Gotta agree.. I am not a huge fan of TV at all, but the production and writing that goes into this show rivals most big budget hollywood films. I too rented the entire season1 dvd at blockbuster to catch up and am now hooked.
I will say, I am damn close to buying a TiVO. The commercials drive me absolutely crazy. Seems we cant go more than 10 minutes without commercial breaks in the show. In Season1, most shows were about 41-42min in length. Thats nearly 20min of commercials... damn rediculous!! If I werent so damn hooked on the show, I would just wait for it on DVD, but cest la vie.
There is a huuge web based fan following and lots of Lost websites with some really good elaborate theories of what is going on. Some theories are a bit out there, but some are well documented with screenshots. There are lots of little clues in the background in the flashbacks that seem to tie each of them together (directly or indirectly).
**SPOILER WARNING if youre not up to date on episodes**
One of the best finds I have seen is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernal_sphere
The crazy guy down in the hatch just happens to be named "Desmond Bernal". I am not saying its what the hatch is, but there are lots of things that are thrown in and seem quite coincidental... intentionally or not by the producers.
Good stuff!