The Lost Blog - Season Reviews

So in the end it ran for six seasons totalling 121 episodes. It was the only TV show I know of that agreed a defined end time and was granted time to run its course. So, which is the best season, which season turned audiences away in droves. Which season took the show to new heights, and did the final season deliver as successfully as its first. Below is a list and brief review of all six seasons with shiny star ratings.

Season Two
The One with the Hatch

As Season One ended with the most audaciously annoying yet brilliantly cliff-hanging ending of possibly any show ever, Season Two had one major difference from Season One. The hatch was open and we would almost definitely find out what or who was inside. In addition to that we found out what happened to the tail end of the plane, and how their experience was much worse. We also finally got to put a face to The Others and began to get hints of their plan for the survivors. Ultimately though Season Two will always be remembered as the season everyone proclaimed "They're are making it up as they go along". And to be honest for the most part the season felt a little like that. Having said that some interesting characters came into the show, most of which were despatched with ruthless efficiency. There was also highlights, most notably "Lockdown" which found an incredibly interesting way to tantalise us with bigger and more interesting mysteries, "The Other 48 Days" which showed us the Tailies story and the Season Finale "Live Together, Die Alone" which turned the sky purple and saw three of the major characters captured by the dastardly Others.



Season Six
The End is Nigh

The final season was always going to have an impossible task. Especially as after the finale to Season 5, there was little actual story left to tell and as a result there was too much waiting around by almost all of the characters . The inclusion of the flash sideways felt interesting, then distracting and finally revelatory, but too often didn't feel like it moved the story forward or told us anything new about these characters. Of the 18 episodes (taking The End as two) nearly half felt let set up episodes for the following week, some even failed to offer self contained stories. And yet, with it being the final season LOST inevitably pulled out the stops for episodes such as "Sundown", "Happily Ever After", "The Candidate" and "What They Died For". Add to this that two major flashback episodes "Ab Aeterno" and "Across The Sea" gave us much needed and craved backstories to some of the most intriguing elements of the show. That so many mysteries where never addressed or interwoven in the main thrust of the story reveals an inability or unwillingness on the part of Cuse and Lindelof to address these issues, but by the finale Season 6 felt like a fitting if slightly lacklustre ending for one of the great TV shows of all time.



Season Five
The One with All the Time Travel

Following Ben moving the island all bets were off as to what might happen in Season 5. No one could have guessed that time travel would be brought in in such an inventive and original way. By doing so those left on the island were in constant peril, it allowed the writers to address and answer a number of big questions which seemed impossible until this point. Also, we had most of the main cast no longer on the island, and instead had some incredible episodes such as "Jughead" which posited an atomic bomb on the island while having Desmond trying to find Faraday's mother. The best decision this season though was to not drag out the time travel and get everyone back onto the island (only in 1977 - never saw that coming). Following "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" all the major action returns to the island as the Losties try to take advantage of being in the past by changing the future. The big theme of the season being whatever happened, happened. By the season finale (another season high) everything was set up for the climactic final season as Jacob is murdered, Locke is dead but isn't, Juliet sets off the atomic bomb and everything fades to white.








Season Four
It's all about the Flash Forwards

As the shortest season of Lost, at just 14 episodes (three of which are the season finale) Season 4 benefits from the forward momentum generated by a influx of new characters, new mysteries and new conflicts. The big thing was the flash forwards, especially as we had to wait until the finale to find out how and who definitely got off the island, and also what might have happpened to those left behind. By being so short and throwing so much at the story Season 4 threw up such classic episodes as "The Constant", "The Economist", "Meet Kevin Johnson", "The Shape of Things to Come" and the finale.As the season starts Locke and Jack, forever on different paths, separate and take a selection of survivors each, and as the series develops we begin to understand more about the island, its deeper mysteries as well as its strange electromagnetic effects and temporal displacement. This works well in laying the foundation for Season 5's time travel. Also through Charlotte, Miles and Faraday we are able to explore more of the Dharma initiative and learn exactly how Ben managed to murder them all.




Season One
Where it all began.

The first 20 minutes of Lost are arguably the greatest opening to a TV series ever. It all began with a close up on a eye. Then our hero, Jack, races through the bamboo trees and as the camera pulls back we see the full extent of the crash. Even now I still remember exactly where I was and that I didn't take a breath until the first ad break. Season One introduced us to the survivors of Oceanic 815 and in the words of the great Charlie Pace had audiences all over the world asking "where are we". The great mysteries of Lost were sown in this season, and in such wonderful ways. Locke being in a wheelchair pre-island, Jack following his dead father to water, the revelation that they are not alone on the island, the Black Rock, polar bears and the love triangle between Sawyer, Jack and Kate. Looking back now, you begin to realise just how far both the audience and the characters have come since that opening fateful crash. Lost Season 1 is one of the finest debut seasons in Television history.




Season Three
The one where the answers began to unfold.

From Jack, Sawyer and Kate being held captive by the Others to finally making contact with the Freighter. From Locke surviving the implosion of the Hatch to stabbing Naomi via a bizarre meeting with "Jacob", Season Three expanded, developed and explored LOST more than any other season. By the end of Season Two no one could have foreseen just how much we would have learnt and how far we would have gone, discovering how The Others reacted to the crash of 815 was a superb way to open the series and it offered the same jaw dropping brilliance as season one Pilot. The mid season break gave the opening episodes a sort of self contained mini-series feel and allowed the writers to really spend time with The Others. As the show progressed the further exploration of Dharma, Locke's attempts to join up with The Others, the arrival of Naomi and the possibility that the season may end with rescue kept us coming back each week. Season 3 also introduced time travel, or temporal displacement and saw Desmond become a season regular. Even episodes like "Expose", which at the time seemed infuriarting slight and pointless, in light of the charging plot, can now, in hindsight be viewed as a momentary pause before the final onslaught of the final act. The episode itself is also brilliantly macabre and encapsulates some of the major themes of the series. By the end with the Flash Forward, the explosive season finally and even a return for Walt, Season 3 emerged as the series when LOST hit its stride, and it has rarely faultered since.