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This has been submitted to But You Don't Look Sick, but I will be offline for awhile and so may miss whether it ends up posted there. In the meantime, here it is:

DVD Review: "LOST, The Final Season: The Complete Sixth Season"

One of the most perplexing yet entertaining television shows has come to an end. Season Six was relatively brief, just 16 episodes, but it packed a wallop, and the two and a half hour conclusion which aired on May 23 was polarizing. But now that the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 have come full circle, we can reflect on their journey via a five disc DVD set featuring over 800 minutes of material.

A hallmark of "LOST" has been the use of "flash" segments to show a particular character prior to or after their time spent on the island upon which they crashed so that you learn more about them. In an unusual twist, during this season, we see them in a story line in which there was no crash. This "flash sideways" shows the passengers on the plane in 2004 landing safely in Los Angeles, but it turns out that even without becoming stranded upon a remote island, they still end up interacting with one another in ways that are not random.

Meanwhile, on the island, the remaining characters from the original timeline awaken in 2007 (which passes for present day) after a bomb blast. They find out that their presence on the island is not random, either, but orchestrated by a man called Jacob, who protects the island from those who want to exploit its unique properties. Jacob is hoping that one of the crash survivors will be his successor.

Complicating matters is a dark force with no name. He can appear in human form or as a column of destructive black smoke. This monster was once a man, and he wants to leave the island, but he cannot do so as long as Jacob or a successor guards it.

Season Six is at its heart a good and evil story, but what it points out is that there are no absolutes. Every single character on the show is flawed in some way. Every character has a chance for redemption, but not all of them take that chance.

If you have watched the show from the beginning, you will particularly enjoy the flash sideways on the airplane because you get to see characters who had perished in the other timeline. It's like starting all over again with the same cast but with new plot lines and lots of surprises. If you have ever wondered how your life would be different had this or that not happened, this will give you lots of cause for speculation.

As with each of the five previous sets of DVDs, there are bonus goodies galore, including the usual blooper reel and deleted scenes. A good place to start is with the hilarious narrative that attempts to summarize the entire show in just eight minutes. The woman doing the voiceover has to talk as fast as an auctioneer to get it all in.

Four episodes have audio commentaries voiced by actors, writers, producers or directors. These are insightful, entertaining and often amusing. There are spoiler alerts for each of the commentaries in case you haven't watched the show all the way through yet because they do make mention of events and character outcomes that happen in other episodes.

One of my favorite segments, "LOST On Location", returns. Each shows an episode behind the scenes and goes into detail about how a particular sequence was accomplished, whether it's portraying a sinking submarine, crashing a car, having a character fall part-way down a cliff, or creating a mythical temple. As usual, it is surprising how many of the stunts were done at least in part by the actors themselves and how few special effects were used.

Other bonus features include a look at how the final season of "LOST" was crafted, one on the concept of the flash sideways, and a segment about which characters on the show were heroes and what made them so. But the most heavily anticipated goodie is "The New Man in Charge", a 12-minute epilogue to "LOST". I found it clever, funny and very satisfying.

If you have never watched "LOST", all six seasons are available separately, or you can get them all in a set. There is a collector's edition that is pretty elaborate, but since I already have the first five seasons on DVD, I didn't find it necessary. If you have seen the entire series, you may still want to check it out on DVD because of the excellence of the bonus material.

"LOST" changed the face of TV with its combination of myth, fantasy, science, depth of character development and unpredictability. It also changed the face of TV on DVD with the sheer amount of quality extras. The Season Six set will have a treasured place in my collection alongside the first five whilst I ponder what on earth I'm going to watch on TV now that it's over.