A Lost Weekend

Friday, February 25, 2011

Page 11

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

A Lost Weekend

By J’AMY PACHECO

When the hit television show “Lost” ended last year after six seasons, I suspected I was one of only a handful of people who hadn’t seen a single episode.

I didn’t mind being in the minority, and I would have been happy staying there if a friend hadn’t suggested I watch at least the first episode. Since my pal has yet to steer me toward a program I didn’t end up liking, I responded in the contemplative way I respond to nearly every suggestion made to me. I said, “Okay.”

I had no idea what that would start. In January, I put the first season for the show in our movie-by-mail queue. To say my family was immediately hooked on this “Survivor” meets “Cast Away” meets “Lord of the Flies” creation would be an understatement.

Throughout January and early February, “Lost” took over our movie rental queue. Each time a new disc arrived, we’d make popcorn and gather, as a family, in front of the television – something we don’t usually do together.

By Season Three, we grew impatient with waiting for discs to arrive in the mail and started returning them to our neighborhood movie rental store and exchanging them for in-store copies of the next discs. By strategizing, we were able to ensure we were never without an episode to view.

This continued for weeks, with us watching several episodes over the weekends. But when exchanging a disc late last week, I received devastating news: our neighborhood movie rental store would close for good at the end of February.

(Okay, in light of what’s going on in places like the Middle East and New Zealand, “devastating” is probably too strong a word. Let’s just say I wasn’t happy about it.)

It wasn’t just because we were losing our only local source for an immediate “Lost” fix. I was worried about the employees losing their jobs, and sad to see the neighborhood video store becoming irrelevant after decades of success. It felt kind of like the local library was closing.

In any case, in the midst of our “Lost” obsession, we realized we were about to have to go back to waiting for the mail. Unless, we reasoned, we did something drastic.

So, last Friday, I went to the video store and came home with a huge stack of “Lost” discs. The number I brought home was well beyond what is included in our monthly rental plan, which means I also forked over a ridiculous amount of money to get something that would have been free if I hadn’t been so impatient.

I spent Friday cooking. I made everything I thought my family would want to eat for the next few days, from eggplant parmesan to chocolate chip cookies. And when my husband came home from work Friday night, we gathered on the couch and started our “Lost” film festival.

As Friday turned to Saturday, we finished Season Four. We slept a few hours, ate breakfast, then started Season Five. We’d watch a few hours, take a break, then meet up back at the couch.

It’s an interesting experience to watch years’ worth of a television program back-to-back. With its complex storylines, “Lost” had us even watching each pre-episode recaps. We were so immersed in the story that nearly every conversation we had concerned either mention of what had already happened, or speculation about what would.

Despite our efforts to watch the entire show before the weekend ended, we were left with two episodes at bedtime. Instead of waiting until the weekend, we decided to watch them on a work- and school night.

At the time, we didn’t realize the final episode was two hours long. When it finally ended, we were all extremely tired. I sat in front of the television trying really hard not to cry. We’d been so immersed in the story for so long that it was a huge disappointment to be finished.

“What are we going to do now?” I asked my family.

“Get a life?” my husband suggested, laughing.

“Okay,” I responded. Because that’s what I do.

I’ve done a lot of crazy pop-culture-related things – attended midnight releases of new books and movies; re-read entire book series the week before a new installment came out, and even spent a night in a bookstore once with friends in order to meet a wildly popular author. And now, this.

Would I devote an entire weekend to watching a television show again? Probably not – even if chocolate chip cookies are involved. But do I regret our “Lost” weekend spent doing nothing but watching a story unfold?

Nah. In fact, I recommend it.