All Six Lost Seasons RANKED!

Lost is one of the best TV shows ever created, and it stands the test of time as a brilliant cross-genre mystery, sci-fi, and survival drama that is as ingenious and addictive as television can get. While I don't believe there's such thing as a bad season of Lost, some seasons are much better than others so, today, decades after its original run, I, Brighton Nelson of the Reel Ranker present to you... All Six Lost Seasons RANKED!

6. Season 6 - B Tier

The Reel Ranker Score: 60%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%
Metacritic Score: 83

Season 6 is the last and, unfortunately, the worst season. The sixth season of Lost is certainly one of the more polarizing seasons of the show. Many claim it as a perfect closure for the show, while others coin it as a failure to live up the show's legacy. And I can confidently say I fall somewhere in the middle. I believe the strongest aspects of this show are the mystery elements, character flashbacks, and morally-gray decisions that are associated with the surrounding situations. However, as much as I find this an above-average season of television, it struggles to keep the soul of previous seasons of Lost.

This season's main focuses include finding refuge of the island temple, stopping the tyranny of The Man in Black, selecting a new leader in proxy of Jacob, and introducing the idea of the fan-coined-term "flash-sideways." This season's biggest weakness is its deep-rooted and apparent necessity to feel like an epic finale, as opposed to the zany mystery I loved the first five seasons for. The main cast spends their time trying to take out "John Locke" the majority of this season and, quite frankly, it's pretty boring. While the Man In Black isn't a bad villain, he's completely overshadowed by previous villains like Benjamin Linus and Charles Widmore. Where every other season focused on mystery, this final season focused on action, making it the weakest and weirdest season of them all.

However, while I feel the season is the least interesting and engaging, it still pulls off a very satisfying conclusion for the show. By sprinkling small clips of what would happen if the plane hadn't ever crashed, it displays how intrinsically connected these characters are in a sincere and gripping way. The final twist of it being a manifestation of the afterlife in which they were all reunited put me off at first, but as I reexamined the themes of the show, I was able to see this finale and show in a new light—this show was never focused sci-fi and supernatural mystery, even if those elements were present. The show was about destiny, accepting one's fate, and finding family in the most unexpected of places—all themes perfectly displayed by this finale. Ultimately, while this season's core plotline was weak, its brilliant and faithful conclusion allows it to stand out and still be a worthwhile season of such a phenomenal show.

5. Season 1 - S Tier

The Reel Ranker Score: 74%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Metacritic Score: 86

This season is in fifth place, yet it still functioned as a perfect introduction to one of the best shows of all time. I don't have any issues with it, but it simply doesn't have the same flair and unexpected twists of future seasons. This season simply focuses on the outstanding ensemble cast of characters dealing with the consequences of crashing on a mysterious island and finding a way off the island. The intriguing part about this season is that it honestly struggles to have an interesting plot through-line until the last few episodes, yet it simply doesn't matter. This is because of the genius storytelling that grips the viewer in with the backstories of each of the characters, as well as the slice-of-life interactions they have with one another! I personally can't see any other show with a simple plane crash on an island that would keep me on the edge of my seat like this, yet this genius original premise was able to hook me in and become one of the best shows I've ever watched. The writing here was just that good. You know this show is phenomenal if my second least favorite season is an S Tier masterpiece.

4. Season 4 - S Tier

The Reel Ranker Score: 78%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
Metacritic Score: 87

Aptly placed in fourth place, Season 4 is a blast of a season, even with its surprisingly short runtime. This season comes hot off the tail of the Season 3 finale, in which a helicopter arrives at the island. This season deals with the implications of the helicopter landing, following up on the chilling revelations of "not Penny's boat" and Benjamin Linus's warnings about Charles Widmore. This season marks a full shift into the craziness of this show, and I love it. Charles Widmore functions as a chilling looming threat, and learning the objectives behind the characters and how they weren't there to save the cast was mind-blowing. The pseudo-rescue scenes on the boat and the constant tension present made this a very strong season, even though some unnecessary meandering acted as fluff in an already brief season.

The biggest forte of this season was its utilization of "flash forwards", marking a huge shift away from the previous three seasons that solely focused on flashbacks. Showing the consequences of what happened after the island with the Oceanic Six plotline made me truly question what I thought I knew about life, and that was truly absurd. Unfortunately, the brief run of the season and the overabundance of underdeveloped characters like Daniel, Miles, and Charlotte taking the limelight away from the stars left me feeling like this season had some missed potential (likely due to the writer's strikes taking place at the time). Ultimately, while a few flaws hold this season back from being top tier, it's still a good season.

3. Season 2 - S+ Tier

The Reel Ranker Score: 86%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
Metacritic Score: 91

Season 1 may have hooked me on the show, but this is the season that cemented this show as one of my favorite shows of all time. This season focuses on the survivors of the tail-end of the plane, as well as the mysterious hatch found during the finale of the first season. This season introduces a star-studded cast of characters: Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia, Libby, Bernard, Desmond, and Benjamin Linus, the latter two being some of the best characters to ever grace television. This season has more tension, buildup, and plot twists than any other season, even if it does have the most filler of any season. The reveal of the electromagnetic threat in the hatch was incredibly interesting, and the plot involving "Henry" was a superb introduction to one of my favorite fictional villains of all time. This season was a perfect example of raising the stakes while still maintaining the core energy of the original, feeling like the Catching Fire or the Empire Strikes Back to the first season. While the unnecessary filler and inconsequential early-killings of many characters introduced in this season made this fall below the next two seasons, this is still a television masterpiece.

2. Season 3 - S+ Tier

The Reel Ranker Score: 88%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
Metacritic Score: 89

On paper, a synopsis of this season would lead me to believe it would be a bottom tier Lost season. A major amount of time in this season is allocated to watching many of the main characters being interrogated by the Others for hours at a time while the B-Team tracks down Dharma stations across the island. However, the extreme focus on Benjamin Linus and Juliet made this perhaps the most addicting season of this show. Spending so much time fleshing out each of the characters in meaningful ways was the name of the game this season, all leading to the best season finale of the show, where Charlie gets some of the best moments in the show and is left on a mysterious cliffhanger: will the cast truly be rescued from the island? In the end, a season focused on the Others under these circumstances could've been my least favorite season of the show if handled incorrectly, but the immaculate writing, character development, and worldbuilding secures this underrated season as my second favorite season of Lost.

1. Season 5 - The Reel Tier

The Reel Ranker Score: 96%
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
Metacritic Score: 78

Seasons 1 through 3 may have flashbacks, Season 4 may have flash forwards, and Season 6 may have flash sideways, but none of those compare to the immaculate sci-fi worldbuilding of Season 5. This season tells the phenomenal story of why the Oceanic Six would return to the island before getting involved in a complex, yet not convoluted series of escapades through time due to the supernatural nature of the island. This season uses time travel and returning to the island to build one of the deepest and most intriguing TV series I've ever watched! This season shows the role of the island masterfully, utilizing time travel, acceptance, divine roles, and survivor's remorse to create not only the best season of Lost, but one of my favorite seasons ever aired on TV. The rest of Lost is fantastic, but this is on a whole other league of greatness—it rightfully deserves the award of the rare "Reel Tier" embellishment.

The Verdict:

The Reel Ranking:

6: Season 6 - 60%
5: Season 1 - 74%
4: Season 4 - 78%
3: Season 2 - 86%
2: Season 3 - 89%
1: Season 5 - 97%

Common Critic Consensus:

6: Season 6 - 76%
5: Season 3 - 82%
4: Season 5 - 85%
3: Season 4 - 88%
2: Season 1 - 91%
1: Season 2 - 96%

Common Audience Consensus:

6: Season 6: 82%
5: Season 5: 87%
4: Season 4: 90%
3: Season 3: 91%
2: Season 2: 92%
1: Season 1: 93%

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