Jen Chaney reports in the Washington Post that “Lost” gets even more mysterious with its season premiere as the island itself begins to travel through time.
After four seasons that contained flashbacks, flash-forwards and electromagnetic forces that sent some characters into a chronological tailspin, the crafty writers of the ABC drama about plane crash survivors on a mysterious island take things to a whole new level during the fifth season. In the season premiere, which airs Wednesday, the island itself moves in time. Repeatedly. Several characters become “unstuck” in time. And “Lost” proves that it stands — to borrow a phrase from James Franco in “The Pineapple Express” — at “the apex of the vortex” of TV time travel.
Chaney remembers some other television series that experimented with time travel, including “Dr. Who,” “The Simpsons,” and “Quantum Leap.”
Entertainment Weekly has a guide to Season Five of “Lost” from Doc Jensen for those who can use a refresher. Chadwick Matlin of Slate has another guide for the lost with advice on how to find out everything you need in each episode’s opening moments.
Instead of searching for recaps online or trying to pull an 82-episode marathon, just watch the first few minutes of each premiere–the introductory scene through the first commercial–and you’ll learn everything you need to know.
Matlin knows what he’s talking about — his bio says he taught a course on “Lost.” And he says that season one was about survival, season two was about the hatch, season three may be about the Others, season four may be about the island’s advantages, and season five? Matlin says the clues will all be in the first part of this week’s episode.
What do you think about this development for “Lost?” Deepening the mystery or jumping the shark?