'Lost’ back in full stride
Wednesday, after a momentum-shattering 13-week hiatus, ABC’s “Lost” will be found.
But will viewers still care, and tune in? And if they do, will they get swept back into the riptide of what was once TV’s hottest water-cooler show?
They ought to.
The returning installment is exciting enough, serves up some valuable information, provides at least one surprise, and, before the hour is up, engineers an escape from the adjacent island.
But is all this arriving too late?
ABC certainly hopes not.
The original plan was to show six episodes of “Lost” to launch the season, then hold the time slot with a run of the new series “Day Break,” then return with “Lost”: two popular serialized shows, passing off to one another like runners in a relay team.
The obvious flaw in ABC’s plan, though, was that “Day Break” was a stupid idea for a TV series from the start. After a few weeks of increasingly dwindling audience levels that became obvious even to executives at ABC, “Day Break” was scrapped. Filling an hour on Wednesday for a while was an even worse debacle, “Show Me the Money.”
After those blunders, ABC has made one key course correction. Instead of returning “Lost” at 8, putting it opposite the “American Idol” black hole on Fox, ABC has shifted “Lost” to 9. It’s preceding the return, Wednesday at 8, with a one-hour synopsis special, which is not only smart, but necessary.
Otherwise, after three months of inattention, who’s supposed to remember that Ben is getting spinal surgery from Jack, who has hijacked the surgery to facilitate an escape by fellow captives Sawyer and Kate?
With most viewers watching “Idol,” that summary will go unseen. That’s one problem with this week’s relaunch. Another is that, for the entire hour, the trio of captive islanders (Matthew Fox’s Jack, Josh Holloway’s Sawyer and Evangeline Lilly’s Kate) are the only original crash survivors seen.
Fans who have been waiting to see Locke, Hurley, Claire and the rest will have to wait a while longer.
But if you’re enough of a fan to tune in, you won’t be disappointed.
The flashbacks this week feature Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) explaining how she got involved with the Others in the first place. New characters are introduced, loyalties shift and Sawyer gets to unfurl not only a makeshift sail, but a whole raft of new nicknames.
As for the stunner — well, it hints at both the reach and the power of those in charge of the island, and comes suddenly enough to make you lurch forward in your seat.
If only “Lost,” in returning to TV, had moved as quickly.
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