A comprehensive critical companion to the blockbuster TV show LOST revisiting its core themes
lore and impact on culture For fans of one of the most successful and highly discussed
shows in recent memory LOST: Back to the Island is both a delightful time capsule and a
rousing work of entertainment criticism. Before it premiered in the fall of 2004 LOST looked
doomed to be an expensive disastrous plane crash of a TV show. Instead LOST was a massive hit
debuting with the biggest audience for a new drama on ABC in over a decade reaching heights of
over 23 million viewers at its peak and holding on to a hefty fan-base for its entire
six-season run. The elements that made the series seem like a boondoggle proved instead to
be a big part of its appeal. Audiences loved the exotic island setting became invested in the
morally compromised characters and feverishly tried to unravel the show’s many mysteries. In
LOST: Back to the Island TV critics and veteran LOST recappers Emily St. James and Noel
Murray revisit what made the show such a success and an object of enduring cultural obsession
twenty years later. Through essays episode summaries and cultural analysis they take us
back to the island and examine LOST ’s lasting impact—and its complicated sometimes
controversial legacy—with a clear-eyed and lively investigation.
