'LOST,' which way will it go?
Now we know how the castaways feel.
After stranding viewers for three months, Lost returns Wednesday, looking to bring back its audience — and momentum — with 16 consecutive episodes in a new time slot (ABC, 10 p.m. ET/PT).
Producers promise some of the best episodes yet after a six-episode fall arc in which ratings slipped and grumbling was heard from some fans and TV critics who previously had offered little but praise.
Ironically, the unusual split season, created to eliminate reruns in response to fan complaints, probably led to new ones about the cramped fall schedule and an in-season hiatus so long that the show seemed more like "Dharma & Break."
Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof say some individual episodes were top-shelf, but they agree that the split season created structural difficulties in telling the serialized story.
Now, however, they're looking at the bright side of the hiatus: a new episode every Wednesday through May, offering the chance to re-engage fans and make the fall episodes look better in retrospect. Lindelof offers a sports analogy: "I feel like we're a great football team that had a somewhat spotty preseason record, but now that we're playing for keeps, it's time to kick (butt) and take names."
The long hiatus has heightened anticipation about Lost's return. Viewers await the stories; ABC and producers await viewers' reaction. Some fans say Lost is at a crossroads, but Cuse and Lindelof don't believe the third-season drama is at any more of a pivotal point than it is each week.
"If we were to view it in those terms, it would be hard for us to do our jobs. I can't think of a single, mythologically based show that has been this successful for this long, so this is all gravy," Cuse says. "We're just trying to do what we've always done: tell stories that we think are cool and exciting."
Back at the beach
The fall arc created an unexpected clash of expectations with too little time to tell too many stories.
Cuse and Lindelof felt the need to pick up the story of Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway), who were kidnapped by The Others in last May's cliffhanger. They also wanted to shine some light on The Others, whose shadowy presence has raised questions since Season 1.
That left little time for longtime favorites such as Hurley, Charlie, Claire and Sayid. Some fans say they were thrilled to learn about The Others, while others missed the original castaways.
"Seeing The Others was great, especially with the surprise beginning, that they have this cozy village, and the Lostaways have interrupted their seemingly idyllic life," says Matthew Hoskins, 32, of Orlando. "But keeping the first six episodes so Others-centric was a detriment to the character development of the Lostaways still on the beach."
In retrospect, the producers realized the fall arc was being viewed not as the first part of a whole season, but as a mini-season in itself.
"What I don't think we anticipated was the amount of focus there would be on the six episodes themselves," Cuse says. There was an expectation that "they had to be an encapsulation of everything people liked about the show."
After Wednesday's episode, which picks up the thread of the Nov. 8 cliffhanger involving Kate's and Sawyer's potential escape from The Others' neighboring island, the story will become "beach-centric" with familiar faces on Feb. 14, Lindelof says. For viewers who want to escape The Others' "Alcatraz" altogether, he promises the story will get off that island after Feb. 21.
Some fans question the continuous addition of characters (including last year's Tailies, nearly all of whom have met their demise). But Lost's actors say new characters invigorate the island community.
"We need fresh blood. We need new people just to shake us up," says Yunjin Kim, who plays Sun. "I think The Others have been a great addition, and the Tailies were great to have. The story opens up a lot more with new characters coming in vs. us."
Lost averaged 17.8 million viewers in the fall, down 19% from the comparable weeks in 2005, when the show hit a ratings peak (22 million) after winning an Emmy and revealing the inside of the mysterious hatch. CBS' Criminal Minds, which hadn't beaten Lost before, has topped it twice this season.
Nevertheless, Lost remains a hit for ABC and a potent draw for younger viewers. Through Sunday, it ranked eighth for the season in viewers and fifth in the 18-49 demographic coveted by advertisers.
Pent-up interest should mean a large audience Wednesday, says Laura Caraccioli of media buyer Starcom. Ratings for the second week "will be very telling."
And ABC has taken measures to prevent a repeat of last spring's ratings decline by eliminating reruns and moving Lost an hour later to get it away from American Idol.
Brad Adgate of Horizon Media says those moves should help but wonders if the long hiatus will hurt viewership. "Will they like the story line? Has it picked up a little bit? That's the ultimate test."
He says Lost also brings an affluent audience and prestige to the network, much like The West Wing's early years on NBC. "It's probably lost some of the luster of the first year, but it's still one of the shows that define ABC."
The committed stay loyal
The most devoted fans remain intensely faithful and say the ratings drop consists primarily of casual viewers who lack the commitment to keep up with the show's complexities. Some of those core fans, who congregate at websites such as thefuselage.com, enjoyed the fall episodes and say the show remains at the top of its game.
"It was great to see the perspective of The Others at the time of the crash. The impression we fans had of who and what The Others were has drastically changed," says Tom Ryan, 34, of Bloomfield, N.J.
But Amy Bauer, who moderates a peer-reviewed online journal, The Society for the Study of Lost (loststudies.com), feels the series has lost some sizzle and is at a creative crossroads, though it can still regain its bearings. "I will eagerly watch the 16-episode conclusion of Season 3, but the show as it stands does not inspire the fervent fan interest I felt in the first two seasons, much less the kind of Internet discussion and theorizing I saw in Seasons 1 and 2," she says.
With the island mystery on the sidelines, NBC's Heroes, another serialized drama, has been grabbing the spotlight. The long break also afforded Lost fans, perhaps TV's most devout, extra time to deconstruct episodes and expand complaints.
"The three months to chew it over has exacerbated a lot of these issues," Cuse says. He and Lindelof say that many complaints likely will be resolved if Lost runs all 22 episodes consecutively next season, like Fox's 24. ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson says there's a good chance that will happen, though that would mean an even longer break — as many as eight months — between seasons.
For all the praise and criticism, fans, producers and the stars are pleased Lost is back. "I'm a fan of the show as well as a participant," says Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Jin. "I'm used to having my Wednesday nights anchored by watching Lost, because it's something we do as a family at home."
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