The LOST Rewatch

Five down, one to go.  The countdown has begun to the final season of the best show ever to grace television airwaves.

Okay, while that may be a bit of hyperbole, I would attempt to argue the validity of that statement if necessary. LOST is an amazing program, and it has taken its audience on an intense, thoughtful, character-driven ride since it first blew people’s minds in 2004.  The show’s creators have allowed us — heck, encouraged us — to really get to know the characters in these last five seasons, and now, despite all the watercooler conversations, nutty theories, and desperate pleas for explanations, it seems strange and almost lamentable to think that in less than a year it will be over and we’ll have all of the answers (at least as many as they’re planning to give us).

What to do in the meantime?  Well, to make the most of your season six viewing experience and make sure you catch all the nuances, references, and tie-ins to previous seasons, some ardent LOST fans are organizing an official LOST Rewatch. 

As announced on the Lostpedia blog, beginning June 1st and culminating January 3rd, there will be a weekly schedule for rewatching each episode, as well as online destinations for interaction afterward.  There’s even a Twitter account you can follow (@lostrewatch), a Facebook group, podcasts, blog posts…this is serious stuff.

If you want to jump on board in any capacity, be it as a newbie, casual viewer, or avid theorizer, Lostpedia is sponsoring and hosting the LOST Rewatch Hub, which includes links to all of the above resources as well as to other participating sites.  It even offers information about where to legally watch previous episodes online in any of a number of different countries.

While this may seem extreme, I’m personally happy that this is being organized.  LOST has always been a community-driven show.  The fans have always known it and have enjoyed the conversations generated by their favorite program, and the creators have come to realize it as well, paying attention to fan reactions and feedback in the course of putting each season together.  This massive effort will help everyone be on the same page once season six debuts in early 2010 and will help us each have the pieces of the puzzle as organized and connected as possible — all while spreading it out over the rest of this year so as to avoid a late-December scramble to rewatch all 103 hours of the first five seasons.

For those of you who have never managed to get involved in the show because you felt like you’d missed too much already and couldn’t catch up, this is a unique opportunity to find out what you’ve missed — not as a crash course or general review, but the whole enchilada in the same environment and with the same community benefits that have been a part of the LOST experience since the first season.  It’s like summer school for television!

If nothing else, for fanatics going through withdrawl it’ll help defray the bummer of another seven and a half months until the next new episode.  Happy viewing!