Lost :: 5 series in 8 minutes 15 seconds

Like many, I watched the first couple of series of the US television drama Lost while they were being shown on Channel 4, and then it disappeared into the dark abyss of Sky One and I watched no more.

Turns out that there have now been five series and a sixth starting to air at the beginning of February. What have I missed? About 50 hours of my life watching Lost.

The Lostpedia Blog has condensed the five series down to a manageable 8 minutes 15 seconds. (h/t to Lee Munroe.) It’ll ruin sales of boxsets!

Suddenly even the first two series now make sense. Hopefully they’ll inflate it to a round ten minutes and add in what happens in the 18 hours of series six.

I was about to mention that Channel 4 had commissioned another show called Lost, and then I realised I’d blogged about it in November 2007 on the occasion of Channel 4’s 25th birthday. But for those who missed it ...

Lost - perhaps the show with the most potential and the least impact. Back in 2001, three two-member teams were dropped off near each other in unknown locations with only a backpack of clothes and their wits to help them. Followed by a cameraman who couldn’t help them (but could often slow them down) they had to race back to London. Successful teams went on to compete in the next race.

There was an interesting book by Nikki Arend to accompany the late night series that diarised the team's travels, commented on the exploits of the competing teams and revealed the workings of the show. Wikipedia describes the teams being:

“abandoned in Northern Russia, Mali, Venezuela, Quebec and Azerbaijan. The teams had to race back to Trafalgar Square, London, except in the Azerbaijan episode, where the destination was the Angel of the North statue in Gateshead.”