Because You Left; The Lie

Tonight's two-hour premiere of Lost's fifth season was entertaining, but I thought it lacked the punch of last season's premiere. What held back tonight's installment was its relative lack of emotional heft.

On the plus side, it was certainly a feast for the intellect. Tonight was a big reward for anyone who's been following Lost all along, and in all its various venues. There were connections to the "reality game" of several seasons earlier, references to the mobisodes from last summer (also found on the season 4 DVDs), and more connections to past episodes than I can count.

Mysterious time guru lady from Desmond's first time hopping episode? (Third season, not fourth season.) She's back. Want to see the moment the Nigerian plane crashed on the Island? Here ya go, fans. Dr. Halliwax? Here he is at last -- in person, not on a decades-old video. Throughout the two hours, you could trade back and forth moments where you were ahead of the plot because of your knowlegde of the show's history, and moments where you were surprised by some unexpected bit being roped into it all. Assuming you had a flow chart handy to track it all.

But despite having that level of entertainment in abundance, there weren't many strong moments between characters. The reunion of Kate and Sun, Hurley receiving aid from an imaginary Ana-Lucia... and not much else. As I'm sure I've said before, my main interest in Lost is for the powerful drama and character-driven stories they tell. Tonight's episode wasn't about any of that.

Of course, it would be hard to match a creative high like season four. Not that I'm writing off season five based on just two hours. For one, I did enjoy tonight's installment, even if it wasn't the "brand of Lost" I like best. But more importantly, I acknowledge there's simply a lot of story in motion right now, and a need to get through some material before the emotional drama will have room to breathe around the intellectual drama.

Regardless, I'm glad to have Lost back.