Okay, now that that disclaimer is out of the way, let's talk about Season Two of the hit show Lost, where we finally get hints at many more mysteries of the Island like the Dharma Initiative, what happened to the people in the tail section of the plane, who took Walt off of the raft, and who is this seemingly crazy person down in Locke's mysterious hatch (not to mention the true purpose of the hatch).
While most feel that this season is the weakest of the series, it is still pretty good (when compared to most shows), and there are many pivotal plot points and characters introduced in these 24 episodes that make this season completely unmissable if you intend to go on. Not only does the show get a few new characters, but it also loses some old favorites as well as finally introducing us to the fabled "Others," though we realize that they are far different from what we first thought.
When Season One ended, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) were just attacked on their make-shift raft by another boat. Not only did they blow up the group's bamboo raft, but they also took Walt. Meanwhile, on the island itself, Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Jack, (Matthew Fox), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) have finally opened the hatch (with the use of some dynamite) and when Kate and Locke venture down into the dark hole, they find themselves at gun-point by a man named Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), whom Jack has apparently had dealings with before. Meanwhile, the rest of the survivors are left at the caves in a kind of limbo waiting for the attack from The Others that Rousseau (Mira Furlan) promised.
But many of those situations get resolved in the first few episodes of this season as Locke finds his next purpose in the island, pushing a button every 108 minutes, (because if he doesn't the world will explode ... supposedly), while the guys from the raft wash ashore, only to be captured immediately. Clair (Emilie de Ravin) finally names her baby, Aaron. Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) wrestles with temptation when he discovers the drug-smuggler plane full of heroine, and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Shannon's (Maggie Grace) relationship deepens.
But the show takes a drastic change about halfway through when Michael's determination to find Walt leads to some pretty drastic decisions on his part. The first half of the season focuses on the survivors from the raft getting back to their camp, but the second half is all about The Others (finally) and the fact that they seem to have a thing for taking little kids.
Like I said, this season is typically seen as the low point in the show, at least the first half of it, but it is still solid and introduces some major plot points. And as far as the Blu-ray quality is concerned, as always, the show looks and sounds amazing in high def. Not only does the Island's exotic locations come through loud and clear, but everything from bugs flying around your head to the occasional pouring rain just draws you in. Special feature wise, Lost: The Complete Second Season - The Extended Experience has everything that the DVD version had, plus a couple of new featurettes like "The World According to Sawyer."
But for me, the biggest special feature is Season Play. Acting like an uber-Play All feature, this mode not only lets you go from episode to episode within the same disc seamlessly, but when one disc is over, the system prompts you to simply insert the next disc and you start up right where you left off; no menus, fuss or muss. But, unlike Season Three and Four's versions of this feature, One and Two have you setup viewer profiles so that multiple people can keep their place bookmarked (even if you watch something else). This way, two people don't have to watch every episode together if time does not permit.
The only real problem in deciding if you should get Lost: The Complete Second Season - The Extended Experience in my opinion is based on the existing state of your collection. If you haven't gotten any of this show for your home viewing yet, then absolutely make the Blu-ray plunge and get all four existing Blu-ray releases now. If, on the other hand, you stuck with the DVD releases for the later two seasons despite the Blu-rays bring released simultaneously, you might find it a bit daunting to go re-buy everything in the new format. But if you, like me, own the Blu-ray versions of Three and Four, then going back and re-buying these first two seasons is well worth it. Plus, re-watching these early episodes is a great way to prepare yourself for the release of Season Five in the next few months, and the airing of the final season after that.
