What Once was Lost, Now is ... Better

I was convinced Lost "jumped the shark" about halfway through season two. The folks from the tail end of the plane were being busted for DUIs in real life and simultaneously written off the show, or ignored, willy nilly, the mysteries were coming at us fast and incoherently, and the central questions of the first season were largely ignored. Despite the purple sky explosion, I had lost interest by the fourth or fifth episode of season three. The drama and mystery of the show were gone, seemingly forever.

Lost has recaptured its magic. With the the new mysteries of Jacob, the explanation of what happened to the Dharma initiative and what the "hostiles" have been up to since the Oceanic survivors landed on the island, and Locke's evolution, we're seeing a renaissance in Lost that is fairly unprecedented.

I can't recall the last time a show has so stupendously recaptured its lost magic, if ever. Alias tried with a season four reboot of the Sydney v. Sloane dynamic: it failed. Moonlighting tried to re-separate Maddy and David: it failed spectactularly. Typically, once a show loses that indefinable...something...it's gone forever.

The Lost finale was brilliant, and made me weep for what could have been with Heroes and Veronica Mars (which had a great finale, but one that essentially erased the events of season three and made us pine for a season four that will never arrive). A "future flash"? Didn't see that coming, especially when oxycodone-d Jack begins telling the other doctors to bring his father down. The coffin mystery had me screaming "What's in the box!!" at the screen. I'm guessing it's Locke or Sawyer.

I'm still not sure what the show's all about, and I'm hesitant to guess; I'll just wait for the big reveals in the coming seasons. And, once again, I actually care about that happening.