originally watched and want to revisit it, or unless they have a love for it and are going to show it to their siblings, kids, or whoever. And that's a sad fact. I think that's the same with a lot of shows. Basically, it's the people who love Lost whose job it is to tell people that that show did change everything. What they're watching today wouldn't really exist if it wasn't for Lost. I'm not talking about every show, but I'm talking about a lot of shows. Fantasy, especially.
Did Lost become a victim of its self-mythology? There’s that SNL sketch when Matthew Fox hosted when he’s in the elevator with the guy who postulates “you’ve got no idea what’s happening on that island,” and I think that stuck. I remember the idea of its weirdness ultimately becoming more of a burden than a selling point, especially in the middle seasons before it tries to — pun fully intended — land the plane.
Lost’s season four and five have fantastic episodes and were both nominated for Best Drama at the Emmys, which is crazy when I look back at it. But they really sorted out the die-hards from the not. The more it became a lampooned show that people complained about, I think a lot of the loyalists dug their hills in — me included. Such is the nature of these things. I would say it was victim of its own hype if I thought those later seasons — not including six, I'm not the biggest fan of six as a whole — weren't two of the best seasons. So that's why it's catastrophic that Lost gets this pat on the head, like, "Yeah, that wasn't quite good in the end, was it?" That says more about you then it says about Lost!
I've learned to detach from criticism, and you open yourself up to it when you love it like I do. You're like, "Well, actually, YOU'RE the one missing out!" But maybe that fed into the frenzy around what it is. Even now, I'm watching like It's Always Sunny [in Philadelphia] or re-watching I Love You, Man, and I'll be like, "That was just a Lost reference! This is great." That's the stuff that will alert the new generation to this show being a thing. In some way, it will all come around. Some people will watch that stuff and be like, "Ah, this show that was like such a thing that it inspired this person to say that, let me give it a go."
What do you gain from rewatching Lost as much as you have? How many times is it now?
I think now we're on eight, so the next time will be nine. I'm really trying to get [my girlfriend] Saff to do that. Part of me was like, "Let's not, because if she doesn't like it we might break up." But I feel like it would be really fun to do. What do I gain from it? I notice something new every time. It's so cliche to say that, but I really do. Sometimes it's something in the background — which, to be honest, now not so much because I've read up a lot of stuff and noticed it all.
The older I get, the more the opinions change from characters and motivations. This is really ridiculous because the writers didn't know stuff like this was going to happen in the early seasons, but when characters go on to have like, a certain storyline or whatever, it's really fun to see how they react in the early days thinking they're gonna go on to have this crazy experience together. My favorite one of that is Sawyer and Juliet when he's is imprisoned by her in season three, and then they're the love of each other's lives. It works so well, and you're like, "They would never know!"
That's what I get from it, but a lot of my enjoyment from watching Lost now comes from watching the people who haven't seen it. (Which is harder to do the older I get because I just want to stay at home more by myself!) But it's why the podcast has been a joy. Jack's not been the most complimentary of certain plot twists, but he's really good at coming up with theories and ideas. He says things and I'm like, "Crud. I'd never thought of that in all my years of watching Lost."
If you watch something enough, you're going to find something, aren't you? So I don't know if that speaks to the genius of the writing, but I do get enjoyment from watching it. Obviously, nostalgia plays a big part now as well. I really can remember moments of my teens based on what was happening on Lost at the time.
How have your feelings on it changed over time?
I think I've got more sympathy for some of the characters who aren't nice to begin with, like Sawyer, who starts out as like a racist redneck. But then I watch it and I'm like, "I don't even think you are racist. I think you're saying that because you're surrounded by people who say things like that, and you don't believe it." I don't think things are as black and white as I thought they were when I first watched it, which is weird, because I thought it would go more the other way the more liberal I've become. The stuff about marriage and things that when I was younger, I was like, "This is quite soapy," but they're quite pertinent things that these characters are going through. It makes sense they'd talk about it. And Jack Shephard is a character who I've flip-flopped on numerous times over the years. I used to not stand him.
The last season did a lot for his redemption for me. Growing up, I saw him as just the annoying jock who always takes command of situation even though he doesn't really have the qualifications to do it. Now, I understand the value of that leadership and stepping into situations where someone needs the confidence to take command.
This is fascinating — I agree with you. I was like, "Screw this guy." He's not qualified to become this leader, and he acts like he's so hesitant to do it ... but he does it immediately. But the more I watch it now, I'm like, "Well, this is man who's addicted to control because of his upbringing with his crazy, controlling dad." He wants to basically control his dad's view of him, but is not able to, which has manifested into this situation on the island. And of course when he leaves the island, then he loses control. He becomes like an addict, which completely makes sense as a character journey. My heart sinks for the guy because if he was on the island and someone else was just like, "I've got this," he probably would have just chilled out a bit more. I end it thinking what a trajectory that character has.
Everyone goes on about Sawyer, Jin and Juliet to some extent just having these character translations that are staggering, and they are. But Jack has one that is no less staggering. I think I've got a lot more patience for some of the characters. The only one I don't have patience for is Charlie. I find him really annoying. That's changed, because when it started, I loved him. Now I'm like, "You are SO annoying." I liked him because he wore Vans. The most that my views change each time I watch it is that certain characters come to the fore and I'm like, "I didn't realize quite how great you were."
Game of Thrones feels like a watershed show for TV stars able to cross over into cinema. Who in the Lost cast do you think would have broken out of it was made even a few years later? Who deserved to?
I certainly think Josh Holloway could have had something. It almost happened with smaller roles in things, but it didn't. I think Twitter would have fucking loved Sawyer.
There would have been so many Sawyer fancams.
For sure! They would have put him in a Marvel thing or something, for sure. He's coming on an HBO thing next year, though. So him, 100%.
Obviously, there's Evangeline Lilly who tanked her own career by being crazy.
It's so mad now, whenever you try to do anything Lost-related and reach out to the cast, the only one there straight away is Evangeline Lilly. I'm like, "Actually, no, I've forgotten you're not good anymore."
The thing with Desmond's character is he's so great, and that actor [Henry Ian Cusick] is in a lot of smaller TV roles. Maybe he was just destined to be in small TV roles. I can't really imagine him breaking through in a way like Sawyer. Josh Holloway had that appeal. Daniel Dae-Kim has done really well, and I think a lot of people wouldn't have expected that so much for whatever reason. But I think it helps that he's got the best cheekbones ever and has aged like a fine fucking wine.
A lot of them have gone on to do more TV, and maybe that's just the nature of what they gravitate towards anyway. But the fact that Michael Emerson didn't become a Marvel villain or major baddie in a huge franchise ... I can't imagine those offers weren't out there! But he went on and did Person of Interest and Evil.
Shows that basically get canceled, and I think a few plays. And it makes you wonder, doesn't it, is he happy doing that? I mean, he is not in films anymore. He was in a few before, it's very strange. Same with Terry O'Quinn. He had a career preceding Lost, and it makes you think these actors and they just like happy to just do their TV with lower stakes. get back home to wherever but Emerson, talk about taking material and just making it your own. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) has never really done anything else.
He was in The Dropout, which was two years ago now.
And he was in Sense8.
But still all TV! I remember he played Dodi Fayed in the awful Naomi Watts movie Diana.
He did! I can't say I watched that, but when I saw he was in it, I was at the stage where I was like, "Oh, Lost alumni, should watch it." And I was like, "Yeah, not gonna..."
You made the right choice.
i hear that! It's weird, but as you say, it would have changed probably if it came out now and became the big hit that Game of Thrones did or something. But it's funny, Kit Harrington is obviously in the new season of Industry, and he's doing a play. He's done a few films, but it didn't really work out. He was in the only Marvel film where they're like, "We're not going to do another one of them." So one of the biggest breakouts from Game of Thrones has not really worked out. I guess he's more of a name because he's in this generation's mind, whereas if you speak to a 17-year-old and say Josh Holloway, they'd be like, "Excuse me?" Interestingly, Kevin Durand, who played Keamy, is having a hell of a moment this year with Abigail and [Kingdom of the] Planet of the Apes. We interviewed him and put a video of him on Tiktok, which got like 2 million views. People weirdly love the guy!
What would you tell someone about to watch Lost for the first time?
My mom's doing it right now, and she gave me her own guidance, which is: "I'm not telling you what I'm up to. I'm just gonna watch. I'm not gonna tell you what I'm on." Someone I work with watched it last year, and she got to the end of season one and went, "It just feels so of its time, and I'm not really into that anymore." And that's tragic to me. So my advice would be: stick with it if that's how you feel. Because once the cliffhangers start rolling in, they will change your life. I would also say just know that it ends well. It has the characters' best interests at heart, and if you like the characters — which you will, because I don't think a show from the past 20 years has better characters — you'll love the journey.
What would you tell someone about to rewatch Lost for the first time?
Listen to The Lost Boys podcast! [laughs] I say that, but then I say, "Actually, watching a lot of episodes and listening to an episode sounds like a grueling experience." So, skip the podcast. I would say if you didn't like it the ending before, prepare to have your mind changed. Also, watch it how you feel is right to watch it. I also think if someone watched it all before and they didn't love it but decide to go back to it, there must have been something they did like about it. My hunch there is that they they just really have fun nostalgic memories about some of those surprises.
So my advice would be: lean into it, and you never know how your mind might change by the end. I'm pretty certain it will change. I've have heard it. A few people have gone back and watched it all, and they've come back to me. I've gone, "What do you think?" And they've gone, "I was wrong." And I'm like, "This is it! It's happening!"
You're being validated 14 years later!
I remember the friends who were with me. I remember them.
See you next week for the second half of my Hispanic Heritage Month coverage!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall