DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
The Beginning of the End: ABC's "Lost" Is Back, For One Last Lap
February 2, 2010  | By David Bianculli
 
lost-10-F02-white.jpgWhen last we saw a first-run edition of ABC's Lost, nine months ago, Juliet was banging a nuclear device with a rock, hoping desperately to trigger an explosion that would, in theory, disrupt the existing time line and throw the island's inhabitants back to a time before its magnetic and mysterious forces drew them in.

The season ended with Juliet succeeding in sparking an explosion -- a blinding, brilliant flash of white (shown above.)

It was a brilliant flash in more ways than one...

Don't worry, Lost fans. I won't be revealing what happens in tonight's two-hour final-season premiere (9 p.m. ET). I can't, because ABC didn't show it to TV critics in advance. We were shown, via a special Internet press site, only the first five minutes... and I won't reveal any secrets about THAT, either.

lost-10-F02-juliet-w-rock.jpgWhat I can and will say, though, is that it's a goose-pimply perfect way to start this last lap of one of TV's most ambitious, intriguing and often confounding shows so far this century. A lot of people have dropped by the wayside over the years, and given up on this series or watched it sporadically or only on DVD -- but if you were there at the beginning, you will be rewarded by being there for the ending, beginning tonight.

I'll have more to say tomorrow, here and on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, once the sixth-season premiere has been televised. Meanwhile, all I'll insist is this: Broadcast TV isn't likely to give us many more shows like Lost, so you ought to be watching. I know I will be...

Meanwhile, CNN.com has posted a column I wrote for them about Lost. Read it HERE.

 

3 Comments

 

Phillip R. Crabb said:

Well Dave, if I was the writer, this would be my take on these last episodes:

Jacob brings real Locke back to life..

Jacob says they have to go back to the exact time when they first crashed, all of them...

Jacob say they cannot be seen by their 'original' selves, so he will give them the ability to have short periods of invisibility....(ie. "the wispers")....

Locke must NOT let his 'original' self allow the numbers to count all the way down....

If the numbers count down again with both sets of 'them' in the same time period, it will be the end of the Universe, which is how MIB ('Esau') will 'get back' at Jacob.

Jacob explains to Locke that he must kill his 'original' self before the clock counts down, which will end his own existence, but is a sacrifice that must be done on behalf of all humanity...

However, when Locke goes to kill 'original' Locke himself, Ben stops him and chokes him to death, saying simply.."How could you be so naive"...Ben was always allied with the 'Man in Black'

The clock ticks down....12....11....10...9...8...(shuddering)...7...6...5..(grinding noises)...4...3...2...1...............

Everything goes to black...no light.....no sound......

Tony Soprano wakes up in a hospital surrounded by his family after one of his fainting spells at the restaurant......

(Roll Credits - Cue Soprano's Theme)


..well, perhaps this is just why I read about television, and don't write for it...

Phil
Franklin, NJ

Comment posted on February 2, 2010 12:27 PM


Greg Kibitz said:

Thanks for remaining mum on the details and thanks to ABC and the show's producers for always providing so very few. This show is all about the desperate desire to know whatever can be known exactly when everyone else does and that is what has always kept me coming back, week after week.

IMO, there is no better way to end an episode of a serial than leaving an audience dumbfounded and laughing cynicallly & maniacally (as I so oft do when they go to commercial) and with a big WTF moment. S--t, I'm still trying to figure out how the polar bear got there and what the smoke monster really is and now we are required to decode 4000 year old Egyptian mythology and space-time paradoxes to boot. Now isn't that fun!!!

I think what I will hate most this season is that the days episodes ending with more new questions & mysteries than answers to any or all all now past is soon coming to an end. Then again, is it? Not sure about others, but I hope they leave it all ambiguous and unresolved and maybe ever stuck in some sort of convoluted space-time loop that cannot be reconciled so that we can ponder it forever on (much as in the same way as there really in no answer to the question of what happens if one goes back in time and kills one's ancestor). Not sure if possible, but I hope, maybe just maybe, there will be someway to spin something off this baby and make yet another something just as good. (Or maybe just another Life on Mars or something - I found the US version not too bad).

That said, unlike some, I started watching LOST way back when, right on night one just because it sounded like a possible new show worth watching in that TV season's lineup and I have not strayed since. Though I am not some gaga fan that pours all over the internet or travels to Hawaii, and though I rarely watch repeat episodes of anything, I really love to watch the annotated repeats of this series to see if there is something I have missed which for me is really saying something about how cool this show is and when it is over It will be missed.

Comment posted on February 2, 2010 1:02 PM


sarah said:

Yes thank you for not giving any details even if you just saw the first 5 minutes. I too have watch since the first episode, I remember seeing the ads for the series thoughtout the summer before it priemered and somehow knew it was going to be something amazing.

What I wish for this finale season--
I do hope we get all of our questions answered if not for my sanity for then my other family members who watch.
And of course I want the series to end as good as it begain even if it means killing off more of the characters I have come to love. life and death has been one of the main themes on this island and I wouldn't want them to stop now. It is because of Lost that I don't just give up on a show just because a character I happen to like dies,RIP? Charlie.

Anyways I look forward to tonight and to what I truely hope will be the best final season it can be!

Comment posted on February 2, 2010 2:36 PM
 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
ICMTV
Type in the verification word shown on the image.