Lost Season Premiere

The season premiere of LOST rates a solid C. Locke taking control of a group of survivors, a new character portrayed by Jeremy Davies, "The Oceanic 6": good. Charlie the Friendly Ghost, humorless Hurley, and enough riddles to choke a sphinx: bad. All in all a definite entry in the "crusty/creaky" genre of LOST episodes.

After the decided lull in the middle of season three, I think we all suspected that the Bad Robot idea well might be, if not running dry, then certainly kicking up brackish water. Add that downturn in creativity to bloated expectations following a ridiculously long inter-season hiatus, and you're looking at a recipe for a disappointment casserole. That this episode wasn't great doesn't bother me, what does is that I have a sneaking suspicion that LOST might be over, or, at least, that I might be over LOST.

Here are the clues from which I draw my conclusion:

1) The change in format. Flash forwards? Great idea. I'm 100% behind them. We've spent so much time exploring the characters' myriad (often tedious) backstories, that I'm more than happy to get a change of perspective. But, you can't disagree that going to flash forwards fundementally changes the dynamic of the show. Regardless of how they frame the show, the narrative that we ostensibly care about is the one that's happening on the island. The way the show works is that we watch the island, we have no fucking idea what's going on, we see a flash back, and we understand a little better. It's a gradual enlightening process that's quite effective. What we have now is this sort of teasing process. We watch the island, we have no fucking idea what's going on, we see a flash forward that promises that what's going on is totally significant somehow, then we go back to island and still have no fucking idea what's going on. Which brings me to my next point:

2) The delicate balance of LOST. So, the main driving force behind LOST is confusion and the basic human want to overcome confusion. For the first two seasons, LOST was effective because it answered as many questions as it posed, so you were constantly feeling that relief of understanding but, at the same time, you were always tantalized. This new format obviously lends itself to asking more questions than it answers. Already, within the first episode, I find myself drooling all over myself, hungry for answers to about a thousand questions. How did they get off the island? Why did Hurley regret going with Locke? Who's that well dressed, bald gentleman? So many questions and more to come next week. And when will we get answers to these questions? Well, even in the future, most of the characters seem not to know what the hell is going on, so I'm guessing not any time soon.

3) The other delicate balance of LOST. I've always loved that the secrets of LOST seem so out of the ordinary. There's a mysterious island, but it seems to exist within some set of scientific rules. There are explanations for things which are, in some way, worldly and comprehensible. That fact is pretty much mandatory in a universe where I expect, at some point, I'll understand what's going on. So, when the show starts employing ghosts and people teleporting and houses appearing out of nowhere, I start to wonder if I'm really getting in to something I can get myself out of, or if I'm ultimately going to find that I've wandered into supernatural-land, and that the show is just going to throw up its hands and say "Yeah, the supernatural... who knows?"

The thing is that LOST isn't the best written or produced show on TV, so, to hold my attention, they have to be pretty meticulous in their plotting. They have to give me stuff that I like (read: compelling questions and satisfying answers) and keep the stuff I don't (read: almost everything else except for John Locke and Ben Linus... and Evangeline Lilly... but not Kate Austen). I've still got (not particularly high) hopes that next week's episode will pull us back from the edge and ground things a little more in reality, a little more in the world of the island, and a little more in a plot that can solve all of the mysteries it creates.