A plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean and forty-eight survivors get stuck on a desert island. Well yes, this time we are talking about Lost, the television series created by J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber.

The thousand shadows of Lost

Lost (2004)
© IMDB

In 2004 Lost debuted for the first time, consisting of six seasons for a total of 114 episodes aired until 2010. The show starts with a scenario that anyone, every time we get on a plane, wishes never have to face. A plane crashes, and the survivors get stuck on a deserted island with inhospitable vegetation.

Lost, far from any form of civilization, to survive they will have to establish their own rules to live together. They have to balance every ethical, political and religious choice. This is how the first contrasts and the first misunderstandings arise, while everyone tries not to go crazy. They camp on the beach waiting for help, which however does not seem to arrive.

But the deserted island will not only test their psychological and convivial resistance. Among those trees and the dense vegetation, something sinister is hidden. A series of unexplained events lead some of the survivors to investigate, discovering that perhaps, before them, others were shipwrecked on that island. People who may still be there.

In a weave of plot that sees continuous flashbacks to the past, Lost mixes the genres of adventure, thriller, and science fiction with a dramatic background, quickly becoming one of the best TV series made. Its thousand shadows, the inexplicable succession of unpredictable events, drag the audience into an adventure that will keep them in suspense until the last episode.

Eyes on the characters

Josh Holloway in Lost (2004)
© IMDB

What makes Lost so special is not only the constant suspense that is created from episode to episode, but also the varied panorama of characters. It is perhaps one of the few telefilms with such a large and multifaceted cast of actors.

The most prominent characters, especially present in the first seasons, are eleven:

• Jack Shephard (played by Matthew Fox): a Los Angeles doctor with a strong penchant for helping people, who quickly becomes the leader of the group of survivors.
• Kate Austen (played by Evangeline Lilly): a protagonist with a complicated past to reveal, before the crash she was a criminal wanted by the FBI.
• James “Sawyer” Ford (played by Josh Holloway): surly, not very friendly, he immediately makes himself hateful to the other survivors with acts of looting towards corpses and abandoned luggage; he remains one of the most controversial characters in the series.
• John Locke (role of actor Terry O’Quinn): in addition to excelling in hunting and following tracks, he is also a carpenter, and engineer and knows how to use firearms; his advice is often heeded.
• Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (played by actor Jorge Garcia): a simple character with a complicated past, who later turns out to have the qualities of a medium.
• Charlie Pace (played by Dominic Monaghan): with a strong heroin addiction, a problem that will also accompany him on the island, he is an unstable but sensitive character.
• Claire Littleton (played by Emilie de Ravin): pregnant, she immediately makes a strong friendship with Charlie; determined to survive and keep her baby alive.
• The Kwon spouses (played by Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim): their couple is very closed, especially when Jin-Soo prevents his wife Sun-Hwa from talking to the other survivors, always finding an easy way to denigrate her.
• Boone Carlyle (role of actor Ian Somerhalder): enterprising young man, he often follows Locke in his expeditions on the island.
• Michael Dawson (played by Harold Perrineau): impatient character, he ardently wants to escape from the island; he has a son with whom he is only able to truly build a relationship on the island.

All these characters represent the basis of the show, the starting point from which the various plot expand. Each of them has characteristics that make them unique and indispensable to frame every piece of the story.

Colossus among TV series

Matthew Fox and Ian Somerhalder in Lost (2004)
© IMDB

Lost was a great springboard for many of the actors who participated in its making. First of all, certainly, Ian Somerhalder, who later held the role of Damon Salvatore in the great worldwide success of The Vampire’s Diaries. But also Maggie Grace (in the role of Shannon, Boone’s sister), who managed to play an important part in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. Or Michelle Rodriguez (in the role of Ana Lucia Cortez) then taken in Fast & Furious and Avatar.

Therefore, it can be seen that Lost was not only a great television success but a great stage for some of the most loved and best-known actors of recent times. Despite its many ambiguities and the mystery that remains until the last season, one cannot help but define it as a colossus among TV series.

So we welcome it in the Old But Gold section, hoping it will never be our turn, one day, to be shipwrecked on a strange desert island…