TV Series: Lost

Over the last week I've watched the fifth season of "Lost". After the relatively dull fourth season it's picked up the pace again. There are many more of the Wow Effects that I experienced in the second and third seasons. After each cliffhanger I couldn't wait to see the next episode. It would have been torture if I'd watched the series on television when it was first broadcast. A whole week between episodes? Impossible!

The fifth season is an explanatory season. The puzzles of the previous seasons are being resolved, one by one. Not all of them. There are enough mysteries left to keep me waiting for the sixth season. I'm not sure how much of the concept behind the series comes from J. J. Abrams himself and how much from the co-creators, in particular Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. There might be interviews I can find online that explain the creative process, but I won't read them now because I want to avoid potential spoilers. Nevertheless, I consider "Lost" to be J. J. Abrams' grand opus. However many other great films and TV series he has been responsible for, "Lost" is his legacy, it's what he'll be remembered for.

The way things are now slotting together so logically proves to me that the series was mapped out beforehand. A lot of fans claim that "Lost" changed and got weirder after the first season, but that's a mistake they made from their limited perspective. J. J. Abrams knew the direction he was going from the beginning. This is in contrast to typical drama series like "Supernatural" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", which are planned from season to season, and nobody knows what will happen next year. The only other series I can think of that was so efficiently mapped out is "Earth: Final Conflict", which had a five-year story arc that was precisely mapped out 30 years before the first episode aired.

I intend to lay in a pause before I watch the sixth season, but not for too long. I want to know how it ends.