Guide to the Best Lost Web sites

If you're like me, you love to watch Lost but often feel overwhelmed by the vast amount of characters, mysteries, literary allusions, time travel, flashbacks, flashforwards, and yes, now in the final season, flashes sideways.

Thankfully, television columnists and devoted fans spend hours dissecting each intriguing, yet sometimes confusing, episode, and they post their analyses, commentary, and theories on these web sites in order to help those of us who might be a little...well, lost.

And for those who have no problem deciphering the Lost universe, you can post your own theories, chat in the forums, or participate in games, contests and polls to keep your brain busy between episodes.

Totally Lost at EntertainmentWeekly.com

Entertainment Weekly columnist Jeff Jensen has an in-depth, analytical recap posted before noon the day after an episode airs. Jensen is obviously a fan of the show. He has few critical remarks and instead provides an exhaustive analysis, finding meaning in every single detail. While such a complete recap of each episode is not for everyone, this is the recap to read carefully if you are still trying to understand what the heck you just watched on the episode the previous evening.

DarkUFO

DarkUFO is a blog featuring news, polls, forums, and fan theories. It also compiles posts from several recappers, all talented at proposing theories, making connections, and rousing discussions. Specifically, Vozzek69's recap "Things I Noticed," has remarkable insight into each episode, making connections and proposing sound theories without wandering too far into literary allegory and mythology. DarkUFO is also the site where fans can participate in the Lost Fantasy League and the Lost Prediction League and track their scores and results.

Lost at ABC.com

You don't want to miss an episode of Lost. If you don't have a DVR, go to ABC's official website for the series. Here, you can watch not only complete episodes, but also enhanced versions of previous episodes with explanatory subtitles. The site also features previews and other video extras such as commentaries and behind-the-scenes events.

Lostpedia

A wiki site where fans can add and edit information on Lost, including the Mysterious Happenings page, which keeps a record of all of Lost's mysteries, color-coded by whether they have been solved, partially solved, and unsolved. If you're completely confused by the time travel aspects of Lost, Lostpedia also has an excellent Timeline page for quick reference and comparison to what events happened when.

The Tail Section

Visit this website for a collection of Lost-related casting news, interviews, spoilers, and discussions. The recaps aren't as insightful, but the slideshows of "easter eggs" posted from partner site BuddyTV.com, are fun collections of clues, literary references, coincidences, and repetitions from Lost that fans love to catch in each episode.