5 free ways to catch up on 'Lost'

This guest post comes from “PT” at ptMoney.

 

I have a confession: I’ve recently become obsessed with the TV series “Lost.”

 

I tried watching an episode or two in the past but just couldn’t get into it. It’s really one of those shows you had to be watching from the start to appreciate.

 

Anyway, several weeks ago ABC began running the previous week’s episode an hour before the new show (I watch TV for free -- I get ABC over the air via antenna) and they've included subtitles to give you some context about what's going on. That was enough to get me hooked.

 

I love this show. It has everything you could want: action, sci-fi, drama, mystery, romance, and a bit of comedy. And it has a story that just gets you hooked. Bill Carter, television writer for The New York Times, defined “Lost” as “the show with perhaps the most compelling continuing story line in television history.”

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So, I figured if I was going to watch this final season, I’d better get cracking on the first five so I could see them all by the time this one ended. That gave me about five weeks to watch more than 80 episodes that I hadn’t seen. My wife jokes that she’s lost me to the island.

 

I could have just ordered “Lost: The Complete Collection” on Blu-ray. But that would have cost me almost $200, and it’s not available until August. Instead, here are five methods I can use to catch up on “Lost” right now, for free:

 

ABC.com. You have to do some digging around, but right now you can watch all the old episodes here. I did this for a few episodes, but the commercials and small screen eventually got to me.

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Hulu.com. Same as ABC. Just different commercials, I believe. The “dim the lights” feature is pretty slick.

 

Library DVD rental. If watching on a computer isn’t your thing and you have that nice flat-screen TV you need to put to use, just grab the DVDs at the library. I visited my local library last week and found that they had the complete season sets for seasons one through three. It’s one of the ways libraries can help you save.

 

Borrow from a Lostie. If you have friends or relatives who are such fans of the show that they bought the DVDs, you can ask to borrow from them.

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Find it in syndication. It appears that “Lost” is currently in syndication on G4TV in the U.S. and on the Space channel in Canada. If you have a TiVo, I’m sure you could quickly catch up on the shows that way.

 

Netflix. While this isn’t a free method, some friends suggested it as a place to watch the episodes pretty quickly. You can get the DVDs through Netflix or watch them all commercial-free online with your access at Netflix.com. Now that I think about it, you could actually sign up for the Netflix two-week free membership and cancel once you’re done watching “Lost.”

 

Are you hooked on “Lost”? Did you give up after the first season? Let me hear from you if you’re just as obsessed as I am.

 

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