Last night saw the launch of the hottest new show around, Lost – the show follows a group of airplane crash survivors who find themselves stranded on a deserted island, 1000 miles away from where rescuers think they are. To make matters worse, the last people to crash here sent out an unanswered signal 16 years earlier – and were never found. To make matters even worse, there is some kind of monster on the interior of the island, which appears to have killed all the previous group of people who were here.

After just 2 episodes, which played back-to-back last night, it appears Lost is going to follow the cast each week as they come up against some other problem to do with trying to survive on the island, until help comes – to its credit, the cast is large, and made up of pretty good actors (which is to say I was impressed). Among the survivors is a doctor (played by Matthew Fox, of Party of Five fame), an escapade criminal, a drug-addict rock star (played by Dominic Monaghan, aka Merry, one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings), a protective older brother and his lazy younger sister, a former Iraqi soldier, a Korean couple, a pregnant Aussie girl, a father and son who have only just been reunited, a mysterious older guy, a funny fat guy named Hurley, and a Texan with a bad temper.

Some key events in last nights’ episodes: one survivor gets sucked into the still-running engine of the plane, causing it to explode; Jack, Kate and Charlie (the doctor, the criminal and the rock star) get chased through the jungle by the monster, after watching the pilot get killed by it; they find a radio, but need to get to higher ground to get it to work; Sawyer (the Texan) kills a polar bear (?!); Jack (the doctor) performs surgery on a guy with bad shrapnel wounds; and the team hears an unanswered distress signal sent out 16 years earlier.

Lost has some potential, and it seems to have been doing well in the USA, which means that it must have something going for it (in my book, if its beating CSI in the ratings, it must be worth watching). As I said to my Dad last night “it combines the best elements of Castaway, Jurassic Park and Survivor – what more could you want!?” (please note: that could be a horrendous generalisation of the show – forget I said anything). On the other hand, my workmate Matt said it reminded him of the PC game ‘FarCry’ – which can only ever be a good thing. Needless to say I’m looking forward to next weeks episode.