This show is insane, I love it to bits. Whilst the pilot loosely follows the plot of the book, the show quickly goes in overdrive and becomes shamelessly ridiculous. Whilst the South American plateau hosting the eponymous Lost World features the ape-men and dinosaurs from the book, it now also features african Zulus, Japanese samurai, ROMAN LIZARDMEN (they've allegedly evolved from dinosaurs), Celtic druids lost in time for 2000 years, maori, Camelot from Arthurian legend, Atlantean remnants, magical seductresses who come out of the forest looking for men, underground ninjas... and even VAMPIRES. Who drink blood and have a gothic vampire mansion. Did I mention that time-travellers from the future also make an appearance? Indeed, right after the episode with the pyramid and the egyptian Pharaoh I thought to myself: "the one thing we haven't seen are Cimmerian barbarians", and lo and behold, the next episode opens with savage leather- and fur-clad barbarian mountain-men. I love it. I love it to bits.
Someone more cynical would perhaps roll his eyes, noting that Veronica-one of the two main female characters original to the show, a young blonde inspired by Tarzan who traipses around the deadly jungle in little more than a bra and miniskirt-seems to find an excuse to get herself submerged in water every other episode, whether it's to save a drowning Indian girl, evade a T-Rex, accidentally get trapped down a well, have a "cat-fight" in a convenient puddle of mud, or simply have a water pipe burst in her face. In the episode with the giant bees, Veronica also slathers herself with copious amounts of honey (and so does everyone else, to a more limited extent) so as to conceal her scent. But I would posit, young sir or madam, that this is nothing to smirk about, it's just the hardships that a life in the primeval jungle can force you to go through.
Veronica's action exploits sometimes become ridiculous when she's occasionally able to beat up several (ape-)men larger and stronger than her-without ever ruining her manicure, let it be noted!-but every once in a while the hunter, Lord Roxton, is able to punch someone in the face and send him flying a metre away, so I guess this is just the 90s adventure TV dramatic choreography in play.
It is of course delightfully refreshing, from a modern perspective, to see a cast of characters unashamed about spreading civilisation and the values of the British Empire amongst dangerous savages, sometimes at gunpoint if need be. The character interactions are engrossing, and whilst the show rarely even tries to take itself seriously (the Camelot episode being a great example of this), some of the more serious and character-driven plots are very, very solid. The entire first season screams of good ideas put into good-if incoherent-use; though alas, quite frequently the plot moves forward after ape-men or dinousaurs randomly jump out of the forest for no particular reason, hardly a creative decision.
Naturally, the CGI is dated and quite lacking by modern standards, but this is something I'm more than willing to overlook when the sum total is so interesting. I also have to say I love the mattes. They're a mixed bag, but I enjoy them greatly; set design is serviceable albeit usually limited. "Is this Camelot?" asks one of our characters when led "to Camelot". "No, it's just the king's hunting camp, Camelot itself is many days away." Also, "Is this your civilisation," they ask the Pharaoh Ramses. "One pyramid and a dozen men?" "No, this is just our place of worship, our civilisation is many days away." All right, show, I see what you did there. Very clever indeed. (But why was the Pharaoh's sister being crowned in the place of worship in front of a dozen dudes instead of in her capital city? We'll never know...)
As for acting, it's solid enough. Michael Sinelnikoff is quite brilliant as the mild-mannered Summerlee, and with a pipe in his mouth and a revolver in hand, with a carefree smile on his face, he truly looks like the most based grandpa ever. Rachel Blakely is fantastic, alluring, and captivating as the duplicitous Marguerite, and though her Australian accent makes itself more than obvious in some cases despite her character being American, Marguerite is a wonderful addition to the cast and makes for a sublimely soapily-operatic "will they, won't they" interaction with Will Snow's John Roxton. Roxton himself is very well embodied by Mr Snow, and his confident manner as the group's expert hunter, tracker, and pugilist is right on the spot. The expedition leader, "the visionary" George Challenger is similarly well-played by Peter McCauley, who certainly looks the part of the unorthodox natural explorer, and usually looks a little too excited for whatever's going on. Ned Malone, the American reporter and protagonist of the original novel is (mostly) played by David Orth, who does a serviceable job of being the everyman. The aforementioned Veronica, lovely in all regards, is played by Jennifer O'Dell. Veronica is somewhat of a native of the plateau (born to American parents currently MIA), is Malone's romantic interest, and does admirably with what she's given as the lonesome but hardened young woman searching for her lost parents, though I'm afraid I was never quite convinced when she'd start snarling, trying to be intimidating.
Season 2 doesn't fail to disappoint, with the very first episode featuring Roxton falling into a river and emerging with a different haircut, Marguerite forgetting about her leg wound, an Age of Discovery shanty town, the party manning a rowboat and having the two women row whilst Challenger captains it up and Malone is the coxswain, and a plesiosaur getting incinerated by a single oil lantern. Aside from much-improved CGI, the rest of the second season gives us amazons (a hilarious and remarkably well-handled implementation of the idea, which would certainly look different-probably worse-if made now, 20 years later), samurai, more time travel (with a blatant continuity error), XVI century ghosts, werewolves, a fire-breathing dragon, Challenger stating that magic doesn't exist when he himself used sorcery in the previous episode, even more magical men and women coming out of the forest to seduce somebody, more holes conveniently opening up under our heroes, golems and nuclear power, and even SPACE ALIENS. The writing in season 2 appears to go downhill, however, what with some retcons of season 1 (ape-men are now partly-civilised "troglodytes" for no reason), as well as an unwillingness to develop the characters further than what even the first episodes of season 1 achieved; and of course, more and more absurd plots that don't seem to serve a specific purpose.
Unfortunately season 2 becomes rather uninspired at times, piling unlikely premise after unlikely premise upon the viewer, and learning that Malone's actor leaves the show midway through season 3, whilst the plot doubles down on bizarre and random shenanigans, I never had the motivation to begin season 3. It's quite the shame, really.
When this show first aired, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must have spun in his grave fast enough to generate enough power for a small household, and undoubtedly his spinning became even more rapid every time the "Based on a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" credit appears on screen in an episode that has zero relation to the original lost world book. On the other hand, I certainly enjoyed the ride, at least until the end of season 2. The premise is perfect; with a coherent and focused story that kept the new characters but also reduced the ridiculous contrivances to a minimum, you could really make a Lost World adaptation for the ages. The fact we'll probably never see one is truly a loss for all of us... as is the fact that any future adaptation wouldn't feature Rachel Blakely, and that her acting career hasn't been more prominent. I did say she's captivating, didn't I?
In short, this is popcorn. It's not a roast beef steak with a side of vegetables, brown sauce, and green salad, and you shouldn't approach it looking for what it isn't. It might be popcorn, but very delicious popcorn it is; or it might be cheese, but I really like cheese if I have to be honest. I thoroughly recommend giving this series a shot. It's good fun... at least until it wears out its welcome.
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