Lost: Complete First Season, 7 Blu-ray discs (2009)
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, many others
Executive Producer: Carlton Cuse
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment 100834
Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 color, 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS HD 5.1, English or French DD 5.1, Spanish Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Extras: Audio commentaries, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Bloopers, Season Play feature
Feature Length: 1068 minutes
Rating: ****1/2
Even though Lost has recently started appearing in late-night reruns scattered across the spectrum of cable channels, I really haven’t watched any of the previous seasons since they originally aired. So needless to say, my enthusiasm was totally pumped when I found out BVHE had decided to release both Seasons 1 and 2 on Blu-ray – especially in light of the great job they did with the Season 3 and 4 boxes from each of the previous two years (previously reviewed here). When this package arrived, my real intention was to only skim through all seven discs, and definitely check out a sampling of the generous bonus content for my review. Needless to say, my wife and I sat down starting with disc one and proceeded to watch the next eight episodes back-to-back! It was surprisingly engrossing for us – our weekend quickly turned into a Lost marathon!
For those of you who might have been occupying some alternate universe for the last few years, the Lost saga revolves around the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 from Australia bound for Los Angeles. After entering heavy weather, the flight loses radio contact and turns back toward Fiji, then breaks apart and crashes on an uncharted island. While the forty-odd survivors are under the impression that they’ll soon be rescued, it’s made apparent to them by the (soon to be) dying pilot that they’re at least a thousand miles off course, and any search and rescue operation would surely be looking in the wrong place. The main characters include Jack Shephard, a doctor; Kate Austen, a fugitive from justice; Sayid Jarrah, a former Iraqi military officer; John Locke, a paraplegic; Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, a lottery winner; James “Sawyer” Ford, a small-time con man; Michael Dawson, an artist and construction worker; and Sun and Jin Kwon, a Korean married couple with lots of issues.
While the early weeks on the island mostly cover the group’s struggles to simply survive, they also begin to notice some strange occurrences, not the least of which include John Locke’s sudden ability to walk again, the appearance of the “smoke monster,” and the realization that they’re not alone on the island. The reclusive Danielle Rousseau appears; she’s been trapped on the island for more than sixteen years, and a recorded SOS message that’s she’s been transmitting the entire time has gone unanswered. She also tells the survivors of the “others,” an aggressive clan who live on the opposite side of the island and are not to be trifled with. And boredom on the island leads to certain revelations; Hurley does a census of the survivors and discovers that one of them, Ethan, was not listed on the passenger manifest. Is he one of the mysterious “others”? Locke, while hunting wild boar, discovers the “hatch”, and begins to spend most of his time on the island obsessing over its significance. Michael, Jin and Sawyer, tired of waiting to be rescued, build a large bamboo raft and set out with hopes of getting spotted in a shipping lane. And Locke, with Rousseau’s help, tracks down some dynamite and blows the hatch lid off as Season 1 draws to a close. Of course, the episodes are filled with Lost’s now classic flashbacks that really help to offer much needed character development, and help us all get a better grip on the multitude of dynamics going on in the show at any given time.
Technically, the disc is just shy of magnificent. I was really concerned that the earlier seasons might not offer the same kind of visual luster that Seasons 3 and 4 offered on Blu-ray, but there was obviously no need to worry – these discs look about as good as any television show could possibly get! The 1080p image is really sharp, with superb color presentation and truly excellent contrast. Blacks are remarkably deep, and the eye-popping Hawaiian scenery shows very little grain. The audio content, again, was superb, but I noticed one minor discrepancy – the box information states that an uncompressed 5.1 PCM track was used, but the surround track in place was actually a DTS HD 5.1 codec. Regardless, the sound quality was near reference for a television source, both in terms of dynamics and the nearly seamless surround presentation. And the sheer quantity of extras was almost overwhelming – taken into consideration that along with the episode lengths themselves totaling over a thousand minutes, there’s a boatload of captivating viewing to be had here!
My only real complaint stems from the access menus; while the main menus are visually striking, the pop-up menus make for some laborious remote manipulation. Getting to any particular location just seemed way more labor intensive than it should have – I’ve seen way many more discs with infinitely more intuitive menus that were so much easier to navigate! Despite that caveat, this seven disc set makes for some addictive watching – I think I truly enjoyed Season 1 as much or more the second time around. Very highly recommended!
— Tom Gibbs
