Hulu has an impressive library of shows, and November brings with it the perfect season for an extensive binge watch. While there are plenty of great original series on the platform, there are also some shows on Hulu that are more archival.
If you’re looking to explore a piece of TV history, then watching Lost on Hulu might be the perfect way to start. The show aired on regular old TV, so there are way more episodes than you get with your average TV series. Even so, the series was indicative of where TV was headed, and followed a group of survivors of a plane crash who find themselves on a mysterious island. Here are three reasons you should make it your November binge.
When you’re done here, check out the best new shows to stream this week, as well as the best shows on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, the best new shows on Max, the best shows on Amazon Prime Video, and the best shows on Disney+.
Its storytelling structure was genuinely innovative
The idea of different episodes focusing on different characters may seem like an obvious storytelling structure today, but when Lost debuted, it was something of an innovation. Each episode mixed flashbacks to a character’s life off the island with whatever might be going on on the island itself, often with a focus on the character who is the subject of the flashbacks.
Of course, some characters get more attention and focus than others, but the show’s willingness to expand its aperture to its broad cast of survivors made each episode feel distinct from one another, even as it told an ongoing, serialized story.
You will grow to love its sprawling ensemble
Thanks to the flashback-oriented, character-centric storytelling structure, Lost helps you fall in love with basically every one of the characters it introduces. While some characters don’t totally work, others become deeply sympathetic even though they don’t always behave perfectly.
And, because each season of the show had roughly 20 episodes, the series manages to be expansive in a way many modern shows can’t. It has a truly broad ensemble, and it’s an ensemble that we come to know and understand in a way that we rarely get on modern television.
The ending is better than you heard
Not every storytelling choice made on Lost was the right one, and the show’s creators acknowledge that. What you may have heard about Lost, though, is that the ending is bad, and undercuts the show’s central mysteries. If you’ve heard that, you should know that not everyone who has watched Lost feels that way about it.
The series has a moving, cathartic ending that focuses on the beautiful relationships the characters have built among each other, and the relationship the audience has built with those characters. It’s a beautiful ending, one that will likely leave you in tears. And, for what it’s worth, many of the show’s most important mysteries do get answers, but when you get to the end of the show, you’ll likely realize that’s not what actually matters most.
Lost is streaming on Hulu.
