I'm kinda regretting I didn't watch it when it aired

I guess, looking at this blog, it's pretty clear that I watch shows that are already off the air a lot more than I do shows that are still airing. I guess it's safe to assume that I prefer watching episodes back to back instead of having to wait a week (or longer) to see what happens next.

However, watching a show when it airs allows for discussions, sometimes live when the episode is airing. A show like Lost definitely benefits from episode discussions. The gap between episodes also provides time to mull over the details, which is probably useful for viewers to form theories. Watching episodes back to back like I'm doing now blurs the episodes and seasons. I'm currently at the end of season 3, and I can't even tell you what happened on the season 2 finale. It must have been big, and a cliffhanger, but I don't remember. The whole show feels like one incredibly long movie. Cliffhangers don't feel like cliffhangers; what happens after this? Well I'll just watch the next episode.

I don't even want to know how many clues I've missed; how many mysteries I've forgotten. I actually have to keep remembering myself that there's some giant, loud thing in the jungle at the beginning of season 1; and that there's the still-unexplained black smoke thing that, to my knowledge, is a floating machinery (according to the whirring sounds). There's the whole thing with "the others" that are now being revealed, slowly, but those two puzzles from early on seem to have disappeared into the background. I don't have any ideas of what they might be, so I'm just hoping that I'd get an answer as I continue watching the show. What's The Dharma Initiative? What are these bases for? Why are "the others" so interested in the pregnant women and what experiments are they doing on them? So many questions! I just hope that it's not getting too complicated that it won't have satisfactory answers. Why are these people "chosen" to crash onto this island? Who the hell is pulling all the strings here?! What does the number mean?

I'm seriously thinking about taking a break watching the show, so I have time to actually think about the puzzles.