Tonight, Lost returns to the airwaves after eight months off.
In TV years, that’s a really long time. Especially for a show that saw what some called a precipitous drop in ratings over the last season it was on.
If they don’t totally nail this first episode back, I don’t think there’s much that will save the show. Most causal viewers, it seems, have already given up on it. And after the poor start to last season, even some of the more vehement fans I know opted to just wait for the DVD set.
Some spoilers for those who aren’t caught up follow…
When last we left our intrepid castaways, we were seeing their time on the island in flashback. That was a distinct change from everything else that had been done with the show so far. We now know that they do, indeed get off the island, but we don’t know what the cost of their “rescue” was.
We know Charlie was the last high-profile character to go. Passing on, in his final moments, a warning that the ship they considered their salvation didn’t belong to who they thought it did. We know that, a year or so later, Jack is a mess and insisting that they go back to the island. We know that someone died that triggered Jack’s panic. We know Kate is still alive–and that she’s none too happy to see Jack.
Aside from the obvious plot questions (which still include a huge number of unanswered bits and loose threads from the show’s first season), I have to wonder how they’re going to frame this season.
For me, it will be a sad thing if they don’t keep it set in “the future” of the castaways. The only stuff I want to see from the island is flashbacks about their rescue and them actually going back. And I want to see all of that from right after the funeral we saw in the season finale. If they don’t do that, it better be a damn strong story in order to keep my interest.
Perhaps even more importantly, we better get some damn answers damn quickly.
Because, really, we’ve been waiting a long time for them. At the absolute least, they better introduce stuff from the alternate reality game that happened between the second and third seasons.
If they don’t nail the first few episodes–and I’m almost doubting they will as the ad campaign push hasn’t been as visible and all-out as I would have expected–they’re not going to get people to hang in for all eight episodes that they have. Just having a handful of episodes that may not even finish a story arc is more than enough of a turn off for most people.
I want to enjoy this batch. I hope I will. But I’ll also be critical of it.
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