It was more than a decade ago that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse closed the book on Lost. The serial action-drama, which blended in elements of science fiction and light fantasy as the years went on, lasted six seasons on network TV between 2004 and 2010. It survived the 2007 writer’s strike as one of the most popular network shows of its time and unfolded during the seismic shift in television, with viewers beginning to move from cable to streaming subscriptions like then-burgeoning versions of Netflix and Hulu.
12 years later, Lost exists as a rare hybrid breed of compelling serial drama and so-called “mystery-box,” a word sometimes used pejoratively to describe the way JJ Abrams and his writing disciples, like Lost’s showrunners, have a penchant for throwing a bunch of unanswered questions at the audience, sometimes before the writers know the answers themselves. The Lost writers’ messy but lovable handling of this aspect of the show helped popularize the…