Lost (TV Series) (Blu-ray)

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Since this show depends upon its puzzlements and suspense, I won't even attempt to summarize the plot. But to refresh your memories, here's a rundown on the 13 episodes, which are housed on four single-sided discs (with a fifth disc containing bonus features): The Beginning of The End, Confirmed Dead, The Economist, Eggtown, The Constant, The Other Woman, Ji Yeon, Meet Kevin Johnson, The Shape of Things to Come, Something Nice Back Home, Cabin Fever, and There's No Place Like Home (Parts 1 & 2).

Now, after watching Season 4, my wife and I are going to have to backtrack to watch the first three seasons. Like the rest of the addicts, we're hooked too. The problem is, logic would dictate that we start with Season 1 now and work our way up to 4. However, after watching "Lost" in glorious Blu-ray, and with only the last two seasons released in HD, I just don't know if I can bear to watch in standard definition. The show is shot on location in Hawaii, and it looks drop-dead (yeah, pun intended) gorgeous in 1080p. Come on ABC/Disney. Release those first two seasons in Blu-ray!

Video:
As I said, "Lost" is unbeatable in Blu-ray (AVC/MPEG-4 codec). I'm almost as captivated by the look of this series as I am by the show itself. The colors are bold and vibrant, the level of detail is astounding, and there's a nice sense of 3-dimensionality to boot. I can't find a thing wrong with this picture, and the sweet thing is that it's presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, so it fills out the full monitor.

Audio:
I love PCM, and this English PCM uncompressed 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) soundtrack rocks! Like the picture, the sound is so pure that you can't imagine it streaming any clearer or more precise than it is here. Additional soundtrack options are English and French Dolby Digital 5.1, and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, which is often the case. It kid of makes you wonder, are there no audiophiles in the Spanish-speaking world? Or are they connoisseurs who prefer to watch in the original language with subtitles? Subtitles are in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Extras:
There's a boatload of extras, but first I want to comment on some glitches. Blu-ray has always been at a disadvantage, as far as I'm concerned, because, unlike DVDs, when you stop them you can't just go back to that same spot. So in theory, it's great that Disney/ABC Studios came up with a SeasonPlay tracker that's supposed to let you click on the place where you left off. But if I clicked directly on that, all I got was a blank screen. I had to go back to the episodes, find the one we needed to watch, and access it that way. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? I had problems loading the fifth disc as well. Those were my complaints.

The bonus features included here are pretty decent, but also pretty average. The commentary tracks aren't as compelling as the show itself, but fans will probably enjoy hearing what Lilly and Garcia have to say about "The Beginning of the End," or what editor Mark Goldman and producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse say about "The Constant." I enjoyed listening to director Stephen Semel and actors Kim and Kim from "Ji Yeon," and if you're finding your way, as I am with this series, the commentary for "There's No Place Like Home, Part 2" with Lindelof and Cuse is pretty good.

Disc 3 is full of featurettes. There's "Lost on Location," which zooms in on behind-the-scenes filming of some of this season's most dramatic scenes; "The Freighter Folk," which is a guide to new characters with some insight into what producers were looking for; "The Island Backlot: Lost in Hawaii"," which shows how a large crew of technicians transformed paradise; "The Right to Bear Arms" features a rundown on the firearms used in the show, with cast members talking about what it's like to use them; "Soundtrack of Survival: Composing for Character, Conflict & the Crash" is a live performance of the score by the Honolulu Symphony Pops; "Course of the Future: The Definitive Flash-Forwards" uses this season's leaps into the plot-future as the basis for an interactive feature that includes actual script pages (but didn't work very well on my Samsung stand-alone player); "Offshore Shoot" shows the giant rigs that were built to get the freighter shots; and "The Oceanic Six: A Conspiracy of Lies," a fake documentary that tries to get at the truth behind the stories the six survivors are telling.

Rounding out the bonus features are deleted scenes and bloopers, and another symphonic performance for "The Others Theme." Oh, and the color insert is a cutesy replica of the kinds of safety instructions you find in the seat pocket on airlines.

Bottom Line:
Count me among the admirers for this TV drama. The quality is consistently high, it makes you work to try to figure out what's going on, and the scenery is so beautiful you can't help but think it wouldn't be so bad to be lost . . . in Hawaii. Even if you haven't seen this show before, you can get a pretty good sense from Season 4 of what's going on, and there's enough new drama to be compelling whether you've seen the previous few seasons or not. In fact, I decided it probably wouldn't make any difference for me even if I had, since my memory stinks. So I'm glad I decided to watch this in mid-stream.