Rewatch Review : LOST "Pilot Part 1"

 Sayid: You'd think they would've come by now.
Charlie: What? Who?
Sayid: Anyone

If there ever was a show that warranted a Rewatch Review it is LOST.  It is really going to be interesting to review because of how much we now know, one year after the show has ended.  There are going to be spoilers in my review.  There is just no way around it.  So if you are watching LOST for the first time, I would suggest not reading these reviews until you have finished the show.  Otherwise, sit back and enjoy another ride on the greatest show in TV history.

From the very first minutes of the first part of the Pilot for LOST, It let you know that this was not going to be just a TV show, it was going to be an event.  Not to be confused with The Event, because after a whole season we still don’t know what THAT was.  LOST was not going to be a show that you just DVR’d and watched when you had time.  You were going to sit down in front of you television and be along for every second of the ride.  Nothing made this clearer than the absolutely stunning first half of the episode, when we see all of the survivors mere seconds after the crash.    The whole scene is the reason that the pilot for LOST was one of the most expensive of all time.  It is also the reason why it is the greatest pilot of all time.  Having an actual plane on set on an actual island really allowed the audience to feel like we were in the scene.  We feel the desperation of people trying to locate their loved ones.  We fell the sadness of the people around dying.  We also feel the obligation that our main character, Jack, feels to try and be a hero.  Never has a show sucked me in so quickly into their pilot.

Just when you think that the action has settled down and we get a peaceful moment, we get the introduction to what turned out to be one of the biggest mysteries in television history:  What is the smoke monster that haunts the island?  Its first "appearance" was burned into my brain from the initial viewing and I even recall some stills floating around the Internet suggesting that you could see the monster if you looked really closely.  A ferocious creature that had the ability to uproot large trees and announced itself by bellowing nightmarish noises was the perfect way to announce that this series would be anything but normal.

The rest of the episode focuses on the search for the planes transceiver and the survivors taking steps to getting rescued.  We see the intro to 2 important recurring themes.  The first one being Charlie’s addiction to heroin.  The other being Kate’s need to always put herself into dangerous situations, despite the protests from Jack.  While many back on the beach expect a quick rescue, Jack and Kate learn from the pilot that the plane had veered off course and lost contact with the outside world before crashing. Any search party would be looking in the wrong place, destroying any hope of immediate rescue that Jack and Kate may have had.  They can’t spend too much time bummed about this because the pilot gets ripped out of the cock pit and is the first victim we actually see succumb to the monster.

The opening hour of LOST two-part pilot is an action-packed introduction to a mysterious new universe that would keep many of us captivated until the end. While it isn't necessarily indicative of most LOST episodes, featuring far more action than the norm, it does represent what the show does best  which is suspense and mystery. From the moment Jack opens his eye until the very end, the episode maintains a steady, frenetic pace and begins to weave together the core mystery of the series

RATING: 10 OUT 10