Lost Season Five: The Fun is Back

The expectation on any returning show is usually high. Producers and actors work furiously for a few months to capture and amaze their audience, to engage them on a level in which they are emotionally invested in the story they weave. Of course following this hard work, the season finale rolls around and the long dusty gap between seasons begins, like a close friend going on a long vacation. Then there's the anticipation leading up to the new season; teasers are shown, calendars are marked, and the crew release interviews that contain no important material besides "how thrilled they are to be back." In many cases, the euphoria doesn't last, as the new season slouches in with tired new direction, loaded with cliché and overhyped subtext, trying to recapture the magic, like couple in their late thirties suddenly realizing they'll never quite be as in love as they were when they were twenty.

Lost's fifth season premiere wasn't like that in the slightest.

While "roared back" aren't quite the words I'd use to describe it, the first hour of the new season was filled with more geeky Lost fan service than any episode since Season Four's 'The Shape of Things to Come'. The opening moments of the show had an appearance of a character I'd been waiting a long time to show up (I won't ruin the surprise for fans but I damn near wet myself) and threw a hefty gear into the turning cogs of the Lost machine; both intriguing and confusing at the same time (I've missed that feeling so...).

The rest of the episode, as per usual dealt with the two groups; those who got off the Island and those who are still there. The Oceanic Six Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sun, and Aaron begin to get together in different combinations for the inevitable trip back to the Island. While Kate and Sun struggle to keep my attention, the Lost team has once again managed to put the standings of Ben Linus and Charles Widmore as good guy/bad guy in serious question again, adding a little tension into the proceedings as the ex-leader of the Others quietly manipulates the group.

Sayid is also back in top form with a nicely and brutally choreographed fight scene that contains the words I'd never thought I'd hear myself say: death by dishwasher. On the island, the still stranded survivors get 'unhitched in time' leading to some incredibly cool throwbacks to earlier episodes in the show. (As well as an old familiar face that makes an unimportant but really fun cameo) In the end it's those parts that kept my strict attention, straight backed and eyes unwavering, waiting for the next surprise like a kid at Christmas.

At the same time, both Sawyer and Juliet seem to fill a more utilitarian function of simply being there to provide a familiar face as neither of them are particularly interesting or progress the story further. Weirdly enough, that has been passed on to the three remaining members of last season's mysterious freighter the Kahana, who completely failed to interest me in the previous season but provide most of the non-Locke based humor and story progression. And strangely enough I like it. Over all the first hour was a blast, keenly crafted to be a guilty pleasure for fans, revealing pretty little but juiced to the eyeballs with stuff the producers knew we'd get a kick out of. Which leads me to what a pity how much of a killjoy the second hour was.

Focusing on Hurley primarily, the second episode has the new and improved butt kicking Sayid unconscious until the last few minutes of film along with Jack and Ben, leaving us with a disposable scene with Kate and Sun, some brutal but uninspired violence on the island, and Cheech Marin getting more screen time than practically any other character.

The episode spun its wheels, killing time without any particular purpose in mind. Nothing happens that couldn't be summed up in the period of twenty minutes, a feeling I had through most of the last season. It has its moments certainly, but it's only true surprise is an inspired moment involving a burrito near the end that will almost certainly become a t-shirt.

After the rollercoaster fun of the first hour, the second simply clenches the gut, and worry surges over that as the producers try to find more reasons the keep the Oceanic Six apart and things the Survivors can run away from to fill in the corners of screen time they may run out of ideas fast. It's not the episode is 'Nikki and Paulo' or 'Jack goes to Thailand' bad, it's just boring as hell and it shows.

Still overall I have great hope and anticipation for the show as the season revs up (despite a lackluster teaser for the next episode 'Jughead') as the producers seem to be settling down on the question asking front and getting into the crunch time of question answering front. And as any serious Lost fan can tell you, that's always a good thing...