Feb 18, 2010

[TV] Lost: Season 5

Lost: Season 5I've always had a bit of a soft spot for time travel and parallel worlds in terms of science fiction stories. I can't quite put my finger on it - it's probably something that started when I first read William F. Wu's series, Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time. It was a nice combination of what remains my one of my favorite concepts, robots, merged with time travel.

Time travel is never easy and there seems to be thousands of interpretations and speculations of how time travel might work and the potential implications of such ventures into our past or our future. Some same time is fluid and easy to shift into new directions while others still postulate that time is constant and no matter what you change in the past, the universe does what it can to restore a sense of "order" by making sure key events persist and still occur. Regardless of whatever school of time travel theory you subscribe to, you have to admit that it's always a fascinating subject.

It isn't often that time travel is presented in interesting and new ways, most especially on network television.

The fifth season of Lost has the castaways and other residents of the island in for a pretty wild ride. On the one hand, a select few now known around the world as the Oceanic Six have escaped the island and are now trying to figure out how to live normal lives. At the same time, all those left behind on the island have started to experience flashes that send them back and forth in time but always remaining on the mysterious island. As the flashes continue, so does the increased strain on their bodies. It is eventually revealed that the only way that the flashes will stop is for the Oceanic Six to return to the island. Otherwise, all those who were left behind are doomed to die.

MADRID, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 10:  A general view o...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This season is a tad harder to follow than the others given the inconsistent time jumps that replace the familiar flashbacks of old. You never really know where the castaways are going to end up next. However this back and forth storytelling does end up revealing a lot more about one of the lingering mysteries of the show - the Dharma Initiative and more details related to their struggle against the Hostiles, who are the residents of the island that viewers know better as the Others.

Despite being separated from his allies on the island, Ben (Michael Emerson) really did shine in this season and thus it totally makes sense why he won the Emmy for his performance. Emerson's intensity and command of a scene is something else and he's certainly a very difficult act ton follow in case anyone ever ventures to try and duplicate what he did for the show.

There's all the usual development of the individual characters on their respective plot paths however at the same time bringing them into interesting new directions. We all get to see the shift in Jack (Matthew Fox) from being the logical leader to this apathetic follower. We get to see Sun (Yunjin Kim) become a much stronger character and worthy of the legacy of her father. Oh, and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) fall in love with Sawyer (Josh Holloway). Yeah, she gets all the guys.

As difficult as this season was to understand at some points, it's certainly a great one and definitely a clear sign of the escalating drama leading up to the show's final season.

Lost Season 5 deserves 4 Dharma Initiative initiation videos out of 5.

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