Five seasons of 'Lost' in eight minutes (video)--The Live Feed | THR

Five seasons of 'Lost' in eight minutes (video)--The Live Feed | THR

Here's a genius way to get your non-Lost watching friends caught up on "Lost" before the final season begins in February. I've watched each Lost since the first episode. At the beginning Lost was a welcome relief to my frazzled TV nerves. It soothed my jostled Reality TV senses with its languorous narrative. While hinting in tone at its Reality TV doppelganger: Survivor, Lost's producers owe a big debt to Robert Zemeckis' "Castaway" Tom Hanks vehicle.

The cast take their time getting to know one another week after week. Alliances are made and enjoyed over several episodes - even over seasons! Major characters in Lost are foreigners: Koreans speaking Korean (& subtitled no less!), Africans, Aussies, Scots (not subtitled! Thank God for closed-captioning!), Brazilians, French, Iraqis, Cheech-Marin-East-LA-Lottery-Playing-Spanish, etc. This language inclusion is another breakthrough for American television. Will it increase interest in critical-need languages as deemed by the State Department? Perhaps not. But it's a television breakthrough nonetheless. (See: "Heroes" for the highest form of flattery in regards to subtitled languages on network television!)

In subsequent seasons though, Lost's pace veered wildly between that castaway coconut-hunt pace and a haste more suited to Bourne Identity-style action adventure.

This herky-jerky pace kept new viewers away and no doubt lost a few otherwise regular watchers. But its final season is bound to recover a few of them. That its narrative has been barreling to a final season and a tidy series 2010 finale is revolutionary enough for American television. Will we see more of this British series style on American television? That's no longer likely on network TV. This expensive, hour-long episodic drama filmed in Hawaii is on ABC: Network TV! Believe that dramas like Lost are as endangered as those tropical island polar bears from Season 1.

Lost is unique also in that what started as appointment television evolved into VCR-scheduling, then DVR-Tivo scheduling, DVD-season purchasing and finally web-viewing. The show has bridged all of these eras of TV technology.

So if you're a loyal viewer and several seasons ago were hoping to get your Uncle Milton to watch along, here's the 8-minute recap courtesy of The Live Feed. Get them to watch it and then get your popcorn ready for the Final Season of Lost. What, you were going to watch the Winter Olympics? Pshaw.