Chronologically lost.by MLucero

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October 22, 2009: Posted August 20, 2009, 5:39 PM EST: Although Lost's fifth season is the weakest season yet, in a show that until here got continually better and better, the episodes which comprise it are still head and shoulders above almost any other television storytelling out there. The season follows the various groups of characters who have been separated, in both time and space, from each other by the events of season four. When Benjamin Linus turned the frozen wheel, it was knocked off its axis, causing the Island itself to become unhinged from the normal flow of Time, and to skip erratically through history. Strangely, however, it seems it is not the physical Island that moves, but rather the people on it. Those left behind (Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, and the freighter's science team) are thrown violently around through the Island's history, not without a few casualties. It is John Locke who must take action to save his people, despite the suspicious nature of those giving him advice. Meanwhile, upon meeting Ben in the funeral home shown in season 3's finale, Jack decides to convince the Oceanic Six, his fellow rescuees, to return to the Island and answer the call of Destiny. Jack is now a believer, and the story of how that shift from skepticism to belief occured is explored in this season. Eventually most of the characters return to the Island, but in the heyday of the Dharma Initiative, 1977. There Jack and Daniel Faraday hatch a suicidal plan which, they believe, will save them all. Season 5 is exciting, revealing, and, as always, puzzling, though there are certainly more answers revealed in these episodes than ever before. The finale, for example, reveals to us the elusive and oft-invoked Jacob, the implications of whose motivations have the potential to redefine almost everything the show has ever shown us. And the ending of the season is one of the boldest, and most frustrating, story decisions ever made in a television show. However, this season has more than its share of flaws, mostly in storytelling logic. For example, is it the Island or the characters who are moving in Time, and if the latter, where has the Island in the present gone? Why did the Island need to be moved in the first place, if, as a midseason episode suggests, it was always moving anyway? And why does Jack believe his destiny on the Island is to make sure he never got to the Island in the first place? These problems, as well as the unsympathetic character motivations in the final few episodes (almost everyone ends up motivated by despair and faithlessness rather than hope and trust), can be viewed as -- depending on one's viewpoint -- the major fractures in a great show's weakest season, or else as the operatic and sinister down notes that sound before a rise to final glory. Whatever ends up being the case, Lost has all but outdone itself again, consistently upped the stakes, and delivered a story which has us salivating for the next -- and final -- season.

This review was written about the DVD Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit edition.

Chronologically lostby MLucero

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September 02, 2009: Although Lost's fifth season is the weakest season yet, in a show that until here got continually better and better, the episodes which comprise it are still head and shoulders above almost any other television storytelling out there. The season follows the various groups of characters who have been separated, in both time and space, from each other by the events of season four. When Benjamin Linus turned the frozen wheel, it was knocked off its axis, causing the Island itself to become unhinged from the normal flow of Time, and to skip erratically through history. Strangely, however, it seems it is not the physical Island that moves, but rather the people on it. Those left behind (Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, and the freighter's science team) are thrown violently around through the Island's history, not without a few casualties. It is John Locke who must take action to save his people, despite the suspicious nature of those giving him advice. Meanwhile, upon meeting Ben in the funeral home shown in season 3's finale, Jack decides to convince the Oceanic Six, his fellow rescuees, to return to the Island and answer the call of Destiny. Jack is now a believer, and the story of how that shift from skepticism to belief occured is explored in this season. Eventually most of the characters return to the Island, but in the heyday of the Dharma Initiative, 1977. There Jack and Daniel Faraday hatch a suicidal plan which, they believe, will save them all. Season 5 is exciting, revealing, and, as always, puzzling, though there are certainly more answers revealed in these episodes than ever before. The finale, for example, reveals to us the elusive and oft-invoked Jacob, the implications of whose motivations have the potential to redefine almost everything the show has ever shown us. And the ending of the season is one of the boldest, and most frustrating, story decisions ever made in a television show. However, this season has more than its share of flaws, mostly in storytelling logic. For example, is it the Island or the characters who are moving in Time, and if the latter, where has the Island in the present gone? Why did the Island need to be moved in the first place, if, as a midseason episode suggests, it was always moving anyway? And why does Jack believe his destiny on the Island is to make sure he never got to the Island in the first place? These problems, as well as the unsympathetic character motivations in the final few episodes (almost everyone ends up motivated by despair and faithlessness rather than hope and trust), can be viewed as -- depending on one's viewpoint -- the major fractures in a great show's weakest season, or else as the operatic and sinister down notes that sound before a rise to final glory. Whatever ends up being the case, Lost has all but outdone itself again, consistently upped the stakes, and delivered a story which has us salivating for the next -- and final -- season.

This review was written about the Blu-ray Color / Wide Screen edition.

I Also Recommend: Lost: The Complete Third Season - The Unexplored Experience, Lost - Season 4, Lost - The Complete First Season, Lost - Season 2: Extended Experience, Finding Lost - Season Five: The Unofficial Guide.