LOST: Season 1 Blu-Ray Edition Review
Posted by Rick Tym on 06.26.2009
The pilot alone is a thing of high def beauty.
Matthew Fox - Jack Shephard
Evangeline Lilly - Kate Austen
Terry O'Quinn - John Locke
Naveen Andrews - Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin - Claire Littleton
Jorge Garcia - Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
Maggie Grace - Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway - James "Sawyer" Ford
Yunjin Kim - Sun-Hwa Kwon
Daniel Dae Kim - Jin-Soo Kwon
Dominic Monaghan - Charlie Pace
Harold Perrineau - Michael Dawson
Malcolm David Kelley - Walt Lloyd
Ian Somerhalder - Boone Carlyle
L. Scott Caldwell - Rose Henderson
Mira Furlan - Danielle Rousseau
Fredric Lane - Edward Mars
William Mapother - Ethan Rom
Daniel Roebuck - Leslie Arzt
John Terry - Christian Shephard
ABC Studios
Release Date: June 16, 2009
The Episodes
A few years ago, a little down on my luck and more than a bit unemployed, I moved back to my hometown to take charge of my life. Reading between the lines, that last sentence would mean “find a job, any job and enjoy the low cost of living a town in BFE has to offer compared to living in the Constitution State.” I stayed with family, eschewed my degree to work in a pierogie plant of all places (oh yeah, you bet that “eschewed” translates to “couldn’t find anything in my field”) and began rebuilding life foundations brick by ever-loving brick. Eventually I headed back to greener (although certainly not tastier) pastures by landing a job in a place that built machines rather than potato pockets, said thanks and so long once again to the bedroom I had first bid farewell to over a decade prior, and moved about half a mile away to a place that had two bedrooms, no neighbors downstairs, and really bad carpeting. What the apartment did not have were people getting up at five a.m. who moved to quieter surroundings seeking peace and, well, quiet. Winter gave way to summer and my August birthday which I decided to celebrate by getting a surround sound system and a new DVD or two with which to enjoy the Dolby 5.1. My first purchase? Season 1 of Lost. I wanted to see and hear that plane go down in the pilot in all its wall-shaking glory. To this day it remains one of my fondest b-day memories.
Well the Blu-ray version of the same scenario, reenacted in stunning high definition and sound, makes a pretty damned nice companion piece to that flashback. (Get it?) Most fans will already have Season 1 of Lost on standard DVD just like I do, but this Blu-ray thing they’ve been advertising lately may be more than just a passing fad. (You know, like those HD players that were once competition and have now gone the way of the dodo.) The Blu transfer of season 1 of Lost looks great, sounds great, which is great for a show this fantastic. Any who have yet to convert to the ranks of the Blu-ray masses should pop in the first disc and watch hours one and two of “Pilot” to see it for themselves. It is quite literally eye-popping and floor-shaking in that warm and fuzzy way.
Here are the breakdowns for each disc, of which there are seven total:
Disc One
“Pilot, Parts 1 & 2” – Includes commentary by J.J. Abrams (director, creator and writer), Damon Lindelhof (creator and writer) and executive producer Bryan Burk. Note that if you choose to watch this episode in commentary mode, the onscreen action is actually paused by Abrams at some points when he needs more time to go over aspects he deems relevant. Abrams has always had a thing for all things time-related: flashbacks, starting an episode of Alias (or MI:III if you’ve never watched The Adventures of Sydney Bristow) at the ending and then backtracking to come full circle, etc. Here he gets to stop time upon a whim! And who am I to doubt the great one?
“Tabula Rasa”
“Walkabout” – Includes commentary by actor Terry O’ Quinn (you rule, Locke!), writer David Fury (you ain’t so bad yourself there Mr. Fury) and executive producer Bryan Burk.
Disc Two
“White Rabbit”
“House of the Rising Sun”
“The Moth” – Includes commentary by actor Dominic Monaghan, now-crowned executive producer Damon Lindelhof, and that other exec. producer Bryan Burk.
“Confidence Man”
Disc Three
“Solitary”
“Raised by Another”
“All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues”
“Whatever the Case May Be”
Disc Four
“Hearts and Minds” – Includes commentary by actors Maggie Grace (Shannon), Ian Sommerhalder (gasdjgsl) and writers Carlton Cuse and Javier Grillo-Marxuach.
“Special”
“Homecoming”
“Outlaws”
Disc Five
“… In Translation”
“Numbers”
“Deus Ex Machina”
“Do No Harm”
Disc Six
“The Greater Good”
“Born To Run”
“Exodus, Part 1”
Disc Seven
“Exodus, Part 2”
Special features (not of the disembodied talking voice type) divided into three sections: The Departure, Tales from the Island and Lost Revealed, which will be covered at greater length below.
Rather than dissect the first season on an episode-by-episode basis, it’s better to simply recall the greatness that was the sum of the above installments. Anyone who has been following the show from the beginning knows that things were a lot different back when the 815ers first crashed onto the Island, forced to live together or die alone as flashbacks were masterfully used in conjunction with current-time events to tell the tales of the doomed flight’s passengers’ past while sneaking glimpses into what may still turn out to be personal paths of redemption. The show’s creators continually say that Lost is all about the characters and I tend to agree, even if there was (and continues to be) a monster big enough to move the surrounding jungle itself stalking said principles as they erected beachfront shelters, moved to the caves for better protection and more accessible water sources, or built a big-ass raft to try and find rescue. The fantastic things to come were merely hinted at in this first season, and while signs of bigger things to come certainly abounded, the interactions of the Oceanic 815 crash survivors were the lynchpins that held the proceedings together. This first season, wrapped in the enigmas of its participants and the mystery of the Island that began with a roar and movement in the jungle and ended with a few explosions—some land-based, some oceanic themselves—got the ball rolling on the overall Lost mythos in spectacular fashion.
So, if you are a fan who hasn’t purchased the DVD box sets yet and are looking for some high def goodness, this is probably already on your “buy” list. If you’re newcomer with Blu-ray capabilities, now’s your chance to jump in. The commentaries listed above are certainly nothing new if you already have the standard definition DVDs and the extras discussed below may not be the driving impetus for shilling out the extra cash for this Blu-ray set, but the entire first season itself in superior high definition format is—or at least, it should be.
The Video
It’s Blu-ray, baby! What else needs to be said? Actually, there are a few things. First off, the episodes are presented in their original 1:78:1 aspect ratio, with the added gravitas of 1080p High Definition. While there are some compression issues here and there, particularly in a few of the lower-lit night scenes, mostly everything from the sky to the jungle foliage to the blue ocean waves is stunningly vibrant. Let’s not kid ourselves…you’re buying the Blu-ray for the image quality, and the first season of Lost does not disappoint.
Extras, however, were not remastered and remain mired in lowly (I kid, I kid) 480i.
The Audio
The sounds of Lost come pounding through the speakers in 5.1 uncompressed (48 kHz/16-bit) for the English language, 5.1 Dolby Digital in French or 2.0 Dolby Digital (boo!) in Spanish for the episodes, while only having the option of 5.1 Dolby Digital in English for the bonus features. (As you no doubt have discerned, I watched the shows and extras in English). Conversations are crisp and clear but even better are the surrounding ambient noises of the jungle world the main characters inhabit. Seriously, you feel like you’re on the Island with them. Soundtrack choices, whether they are dubious show-ending popular tracks or Michael Giacchino’s score, swell and retreat as appropriate in high def audio that complement rather than overpower the events onscreen. Need convincing? Pop in the pilot episode and prepare to be blown away with the crash of Oceanic 815. And that’s just the first ten minutes or so of the entire season.
Subtitles are available for both the episodes and extras in English, Spanish and French.
The Packaging
The standard stubbier and slightly skinnier plastic Blu-ray case houses all seven discs and is adorned by a cardboard slipcase. While I like the more compact format of this box set in high definition packaging it should be noted that the spindle holding the disc accordion inside the case I received was broken. This was most likely due to shipping so beware if you order from Amazon or the like as a disc—or all seven of them—may fly out at you when you open up the case.
The Extras
Here’s where your mileage may vary. As far as I can tell, all of the extras are the same as those on the standard DVD set. There may be a few scenes that appeared on promotional discs for Best Buy and TV Guide, so I’m still counting them as “not new.” Also, as noted above in the Video portion of the review, the following segments that comprise the special features are the same “regular def” quality as those found on the box set which may already adorn your shelf. Forewarned is forearmed, I always say. Still, let’s break ‘em down…
As mentioned earlier, all of the extras below are found on Disc Seven.
Departure is the first of three sections of the special features, and includes:
• The Genesis of Lost (8:40): A documentary in which ABC exec Lloyd Braun reveals he wanted to make “Castaway: The Series.” J.J. Abrams reveals how he built on that idea.
• Designing a Disaster (7:59): A great doc which shows how they got everything together in six weeks (!) to stage the pilot’s opening Oceanic 815 crash.
• Before They Were Lost (22:55): A documentary that examines the casting process, and how characters were established for the actors that the show runners liked.
• Audition Tapes (27:34): Auditions for 13 of the 14 first season regulars (Terry O’ Quinn worked with Abrams previously, plus his awesomeness negates any need for auditioning). Most interesting is seeing Matthew Fox, Dominic Monaghan and Jorge Garcia try out for the part Sawyer.
• Welcome To Oahu: The Making of the Pilot (33:20): A documentary which talks about—you guessed it—all the things that went into the bigger set pieces of the pilot, including the crash, the smoke monster, and the passenger who got sucked into that still-spinning turbine engine.
• The Art of Matthew Fox (6:07): The actor talks about the plethora of photos he took while onset filming the first season. Largely forgettable. (Sorry, Jack.)
• Lost@Comicon (1:50): Exactly how it reads. Shows the buzz the show had before it even aired, mostly due to the internet.
Tales from the Island, the second special feature section, is comprised of:
• Lost: On Location: Brief behind-the-scenes documentaries about individual episodes, including “House of the Rising Sun” (7:19), “Confidence Man” (4:24), “All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues” (4:56), “Whatever The Case May Be” (2:58), “Hearts and Minds” (6:20), “Special” (3:05) and the finale, “Exodus” (9:21). This piece also includes “The Trouble with Boars” (5:09), a look at the trials and tribulations of working with the wild beasts over several eppys.
• On Set with Jimmy Kimmel (7:15): The host of ABC’s late-night talk show visits the cast in Hawaii.
• Backstage with Drive Shaft (6:40): All Drive Shaft, all the time! Really though, it’s a short feature that gives some backstory on the idea for Charlie’s band. Did you know that a snippet of dialogue from the Phil Donahue show is the basis of Charlie’s biggest hit?
Lost Revealed, the third and final act of special features, includes:
• The Lost Flashbacks: Two scenes cut from “Exodus.” The first shows Claire and the doomed pilot of Oceanic 815discussing psychics (3:07), while the other deals with Sayid buying a necktie to impress Nadia (1:28).
• Deleted Scenes consist of “Smoking” (1:10), with Charlie scolding Sawyer for smoking, “Chicken or Lasagna” (0:43) with Hurley trying to coax Locke into conversing, “Kate and Sayid” (1:09) with one realizing something about the other, “The Climb” (2:02) with Charlie’s ill-advised attempt to seduce Shannon via an impromptu screeching solo version of “You All Everybody,” “The Tell” (1:04) with Locke and Walt discussing liars, and “Partners” (0:55) with Boone and Shannon making an interesting visual contrast to Sun and a handcuffed Jin.
• Bloopers from the Set (4:17): Exactly what you think. Flubbed lines and falling down.
• Live from the Museum of Television and Radio* (10:56): Highlights from last March’s Paley Festival Q&A with Abrams and nine members of the cast.
• Flashbacks & Mythology (7:28): ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson explains that it was the pilot’s flashbacks that made Lost a series rather than just a movie while J.J. Abrams explains the flashbacks allowed him to make Lost episodes akin to installments of Twilight Zone.
Come to think of it, I don’t remember ever seeing Flashbacks and Mythology. Whether that’s an error in reporting or senility setting in at a young age is for the reader to decide. That aside, what they really should’ve explained was the firing of ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun for green lighting the most expensive pilot in the network’s history…and how it became a cultural and ratings phenomenon.
In addition the bonus materials listed, the Blu-ray discs have a nifty thing called SeasonPlay, where your player will remember where you left off in the middle of a disc even if you remove it from dais apparatus. (Hey, it’s new to me.) The whole “seamless menus” think works okay, I guess. Best of all, if you buy Lost’s first season on Blu and already own it on regular DVD, you can send in for a $20 rebate. (This will also apply to the second season.) The offer is good until June 16, 2010.
So there you have it; all the season one extras lined up and neatly described. As previously mentioned, there’s nothing really new there which is disappointing, but at this stage of the game a bit of retrofitting the new with the old was to be expected as the early seasons play catch up with seasons three and four, which are already available on Blu-ray.
The 411: Even though this review comes from a Lost enthusiast, the lack of more copious (and Blu) special features keep this box set from getting a perfect score. What matters more, however, is the fact that the high def presentation of the first season itself is superb, and even if most of the extras are recycled, they are immensely satisfying for any fan of the show. For these reasons, anyone looking to upgrade would do well to check out these discs.
