Lost

As discussed by Jason Mittell, Lost exemplifies the new complexity of TV narratives in the 2000s. This was at least partially due to viewers' ability, for the first time, to rewatch episodes and even whole seasons on DVD at a time of their choosing.

During the broadcast-only era, there were reruns of episodes, but these were often shown out of order. This didn't really matter since, as Ellis describes, each episode was essentially self-contained. It wasn't until recently that TV series began to have long narrative arcs of the sort we're accustomed to now.

Here are just a few episodes from the first two seasons of Lost just to give you a flavor of its storytelling techniques and narrative form. (Note the one-week delay between parts 1 and 2 of the pilot episode, an obvious artifact of broadcast temporality.) Episodes are about 45 minutes each, for a total viewing time of 3:45.

S1E1, "Pilot, Part 1" (9/22/2004)

S1E2, "Pilot, Part 2" (9/29/2004)

S1E18, “Numbers” (3/2/2005)

S2E1, “Man of Science, Man of Faith” (9/21/2005)

S2E3, “Orientation” (10/5/2005)

Note: Lost is also available on Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+. If you prefer to watch on one of those, just make sure you're looking at these specific episodes so you can join in this week's discussion.