Lost Season Five Revisited

Lost continues with its explosive Fifth season, staring Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Jeremy Davies, Ken Leung, Rebecca Mader, Jeff Fahey and many many more.

If Season Four was the season that really kicked the show back up a few notches in my book, Season Five threw everything in the blender. Things got c-r-a-z-y this season. The previous season represented major change, and the events this season only get weirder. The episodes are so tightly wound, with threads interwoven so tightly, that flashbacks in one episode may be even more pertinent in another, a small mention in one may turn into something huge in another, and so on.

I complained about Rebecca Mader's Charlotte Lewis, last season. I felt that the cultural anthropologist never really pinned down the role exactly. Either because she was given direction to act like a villain, or tried to play mysterious but just couldn't quite do it, I felt like she was given a whole new lease on life at the start of season five. She drops the "villain/mysterious" act, and is instantly more likable.

Jeremy Davies' Daniel Faraday turns even more absent-minded, spacy, and later on, mopey. I still like him. He still keeps the tie on until he wears a jumpsuit. This is Miles Straume's season to shine. Ken Leung plays the character perfectly, unchanged from the previous season.

Frank Lapidus, the freighter helicopter pilot in season 4, returns in a surprising twist. Frank, compared to many of the characters in this show, simply accept the situations he is placed in

In one of the most infuriating scenes in the entire series, Miles tries to explain to Hurley, the time travel situation they are in. The writers, either to mock the less adept members of the auidence, make Hurley even dumber than he normally is. The situation they're in isn't hard to explain, at all. The icing on the cake is that he appears to one up Miles at the end of the conversation by presenting some sort of "touche" response that is even easier to explain away than the entire "time travel" conversation.

I picked up the Blu Ray for season 5. I found this very interesting when I got to the end of the first disc (included are screen shots of the first and fourth discs):

To help out a bit, here's a episode-by-episode recap of Season Five to catch anyone up before Season Six starts:

"Because You Left" - The Losties who didn't make it off the island, become "unstuck" in time, jumping into the past, present, and possibly future. Lock sees The drug running beechcraft airplane crash and is shot in the leg by Ethan Rom. Juliet, Sawyer, Charlotte, Miles, Faraday head to the old Swan station to ascertain exactly where they are at "in time." Charlotte begins to get terrible headaches and bloody noses begin. The Oceanic Six picks up where they left off at the end of Season 3 and Season 4.

"The Lie" - The Losties on the island head back to camp, and find that a barrage of flaming arrows wait them. All the survivors of 815 run into the jungle to escape certain death. "Frogurt" gets one right to the chest. Men dressed in military uniforms capture the "significant" Losties, but are saved at the last minute by a limping John Locke. Off island, Ben and Jack separate to prepare their return to the island. Ben tries to convince Hurley to return, but instead turns himself in, trying to implicate himself in multiple murders so that he can be locked away, presumably safe.

"Jughead" - This was a phenomenal episode. The Losties interrogate their former captors, and deduce they are in 1954 and that they are Others, one of which is none other than Charles Widmore. Locke talks to a "youthful" Richard Alpert, convincing him to visit himself in two years when he's born (Which occurred in Season 4's "Cabin Fever"). Charlotte's not doing well. Faraday finds the titular Jughead, a thermonuclear device. He's convinced he recognizes Ellie, an Other. Instructions are given to bury it.

"The Little Prince" - More time jumps. Charlotte gets worse. 1988: A French team of scientists come across a floating body, Jin. Pregnant Danielle Rousseau. Norton, suspicious lawyer hired by Ben. Hurley released from jail. Kate convinced that Claire's mom knows the truth, but actually doesn't.

"This Place Is Death" - Sun plans to kill Ben, Ben convinces her that Jin is alive. Eloise is at the Dharma station, "The Lamp Post," a way to get back to the station. James, Juliet, Jin, Miles, Locke get to the Orchid. Faraday stays behind to comfort a incapacitated Charlotte. With her last words being "not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner," she dies. Locke makes it down a old well, but another time flash occurs, sending them way into the past (The Statue is whole). Locke turns the wheel, which had been slightly dislodged when Ben moved the island, and leaves the island.

"316" - opens just like "Pilot, Part 1." Jack, Hurley, and Kate are back on the island. Hours earlier, all the Oceanic Six, Ben and the body of Locke, are on the Ajira Airways Flight 316, piloted by Frank Lapidus. They fly, big flash, they're back on the island. Van pulls up, Jin in Dharma uniform. Frak.

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" - Locke's time from when he left the island to when he got back to the island. Ben killed him. Woah. Frank saves the day by landing the plane on the smaller, Hydra island. Ben is on the island again.

"LaFleur" - James, Juliet, Faraday, Jin, Miles back in 1974. Convince Dharma to let them stay on by claiming they crashed their boat and saving Amy's (Reiko Aylesworth) life. James and Juliet are together. 1977. Everything seems fine until Jack, Hurley, and Kate show up.

"Namaste" - James has to con everyone in the Dharma initiate to convince them that Jack, Hurley and Kate are new recruits. Amy's baby is Ethan Rom. Frak!

"He's Our You" - Sayid Jarrah, now captured and presumed a Hostile (Other). Episode full of flashbacks of what brought him to this point (childhood, working for Ben, being captured by 'bounty hunter,' Ilana). Creepy young Ben returns, breaks Sayid out of Dharma jail. Sayid returns the favor by shooting Ben in the chest.

"Whatever Happened, Happened" - Kate and James try to save young Ben. In a flashback, Kate tells Carole Littleton that she has a grandson named Aaron. Kate also visited Cassidy Phillips, the mother of James' daughter, Clementine. Cassidy is still bitter. Back in 1977, Ben is taken to Richard, to save his life.

"Dead Is Dead" - Dead really is dead. Ben struggles to come to grips with his past, tries to summon the Smoke Monster to be "judged." Flashbacks of Ben taking Alex from Danielle, banishing Charles Widmore from the island. Caesar is unexpectedly killed. Ilana and Bram threaten Frank. "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Ilana is more than just a bounty hunter.

"Some Like It Hoth" - Miles-centric story. Miles fantastic character. Hurley is an idiot and beginning to test my patience. The construction site of the Swan is finally seen. 4 8 15 16 23 42. "Long time no see," Daniel Faraday is back from Ann Arbor.

"The Variable" - Faraday centric episode. Poor, poor Faraday. Upon second viewing the entire episode is tragic, probably far more than any whole episode up to this point. He seems to forget in this episode that, "whatever happened, happened." *Everything* so far, save Desmond's odd time-travel adventures, has been in keeping with this very basic premise. They always went into the past, Ben always was shot, "I'm not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner" always happened, Eloise always shaped her son into the same man who would travel into the past, and his plan will always result in.... well, keep watching.

"Follow the Leader" - Richard centric episode. Too many leaders to count in this episode. Locke, James, Jack, Ben, Locke, Widmore, Eloise, Radzinsky, Horace, and even Richard all lead something in this episode. I like to repeat again, "whatever happened, happened." Jack's an idiot, convinced that Faraday's crazy ramblings actually can change the future, even though his final moments are a realization that his own Mother always knew that she would send her son back in time to be killed, by her. To his credit Jack is not exactly aware of this, but it doesn't change that he hasn't once thought that this entire plan may be The Incident that he first became aware of when he first watched the orientation film back in Season two. Locke plans to kill Jacob. Ooooh.

"The Incident, Parts 1 & 2" - Locke plans to get Ben to kill Jacob. Ooooh. Rose and Bernard! Their cabin looks like Jacob's, but I don't think it is. Oh, cabin burnt now by Ilana. Oh frak, inside the box is.... Locke! Oh and, The Incident just happened. Poor Juliet. "They're coming..."

But if the above wasn't good enough for you, here's the last 5 seasons in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3zvM0EzT7c

Just two more days until Season Six starts.

Lost Season Four Revisited

Lost continues with its explosive Fourth season, staring Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emilie de Ravin, and many many more.

Season Four is the season that really kicked the show back up a few notches in my book. This is where things got interesting again, or more aptly, where they became even more interesting to me.

This season represents major change. Gone were the flashbacks to pointless Jack and Kate back stories. The show was looking forward, three years forward to be exact, following the survivors who made it off the island, the "Oceanic Six." These survivors, Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, Hurley Reyes, Sayid Jarrah, Sun-Hwa Kwon, and baby Aaron made it back to civilization. You'd think they'd be happy, right? Well they're all miserable. Sun is racked with guilt and anger over the fate of her husband, Kate is in constant fear that they'll discover that she's not the mother of Aaron, Jack has survivor guilt and falls into a heavy drinking habit, Hurley goes back into his old mental institution, and Sayid takes out his anger on the orders of Ben. Major action occurs off island, years after the events on the island occurred. Jack who fought so hard to get off the island wants back on and is a broken, sad mess of a man. Ben even realizes this when the "rules were changed" in one of the most depressing scenes in the entire show's history.

The antagonists this season come from a freighter docked a few miles offshore. Kevin Durand's portrayal as Martin Keamy, the leader of a group of mercenaries, is chilling. Durand has always played the wacked out weirdo or bad guy, so his talents are not wasted.

Rebecca Mader joins the cast as Charlotte Lewis, a cultural anthropologist and part of the freighter team. I personally had a hard time accepting her performance, at times it felt bland and silted. It was hard to tell if she was instructed to "play both sides" in her performance, as her role greatly improves later in the season, even though we hardly know the character and have little reason to start liking her any more later on in season 4 than when we're first introduced to her.

Jeremy Davies also joins the cast as another member of the freighter team, Dr. Daniel Faraday, a seemingly absent-minded, almost bumbling physicist. Faraday takes less time getting used to, and I personally took to his character certainly by the 3rd episode of the season, The Economist. I think he wears a tie the entire season.

Miles Straume, played by Ken Leung, is another new face to the cast, a snarky and cocky spiritualist who I really wanted to hate, but grew to like in much the same way that Sawyer grew on me as the show progressed.

Helicopter pilot Frank Lapidus, played by Jeff Fahey, is simply awesome.

The season is truncated, shortened like most shows which came out during the same season, due to the writers strike. Personally, the writers strike may have been the best thing for the show. It forced them to focus on where they wanted to go, figure out what they wanted to do with the show, and allowed them time to really focus on a reasonable endgame for the entire series. By this point they had decided that they wanted to go out in six seasons, and unlike Jay Leno, they're going to stick to it (one can hope).

One last thing to note, I found it quite interesting that the previous season ended and this season ended practically minutes apart from each other.

Now on to Season Five. Just one more week until Season Six starts.

Tonight Show R.I.P., part 3

Well it's a done deal. Friday, January 22nd is Conan's last night.

A new network?

The claim is that Fox affiliates have a low level of interest of picking up a 11:00pm telecast of Conan because they're either currently locked into syndication agreements or have 11:00pm news broadcasts in addition to their 10-11pm news broadcasts.

The Fox network would likely compromise on getting some of the more hard-headed affiliates out of those syndication agreements, and since the show wouldn't be starting on February 12th there would be time to arrange the "start" of a Conan show. Channels that have a 11:00pm news broadcast will likely be out of luck or Fox will begin Conan at 11:05 of 11:10. When all is said and done, when The Fox Network wants a nighttime talk show, it will win out over reruns of Seinfeld and The Office.

Of course I'm just an outsider with an opinion that doesn't take into account most of the nuances that take place behind the scenes, so who knows.

What's next?

So why did they want to keep Leno? That decision didn't make sense you say? Well what decision has Zucker or any other NBC exec made in the last decade that made any sense? I fully expect them to fire Lorne Michaels from SNL and replace him with Jean Doumanian if the ratings drop any further. Poor Matt LeBlanc, if Joey had been canceled today, he probably could have been made head of some NBC department!

NBC really screwed up. Leno's image is practically ruined among the 18-34 group, and probably the 18-49 group as well. Assuming he's able to sustain enough of an auidence after this PR disaster, he's probably going to retire in 5 years (Carson was 66 when he was "forced" into retirement). Assuming Tonight Show is still a viable commodity, NBC will either have to bring Fallon into the show, or find talent outside NBC to replace Jay. And trust me, it'll be hard to find someone willing to take the job without a solid contract ("one hour show at 11:35 or nothing" for starters) assuming that Leno doesn't get an itch to take the seat again, or some exec make a harebrained decision to put him back in the seat in 2017 or 2018.

Even if this was some idiotic decision from the NBC execs and Leno had "no part" in the tentative decision to shuffle shows, the situation has poisoned Leno. The best decision was to retire with as much grace as possible, move on and do a antique car show or something.

Oh well.

Tonight Show R.I.P., part 2

The Late Shift, Part II

Leno's ratings have gone DOWN amidst the controversy, Conan's have gone up. Who has ratings that lower when their name is in every news paper, on every news website, and part of just about every single news broadcast every single day since this whole controversy started? You know you're backing the wrong horse when people are not only not interested in the controversy enough to tune into the program, but that people tune out because of it. Conversely, O'Brien has practically doubled his ratings. This could have been his "Hugh Grant moment," sadly, NBC can't even see more than a few months ahead.

Conan passed on a much more lucrative contract to host The Tonight Show. NBC probably offered The Tonight Show precisely because they didn't want the competition (a common theme). NBC appears to be the ones who forced Jay into retirement. Jay then was available to go to other networks, and NBC didn't want Jay to be competition. So they offered him a 10:00 PM weekday talk show. His show is canceled. So they decided that they didn't want Jay leaving the network so they hatched up a plan to put Jay into his old spot and throw Conan to 12:05. This would have also pushed Late Night to 1:05, and Last Call (should it survive the move) to 2:05. The Leno move would have been disastrous for The Tonight Show, Late Night, and even the already paltry viewership of Last Call. Instead of just letting him go like any sane person would have done, they're rewarding him with his old timeslot back (and with Conan leaving, his old job back). Say what you want, but "The Jay Leno Show" at 11:35 may as well have been called "The Tonight Show" had Conan stuck around. NBC had and has no respect for the brand.

Conan put out a letter saying that he would rather leave the show than take part in this move that would destroy The Tonight Show. It appears that this only made the execs more headstrong in their opinion. Leno lays low, and doesn't say much. More than 10 days later Leno comes out and says he's a "victim" and is basically being forced to retake The Tonight Show because Conan is leaving.

Was he really "forced out" in the first place?

From all I've seen (strictly from the outside), I don't think that Leno was actually "forced out" - this seems to be historical revisionism by Leno (and his fans) as it probably was just simple regret that began to form years after he decided it was "time to leave." The decision seems amicable, otherwise why the hell would he later decide to return to NBC? The deal for "The Jay Leno Show" came years after he agreed to "retire" from The Tonight Show. If he had "bad blood" due to being "forced out" why wouldn't he just go to ABC, likely for more money than NBC would offer?

Certainly he was given better treatment than the way that he was rumored to have treated Johnny Carson. Forcing Carson out and making sure that Carson's chosen replacement, Dave Letterman didn't get the job. He also made a huge publicized stink about how he would basically "leave NBC if Letterman got the job."

All this puts in perspective the "oh gee, sorry Conan for taking the Tonight Show's timeslot, oh well" attitude that he's been pushing these past days.

(Even More to Come)

The Tonight Show R.I.P.

Well Jay, it only took you 17 years, but you've finally killed The Tonight Show.

The problem is that Leno's ratings at 10:00 are abysmal. He couldn't maintain the numbers that he got when he was on at 11:35. You'd expect someone with such a "loyal fanbase" would have pulled in all those viewers and then some. Who moves an entire hour and a half earlier in the evening and loses viewers? Leno should have conceivably had higher ratings because millions of more people are watching television at that time of the evening. They talk about his large fan base. Where were they? They certainly didn't follow him to his new show, or didn't stick around very long.

Alternatively, Conan's ratings aren't as good as Leno's, but they're certainly not as terrible as everyone makes them out to be. For much of Conan's tenure on the Tonight Show his ratings have hovered near Letterman's, been a little behind Letterman's, or been better than Letterman's. About a third each. One could point out that Conan's only been on at 11:35 for 7 months and that Dave should have an astronomical lead since he's been doing the same show for 17 years.

Conan's fan base on Late Night was always smaller than the fan base of The Tonight Show at that time. Conan's show aired an hour later. Most people can't stay up until 12:37 let alone 11:35. Are they as good as when Leno was up against Letterman? No, but Leno's were never even close to what Johnny Carson got when he was on the air so the "lower ratings" argument is all academic.

Leno not only hurt the Evening news, but the ripples of low viewership even made their way to the Tonight Show. Had they dropped Leno and I fully expected that the ratings would have increased for the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

Leno's new show failed. NBC is rewarding his failure by giving him his old time slot back. What kind of backwards mentality is that?

(More to Come)

Spider-Man franchise dead, will be rebooted. Others just as cursed?

In a shocking display of incompetent decisions, the powers that be have decided that if they can't get Sam Raimi to direct the 4th installment, that they'll just reboot the franchise and start all over again.

What? Peter back in high school? Another origin story?

I don't need to see a 3rd origin story of Spider-Man. Yep, I said third. I contend that Spider-Man 2 is basically a remake of the first film, rehashing the same themes and villainous behavior as the first film, and actually serves as a fine introduction to the franchise as it turns out the first film *is* unnecessary to watch because the second film does such a good job covering all the plot points that we *don't* see on screen during that film.

Spare us, please. Find a new director. Re-cast the principles if they refuse to work on a 4th film without Raimi. Keep any of the actors who chose to remain in the series. If worse comes to worse, make Spider-Man 4 like a vague sequel/reboot in the vein of Superman Returns. Say what you want about how boring the film was, but it was clever enough to serve as an unconventional reboot since Superman is already Superman. We didn't need to see him launched from Krypton again, or growing up for 50 minutes in Smallville again, or get a job at the Daily Planet again, or meet Lois Lane for the first time, again. It was already done and the film implied that.

I can only imagine that the tedium of seeing Peter Parker go through the motions of high school life, get bit by a radioactive/genetically altered spider, and then grow into his powers will seem, well, sort of unnecessary. Should they begin the film with Parker already Spider-Man, along the lines of Batman (1989); The Incredible Hulk (2008); or even Hellboy, where we're not forced to sit through the tedium of seeing the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense created and Hellboy "fit right in"; I may be less perturbed.

Though this does not bode well for any franchise.

In my occasional lambasting of the Star Trek franchise, I like to point out that I can't imagine that this young cast will stick around for more than 2 or 3 films before at least one of the main cast wants out, or asks for too much money and is written out (either in a quick cameo death scene or has been "transferred" and never seen again). Especially if follow up films take so long to get even pre-production started. I fully expect that within the decade they'll "reboot" Star Trek again.

The Hobbit was a sure fire green-lit project, and what even with the legal issues a few years back, it may not even be released in 2011? What a joke. The first drafts should have been completed 8 years ago, and the moment any legal issues were finally resolved (it was always a matter of *when,* not *if*) the film should have gone into real pre-production. The film(s) should have already been released.

I suspect that with the financial problems that are plaguing MGM, that Daniel Craig may only get one more James Bond film in under his belt before hanging up his Walther PPK. Franchises like James Bond, which will almost always be guaranteed an additional film, should already begin lining up their script for the subsequent film before the previous film has even been released. Script revisions can (and should) be done if any carried over elements from the prior film into the current script needed tweaking. The film should lock down the roles of Bond, M, and Leiter far in advance and production should begin within a year for the next film to be released two calendar years later.

Do I blame Spider-Man's reboot woes entirely on long gaps between production of sequels? Not entirely. I do see it as an industry wide problem with studios unable to keep their shit together, especially when it comes to handling franchises. It really should not be that hard. They used to be able to do this with a lot more ease in the past. What is happening?

Lost Season Three Revisited

Season Three continues the epic storyline with Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Emilie de Ravin, and many many more.

The first time I watched Season three, I felt that it started off VERY poorly. It in no way felt like it had come off the high point created by the end of the previous season, "Live Together, Die Alone." It almost felt like the series had lost focus.

Looking back, my issues probably stem from the fact that the "mini-season" was a sham. The story is left hanging mid-stream, and doesn't provide any reasonable conclusion or cliffhanger to wrap the "mini-season" up. Perhaps it was just a misnomer, perhaps the people who decided upon that name just didn't care and wanted a cheap answer to explain why they were airing 6 episodes and then taking a three month break before returning with new stories.

If I had some control over the show, I would have put the Jack centric episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land" as the "finale" and started the season off with the Desmond centric episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes." Desmond's episode is by far the most notable and fantastic episode of the season, it features Flashbacks from my favorite character of the series.

Even though I found "Stranger in a Strange Land" incredibly weak, with an unnecessary and boring flashback, and seemed to only exist to give a guest starring role to irrelevant-but-somehow-notable actress Bai Ling, the episode at least had a half-way interesting on-island story, with some relatively crucial and interesting information provided to the audience. And no, I'm not talking about explaining what Jack's stupid tattoo stood for, which the producers claimed that hard-core Lost fans cared about for some reason. "Stranger in a Strange Land" also provided a real conclusion to the Hydra Island storyline, with Jack finally accepting his place with the Others and traveling off into the horizon, shrouded in shadow as the episode ended. I found this ending leaps and bounds more exciting than "Kate, RUN!" which served as the actual "cliffhanger" of that mini-season when it first aired.

However, with all the trash talk I give towards "Stranger in a Strange Land," it is not the biggest crime that the season thrust upon the viewers. This season introduced people who I would consider the least developed "main" characters EVER introduced into a popular television series in at least a decade. Niki and Paulo, two people added to the regular cast at the start of Season three have no real introduction, they're just *there* one day. "Wait, who the hell are these people?" is what went through my mind the first time I noticed them on screen. They never really develop beyond frustrating, annoying, and terrible characters. I do almost feel bad for the "Brazilian Tom Cruse," who was introduced by the heads of the series as a huge player to the show, only to bomb horribly. Their arc was only marginally resolved in their final episode, "Expose," which turned out to be a really fantastic dark episode.

The season really picks up after "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (aside from my previous mention of the terribly pointless "Stranger in a Strange Land"). From that point on the season is terrific and almost reaches the quality and consistency presented in Season one.

The season finale, "Through the Looking Glass," is riveting, exciting, and shocking. Charlie, a character that I pretty much despised most of season two, and even the first episodes of season three, was fully redeemed in the end. I finally feel like he's grown completely into his character, and his reaction when being beaten by Greta and Bonnie is wonderful. The season ends in something that I can only compare to some mobster's baseball bat slamming into my gut after I neglected to pay someone protection money.

The best episodes of the season were "Through the Looking Glass," "The Man Behind the Curtain," and "Flashes Before Your Eyes." The worst episodes of the season were "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Left Behind" (side note: why the hell don't they shower and change their clothes at the Barracks before heading back?).

The final season returns February 2nd.

Been There, Done That.

One has Dharma beer, the other has Tricia Helfer.

Lost Season Two Revisited

Well Season Two of Lost kicked off with cast, Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Dominic Monaghan, Emilie de Ravin, and many many more opening up Pandora's Box, and a plethora of new and exciting storylines.

When I first watched season two, I felt it started off relatively strong, with a number of interesting twists at the very beginning of the season. Unfortunately the show suffered somewhat in its sophomore season, which I thought became obvious towards the middle of the season.

I also thought that "The Other 48 Days" was one the best stories the series aired, which in retrospect I can't agree with watching it again. It wasn't as entertaining as I found it the first time around, and it felt like the entire episode was just a recap of scenes we've already seen. This is disheartening because we haven't seen any of these scenes yet. When first watching the season, I thought the "Henry Gale" arc was pretty terrible. It was drawn out, frustrating, and I thought it was slapped together without thinking more than two episodes ahead.

Well as many may know, this character is not who he seems and takes part of the spotlight in future seasons. This character wasn't originally planned, and if not for Michael Emerson's portrayal, the character would never have been. In retrospect it is an even better set up for season 3 than I originally thought.

My biggest qualm with the season is Michelle Rodriguez. I've never been particularly fond of her in any of her other work. Her characters are generally abrasive, annoying, and I can't take her "tough guy" attitude. So it came to no surprise that Ana Lucia comes off harsh, unlikable, and irritating to me. Partly Michelle Rodriguez's acting, and partly the writing. Her introduction backfires and the character never really is able to shake the initial perceptions cast on her by the audience until her swansong flashback episode.

A joke that stated to gain more and more momentum by this point was that nothing ever happens in the episodes. That you could watch the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes of an episode and not miss anything. People appear to keep secrets for no particular reason other than to spring them on the unsuspecting party in the closing moments of an episode. Some of the flashbacks this season were pretty, well, underwhelming. Kate's back story had been sucked dry and Jack, well Jack's are starting to look a bit thin. Thankfully the introduction of additional characters and on-island flashbacks added enough meat to the season to keep things fresh.

The Dharma Initiative is introduced. This puzzle really adds to Lost's mythos, a wonderful introduction that pays off quite a lot down the road in subsequent seasons and explains away some "oddities" that appear on an otherwise deserted island.

The best episodes of the season were "Man of Science, Man of Faith," "Lockdown," "?," and "Live Together, Die Alone." The worst of the season were "Fire + Water" and "Dave."