One of my friends tried to persuade me to watch Lost shortly after its television debut last year, but the show didn’t look like something I wanted to spend any time on. What a schmuck I was! After viewing the Lost – The Complete First Season DVD, I’m hooked. A couple of nights ago, I even stood up and cheered when Lost won the Emmy as best dramatic series of the year.    

Mystery, suspense, action, adventure -- all come together in Lost, and this superb seven-disc DVD box set includes the first season's 24 episodes as well as over eight hours of bonus features. The audition tapes are among my favorite bonus items. Just wait until you see the surprising actors auditiong for the role of bad-boy hunk Sawyer! Happily, the casting decision turned out perfectly for that key role as well as for all the others.    

A marvelous ensemble cast helps make this television hit about survivors of an airplane crash on a mysterious island something special. I’m expecting great things from many of them in the future. I predict that Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer, will become a big movie star. Oozing charisma, he’s one of the few actors I’ve seen who can actually project what his character is thinking, even when not delivering lines. Other stand-outs are: Evangeline Lilly, who reminds me of the great Cate Blanchett and really keeps me guessing about her character; Naveen Andrews, an actor whose voice inspires complete confidence; Matthew Fox, so convincing as the dedicated doctor trying to help everyone; Harrold Perrineau, heartbreaking in the role of a confused father reuniting with his son; and Terry O’Quinn, who manages to frighten me more than any character from recent horror movies.

Creepy but lovely at times, the island itself emerges as a character in Lost. Although it’s not a place I would want to visit, I enjoy watching the characters explore various parts of their new environment. Some of the things they discover pique my curiosity almost to the max. For example, what’s a polar bear doing on a tropical island? And what in the world is inside that hatch? Still, I’m even more curious about what the characters will find within themselves as they struggle to survive. Needless to say, I can hardly wait for Season Two to begin.    

In addition to those interesting audition tapes I already mentioned, the following items round out the informative DVD bonus materials: unaired flashbacks; Welcome to Oahu: The Making of the Pilot; The Genesis of Lost; Designing a Disaster; audio commentaries with cast and creators; deleted scenes and bloopers from the set; Lost: On Location; On Set with Jimmy Kimmel; The Art of Matthew Fox; Lost at Comicon; Live from the Museum of Television and Radio; and Backstage with Driveshaft.  

(Released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment; not rated by MPAA.)