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LOST: Back to the Island

The Complete Critical Companion to The Classic TV Series
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( 290 ratings, 69 reviews)
Brief Description
A comprehensive and critical companion to the blockbuster TV show LOST, revisiting its core themes, lore, and impact on culture Before it premiered in the fall of 2004, LOST looked doomed to be an expensive, disastrous plane crash of a TV show. Instead, LOST was a... Read More
Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A comprehensive and critical companion to the blockbuster TV show LOST, revisiting its core themes, lore, and impact on culture

Before it premiered in the fall of 2004, LOST looked doomed to be an expensive, disastrous plane crash of a TV show. Instead, LOST was a massive hit, debuting with the biggest audience for a new drama on ABC in over a decade, reaching heights of over 23 million viewers at its peak, and holding on to a hefty fan-base for its entire six-season run. The elements that made the series seem like a boondoggle proved, instead, to be a big part of its appeal. Audiences loved the exotic island setting, became invested in the morally compromised characters, and feverishly tried to unravel the show’s many mysteries.

In LOST: Back to the Island, TV critics and veteran LOST recappers Emily St. James and Noel Murray revisit what made the show such a success and an object of enduring cultural obsession, twenty years later. Through essays, episode summaries, and cultural analysis, they take us back to the island and examine LOST’s lasting impactβ€”and its complicated, sometimes controversial legacyβ€”with a clear-eyed and lively investigation.

For fans of one of the most successful and highly discussed shows in recent memory, LOST: Back to the Island is both a delightful time capsule and a rousing work of entertainment criticism.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781419750502

Publisher: Abrams

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 24 October 2024

Country: United States

Imprint: Abrams Press

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 38.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 232g

Pages: 352

About the Author

Emily St. James is a writer and cultural critic, currently writing on the TV series Yellowjackets. During her journalism career, she served as the critic-at-large for Vox and the first TV editor of the A.V. Club. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Vulture. She is the co-author of Monsters of the Week: The Complete Critical Companion to The X-Files. Her debut novel, Woodworking, arrives in early 2025. She lives in Los Angeles. Noel Murray has been a freelance pop culture critic and reporter for over thirty years and was a key contributor to the influential websites The A.V. Club and The Dissolve. His writing about TV, movies, music, comics, and more has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. He lives in central Arkansas.

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