Lost - The Complete Third Season

This DVD/Box Set is Region 4 and the special features (or lack thereof) may not be on DVDs/Box Sets from different regions, you have been warned.

LOST has reached somewhat of a cult status, by now every televison watching person on earth has at least heard of it, whether it’s the shows notoriously annoying habit of cock teasing with half met promises or for being the most intriguing show on TV. We have all heard of ‘that show’: “Lost”

The funny thing about this review is that I cannot possible try to explain the Season 3 storyline to you because if you haven’t been following the show, you are.....lost. What I can tell you is that for all the ambiguity that we’ve been given over the past two years, we finally get some answers….and more friggin' questions!

Season 3 gives us the much awaited insight into the mysterious people known as The Others. Whereas Season 2 slowed down midway, Season 3 stays on a constant high, with the exception of the Exposé episode (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning anyone?), the momentum of the season is akin to a crack in a dam wall, getting so hard to contain that it will lead to one inevitable conclusion.

The unique thing about Season 3 is that its about characters and their relationships. Sure the entire show is one massive character study, but the majority of the 1st and 2nd seasons have been on the islands mystery, season 3 on the other hand goes far more in depth with the characters, not only their pasts but in the romantic relationships which have been brewing.

Speaking of characters, it was awesome to see the old Locke back (if only for a little while…), I’ve come to realize that Locke (Terry O’Quinn) is the audiences vehicle into the shows flow, the first season is undeniably the ‘fate season’, the shows mythology and intrigue was its draw, Locke represented this belief, but by Season 2 fate is thrown out the window for science and logic, just like Locke and his self doubt, then, BAM, we’re back into the familiar world of fate and mystery.
But LOST isn’t the Locke show, along with the returning cast we get a few new ones. Michael Emerson returns to the bit character he played in Season 2, Henry Gale, complete with a backstory and a new name, Ben. There is also Juliet who serves as not only more insight into the world of The Others but as a cog in the ever growing love triangle/quadrangle.

Without giving to much away, the season 3 finale (or any of the seasons finales for that matter) makes up for any lull in the season thus far, though not quite as emotional nor as brilliant as Season 2s’ it is by far the most interesting, at least it shuts up some of the naysayers.

Anywaaaay…onto the DVDs, this box set contains all 23 episodes (as opposed to the two half box sets in the US) with 4 episodes on each of the first 5 discs, and 3 on the Disc 6 (including the double length finale), the episodes still suffer from the remove ad break pauses which have become oh so very annoying. Other then the widescreen presentations of each episode there isn’t much to talk about them, all the special features have been saved for Disc 7.

There are audio commentaries for a few episodes, on Disc 1 we get a commentary with Damon Lindelof (Exc. Producer) and Elizabeth Mitchell (who plays Juliet) for Episode 1: A Tale of Two Cities, which is more entertaining then informative, they crack jokes and are fun to listen to.

The next commentary is on Disc 2 for Episode 2: I Do with Carlton Cuse (Exc. Producer/Writer), Evangeline Lilly (Kate) and Josh Holloway (Sawyer), I love Evangeline Lilly, not only is she amazingly good looking but she’s funny and very likable, she, Josh and Cuse make the commentary a hoot to listen too, the best type of commentaries are the ones that make you feel like your watching them with friend, this is one of them, on top of being funny it’s in depth too.

Commentary three is on Disc 4, for Episode 14: Exposé,

The final commentary is on Disc 5, Episode 20: The Man Behind the Curtain, with Damon Lindelof (Co-Creator/Exc. Producer), Carlton Cuse (Exc. Producer) and Michael Emerson (Ben).

Skipping onto Disc 7 we get a slew of great special features. Just like the Season 2 special features disc we get a cooler layout then your average run of the mill DVD, the different features are broken up into 4 sections, each section is accessed by way of the security monitors in the Hydra hatch.

First up in Section One, we get the ‘LOST Book Club’ which looks at the various books that have cropped up over the past 3 seasons, acknowledging their importance in the shows mythology as all the fans have speculated about for so long.

Next up is Cast in Clay: Creating the Toys of Todd McFarlane, a short featurette which looks at the amazing toys (they’re action figures dammit) that Todd McFarlane has made for the shows hungry fans, I actually own a couple of them.

Then comes one of the most interesting featurette on the entire disc, The Next Level: Inside the Video Game. If you’re a fan you would know by now that yes there is going to be a LOST video game, though we don’t get a heap of information (the entire thing goes for only 5 minutes) but what we do get to see looks awesome, thankfully Damon and J.J are heavily involved in its making so it won’t just be a cheap cash in.

In Section Two we get the familiar LOST: On Location behind the scenes features for most of the episodes, describing them all would take another page up of this already long review so I’ll keep it short and let you know that it’s awesome, each one does go on forever and they all touch on the important parts of their respected episodes, with appearances by the cast.

Crew Tribute with Evangeline Lilly is a dedication to the crew of LOST, giving them their own fifteen seconds of fame in the short ‘barging into the dressing room’ style video, hosted by miss Evangeline Lilly.

LOST in a Day is an interesting (though sometimes confusing) little tag along feature which follows the productions of several episodes all of which are taking place in the same twenty-four hour period, it’s things like this that make you realize that the job of filmmaker is hard work.

Onto Section Three and we’ve got The World of the Others which is a nice break down of just that, dismantling the better known Other characters; Ben, Juliet, Tom, Mikhail, Richard etc. and detailing the building of the sets used by the others and the rest of the Hatches.

Terry O’Quinn: Throwing from the Handle is a short behind the scenes with Terry O’Quinn (Locke) who shows how to throw a knife like a badass.

The Blooper Reel is alright, not as funny as the last two (can't have everything, I suppose).

Finally we come to Section Four where we get a bunch of unused flashbacks in The Lost Flashbacks, and also a slew of Deleted Scenes, strangely enough none of them are of any real interest, they’ve all pretty much been cut for time.

There are also a lot of Easter Eggs hidden all around the entire disc, finding them is a bitch if you aren’t familiar with them on the last two box sets.

I was surprised that they cut down the size of the box set, now it looks kind of awkward next to the two brick sized box sets in my collection, but oh well, not only is the show amazing but the box sets are must haves for any fan of the show (because by now you’re either a fan or your not, there’s no gray area here), there’s certainly no skimping out as far as special features are concerned.
So what are you waiting for? Get lost!...Sorry, couldn’t help it.

- Daniel ‘Danny’ Price
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SEASON: 5 out of 5

BOX SET: 4.5 out of 5