Lost leaving Netflix: Why you need to rewatch the best sci-fi show of the century

We have to go back... for a rewatch

In September 2004, television as we knew it changed forever. The golden age of prestige TV kicked off five years earlier with The Sopranos, but on ABC, one big-budget science fiction series offered an alternative: the mystery box. Lost was an overnight hit, spawning countless theories and an army of fans who still debate to this day whether their favorite show is enjoyable junk food or fine dining.

But Lost fans got some unfortunate news this week. All six seasons of the sci-fi show will vanish from Netflix on Dec. 31 as the streamer's license expires at the end of the year. That means you've only got a few weeks to rewatch Lost on Netflix for the umpteenth time (or if you've somehow never seen Lost at all, experience it for the very first time). But before you do, here are a few things worth knowing about the acclaimed and divisive sci-fi show before you dive headfirst into a six-season binge.

Why you should make time to watch Lost

You could write an entire book praising Lost (and someone has). The short answer, however, is that Lost offers the perfect balance of character drama and mind-bending mystery. The show's premise dumps a few dozen strangers on a mysterious island when their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean. Each new episode focuses on one of those characters, revealing their increasingly complex and intertwined backstories while also slowly chipping away at the seemingly supernatural activity on the island. (Season 1 introduces a Smoke Monster, rogue polar bears, and an impenetrable hatch hidden in the jungle floor; and it only gets weirder from there.)

Despite all the sci-fi shenanigans that kept Lost fans obsessing over Easter eggs and swapping theories in online forums (this was pre-social media, for the most part), it's the characters that make Lost so watchable. Each character starts out as a two-dimensional archetype, but slowly evolves into something far more interesting. For example, Jack (Matthew Fox) initially comes across as a confident leader, but it doesn't take long for the cracks to begin to show as we delve into his history of alcohol abuse and family drama. Meanwhile, Sawyer (Josh Holloway), who begins as a villain hoarding resources, but slowly reveals himself to be a hero with his own complex backstory. Lock (Terry O'Quinn) is a capable if slightly creepy hunter, but you'll never predict where his story is headed.

Some of Lost's best characters also show up in later seasons, like Ben (Michael Emerson) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick). The less said about these two, the better, however, as they represent some of the show's smartest twists and turns.

Fine, let's talk about Lost's ending

[Ed. note: There are some spoilers in this section about Lost's final season.]

Though debates have raged since the show's 2010 finale, there's really no denying that the final season of Lost represents a dip in quality. At the time it aired, I remember feeling a mix of confusion and disappointment. The decision to shift from flashbacks (and later, flashforwards) to "flash-sideways" B-plots revealing what would have happened if the plan never crashed was confusing enough. The eventual reveal that all the characters were simply in purgatory (I think?) and waiting to cross into the afterlife together was — let's be honest — trite.

Some might argue the show's creators made the deliberate choice to focus on emotional closure over plot. I'd argue they simply wrote themselves into a corner and couldn't find a logical way out of it. Sure, many of Lost's biggest mysteries were answered in season 6 (or at some point along the way), but the final few episodes still have to do a lot of narrative hand waving to reach a conclusion that's even remotely satisfying.

It's important to note, however, that up until season 6, Lost was a virtually perfect show. Sure, not every episode is perfect (the less said about Jack's adventure in Thailand the better), but even as the series delved into convoluted time-travel antics, it never lost a step. Seasons 4 and 5 may be complicated, but they only get better with each rewatch, revealing a carefully calibrated story that ultimately fell apart mere steps from the finish line.

Lost's legacy

Lost popularized the mystery box formula (the idea of beginning with an opaque central question that slowly gets revealed as the series continues), which has since been replicated everywhere from HBO's Westworld to Netflix's Dark to Apple's Severance — with mixed results. These days, we take this kind of storytelling for granted, especially in the binge-model era where it's easy to watch an entire show in one sitting. The fact that Lost was doing this as early as 2004, with 20-plus-episode seasons that aired weekly, says a lot about how prescient its creators turned out to be.

Speaking of those creators, Lost also gave us Damon Lindelof, who took the reins of the show after J.J. Abrams jumped ship and did his best right until the very end. Lindelof clearly learned a few valuable lessons from Lost as well, which he applied to his follow-up series, The Leftovers, along with his take on Watchmen — both of which are streaming now on HBO Max and have much more satisfying endings.

Where can I watch Lost in 2026?

Lost may be leaving Netflix, but there's good news, too. The show, which originally aired on Disney-owned ABC, is still available to stream on both Disney Plus and Hulu. As far as we know, that's not changing anytime soon.