After three years, the Challenger Expedition is still stuck in the depths of South America, still battling to find to a way out of the increasingly misnamed "Lost" world, and still running into all kinds of insane stuff. By episode five of this final season of the show they'll have encountered a cursed aviator, an Aztec(?) Trickster god, a literal dragon lady, a ghostly warlord and Jack the Ripper. And if you think we're going to wrap up this filmed in Australia series without at least some kind of nod to The Road Warrior, well, you better think again!
The attraction of this show has always been its "kitchen sink" approach to stories, as it unapologetically throws all kinds of madness at its cast. I also like how the characters seem to have adapted to all the crazy. They're willing to embrace wild and kooky scenarios, with something of a shrug and the comment "we've seen weirder". The show and the actors lean into the silliness without ever winking and nodding at the camera. Which is not to say they don't sometimes go for laughs - there's quite the vein of dad jokes to be found here - but it's smart enough not to ask you to laugh at its own expense.
I mean, you probably will laugh at its expense from time to time, because there are some pretty dodgy ideas and effects in here ... but the show doesn't ever point out its own shortcomings.
Should you watch Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World? Well, if you miss those goofy, mostly family-friendly action adventures shows of the 90s, and you don't mind that this one ended without ever getting a proper ending (this final season, in fact, wraps up with no less than five separate cliffhangers), then you'll probably have fun with this. I sure did!
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