Nathaniel

Shockey

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March 4, 2009

Season Five of Lost the Best Yet

With the fifth season of ABC’s Lost in full swing, it’s finally time for this year’s musings about my favorite show. But first, let’s take a look back.

The first season is probably the best season of any TV show I’ve ever seen. Every episode was gripping, emotional, confusing and unbelievably entertaining. Although what we thought was keeping our attention was the mystery of the island, what made the show truly great was its characters. During each episode, we watched one of the characters change. We saw a bad husband become a good husband, a drug addict recover, several characters trying to overcome unresolved issues with their fathers, ex-criminals realize what it means to become a productive member of a community – it was television drama at its highest level.

The second season was still good, but not as good. It became clear rather quickly that the writers were unable to sustain the formula that helped the first season win so many fans and awards. The third season was slightly better, and boasted one of the best season finales I’ve ever seen. The mystery of the island began to take some shape, although there were still many more questions than answers. Last season was somewhat forgettable, as the scope of the show got too big to keep me entranced. As many of the key characters returned to the normal world, the soul of the show seemed, well, lost.

That brings us to Season Five.

I maintain that the heart of the show is the characters, not the island, and as the mystery of the island outweighs the mystery of the characters, the show gets worse. However, the island has proven to be an incredibly effective landscape, both literally and literarily. As the characters have finally all moved back to the island, I expect the show to begin to reclaim some of its former magic.

Also, the episodes of the current season have begun to use a technique they used in the earlier seasons, but stopped for a reason I don’t quite understand. J.J. Abrams used this technique in his previous baby, Alias, and in the third installment of the Mission Impossible series, which he directed. With this technique, which I call the riddle technique, the first scene of the episode is also one of the last scenes of that episode, chronologically.

When someone poses a riddle, he gives the conclusion and asks you to figure out the cause. This is what Abrams tends to do. It can be annoying, because it almost seems like giving away the ending. But it’s not giving away the ending, as there is always at least one extra scene at the end that is necessary to both resolve the episode and set up the following one. Secondly, and this is the point I’ve been driving at, it has become clear that the riddle technique is incredibly effective for a show like Lost, which hinges on such a powerful element of mystery.

As the mystery of the island has become overwhelmingly large in scope over the past two seasons, my interest has dwindled. But the riddle technique assures the audience that each show is going somewhere specific and useful. When the show opens with something interesting and useful, such as Jack, Hurley and Kate reappearing on the island, the audience asks, “How did they get there?” Over the next 45 minutes, the writers answer the question, only to pose a new one at the end. It’s good storytelling, especially if the writers can keep you guessing the whole time.

If you have yet to discover the show, just start now by renting season one. It’s worth your time. Once you catch up to season five, you’ll learn the pain we all go through by waiting six days and 23 hours between installments.

Lost has been my favorite show for several years, and this is the penultimate season. I don’t know how the story is going to end, but my main concern is not the ending. It’s that the writers get there skillfully. Last season was a bit of a downer, but this season, things are looking up.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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