I had resisted the call of yet another TV series for the last two years because life is too short and Tivo will only hold so much. But lately my wife and I have joined the cult and started watching the first season of ABC’s Lost on DVD. Abandon hope, all ye who tune in here.

Lots of people recommend shows to me but by the time I finally get around to watching them, they seem kind of lame. Fans insist that’s because I didn’t catch the wave early and that the show jumped the proverbial shark back on episode 23, or something. (The West Wing always seemed like on elaborate puppet how to me– one voice, many faces — albeit one done with a steadicam, though fans assure me that back in the day…)

But thanks to DVD, you can now go back and see what the big deal was without waiting or watching commercials. So Peggy and I watched the first four episodes last weekend…and I’m embarrassed to say that we are almost through the first season, one week later. “How addictive is Lost?” the Mephistopholes behind the counter of my local video store said as I came back for the second disc. He was in recovery himself, having watched the first two seasons in about two weeks.

It’s not like we don’t have lives: she runs a magazine, with all the attendant responsibilities (TV, travel, schmoozing and endless meetings with advertisers, partners, bureaucrats and bean-counters) and I’m writing, teaching, running the house and raising our daughter. Maybe our daytime busy-ness makes it easy to hook up to something so otherly other at night. People keep mentioning Gilligan’s Island but I am reminded of No Exit. (Didn’t Bob Denver play Jean-Paul Sartre in Dobie Gillis?)

The hard part now is getting people not to talk about the show even as I Tivo the current, short season. My brother Brian sent me a parody he had written of the “Gilligan’s Island Theme” with new lyrics related to Lost — but I’m afraid to read it again since it might give something away! My son Adam, another addict, already said something I’m trying to forget, and just looking the show up on Jump the Shark (most voters say it has not jumped the shark yet) I read something I wished I hadn’t.

So please, if you have any theories, keep them to yourself. As Maynard G. Krebs said, “The G stands for Walter.”