Getting 'Lost' never felt so good

Before its premiere last autumn, ABC's "Lost" drew baseless comparisons to "Survivor," "Cast Away" and every previous deserted-island vehicle since film and television began. Thirty minutes into the pilot, anyone fearing a watered-down "Robinson Crusoe" retread was silenced, and most who experienced "Lost" from its initial episode were hooked until Season One's three-hour finale last May. Rarely does a television show emerge so fully formed, containing characters with such depth, cinematography so striking, production values so exhaustive or a storyline so concurrently enthralling and maddening. "Lost" is one of these rare shows, and this "Complete First Season" box set presents, in a concise package, all 24 episodes in the series so far.\nIf "Lost" has a single negative characteristic, it's that anyone attempting to mount the bandwagon mid-series is in for a truly confusing ride. What's this monster/security system terrorizing the castaways? Where did the polar bears come from? Who are the "Others?" What's inside the hatch? What do these individual character flashbacks tell us about what's happening on the island itself? The good thing for novices is that most of us longtime fans don't even know the entire answer to most of these questions, and it's best that way. "Lost" reveals itself, unhurriedly but undeniably, in paper-thin layers and, if you can't handle the merciless suspense and utter lack of gratuitous reveals, you'd best not invest your time. Anyone accustomed to the writing and storytelling talents of those involved, including creator J.J. Abrams and producer Damon Lindelof, shouldn't quibble over their ability to bring this tale to a logical and thrilling conclusion, no matter how many, or how few, seasons it warrants.\nHighlights among the eight-plus hours of special features on this seven-disc set include director, writer and cast commentary on five of the season's episodes, 13 deleted scenes and unaired flashback segments offering further insight into the massive cast of primary characters, as well as the perfunctory blooper reel revealing the cast to be mere mortals after all. Most essential to devoted "Lost-philes" are the series of documentaries covering the original impetus of the series ("The Genesis of Lost"), the meticulous procedure of location scouting in Hawaii ("Lost: On Location") and a look at the arduous casting process ("Before They Were Lost"), which whittled down hundreds of potential cast members to a much smaller stable of mostly lesser-known actors whose characters' stories fans of the show have since become invested in.\nWith Season Two premiering on ABC September 21, "Lost" should soon prove itself either an extraordinarily enigmatic one-season-wonder or a mesmerizing dramatic series with serious staying power. Given the sustained excellence of Season One from the first to final frame, I'd put my money on the latter.