Lost – Season 4

Archived review

Now this is more like it. Perhaps the most surprising thing I've seen this year is Lost's return to form, given how a lot of people had given up on the show for laying on the questions without answering any. The best thing that happened to this show was last year's announcement of an end date, as it brought about the need to have a sense of purpose to everything that follows as the show hurtles towards its end in two years' time. The second best thing to happen was the new storytelling format that has permanently shaken things up. Through the inventive use of revealing flash forwards (that ends, one presumes, with the timeline shifting about three years forwards to establish us back in our 'present' day…confusing I know!), we now know of several people who actually make it off the island and how they managed it.

This is one show that last year's writers' strike didn't manage to screw up; In fact it helped a great deal. The season, admittedly only planned to consist of 16 episodes anyway, was cut down to a leaner 14 episodes and the lack of space for 'filler' material made for one of the most tightly-plotted, consistently intriguing and 'complete' seasons of any show I can think of. The writers even managed to pull off things that they had previously got wrong. After the embarrassing inclusion of the useless characters Nikki and Paulo in the third season (and their subsequent deaths, admittedly an entertaining admission of error), I was concerned to hear of the introduction of a whopping four new characters this year, particularly since there would be even less screentime to give to them. However, unlike previous additions, these guys played central to the whole rescue storyline and made a good impression straight away. Chopper pilot Frank and Oxford physicist Dan (Faraday, not Warren) particularly shone, especially in the fantastic time-travel episode The Constant.

Have there been faults? Surprisingly, I can't recall that many. Clearly flashbacks have gotten a bit stale, and the few episodes that reverted back to this format were generally weaker (although gotta love the misdirection in the Jin/Sun episode!). There was also one completely embarrassing 'action' scene where faceless survivor after faceless survivor idiotically run out into gunfire and get mown down, but this blunder was more than made up for by the fantastic fight scene between Sayid and Keamy in the finale. In fact, in a review that is tracking the show's evolution rather than the show itself, it would be easy to overlook the consistently amazing production values this show has; Even the weaker episodes can be enjoyable for Michael Giacchino's rousing score and the exotic Hawaiian locations. It is without a doubt the prettiest show on television, and a must watch in HD. I'm clearly looking forward to this show's return next year. Like the first season, my anticipation also comes with the slight concern of 'How can you top that?' and in truth, they probably won't be able to. Then again, Lost has been anything but predictable.