Picture a seemingly uninhabited desert island,  a lush forest, and bright blue waves crashing on a sandy shore. Are you there yet? Seems like an ideal vacation spot. But things aren’t always as they seem. A demolished plane joins the scene. Chaos ensues as people hurdle broken parts and dodge flying debris. Once the dust settles, the survivors take in the scene–they have scarce food and water supplies, no shelter, no cell service. What next?

Lost is a show like no other which is set apart by its clever way to display the unique and diverse characters, its stunning scenery, and its plot, which takes infinite twists and turns. Featuring characters who come from across the globe, the show achieves a diversity in its characters that is hard to match. Jack Shepard (Matthew Fox) is a spinal surgeon from LA, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) is a seemingly innocent woman from Iowa with many layers, from England and Australia the show features Charlie Pace and Claire Littleton. “Hurley” Reyes becomes a crowd-favorite with his lovable and humorous nature from the start, and Sawyer Ford from Alabama immediately earns the dislike of many of the survivors due to his arrogant and selfish attitude. Jin-Soo and Sun-Hwa Kwon from Korea struggle immensely from the beginning since they are surrounded by English-speakers, and this is just to name a few. One of the show’s distinctive qualities is its ability to delve into each character’s life through a flashback, most episodes focusing on one person at a time. Their personal struggles are guaranteed to strike a chord with every type of audience.

I have one word for the set of this show–wow. The island portions are filmed in the beautiful Oahu, HI. Covered with sky-high mountains and vast plains, the scenery seems to come out of a painting, much less be a real place. Everything is a lush shade of green and is teeming with life, whether it be a boar, providing a source of food for the lost travellers, or a bullfrog, croaking constantly and driving Sawyer to the end of his wits. There isn’t a hidden corner on Kualoa Ranch in Oahu that isn’t stunning. It is the ideal place to film, and provides interesting contrast to many high-stress situations that occur throughout the show.

One of the strong points of Lost is that it consistently keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. There’s never a moment when everything is clear–it keeps ‘em guessing. Crafted in a way where there’s always an element of surprise, it takes infinite twists and turns. The questions that remain the entire show include: where are the characters? What is the island they have crashed onto? What causes the strange things that happen to the island’s inhabitants? It is the mystery that carries the viewer on to watch one episode after the next. Even though it commenced filming in 2004 and ended in 2010, viewers who are looking for something more modern and updated would recognize that the show is timeless.

Lost does an incredibly good job bringing up psychological questions throughout the show that serve as juicy discussion topics. That’s why it’s a great idea to watch it with friends or family…so that you can talk about all that happened through a critical lens, deciphering the hidden meaning behind every line and action. There’s very rarely something that comes up that doesn’t either allude to something later in the show or stand for something larger than itself.

Many critics argue that the end of season three is the peak of the show, and that the seasons that follow don’t measure up to the standard set by the preceding episodes. They have a fair criticism, since Lost was only supposed to air for three seasons. The events in the following two seasons seem to be less significant to the overall plot than other episodes. However, the show wraps up nicely by the sixth season and features a highly controversial, yet highly emotional ending. A show’s done its job when the viewer is so connected to the characters and does not want to leave them.

So there you have it–some of the best shows are the ones that have riveting storylines, make you think, have great scenery, and feature characters all too easy to get attached to… and this show has it all. Next time you’re looking for something to invest in on TV for the next few months, give Lost a try. It’s a commitment, and there’s no turning back once you begin!