“The island needs you.”
DVD to be released in December. Season 5 way too far away. You can watch all four seasons on ABC.com in HD streaming.
Created by J.J. Abrams, Produced by Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, starring Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Rebecca Mader, Elizabeth Mitchell, Terry O’Quinn & Harold Perrineau.
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Lost may not be the best show on television (Mad Men, for starters) but there isn’t a show that I look forward to watching more, and when it’s at its best, nothing can match its addictive watchability. This season, a continuation of the return to form in the second half of Season 3, answered a lot of questions, and in true Lost fashion, did so by raising more questions.
It has to be extraordinarily difficult to tell one cohesive story over what will be 100+ hours, and to do so while revealing the mystery a little at a time can be frustrating. But honestly, for all those out there who compalin about not getting answers, it’s remarkable how much we know about the island and its history and its occupants (yes, yes, the smoke monster is still unexplained) compared to when we started. Yet, there still seems like so much to explore in the final 2 seasons but I do have confidence in the writers to wrap things up and deliver a mind-blowing conclusion when it comes.
This season really ramped up the action and for the most part, told the story in a different way than before. The best episodes of the season, the Desmond-centered, “The Constant” (which was possibly the best in the show’s history), the Ben-centered “The Shape of Things to Come” and the Locke-centered “Cabin Fever”, did not fit in the standard Lost-style, but they all worked great. While the season was quite solid overall, two other stand-outs were Sayid’s, “The Economist” and Sun/Yin’s “Yi Jeon” both of which had big reveals about the future of some of our castaways.
There were some down moments, especially the Juliet (why is she still on the show?) episode, “The Other Woman” which had a ridiculous, ridiculous plot and ending. They brought back a familiar face (spoiler alert…sort of) in Michael (Harold Perrineau) and while I liked his arc he was definitely underutilized. I also was not particularly happy about one of the characters that was sent packing, but I won’t say anymore about that.
Though, where Lost has failed in the past is in keeping every character involved, a difficult task given the size of the cast. This season, they did a much better job, as almost every character had some interesting moments and has become essential to the mythology — even the little-used Claire (Emilie de Ravin) had a great twist in her character. The new characters were all solid additions, especially Daniel (Jeremy Davies), Miles (Ken Leung) and Frank (Jeff Fahey). Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) didn’t do much, but the season finale gave her a hell of a storyline for next season. Even the new bad guy, Keamy (Kevin Durand) was pretty awesome. I can only wonder if the writer’s strike cost some back-story development for the new additions — hopefully they can make that up next season.
I said this in my previous review of this season, but it bears repeating — Michael Emerson as Ben is fuckin’ awesome. That guy deserves every award out there…he has totally changed this show for the better to the point where it’s hard to remember what a Ben-less Lostwas like. Naveen Andrews as Sayid got some chances to shine this year, and Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond (my favorite character) was similarly excellent. Some of the original cast — maybe because they’ve been around so long — didn’t have much to do — there wasn’t a Sawyer-centric episode, for example.
The finale kept up the tradition of finishing each season strong, and leaving the viewers with a big question to ponder over the break. It really is amazing how much the show has evolved since its first season and while a lot of the novelty has worn off, I think the show is as strong as ever, if not stronger. I can’t wait for Season 5.
Grade: A-
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