LOST – EPISODES 1 – 3

Scifind.co.uk rating - 3 - out of 5.

Reviewed By: Paul Mount

Starring: Dominic Moraghan, Emilie de Ravin, Daniel Dae Kim,

So here it is at last, sailing onto UK TV screens in a sea of publicity and riding a huge wave of critical acclaim courtesy of its successful first season in the USA. JJ Abrams’ LOST, the big break-out drama hit in the most recent American TV season, has finally arrived in Britain. Expectations have been high. Reputations may well have been staked. The show’s been given an unusual prime-time slot by the makeover and people-trivia obsessed Channel Four. LOST is, apparently, that good. Except that…er…it isn’t. Having seen the first three episodes I have to say I’m a bit…well, lost as to what all the fuss is about. The show was a bit lost on me. I hope I haven’t lost out by….oh, well, you get my drift…
Technically LOST is about as slick and expensive as you could reasonably expect any modern TV series to be. The show’s in-your-face production values are right up there on the screen – filmed almost entirely on location in Hawaii, a big FX set piece, large cast, big, sprawling arc-heavy plot. The scenario itself is intriguing enough, if not exactly original. A passenger aircraft crashes on a desert island and a group of survivors struggle to stay alive whilst battling not only with their own inner demons but also something rather more mysterious and physical which shares the island with them. And that’s it. The cast are the usual mixture of Hollywood glams and Hollywood misfits – there may be one or two oddballs here but no-one’s really ugly on American TV (as opposed to British TV where no-one’s ever anything else) and by episode three we are beginning to know them well enough to work out whose storylines are likely to be the most interesting and who’s going to be a bit dull. The problem with LOST though, is that, despite all its lavish visual trappings, it’s nothing special.

US TV has really raised the bar for TV drama in recent years with genuinely ground-breaking shows like THE SOPRANOS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, THE X FILES, SIX FEET UNDER, THE WEST WING and, as they say, many many more. LOST just isn’t in the same league – yet. The scripts for the first three episodes were horribly flat, full of flaccid, predictable and often painfully clichéd dialogue with none of the zest and flair for language shown in its more illustrious predecessors. It’s pretty humourless too; these survivors are a dour bunch (even accepting that there’s probably not a lot to smile about when you’re stuck on a desert island with only a bunch of complete strangers for company) and early attempts at characterisation are risibly unsubtle. Lack of subtlety is a major problem too; it’s not difficult to guess what’s going to happen next and who’s going to do what to who, even if the why is still a bit of a mystery.

The cast, largely TV newcomers apart from LORD OF THE RINGS star Dominic Moraghan and some vaguely-recognised faces from fallen genre shows (ROSWELL’s Emilie de Ravin and ANGEL’s Daniel Dae Kim) do their best and they’re nothing if not enthusiastic but many of them struggle with the formula “where are we?” style dialogue and some ill-defined motivations. But of course it’s early days and reviews of later episodes suggest the show improves in leaps and bounds as the mystery unfolds and the characters become more familiar. LOST is certainly stylistically very different from many of its contemporaries and maybe that’s why it’s taking its time to find its feet. Reservations aside, it’s worth sticking with – not only because it’s so much better than much of the cheap filler material occupying prime time on British TV but it’s also important to support an American drama shown in a peak viewing slot. So at the moment, not exactly essential but worth keeping an eye on… Not a lost cause by any means. Sorry, I’ll get my coat…