If you haven’t watched LOST before, turn around immediately and go back. The series is a serialized drama that absolutely needs to be watched from the beginning to get the full impact of its storytelling.
LOST - Season Four continues the adventures of the survivors of Oceanic 815 in one of the most imaginative television series of the decade. It is a drama that combines many genres, including science fiction, adventure, and romance. In the first three seasons, the characters were revealed through flashbacks, each episode focusing on one character; however, at the conclusion Season Three, the creative team presented a shocking flash-forward cliffhanger. In it, Jack states it was a mistake that they left the island, Kate disagrees with him, and someone they know has recently died.
As Season Four opens, Hurley is shown off the island and claims that there are only six survivors of Oceanic 815, but the audience knows different, or do they? A viewer can never be too sure of what they think they know. As the season unfolds, the present-day story of the survivors on the island moves ahead while flash-forwards of the Oceanic Six, as the press within the series dubs them, show where the story is going (or has already gone). During the present-day story, the survivors split into two groups because there is uncertainty about who the people are on the freighter and whether they want to rescue everyone. Jack leads the group hoping to be rescued; Locke leads the group who don’t trust the freighter folk. When the season concludes, the audience understands what is happening with the Six, but other plot threads are naturally unresolved.
LOST is well written, plotted, and acted, and gets points for taking creative chances, which is why I am intrigued by it, but sometimes the story and characters feel forced along by the writers rather than progressing in a natural and believable way. We still haven’t had an explanation as to why Locke had trouble with his legs other than the writers needed a way to kill Boone. Good fiction makes the impossible seem possible, but too often the unbelievable remains just that, which is why I find it to be a good series and just short of a great one. There are very good dramatic moments with the occasional absurdities, like the entire Dharma Initiative thread, thrown in that lessen the show’s overall appeal. At times, the series delves into magic realism, reminiscent of Twin Peaks without the darkness, but it comes across as crutch to help the story along, like the smoke monster.
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