Now that Lost has been off the air for some time I think it’s appropriate to reflect back on the series. I really enjoyed watching it while it was on and I’m sure somebody has something philosophical they could say about it changing television. I probably wouldn’t say that but, I’m sure someone would. Since it’s finished and there are apparently lots of people that never watched it and some that never watched it a second time I thought I might pontificate upon how one might go about watching the series. First a little about Lost.

Lost was a TV program on american television airing from 2004 to 2010. The six seasons were the brainchild of Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, & Damon Lindelof. The basis of the show, covered in heavy detail in the pilot episode is a bunch of people are in an aircraft flying over the Pacific and it crashes, marooning them on a tropical island.
The opening sequence has the distinction of being the shortest that I can think of. I’m not going to look it up, but it’s short and probably shortest ever. Trust me, you’ll never skip through it.
There are 121 episodes and a set of ‘Mobisodes’ that are probably worth your time if you’ve got the DVD or something.

The series is noted as having many twists and back-stories and an awesomely confusing timeline. The week in between episodes and longer between seasons was ample time to get all worked up about what answers were given and what new questions were asked. Viewers both hated and loved this.

There, that recaps what I’m sure the Wikipedia article says. On a personal note, this is the only TV show that I have had a planned event to have people over to my house to watch each upcoming episode. I’m going to attempt to write this little article without giving any spoilers. If I think I can’t avoid it you’ll get a warning. If I didn’t warn you, it’s probably not a spoiler. OR IS IT?!?! No, I would never do that.

Due to the complexity of this series there are probably a myriad of ways that you could watch through it.

You could do as I expect most people with a Netflix or Amazon Prime account are going to do and watch them in order a bunch at a time until all done. House of Cards went really fast when I did that.

I mentioned that there is some fun with the timeline, it’s true. I’m sure that someone has ordered the episodes in some semblance of chronological. But from who’s perspective? Huh? yeah, OK that might kinda be a spoiler. Actually come to think of it, I think my brother was working on chopping up the episodes to make something very much like that. I wonder how that’s coming… So yeah, there’s a few ways to do it like that.

You could skip all of season two, I kinda remember that one being boring and disconnected from the rest of the show.

You could watch them from each person’s perspective in some order. Jack was a pretty self serving character, maybe I would start with Kate, then Hugo. I’d get Boon out of the way then Charlie cause he’s awesome. Locke and Desmond shouldn’t be done back to back but one of them could be done at this point ‘cause their stories have a lot going on. Anyway, you get the idea.

I want to take a different tack though. My method will allow you, the viewer, to get the most enjoyment out of Lost and to forever be able to keep it in your heart as a beloved story.

My viewing order is not about the order so much. I believe in preserving the integrity of the authors work so we will stick with the original broadcast order. This will also make it easier to keep track. No, my method is all about the frequency with which you watch them. I have prepared a handy graph to demonstrate.

The graph roughly follows the equation y=13.3*1.07^X. For the first half of Season 1, you watch one episode a day. Then you move to one a week through most of Season 2. The pattern continues like this, extending out the time between episodes until it’s *years* between episodes at the end of Season 6. You probably think I’m crazy but hear me out. The beauty is, it starts out slowly enough that you can enjoy the early episodes and then, even if you do last all 76 years it takes to watch it, you’ll forget what made you love the series so much by the time you get to the last episode. You might be asking yourself, “Self, if the last episode is so bad why even bother to start?”, or “Man, that seems like a lot of work for some show!!”. As I said before, the show *is* really good. It just ends terribly. The production quality is very high, the acting is solid, until the very end the story is compelling. Kate wears a bathing suit. Plenty of good reasons to watch.

OK, you probably still think I’m crazy, That doesn’t make me wrong. And I’m not. When you blow right past my good advice and get to that final episode in no time flat, you will be cursing J.J. Abrams and wanting to boycott that new Star Wars movie he’s working on. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, because I did. With a graph. and a bunch of text. Maths, yo.