Just felt the need to vent my feelings on this during a re-watch...

I watched live from the premiere in 2004 to the finale in 2010. The show started when I was 14, and ended a couple of weeks before I turned 20. It was, quite literally, my coming-of-age story. Returning to it has been such a pleasure, and what's occurring to me now on this watch-thru (two-third thru S3 currently) is how many relatively new/unknown performers the show cast to home-run results.

Evangeline Lilly is perhaps the primary example of this, as she'd done next-to-nothing before Lost, and was able to transition from the show successfully to starring turns in Real Steel, The Hobbit, Ant-Man, etc. Ian Somerhalder went on to his long-running vampire role. Emilie de Ravin went on to play Belle, and do a bunch of films herself. Many post-LOST careers have matched or mismatched proportionally with what I'd have expected, but the one I really want to talk about, certainly in terms of mismatch, is Josh Holloway.

During my initial watch as a teenager, I didn't appreciate how masterfully the creative team constructed Sawyer as LOST's own Han Solo archetype, "the criminal with a heart of gold" or however you'd like to put it; at first, he seems like he's gonna gunk up the works for the more savory characters, and then gradually, he becomes highly endearing. And I have to say, with an adult eye, Holloway's charisma oozes off the screen in a way that strikes me as effortlessly cinematic.

There was a moment in early S3, when Sawyer and Kate were escaping Hydra Island, that it occurred to me how great Holloway might've been in an Indiana Jones-type franchise; similar to Harrison Ford, he's got that rugged, charming, action-man aplomb, but with a steady dose of vulnerability that makes you like him. Similarly, a lot of his smarmy rascal moments give me serious Jack Nicholson vibes; I could easily see him slotting well into early Nicholson parts, like Cuckoo's Nest or The Last Detail. Having positive elements of the likes of Ford and Nicholson is a win for any actor, and it's my opinion that Abrams, Lindelof, and Cuse dug up a diamond with this guy, and knew it.

And his career since LOST? Most notably, a five-minute bit part in a Mission: Impossible film, and roles on some short-lived cable shows that by all accounts were average at best (save for Yellowstone, on which he only appeared for a 10-episode run). Not dogging television, of course, but what he got, to me, felt a bit below his station.

I heard a rumor years ago that he was the top choice to appear as Gambit in X-Men: The Last Stand before the script was pared down and the role was excised; however that film would've turned out, Holloway as Gambit would've been great, and it no doubt would've helped his momentum to higher ground.

Pardon the rambling; it deeply frustrates me to witness the lost potential (pun intended) so transparent episode to episode through this rewatch. IMO, this show could've been a springboard for Holloway the way E.R. was for Clooney, and for whatever reason, it just never happened. Maybe Holloway didn't want it, and was content to just do smaller parts? Maybe his agents let him down somehow, or he just had bad fortune with a few big auditions too many? Can't say, although I trust some here may have info I don't...

TLDR: See title.