It's a forgone conclusion that a number of the comicsblog's dabblers are die hard Lost fans. So Dabbler's here to tell anyone who hasn't heard the news (granted, it's less than a day old) that ABC officially announced that the final season of Lost will begin February 2nd, 2010.
The network hasn't confirmed if their premiere series will take a rumored hiatus for the duration of this winter's Olympics, but they have verified that Lost's final season will consist of 18 episodes. Four of those episodes will belong to the show's season premiere and series finale, each of which is a two-hour event. The network may even add a third hour to the February 2nd schedule by including a Lost recap hour as a crash-course in last season's events.
Which, if you haven't gotten 'lost' in the Fall shuffle, you'll recall include the sightings of previously dead characters on the island. Even our best guess as to what's going on is likely way off target, but we do know that resurrection via cameos galore is a staple ratings trick. Of course, this isn't the final season of ER (yaaawn) that we're talking about -- it's Lost. Unless they're getting greedy or have something to worry about, ratings tricks aren't needed. Especially when the show's fabric is practically woven with them.
If storylines were tunics, then Lost's would certainly be a full metal jacket. The cumulative TV Geek has gotten off on the mysteries wrapped in enigmas that drive every hour and have earned the show its title for five years running, and expectations will be higher than Anne Heche on a California highway come February's opener. Lost is well aware its viewers are no fools, and they know the package they unwrap this spring needs to be the mother of all pay-offs.
So the biggest Lost question in our mind is whether or not they'll deliver the money shot when the series wraps in May, or if Lost has gotten lost. Clearly the show's been at the top of the TV game for a long, long time -- and its been just as clearly misleading. With but 18 episodes left, Damon Lindelof and JJ Abrams have a multitude of complexities to both explain and resolve. Those are easy; the tough part is to do so in a manner consistent with Lost's internal logic and narrative precedent.
Because that's just good story-telling, something which JJ Abrams obviously believes in and executes quite well. The build-up to Lost's crisis point has been calculated and intense, and now the fun really begins. As the show's reputation rides with every sixth season episode, the promise of good television awaits all.
That's not to say that I don't harbor mischievous desires for Lost to take an easy out. Many good stories eventually find themselves way up a tree they can't climb down from, and Lost is several rungs above even the worst of those offenders. Maybe they'll climax and climb down with grace and skill, or maybe the Island'll just be another Bobby Ewing bad dream.
Seriously, if somebody dug up an old IBM, pulled it apart, and discovered God living in its CPU, who wouldn't be in Heaven? Lost's whole setting is like some tropical Purgatory, anyway. It would fit, and what's crazy is that for Lost, even an ultimate sell-out ending like that makes some kind of sense.
One way or another, in seven months time, somebody's going to get voted off that island. And then things will start getting ugly.
