Lost: The Complete Third Season

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Lost had an interesting third season, to say the least. A powerhouse hit in its first two seasons, the show saw its ratings begin to slip at the end of the second season thanks to a rerun-plagued schedule. The solution to this problem was to air the third season in two distinct, rerun-free chunks: six episodes in the fall followed by the remaining sixteen in the spring.

Unfortunately, the strategy backfired completely. The first six episodes focused largely on Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and their captivity among the Others, who kidnapped them at the end of Season 2 – essentially giving the show a totally different feel from the ensemble drama everyone had grown to love. There wasn’t enough time to build up any momentum, either. A long three months later, when the show came back (in a 10pm time slot), the ratings had dropped down to about 12 million viewers per episode, from a high of 21.

Never mind that that number is still higher than the majority of TV shows – the media pronounced Lost basically dead, a has-been that would never recapture its former glory.

Then something happened that close observers of the show (including me, not to be snarky or anything though) had bet on all along: the show bounced back. With sixteen straight episodes on a crash course toward a brilliant season finale, the show reunited its main cast and gained its momentum back. It recaptured its place in the zeitgeist very simply: by creating really compelling television. Now you can watch the entire third season, unimpeded by annoying hiatuses, on DVD.

Some plot points follow, but no spoilers, I promise.

With its tendency for cliffhanger episode endings, Lost has always played better on DVD; you can keep going in one sitting until you’ve gotten your fill, and overall you get a better feel for the season’s arc. (TV shows on DVD are slowly spoiling television in general; watch a normal show after seeing a DVD, and you’ll find yourself being unreasonably irritated by commercial breaks.) The third season is no different – reliving the experience again in a few marathon sessions with my friends is the absolute best way to experience this already fantastic show.

The first six episodes are still the most problematic; in many ways the structure of the season mirrors Season 2 in that it takes a while to get going, and along the way you can see a few seams. (The very first scene of Season 3, actually, is an obvious retread of the brilliant first scene of Season 2, in a neat bit of cohesion.)