Can "Lost" find its way to avoiding TV's dread sophomore slump?
The vast wasteland of the tube's past is littered with flashes that didn't pan out post-first-season success, "Twin Peaks" being preeminent among them. David Lynch's 1990 ABC sensation failed to pay off its central mystery - Who killed Laura Palmer? - soon enough for some fans, or clearly enough for others, when it finally got around to digging deeper. Simply setting up a mesmerizing whodunit seemed to be the point for moviemaker Lynch, who may have been caught flatfooted when his unlikely pilot got picked up and turned into a mini-hit.
J.J. Abrams should know better. The co-creator of "Lost" as well as its production mastermind (winning an Emmy Sunday for directing the pilot), he's been down the continuing-saga road before. Abrams previously crafted four seasons of The WB college chronicle "Felicity" and another four of ABC's "Alias," which starts its fifth season a week from Thursday. He and "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof (who accepted the series' best-drama Emmy Sunday night) also started laying the groundwork for the second season before the first finished up.
Last May's three-hour cliffhanger dangled several tantalizing new story threads in front of us:
The island castaways were fleeing a predicted onslaught by The Others, the purported evil force feared by the long-marooned Frenchwoman Rousseau (Mira Furlan). She had taken the unnamed baby son of Claire (Emilie de Ravin). The baby was eventually retrieved by Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and later called Aaron by his grateful mom. When Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) was reunited with Claire, we saw the ex-rock star/junkie had also retrieved some of the heroin stash from the smugglers' light plane found by Sayid. As the jumbo jet survivors fled inland, supernatural happenings were stepping up their murky attack in the form of shadowy raptor-like swoopings and scary rumbles.
The hatch of the in-ground tank had finally been dynamited open by Jack (Matthew Fox), Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly), with Hurley (Jorge Garcia) lurking in the background, distressed after realizing the tank was inscribed with the same inscrutably unlucky numbers as his lottery win (among other ill-fated occurrences). They peered down inside the hatch to see the mystery contents, which were ... (unrevealed, upsetting many "Lost" devotees).
The raft built by Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) hit rough seas when it ran into human contact, in the form of a boat staffed by ruffians who demanded, and took with them, Michael's son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Before speeding away, they blew up the raft, and we lost sight of Sawyer (Josh Holloway), who we know was packing heat.
Locke was getting yet more mystical. The miraculously (and secretly) healed paraplegic had almost been dragged whole down a "creature" hole during one of their supernatural attacks, and had even pleaded with Jack to let him go when the doctor latched on to save him. "Survival is all relative, Jack," Locke had pronounced, alluding to a "chain of events" and the need for faith in the face of Jack's confidence in science. "We're gonna have a Locke problem," Jack fatefully warned Kate.
Tonight's second-season premiere (at 9 on Ch. 7) has a telling title - "Man of Science, Man of Faith." (ABC did not make the episode available to critics in advance.) The network's description says "one of the castaways is chosen to descend into the mysterious hatch, and Shannon [Maggie Grace] stumbles upon a shockingly familiar face in the jungle." Joining the regular cast is Michelle Rodriguez ("The Fast and the Furious") as Ana Lucia, who had a drink with Jack in the airport during a season-finale flashback - and told him she was sitting in the back of the plane, a section from which we haven't met survivors yet. Also added is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Adebisi on "Oz"). ABC calls his character "the mysterious island man."
Still need to play catchup? The first season of "Lost" is now out on DVD.
- By Diane Werst, Newsday
|
09-20-2005
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