This post contains spoilers for Lost – Season 2. While this aired ten years ago; if you have not watched the show but are considering watching it, please close this blog and go and watch it, because it is amazing.

 

I’ve done a stupid thing.

I’ve done a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing.

I’ve started watching Lost again, nearly a year after finishing season 1 but not continuing because it was eating too much into when I should be doing other things.

Even now I should be doing readings for the week. I should be preparing for what I’m going to have to study in class this week. But I’d rather see what happens next.

And this post comes after about 3 episodes where I carried the internal mantra of “Just one/one more and then I’ll get onto uni work”.

But then “Henry Gale”, the mysterious captive of the main characters, drew a map for Ana Lucia to follow in order to find his supposed crashed balloon to prove his alibi; and later told Jack and Locke that – ‘hypothetically’ – if he were one of the “Others” antagonizing the Losties; he’d draw a map to lead Ana Lucia into a trap; and have the “Others” trade her for his freedom. (S2E16 – “The Whole Truth”)

Then Ana Lucia, Sayid and Charlie returned from the crashed balloon site – where they found it just as “Gale” had described – only to procure an ID card for one Henry Gale; with a likeness very different to that of their captive. (S2E17 – “Lockdown”)

Then Michael, who had been missing for many episodes, re-appeared to Jack and Kate, who were trying to coax out the “Others” in order to trade fake-Gale for Michael’s captured son, Walt. (S2E19 – “S.O.S.”)

Then Ana Lucia found she couldn’t kill fake-Gale, who had tried to kill her. Michael offered to do it instead, took the gun from Ana Lucia, apologised to her, and fatally shot her and Libby; and wounded himself to allow fake-Gale to escape back to the others – possibly in an attempt to win favour with the Others so they would return his son to him. (S2E20 – “Two For The Road”)

 

 

These episodes originally aired over the space of five weeks. At the time, I can imagine I would have been frantically theorizing about what would happen next. However, Netflix now allows us to hit that little “Next Episode” button and skip right on to the next installment.

I think this shows the effect that time and context of interaction has on media. Right now I am able to go on to the penultimate episode of the season (third-last if you count the two-part finale as two episodes) and discover what happens next. Compare this with an on-going, episodic television series – for example, the current season of Survivor – and I have to wait until Thursday afternoon (having waited since last Thursday) to see the result of the seasonal “tribe shuffle”; and how this affects the social dynamics of the game.

There are drawbacks from Netflix viewing. Because you are able to view television seasons so quickly; it feels less like a journey. Additionally, I find the urge to Google for answers to questions like “WHY DID MICHAEL SHOOT ANA LUCIA WHY WHY WHY” so strong – and I know I would find answers, but also hundreds of spoilers for later seasons, if I were to do so. Had I watched Lost live, perhaps there would be answers given the delay in episodes reaching Australia from the US – but it would still not be as extensive as I’m sure I will find if I Google such questions today. There is also the obvious temptation to watch all episodes in one go and find half your day has disappeared.

However, I think, if anything, the Netflix experience is more rewarding due to its immersive nature. It removes the need to use long-term memory to understand character motives – I find it much easier to remember a short scene from four hours prior than a short scene I viewed weeks ago. The removal of advertising on Netflix as well is also beneficial. It allows one to view a television show as though it was more theatrical – the setting and pace of the television show is not broken; and so one feels more ingrained into the environment and the drama than if they were interrupted every five minutes to hear a commercial spruik some sort of product.

 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a remote, mysterious island in the South Pacific that looks vaguely like the north side of Oahu to return to.