Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #156: Lost (2004-2010).

Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 departs from Sydney, headed for Los Angeles. But somewhere over the Pacific, they encounter severe turbulence, and crash horrifically on an uncharted, deserted island. For six seasons, these 48 survivors will have to unravel mystery after mystery and relive flashback after flashback in an attempt to discover why they've ended up here, and how to finally return home.

I'd say everybody has that one TV show that marked a shift in their viewing tastes, and Lost was mine. It was the first TV drama I ever watched avidly (indeed I think I only missed it about thrice during its entire run); I was 16 when it debuted and beforehand I'd only watched comedies or animated shows as far as scripted TV goes. But within a few episodes, I was helplessly hooked. This year I revisited the entire six-season series after buying the box set and I remembered exactly why that was. Lost is television at its most ambitious, intellectual, game-changing, compact and relentlessly suspenseful.

Creators J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber and Damon Lindelof (the latter of whom became the showrunner) hatched an ingenious spin on what may otherwise have been a more dramatic Gilligan's Island and filled it with a most relatable and engaging character ensemble; my favourite is Jorge Garcia as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes. As the show progressed it admittedly became more cryptic with each season, but it delivered a masterclass in plotting throughout and that's just an admirable, if very risky, goal for TV creators and writers to set for themselves. In its first season, Lost deservedly won the 2005 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, and would ultimately win ten Emmys overall.

I think its best season was the fifth, and like most shows its quality seesawed, but make no mistake: the full box set of Lost has not one dull or uninteresting moment. Then again, it's science fiction which has long been my favourite genre, but Lost has become a mainstream cult favourite and its originality, scale and daring are indisputable. For me, it's a TV milestone and I will always be super-keen to get lost in Lost.