Oftentimes when Netflix lands a licensed series, it ends up doing really well, if not even better than its original performance on whatever channel or service it came from. As we speak we’re seeing this for Your Honor, a little-watched, mixed reviewed series from Showtime.
But in the wake of all six seasons of Lost arriving on Netflix less than a week ago, that has…not seemed to make much of an impact, or resulted in a resurgence of interest in the show. Shortly after it arrived it disappearing off Netflix’s top 10 list completely, which is now populated by reality series and you guessed it, Your Honor is still there.
So…why? The Emmy-winning show is heralded as one of TV’s all-time great mystery series, and it was an absolute phenomenon when it first aired in 2009. I don’t think it’s aged particularly badly, and 15 years later, it seems like something that could have caught a second wind with a rewatch or being introduced to a generation that hadn’t seen it.
What’s going on? We don’t have any firm answers as to why it’s not doing better, but I have a few theories.
First, it’s not a casual viewing show. Not really. Suits, for instance is much easier to pick up and put down, but the winding, complex mysteries of Lost require a ton of attention in the “watch stuff while on your phone” era, and that may be a harder ask. Particularly with how much you have to watch.
Another aspect is that this is a series from the true broadcast TV era, a time when an hour-long series could air twenty five episodes in its first season. That sounds insane now, and most are barely 6-8 or if we’re lucky, 10. Lost had 25, 24 and 23 episodes in its first three seasons respectively, and the last three ranged from 14-17, the dip I believe because of a Writers Strike back then. It may feel daunting for people to even start that.
I also think Lost loses something in the binge release model. This was the show that people were talking about week-to-week in its day, long before series like Game of Thrones took over watercooler chat. The mysteries, the theories, they spread like wildfire. But now? What took people years to figure out, talking through it with friends who were also watching, is a week or two binge with no more theorizing or friends to chime in. It really was a key part of the experience that’s gone now.
Lost isn’t the only “classic” show to land with something of a thud on Netflix. We saw this happen with Dexter when it arrived a few weeks ago, probably Showtime’s all-time most famous series, but it did consistently worse than another Showtime series, (again) Your Honor.
Sometimes Netflix licensing results in big surges of interest. Sometimes it doesn’t, and it seems like that’s what we’re seeing here.
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