I loved seasons 1 to 2 when they aired on terrestrial TV. I waited several years to watch the remaining story until my in-laws kindly bought me the DVD box set, and I could work my way through each season. So my sense of anticipation was high.
I would summarise this venture as striving for great heights but ultimately suffering from diminishing returns. Once the story broadened out from the initial location, it seemed to unravel. The originality of the first 2 seasons seemed forced in later episodes as the writers sought new plot twists and introduced more and more new characters.
Yet I wanted to stay with it because I recalled the sense of awe and originality pervading my first terrestrial viewing.
There are moments of brilliance as the tale progresses, such as 'the big off-island lie' that needs to be maintained. Some of the bonus features (e.g. a documentary questioning the truth behind Oceanic flight 815) are superb. However, there are too many fantasy elements for me as the show continues (island-moving - really?).
The big idea of parallel opportunities in season 6 just did not do it for me. It seemed to dilute the main impetus of the island story. It did not help that each character had to have their back story detailed in an effort to resolve the many puzzles presented in the first 5 seasons. And each twist and resolution took us further and further into the realms of the ridiculous. The big resolution felt extraordinarily underwhelming.
Clearly the crew had a ball making the show. The opening credit list seems to grow longer show by show. Is there any non-acting crew-member who did not get a 'Producer' credit? This distraction at the start of each episode reaches monumental proportions in the extended-play 'Look at us. Aren't we clever? We got the entire band back together' final episode on the very last disc.
And yet... I cannot pull back from the fact that I kept wanting to view the show throughout because of the moments of genius. I know that my immediate disappointment at the final resolution is colouring my feelings about the entire journey. I absolutely love that the first image of the entire show is exactly reversed in the very same spot as the very last frame of the journey. The early creepiness and later malicious evil of Benjamin Linus. The constant question "Who are the good guys, who are not?". And from where does all the island's population come? The love triangle. The clue of the names of the final central player and his father. The recognition of the importance of Hurley's personality and character.
An effort to create genius - sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses. But I applaud it for trying to break the mould. 'Lost' will be a box set that I shall return to many times. Even now as I ponder the storyline, characters and ideas that it tried to explore, I know it is already a familiar friend. And as I repeat view, as I do with new friends, I will find more and more to like about it to outweigh the above concerns.