Lost (TV series)
Survivors of a plane crash face a mysterious island.
Lost is an American science fiction adventure drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 2004, to May 23, 2010, spanning 121 episodes over six seasons. Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof, the show follows survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 after their plane crashes on a mysterious island in the South Pacific Ocean. It has been regularly ranked by critics as one of the greatest television series of all time and won numerous major awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Adventure
- Hybrid
- Mystery
- Science fiction
- Serial drama
- Supernatural
- Survival
- Thriller
- Creator
- Jeffrey Lieber
- J. J. Abrams
- Damon Lindelof
- Showrunner
- Damon Lindelof; Carlton Cuse
- Composer
- Michael Giacchino
- Country
- United States
- Location
- Oahu, Hawaii
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 6
Facts from the source article.
Series overview
The survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 find themselves stranded on a tropical island after their plane breaks apart in the sky. Jack Shephard, a spinal surgeon, steps up to guide the group. They face strange dangers like polar bears, a jungle-dwelling entity called the Smoke Monster, and a hostile group known as the Others. A French castaway named Danielle Rousseau, who has been on the island for sixteen years, is searching for her daughter Alex. The survivors discover a buried metal hatch. While Locke and Boone work to open it, Michael, Jin, Walt, and Sawyer build a raft to escape. The story also shows flashbacks to each survivor’s life before the crash. In the second season, tensions rise between the survivors and the Others. The raft group is attacked, and Walt is kidnapped. The survivors meet the tail-section survivors, and a conflict over the hatch’s supplies emerges between Jack and Locke. The hatch turns out to be a DHARMA Initiative research station from thirty years earlier, where Desmond Hume has been living for three years, entering a code into a computer every 108 minutes to avert a disaster. To get his son back, Michael betrays the others, leading to Jack, Sawyer, and Kate being captured. Michael leaves the island with Walt. Locke then destroys the computer, triggering an electromagnetic pulse that is detected by Penny Widmore’s scientists. This event is linked to the original breakup of the plane.
Cast and characters
Oceanic Flight 815 carried 324 people, and after the crash, 70 survivors plus a dog were scattered across three wreckage sections. The show's unusually large cast raised production costs but gave writers more freedom to develop stories. The first season featured 14 main characters with star billing. Matthew Fox played Jack Shephard, a surgeon with personal troubles. Evangeline Lilly was Kate Austen, a woman on the run. Ian Somerhalder played Boone Carlyle, and Maggie Grace played his stepsister Shannon Rutherford. Harold Perrineau portrayed construction worker Michael Dawson, with Malcolm David Kelley as his son Walt. Terry O'Quinn played the enigmatic John Locke. Naveen Andrews was Sayid Jarrah, a former Iraqi Republican Guard. Emilie de Ravin played Claire Littleton, a young Australian expecting a child. Yunjin Kim played Sun-Hwa Kwon, and Daniel Dae Kim played her husband Jin-Soo Kwon. Dominic Monaghan played Charlie Pace, an English former rock star and drug addict.
Production
Lost was produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot, and Grass Skirt Productions. Executive producers included Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Jeff Pinkner, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jean Higgins, and Elizabeth Sarnoff, with Lindelof and Cuse serving as showrunners. The series was conceived by Lloyd Braun, head of ABC, while on vacation in Hawaii during 2003, as a television adaptation of the 2000 film Cast Away crossed with elements of the reality show Survivor. Braun pitched the concept as parts Cast Away, Survivor, and Gilligan's Island with a Lord of the Flies element. Senior vice president Thom Sherman saw potential and ordered an initial script from Spelling Television. Writer Jeffrey Lieber presented a pitch titled Nowhere, but Braun later contacted J. J. Abrams to write a new pilot script. Lieber received a story credit for the pilot and shared the created by credit with Abrams and Lindelof after arbitration at the Writers Guild of America. Braun insisted the show's title must be Lost.
Reception and impact
Lost has been described by numerous critics as among the greatest television series of all time. Bill Carter of The New York Times defined it as the show with perhaps the most compelling continuing story line in television history. Entertainment Weekly placed the show on its end-of-the-decade best-of list and later listed it at number 10 in the 25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years, noting that the appeal narrowed as seasons progressed and the mythology became more complex. In 2007, TV Guide ranked Lost as the number 5 cult show, and in 2013 ranked it as the number 5 sci-fi show and the 36th best series of all time. In September 2019, The Guardian ranked the show 71st on its list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century. The first season received critical acclaim, with USA Today calling it a totally original, fabulously enjoyable lost-at-sea series. The Los Angeles Times praised the production values, and IGN noted the season succeeded first and foremost in character development. Season one was ranked number one in the Best of 2005 TV Coverage critic top ten lists by several publications.
More in American Broadcasting Company Science Fiction Dramas
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