Getting Lost

Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”

I crowd-funded this documentary and waited patiently for its insights about the TV series with the benefit of twenty years of hindsight. There's a little material along those lines, particularly in a good sequence where head writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof are held accountable for recent reports of their racism and misogyny, but not enough. To me, the legacy of Lost is in the vast number of imitators it has spawned by re-popularizing the mystery-box genre, like Manifest, From, La Brea, Wayward Pines, Westworld, Severance, Russian Doll, and countless more—and the documentary doesn't mention this cultural influence, not even once. I'm surprised!

Furthermore, the documentary spends a lot of time on fans. It is to Losties what Trekkies was to Trekkies, a love letter to a fan community and a few high-profile members of it, patting them on the back for their devotion. These seem like lovely people who, in some cases, had their lives changed for the better by their fandom, but their taking up so much of the run time of the film (it feels like more than half) is never quite justified. Their experience with Lost does not seem substantially different than other fandoms have, so it doesn't really prove much about the series itself. At least they're entertaining, though; the documentary is smart to include funny famous fans like Bobby Moynihan and Paul Scheer to liven up the material and land a few good jokes.

This is for obsessive Losties who want to watch every last bit of material about the TV series. Anyone else need not bother.