like 48.7% of the show is "just go with it".

So that can be a difficult sell for people that weren't all in from jump.

To me Oz felt ridiculous pretty early on, but the characters were generally so engaging that I didn't care.

Later seasons doubled down on the absurdities of it, but there's still a lot of powerful moments to be had.

They managed to make Robson a sympathetic character, for example. The bit with Cutler was a hard watch, and despite the horrific nature of Robson's therapy sessions, those are some of the most human moments on the show.

Season 6, getting the dead to take on Augustus' narrator role (Augustus included), was fantastic, and a solid love letter to the fans who rode through to the end. I loved the surprise of seeing Tizi Ouzou narrating.

There's a lot of facepalming to be had, and the show looks and feels extremely dated. For me that's much of the charm. It's a perfect storm, to that end. Even worthless oafs like Ralph Galino, and they're otherwise stupid story lines, have a certain charm to them.

The show is well worth watching, particularly for the arcs of Sayid, O'Reilly, and Beecher. But there are so many more.

IMO this is a deeper, wiser show, with more heart, and with more profound things to say, and questions to ask, about the human condition than it's betters.

And yeah... it's the joint that kicked off the golden era. Not in many ways, not in some sense, it straight up is. The Sopranos nailed the shot, but Oz helped get that ball in play.

I fucking love this show.