So there’s this TV show you might have heard of on ABC. It’s called “Lost,” and it came out of nowhere last year to blow audiences out of the water almost as dramatically as its pilot episode blew an airplane out of the air and onto a remote island with virtually no hope of rescue. You know the one, the series where polar bears co-exist on a tropical island with 47 plane-crash survivors and what appear to be monsters/dinosaurs/imaginary evils? Yeah, that one. The show that single-handedly resurrected my faith in primetime TV, and more important, showed that high-quality scripts and character development didn’t die with the Firefly series.

On Tuesday, Lost: Season One is releasing on DVD, and if the very nature of the show didn’t warrant its purchase, the bonus features and production quality of the set certainly do. The inclusion of every episode from the first invigorating season, as well as a handful of commentary tracks and bonus features, make up for one of the best TV-based box sets in months, a DVD set you won’t want to miss, even if you’ve never seen a single episode.

Lost is, in a word, astounding. Filmed on location in Hawaii, the show traces the trials of 47 plane-crash survivors as they battle themselves, their inner demons and a bevy of “natives” that include an apparently supernatural beast and a surprisingly human foe. The secret of the island isn’t revealed in this first season, and it’s safe to say the writers won’t reveal it for many seasons to come, considering the show’s success. Still, each episode on this DVD set keeps from getting repetitive because its key characters’ complexity is ever-deepened through flashbacks and interactions with the other survivors.

Each episode on the six-disk set is digitally presented in widescreen and Dolby Digital format. For those who haven’t watched Lost on a surround-sound system, let me reassure you that the Dolby setting alone is worth the price of admission. Jungle sequences get creepier, beach scenes seem even more idyllic, and fights between characters are all the more intense when presented in surround. Couple that with better-than-broadcast DVD visuals, and this set is really the only way to truly experience Lost.

Although several of the episodes have commentary tracks, the seventh disk in the box is really where the bonus material starts to shine. Included on this disk are unaired flashbacks from various characters, a behind-the-scenes featurette about making the pilot episode, an interview with the creators on where they came up with the idea for Lost int eh first place, and audition tapes from the cast. That’s a healthy number of bonus features for any DVD, but considering this is a TV show, not a movie, the bonus features in the Lost: Season One DVD set are all the more impressive.

Lost is one of those special TV series that, if the writers maintain their dedication to character development and intriguing plotlines, could last as long as Seinfeld or ER. Likewise, Tuesday’s DVD release of Lost: Season One is one of those special sets that, barring your lack of money, will be worth the purchase both for posterity’s sake and for the chance to re-live one of the best debut seasons in recent TV history. If you can’t manage to get your hands on a copy, find someone who can and borrow theirs. Lost: Season One really was, and is, just that good.