Lost is finally back after a hiatus of epic proportions, and I'm sure after watching the episode, you need to express how you felt about the episode, and discuss the finer points of the show with like-minded individuals.

Good news! You can connect with other Lostaways! Please check out the Lost-TV Forums for all the latest news, observations, theories, and nitpicks. Come on in, we don't bite! And of course, feel free to discuss the season premiere. Make your presence felt and your thoughts known... Register. It's good for you. (10:56 PM)

The fourth season of Lost finally premieres tonight at 9/8c on ABC. The episode, entitled "The Beginning of the End," is described as such: Feeling that their rescue is close at hand, the survivors don't know whether or not to believe Charlie's final message that the people claiming to liberate them are not who they seem to be. The episode is directed by Jack Bender and written by Damon Lindelof and Calrton Cuse.

Speaking of Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of the series has this to say to his fans visiting Lost-TV: "All I can say is that it means the world to us that you're about to watch the 73rd hour of the show and you're still on board. It's you guys that make us sprinkle the extra fairy dust on every script with hopes of kickstarting something in your imagination... or even your heart. Let the games begin!!!" (11:55 AM)

Dale and Susan Burkhardt don't watch "Lost," they inhale it. Since the island drama debuted in 2004, the Antioch couple has sucked up every suspenseful morsel it has had to offer and figured they knew the show inside and out.

But even they were baffled by the strange images emblazoned on their TV screen during last May's gasp-inducing season finale.

Why was a frighteningly distraught -- and bearded -- Jack (Matthew Fox) popping pills like Tic Tacs? Whose tragic death had drawn him to an empty funeral home? And what the heck was he doing off the island, with Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and emphatically insisting, "We have to go back!"?

As it turned out, the flashback they thought they were seeing was actually a tantalizing flash-forward that portended a rescue for at least some of the embattled survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 and set the stage for all sorts of juicy possibilities....

..."It (the flash-forward) was really a game-changer for a lot of people," says Ren "Xan" Robles, the webmaster for http://www.lost-tv.com. "It definitely has me excited for this season."

But before we delve into this season, we thought we'd obsess some more over the show's startling curveball. We called upon fans and experts to share their theories...

...Who's matched up with Kate?

After meeting Jack at the airport, Kate is in a hurry to return home. "He's going to be wondering where I am," she says. But who is he?

"We want to believe it's Sawyer, but that's too obvious so it's probably not," Stafford says. "Whoever it is, the mention of him made Jack bristle. "Clearly, he still loves her."

Robles thinks it's someone we haven't met yet. "Kate isn't the type to settle down right away, and I think once she gets off the island, she'll do everything she can to escape that reality as well."

But this all leads to another question from Stafford: "Why is Kate free anyway? Shouldn't she be in prison?"

Who else made it off the island?

Producers have let slip that Jack and Kate weren't the only ones to make it back to civilization. Who else will be revealed over the next eight episodes, including one in Thursday's opener.

"I think it will be those who have something to look forward to upon leaving," Robles says. "Most of the castaways who have died have generally made peace with their pressing issues. I definitely think Sun (Yunjin Kim), and possibly Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), and Claire will make it off with their respective offspring. Maybe Hurley (Jorge Garcia), because he still has family and friends on the other side. And Sayid (Naveen Andrews) still has something -- or someone (his soulmate, Nadia) -- to look forward to." Read the full story at Contra Costa Times. (11:07 PM)

When we last saw Michael Emerson's Ben Linus on "Lost," he was warning Jack that "every single living person on this island will be killed" if Jack called in that mysterious freighter. Jack blew him off, so now the boat is on its way and a rescue could be imminent. Or not.

Emerson took some time to chat about his enigmatic character and Season 3 of "Lost." (This is an extended version of the interview in today's Times, with, as they say, bonus material):

Q: What was your reaction to last season's startling flash-forward?

A: Those pages in my script were blank, so I wasn't aware of it until it aired. And I was confused like everyone else. It was like, "What's going on here? What's with that beard on Jack?" Then, when everything finally came together, it blew my mind. I just sat there thinking, this is a stroke of genius. What an inspired piece of writing.... When we were shooting the episode, you could see that Matthew (Fox) was really excited about something, but he couldn't talk about it....

Q: So where does the show go from here?

A: We take it and run with it. The writers don't leave it hanging. It's what the show is going to be about from here on out - mixing the flash-forwards in with the flashbacks. What was a pretty good show operating in two time zones now becomes an absolutely fascinating one operating in three. I think the show has really grown up and become more adult. It's really a kind of ambitious work of art.... Read the full story at TV Freak with Chuck Barney. (11:01 PM)

Boy, do we need this now.

Returning with a heart-stopping, perfectly pitched episode that fulfills all the promise of last season's stunner of a finale, Lost is an oasis in a strike-parched TV desert.

This is Lost on a fan-friendly fast-forward, offering a tense, emotional outing in which secrets are revealed, questions are answered — and yes, inevitably, new questions are raised.

We're back on the island, but it's an island (and a show) that is substantially changed. The castaways are in contact with their maybe rescuers, but we know everything won't go as planned, thanks to the series-shifting finale that sent us forward to a time when Jack and Kate are off the island and contemplating a return.

The ramifications of this ingenious stroke are immediately apparent in tonight's shocking opening scene. By altering its timelines, Lost has added another layer of storytelling to its arsenal, allowing the future to join the past and present while removing our certainty that off-island scenes always would go backward, not forward.... Read the full story at USA Today. (10:58 PM)

Henry Ian Cusick, with talent and a toned bod, turned Lost into a star turn. His mysterious portrayal of Desmond brought him powers of prophecy, and the only Emmy nomination for the series' third season.

Now, with the premiere episode of the enigmatic show's fourth season just days away, Cusick sat down with Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf to offer up what little dirt he could about the forthcoming episodes.

You're a pivotal part of this new season.

"Am I? I think the writers have done a fantastic job with Desmond. Desmond is central to many things on the island, but I think every character has an important role to play in the story. I'm delighted that Desmond has turned out to be such an interesting character."

Do you believe in your character's power to foresee the future?

"I think a lot of people throughout time have claimed this ability. And, it’s not that he does it with any certainty. He sort of sees flashes of a possible future."

"I'm a believer that people can have that, whether in your dreams or whether you're just very intuitive. So acting that isn't hard."

This season is going to be tense because so many people believe that it's possible that the castaways will be rescued and other people believe that the whole thing is a ruse.

"Exactly. The last we saw of Desmond, he had gotten the information from Charlie. Just as he died, Charlie warned him."

"I would guess that Desmond is pretty much in the camp, where he's not sure that they're here to help. At the same time, the boat is a means of rescue."

Do you know what happens next?

"I know up to episode eight. That's it.... Read the full story at Parade. (10:55 PM)

The Big Tease!
In which we usually attempt to impart some quasi-cryptic intel from Lost executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof about the next new episode. However, the storytellers-in-chief are currently on strike and unavailable for comment right now on the Jan. 31 season premiere. So, to whet your appetite — and to honor their words - I present you with a line of dialogue, penned by Messrs. Cuse and Lindelof. I leave it to you to find out who says it.

"I'm thinking of growing a beard."

Lost is back. Awesome.

The Lost Cheat Sheet
12 things that you need to remember about Lost in order to fully appreciate the premiere

Walt
Psychically enhanced son of Michael. At the end of the second season, he and his dad hopped on a boat and got away from the Island. But at the end of season 3, he reappeared on the Island, looking older and taller, beckoning a wounded Locke to climb out of the Dharma death pit. Kids say the darndest things. Especially creepy kids.... Read the full story at EW.com. (10:51 PM)

Lost. It's what the TV season has become for scripted shows as a result of the writers' strike.

Lost is also where viewers found themselves in the first half of last season's first-rate castaway series, as the story line sputtered.

But just as "Lost" returned to form with the final half of its third season, it returns with a wallop tonight after a nearly eight-month absence.

Not only does the show stand out boldly from the decimated TV landscape of reruns and reality shows with a new batch of highly anticipated, tightly scripted episodes, but its return also comes with the promise of a plot turn few castaway series can boast: being found.

Setting an ending point for the series in 2010, as producers did last year — dividing the final 48 chapters into three 16-episode seasons — has allowed its writers to give the remaining narrative shape.

Instead of endlessly offering unfulfilled hope amid a deepening quagmire of mystery, there is the ambition not just to tie up the story but also to fully explore its textures and character nuances before it ends.

And that comes with the exhilaration of adding a new dimension to the drama.... Read the full story at The Hartford Courant. (10:49 PM)

Filming "Lost" in Hawaii is no day at the beach, according to actor Michael Emerson.

"We shoot so much outdoors," Emerson said in a phone interview from his New York City home. The 53-year-old plays the castaway drama's über-villain Ben Linus, leader of the island-dwelling "Others.". "We shoot in the jungle, the mountains, often at night and in the rain. You have to deal with sunburn and the bugs and doing take after take, running through a jungle full of roots and holes. It is impossible to escape without some bumps and bruises."

That being said, Emerson is champing at the bit to get back on set to film the remaining eight episodes of the hit ABC series' fourth season. Production was halted after the first eight due to the writers strike.

Emerson shared his thoughts earlier this week on the strike, his bad guy reputation and the new season.... Read the full story at AZNightBuzz. (10:47 PM)

The television show with the never-ending mysteries is back.

"Lost," a series built on more questions than answers, returns to ABC tonight with the first of eight new episodes.

Fans have been rabid to know what followed the climactic events of the season three finale in May, and at 9 p.m., hopefully at least some of those mysteries will be explored. This is "Lost," so most fans know better than to expect too much enlightenment. A one-hour recap show at 8 p.m. will catch viewers up before the premiere.

Before moving into the next chapter in the lives of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, some local fans weighed in on the series and the possibilities in store for its characters.

One of the bigger surprises of the finale for Jordan Fisher of Rocky Mount was the show's first flash forward, which showed characters Jack Shephard and Kate Austen in the future off the island. In the scene, Jack tells Kate they need to return.

"It was nerve-racking because you don't know what is going to happen. ... You know they got off the island, but you just couldn't figure out why Jack wanted to go back or how they were getting back," said Fisher, a senior at Falls Road Baptist Church School.

The scene doesn't reveal who else might have made it off the island, including the person whose funeral Jack attended. Fans are left to play an elimination game while keeping in mind several characters who wanted to stay on the island, including John Locke, who can now walk after four years in a wheelchair, and Rose Nadler, whose cancer was cured there.

Back on the island, a more imminent mystery left open is whether the offshore freighter Jack contacted is coming to rescue the survivors or do them harm. Colleen Edmonston of Tarboro doesn't hold out much hope for the former.

"There has got to be some nefarious plan behind the tanker that shows up. It is just too ominous, everything surrounding it. There has not been too much good news," said Edmonston, a stay-at-home mom.... Read the full story at Rocky Mount Telegram. (10:44 PM)

The advance DVDs of the first two episodes in "Lost's" new season came from ABC with a list of details I'm not supposed to mention here.

Plot twists. Back stories. Certain matters of life and death. All of them intriguing and/or surprising and/or cool, and all best left to the show's own unfolding, magically real world.

So, no spoilers here.

But I will say that it all makes sense, in a "Lost"-ian kind of way.

Of course, polar bear remains turn up in the Tunisian desert. And, of course, that bear has a Dharma tag on the remnants of its collar. And the remains of Oceanic Flight 815 have been discovered -- on the floor of the ocean, with the bodies of its passengers all aboard -- even though we know the actual plane crashed onto a certain sinister-yet-magical island.

Don't even ask about the identities of the rescuers, whose motivations are, at best, complicated.

"Rescuing you and your people," one finally admits, "I can't say it's the primary objective."

We saw that coming. Just as we have come to understand that creating a series as consistently (and enjoyably) surprising as "Lost," which begins another season at 8 p.m. on Thursday, isn't the primary objective of commercial television networks such as ABC.

As the ongoing writers' strike -- and the recent glut of reality fare that might as well be "The Moment of Humiliation" and "Who Wants to Slap a Duck?" -- reminds us, it takes time, money and talent to create an imaginary world. Peopling it with vivid, wholly realized characters is even more complex, and spinning them all into a multi-layered, adventure-slash-paranormal fantasy-slash-philosophical treatise, well, that's close to priceless.

So is the giddy feeling that comes as the first moments of the fourth season flicker on the screen.... Read the full story at OregonLive.com. (10:41 PM)

Have we mentioned that the season premiere of Lost is Thursday? Oh, that's right. We can't stop talking about it. So it should come as no surprise that Vulture was thrilled when Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) found the time to dish about the upcoming episodes. The thoughtful New York stage vet talked at impressive length about those titillating flash-forwards, Ben's paternal instincts, and whether the spookiest villain on TV becomes a hero this season.

Damon Lindelof said, back in November, that the season's ending after the eighth episode due to the writers' strike would be "torturous" for fans. Do you feel the same way about that?
Well, yeah ... I wouldn't worry about it too much. I mean, the eight episodes we have are pretty damned entertaining. And whether it's by accident or craft, there is a pretty good button on the end of the eighth episode. I mean it's quite a shocking plot twist and cliffhanger. I think it would do in a pinch. I'm sure they have a master plan and some amazing story developments that we would love to get to, but I don't know what we'll do if we can’t get back to work fairly soon. There must be a magic date somewhere in March beyond which they'll say, 'Look, we're just going to have to scrap the season, show what we have, and come back next year.'

Do you think there's any way the show can still wrap up by 2010?
Sure.

Will the remaining two seasons be extended then?
Probably. They need 48 episodes to tell the story, so if we only get 8 done this season that means there's 40 left, so maybe two seasons of 20 or, two of 16 and another mini-season. I don’t know how they'd do it, but I don't think they can go any more years actually.

It's been contractually set up that way, is that right?
It has been, and I think they'll begin to have defections from the cast.

What would Ben Linus offer in terms of advice to the producers and writers with regards to manipulating the other side in negotiating the strike?
Well, Ben Linus would say, "Get to know them as well as you can. Get to know their agenda. Think like them. Find their weaknesses, and then apply pressure."

It doesn't seem like they're following that advice just yet.
No, I don't think so. [Laughs.]

Have you ever been instructed, when playing Ben, to blink as little as possible? Or is that a personal decision? Or is that just your normal blinking rate?
Well, I don't think about whether I'm blinking or not. I do try not to break a connection with another actor when it's a sort of crackling moment. I sort of have this image of a wire going from me to the other character, and I don't want it cut.... Read the full story at New York Magazine. (10:35 PM)

Listening to writer Brian K. Vaughan summarize the plot of his comic book, "Y: The Last Man," makes it sound like just another pulp title.

"A plague of mysterious origin destroys every male mammal, human being and animal on the planet," he says, "except for one boy and his monkey. And wackiness ensues."

Well, that's the story boiled down to its basics. But the tale of amateur escapist Yorick Brown, the last man alive on an Earth now home to only women, and his monkey, Ampersand, is actually far more complex than Vaughan's description reveals, involving long journeys, the value of memory and the politics of gender roles. The title, which has had a very successful five-year run, is coming to an end this week with the release of issue No. 60.

It is a finale that is equally emotional for both fans and its creator.

"I guess I've moved into acceptance but that doesn't mean that I'm not still depressed about it," says Vaughan, 31, a soft-spoken Cleveland, Ohio, native who now makes his home in Los Angeles....

...Meanwhile, Vaughan, a one-time film student, has begun a career in television, working as a writer on ABC's "Lost."

Remaining true to the mysteries of the island, Vaughan says he can share "just about nothing" from the upcoming fourth season of the series, which has been cut from 16 episodes to eight as a casualty of the continuing writer's strike. The fourth season premieres Thursday night.

"Everything is still sort of in flux, sadly, but I know I'm disappointed," says Vaughan, who was a fan of the show before "Lost" producer and fellow "comic book geek" Damon Lindelof approached him to write for it. "I think these eight episodes are eight of the best in the entire series."

As production remains shut down both on "Lost" and the film adaptation of "Y: The Last Man," Vaughan considers himself fortunate. Comic books aren't covered by the Writer's Guild of America, allowing him to continue to work while his colleagues cannot.... Read the full story at CNN.com. (10:30 PM)

"Lost" has found its way again.

The show, like "The X-Files" and to a lesser extent "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," threatened to collapse on itself under the weight of its own mythology in season three.

Call it a case of "fourth season flourish" or perhaps the fact that, thanks to the ongoing writers strike, most of us are starved for anything other than reality TV. But the season opener immediately pulled me back in -- even after I missed most of last season. It airs Thursday on WLS-Channel 7.

I'll try to keep things spoiler-free. Suffice to say, true to "Lost" form, some things are answered (we learn in the first 10 minutes how many of the survivors of the Oceanic Flight 815 crash make it off the island), but even more questions are raised (I wouldn't bet on learning the names of everyone who makes it back to the mainland in the seven episodes left in this season).

Last season's "flash forward," the plot device that gave us a glimpse of some of the survivors' lives post-rescue, is again used in the season opener. We also have the flashbacks that have been a hallmark of the series all along.... Read the full story at Chicago Sun-Times. (10:28 PM)

Lost star Jorge Garcia has revealed that he abandoned a blog because bosses were concerned that he would reveal the show's secrets.

Fans of the hit US series have been kept in the dark about upcoming storylines and took to trawling the 34-year-old's online posts for information.

Garcia, who plays Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes in the ABC drama, said: "I started a blog at one point, and it kind of scared people involved with the show.

"Anything that I'd write, they knew that people would read into it and try to figure out what it meant." Read the full story at Digital Spy. (10:24 PM)

This will be a lamentably short season for "Lost." Only eight of 16 planned episodes were completed before the writers strike shut down production on ABC's keep-'em-guessing drama.

It's lamentable because "Lost" has found its storytelling stride. Any question about that is kicked aside by Thursday's pulse-pounding fourth-season opener, which airs at 9 p.m. on WEWS Channel 5.

Frustrated fans were griping about "Lost" being hopelessly off the track during the stretch of third-season episodes that began in October 2006. But the series came roaring back in the spring, regaining its momentum and proving that even a bad prime-time slip doesn't necessarily mean a fall.... Read the full story at The Plain Dealer. (10:20 PM)

Fans of "Lost" were stunned in May when the third-season finale twisted the show's premise into a shocking new direction.

A flash forward — rather than the show's trademark flashback — revealed that Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) eventually make it off the island. But that jaw-dropping disclosure wasn't the biggest surprise for Elizabeth Mitchell, who joined the series last season.

"I was kind of amazed that Juliet was still alive at the end of the season," Mitchell said of her mysterious character. "It kind of seems like they bring new people in so they can get killed for the most part. ... Every day I expected death."

With her sly smile and plaintive eyes, Juliet's motives remain unclear.

"She has very good reason, to her, for doing all the things that she does," Mitchell said. "Whether or not she does it for good, or whether or not she does it for evil, is what we're going to have to figure out."

In the eight episodes completed before the writers' strike, Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley, promises there will be more flash forwards.... Read the full story at The Seattle Times. (10:18 PM)

Get ready for the Season Four premiere of "Lost" with a special presentation of the Season Three two-hour finale, "Through the Looking Glass," enhanced with on-screen facts and back story about one of the most talked about dramas on television. Whether you already watched the amazing conclusion of "Lost" last season or this is your first time viewing it, the special enhanced "Lost" catches viewers up on the story of the Oceanic 815 survivors in a way you've never experienced before. Be there for the enhanced "Lost" Season Three finale, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT on ABC.

The enhanced version of "Lost" will include text on the lower third of the screen and will "let viewers in" on clues in the show, as well as give back story to catch new viewers up for Season Four. (2:57 AM)

Lost is back with new episodes Thursday, and I couldn't be happier.

Well, I could be a little happier. Lost so loves mystery and surprise, it's difficult to talk about it without giving something away.

Indeed, when ABC sent out a disc with the first two episodes of the fourth season, it asked ''that you use discretion in reviewing this show by not revealing any plot details that contain spoilers.''

And the network went on to list five different plot points it did not want given away.

But over its first three seasons, including its often frustrating third, Lost became so entangled in enigmas that some viewers simply gave up trying to keep track. After building a relationship between viewers and characters from the first couple of seasons, the show pushed many of them aside in order to focus on new people, the ever-expanding band known as the Others.

ABC has taken steps to bring viewers old and new back into the mix. Tonight it will replay the third season's two-part finale (already available on DVD) in an ''enhanced version.'' According to the network, that will include on-screen text about clues in the show and background information for new viewers. Thursday, it will precede the new episode at 9 p.m. with an 8 p.m. telecast called Lost: Past, Present & Future, recapping the show for newcomers but in a way the network claims ''current viewers will also find illuminating.''

All of which adds up to ABC saying: Please come back! Please! It'll Be Better! Honest!

And it is.... Read the full story at Ohio.com. (2:56 AM)

Here is the problem for ABC: In "Lost" it has the show with perhaps the most compelling continuing story line in television history, one whose resumption this week has been hotly anticipated by its devoted fans.

But especially because the writers' strike has stripped ABC of most of its other hit series, the network would love to find a way to restore the still substantial "Lost" audience to near the blockbuster level it reached when the show first became a phenomenon more than three years ago. During the show's first season it averaged 18.5 million viewers an episode, a figure down to 15 million by the third season.

That is "a big challenge, though a fun one," said Michael Benson, executive vice president for marketing of ABC Entertainment. He added that it was a little like saying, "Let's ask people to pick up Chapter 13 and start reading."

That is one reason ABC has made this "Lost" week, with four hours dedicated to the show, split between Wednesday and Thursday nights. The four hours include an hourlong clip recap on Thursday night at 8, Eastern time, leading up to the first new episode at 9.... Read the full story at The New York Times. (2:54 AM)

A red 1970s Camaro races down city streets, chased by several squad cars, and crashes. Cops pull out the terrified driver, who makes a break for it and is then arrested.

It’s not an outtake from a "Starsky & Hutch" rerun. It's the unexpected opening of the fourth season of ABC's "Lost" (Thursday at 9 p.m. on WCVB, Ch. 5).

Before the title card shimmers onscreen, viewers will learn the identity of another castaway who made it back to civilization - to that person's misery.

I'd like to say more, I really would, but in releasing the first two episodes of the new season, ABC embargoed a litany of plot points.

(To help viewers catch up on the show, ABC is going beyond the call of duty. The network airs a two-hour "enhanced" third season finale Wednesday at 8, complete with text pop-ups. Thursday night at 8 the network airs a one-hour recap of the entire series.)

Executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse pick up the island story just a second from where they left off last season. The two episodes are dense chapters that reveal new shades to familiar characters, revisit some "Lost" lore and drop new clues that will bedevil fans. And not since "Psycho" has the sight of a rocking chair been so creepy.

Wednesday night, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 await the freighter and what they are certain is rescue. But as news of Charlie's dying warning spreads, the castaways splinter along unexpected lines. Some decide to retreat deeper into the island.... Read the full story at Boston Herald. (2:51 AM)

Absence does make the heart grow fonder - and more forgiving too. The eight-month wait between new episodes of "Lost" (8 p.m. Thursday on WLS-Ch. 7) might have prompted me to ignore any faults that accompanied the drama's return.

But there aren't any faults. OK, maybe Jack (Matthew Fox) got on my nerves just a bit. Otherwise, I blissfully enjoyed every minute of "Lost's" smashing Season 4 start (which is preceded by a one-hour catch-up episode 7 p.m. Thursday, and an "enhanced" airing of the Season 3 finale 8 p.m. Wednesday).

The first two episodes of "Lost's" fourth season are jampacked with hidden agendas, mysterious new characters, shifting alliances, jaw-dropping clues and delicious suspense. When I found myself stopping the episodes at various points to eagerly discuss timelines and harbingers and even the significance of various characters' names with my equally impressed couch-mate, I knew it was a good sign.

Yes, "Lost" is back, in a big way. But it's also back in a small way.

Here's the bad news: Only eight episodes were made before the Writers Guild of America strike shut down production on the ABC show. We could gnash our teeth about what on earth we're expected to watch in April (aside from the fourth season of "Battlestar Galactica"), but for now, let's just savor these island adventures while we can.... Read the full story at Chicago Tribune. (2:48 AM)

Welcome to a spoiler-free zone, as "Lost" engrossingly kicks off its strike-shortened fourth season still riding the wave of last spring's dazzling twist introducing a flash-forward component. The season premiere continues to offer tantalizing clues about what that future holds, while dealing with fallout from the suspect rescue party's arrival and a key character's heroic sacrifice. Notably, though, the second episode risks missteps similar to those that have bogged the show down before, with new faces and backstories to absorb. That said, "Lost's" return goes down like a welcome tonic as scripted TV fades to black.

In many ways, this ABC drama has become the most paranoid show since "The X-Files," with every ray of hope raising flags about suspect motives and who can be trusted. Each season has brought a fresh contingent into view, from weaving in the Oceanic plane crash's tail-end survivors to the mysterious "Others" and their beady-eyed leader, brilliantly played by Michael Emerson.

The first hour -- written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and directed by Jack Bender -- highlights the ongoing tension between the survivors' natural leaders, Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn), while providing an unusually generous array of juicy moments for the large (and, at times, neglected) cast. By episode two, however, the show is plunging deeply into this season's mystery regarding the freighter, relegating some characters to the sidelines.

Even with a designated end date three years (and 48 episodes) off, it's clear the revelations will be sparse, with each new one clouded by another wrinkle. Winston Churchill famously referred to the old Soviet Union as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma," and "Lost" is much the same way -- a show whose structure virtually requires countering every step forward with one back to protect the secrets of that confounded island.

This narrative tango has inevitably curbed the program's mass appeal, causing viewers to drop out as the density of "Lost" lore approaches levels that would vex most English-lit majors. Nevertheless, those who have settled in for the ride continue to be rewarded, despite the occasional irritating or misguided detour along the way.

The jolt from last season's ending came at a welcome time, but for better or worse "Lost's" place in primetime's pantheon will ultimately be judged by whether the final payoff was worthy of the journey. Yet for now, anyway, the series is best enjoyed by not sweating the details, fastening your seatbelt and putting one's faith in the show's pilots to know where the hell this flight is heading. Read the full story at Variety. (2:47 AM)

After an eight-month absence, ABC's "Lost" returns Thursday amid some fears that it will suffer similar audience losses as "The Sopranos" did after one of its extended absences.

But actor Michael Emerson, who earned an Emmy nomination playing Ben Linus, the leader of the hostile island group, The Others, isn't worried about viewer defections.

"I think the appetite is well whetted at this point," said Emerson in a telephone interview. “"Those who might drop away weren't that serious about it anyway."

The return of "Lost" is the best thing to happen to TV since the writers' strike began. ABC has been promoting it to death and is trying to find new ways to get new fans to the series, which focuses on strangers left on a deserted island after an airplane crash.

An amusing eight-minute clip on the Internet summarizes the previous complicated three seasons. ABC also is carrying an "enhanced" version of last season's season finale at 9 p.m. Wednesday and running a clip show at 8 p.m. Thursday, an hour before the first of eight finished episodes airs.

Emerson said filming was shut down in Hawaii at Thanksgiving, when the last of the written scripts before the writers' strike began was filmed. Emerson believes if the strike doesn't end in time to finish the 16-episode season, the eighth episode can serve as a cliffhanger.... Read the full story at The Buffalo News. (2:45 AM)

Deep into the Hollywood writers' strike, television has become something of a mix of reality and otherwise "unscripted" shows, late night programs with hosts who dance instead of delivering monologues and assorted depressing documentaries about people with unhealthy amounts of children or intriguing birth defects.

Personally, I will admit to even having watched two episodes of MTV's "Life Of Ryan," known to most as "that show where a punk teen waxes philosophical about his family problems while making more money than most will ever see." Similarly disturbing is the numerous hours I have logged watching TLC, home of such girlfriend-mandated appointment television as "What Not To Wear" and "Trading Spaces."

Thankfully, however, there is light at the end of the tube when one of my perennial favorites returns to ABC with script in hand. Yes, I mean "Lost," the ultimate in living room suspense premieres Thursday night in a triumphant two-hour kickoff. No more will we have to suffer another Thursday night of housewives and home improvements; no, for another eight episodes - all written before the strike began - there will be a nail-biting alternative.

For those of you four years too late, "Lost" is a primetime drama focusing on the lives of plane crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island in an undiscoverable location where a secret organization conducts dangerous and undisclosed research. As if that weren't enough, pile on conspiracy theory, espionage and good old-fashioned romance for the makings of one of the largest television phenomena in recent years.... Read the full story at The Badger Herald. (2:40 AM)

After eight months of waiting -- nearly twice the length of time the survivors of oceanic Flight 815 have been marooned on that darn island -- "Lost" will finally, finally, finally return to TV on Thursday night. Actually, for the hard core out there, it returns Wednesday night with a rerun of May's game-changing season finale. If you're reading this, then I'm sure you've already seen it, either on TV or on DVD, but that shouldn't stop you from watching it again.

In fact, you owe it to yourself to see it again. Because "Lost" is the kind of show that rewards the obsessive tracking of bits of dialogue, the careful scrutiny of prop details and the kind of endless speculation that would cause a lesser show to quickly disintegrate beneath the weight of expectations.

So to help ease your transition back into the feverish world of flashback parsing and narrative puzzle-solving, we've assembled a list of 48 unanswered questions we hope -- no, DEMAND -- will be answered in the series' 48 remaining episodes.... Read the full story at Los Angeles Times. (2:39 AM)

Are the island castaways of "Lost" mere hours from rescue? Or will their latest chance at freedom turn to dust, like all the others?

That's a no-brainer. The title of the ABC series isn't "Found." And as the long-awaited new season of "Lost" begins Thursday (9 p.m. EST on CTV), the first episode strongly suggests the castaways are about to lose again.

They're awaiting help from a rescue party from a freighter anchored offshore. But as they wait, the chilling likelihood takes hold that their potential saviors could instead spell their doom.

There are no shockers in the episode, the first of eight in the series' truncated fourth season. But this is a gripping hour involving all the principal characters that sets the stage for the season ahead. And after eight long months' absence, it's a welcome sight. (Relax: No spoilers ahead.)

From last season's finale, we already know that rock star Charlie (played by Dominic Monaghan) made a perilous quest to disable a jamming device that had prevented the group from summoning help from a just-acquired satellite telephone. He died carrying out his mission, but not before relaying a warning to his comrades to beware of the so-called freighter people.... Read the full story at The Canadian Press. (2:35 AM)

Millions of us have been lost without "Lost" - especially since last May. That was when the producers of the hit ABC-TV series threw us the mother of all plot twists.

For those who don't remember - yeah, right - and others who didn't watch, an obviously distressed and dysfunctional Jack bumbles through what we figured was an odd-but-routine back story, until he implores Kate at the end: "We've got to go back; we've got to go back to the island."

What? They're not on the island? When did this happen?

Presumably, we'll start getting some answers - plus, of course, plenty of new vexing riddles - Thursday night at 8 p.m. when "Lost" returns for season four.

ABC is billing this return as a "two-hour event;" essentially a one-hour where-we-stand retrospective followed by the season premiere, titled "The Beginning of the End." Season three's two-hour finale, "Through the Looking Glass," repeats Wednesday at 8 p.m.

What's definitely promised for this season is at least eight of 16 planned episodes; the other half have become lost themselves, because of the Hollywood writers' strike.

Last year, executive producers Damon Lindhof and Carlton Cuse and ABC announced a plan to end the series in 2010, with 16 episodes in each season beginning this year, running without reruns.... Read the full story at The Ocala Star-Banner. (2:32 AM)

The fresh-faced, bikini-clad girl spy who could smile sweetly before taking down a villain twice her size was intriguing to Amy Johnston. But it was Alias creator J.J. Abrams, the mastermind behind the TV series, who had her hooked.

Johnston is among a gang of loyalists who for a decade have trailed Abrams from one small-screen series to the next, spending hours dishing about the programs online before, during and after each episode, their numbers growing with his audience.

Roughly 4 million tuned in each week to watch the WB Network's saga of introspective college coed Felicity. The numbers swelled to 10 million for ABC's Alias, then to 13 million for Abrams' current megahit on ABC, Lost.

Lured by little more than cryptic ads and Internet rumors, this month they followed Abrams to the big screen, pushing his monster flick, Cloverfield, to the top of the box office its first weekend, earning $41 million. It earned another $12.7 million this past weekend.

On Thursday, Johnston and the other fans will be back in front their televisions when Lost makes its season 4 premiere. They say they keep coming back for the intrigue, complexity, suspense and confusion: not knowing if a crisis or an adventure was around the corner. Good-looking actors and tidily stitched-up endings? Not so much.... Read the full story at Houston Chronicle. (2:29 AM)

Korean actress Kim Yun-jin, star of the U.S. television series "Lost", has graced the front page of USA Today.

Friday's issue of the nationwide daily featured a photo of Kim on page one alongside a special report on the upcoming fourth season of the hit show.

In the ABC adventure-drama, Kim plays Sun, the pregnant wife of Jin played by Korean-American Daniel Dae Kim.

The new season kicks off on Jan. 31. While 16 episodes were planned for the season, that number was halved due to a Hollywood writers' strike. The eight episodes were shot before the strike began.

"The shorter season is disappointing, but the eight episodes are really great," Kim told the newspaper. If the strike ends by mid-February another five or six episodes may be shot for season four. Read the full story at Digital Chosunilbo. (2:25 AM)

Elizabeth Mitchell comes across as a friendly, mild mannered and humble person. But when it comes to her character on Lost, she has a fighting spirit. "I am really dying to see sometime, no matter when it is, a huge confrontation between [Ben and Juliet]," she says. "I think it would be fascinating to see them, all ropes loose, just go at it."

Those are bold words being that Ben (played to perfection by Michael Emerson) stands out as one of the most cunning villains on television. Yet, Mitchell says her character, Juliet, can be every bit as shrewd as Ben. "I've always looked at her as a chameleon in a very subtle way. She kind of changes a little bit depending on who she’s with…I think it’s her way of figuring out, not necessarily how to manipulate the other person, but how to get to her end goal by using what the other person has."

So, what will happen if Juliet and Ben match wits? "I think one of them would probably not survive," Mitchell says with a laugh.... Read the full story at The Trades. (10:20 PM)

Patience is a necessary virtue for those supporting the Lost cause. As befits a TV phenomenon, the first three seasons of the castaway drama were doled out sparingly to viewers - over four years, with interminable breaks between new episodes - but patience brings a payoff.

Yes, Lost returns next week (Thursday, ABC and CTV at 9 p.m.; repeats Saturday on Space at 8 p.m.), albeit in a condensed format. With production shut down by the writers strike, the top-rated ABC drama is back with eight new episodes - not the 16 originally planned for this season.

Last spring's cliffhanger finale hinted at rescue for the bedraggled plane-crash survivors trapped on the uncharted desert isle. But the story is barely halfway over. ABC, in a gesture of extreme confidence, has renewed Lost for a fifth and sixth season. Barring interruption by the writers strike, there are 48 more episodes to come before the series finale in the spring of 2010.

Which raises a question: How much more can happen on one little island? As decreed by creator J.J. Abrams (of Alias and Cloverfield fame), the show has been rife with clues that would supposedly lead viewers to the big picture. The first three seasons of Lost were riddled with hidden numbers, inexplicable healings, ominous corporations (Hanso?), the Dharma Initiative, nanobot clouds, The Others and, of course, The Hatch.... Read the full story at The Globe and Mail. (7:13 AM)

The title of the episode is "The Man Behind the Curtain."

It was the 20th episode of Season 3 of "Lost," the hit ABC series about a group of plane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island. Up until that point, actor Michael Emerson had always viewed his character, Benjamin Linus, as a Machiavellian sort, leader of the mysterious "Others" who seem to be up to no good and out to do in the main characters introduced in the first season.

When he read the script for "The Man Behind the Curtain," however, Emerson was taken aback. It was a juicy episode for Ben Linus, one that revealed how he came to the island and wound up affiliated with the "Others."

What he wasn't prepared for was the eruption of violence at the episode's end - the scene where he shoots John Locke, played by actor Terry O'Quinn, in the back.

"When I got that flashback episode last season, it made my hair stand on end," Emerson told The Daily Times during a recent phone interview. "I was shocked that the writers would have me behave as ruthlessly and violently as they did in that episode. It's my job to perform the material, but I did talk to them and say, 'Just a reality check here - call me a Pollyanna, but I've always had this sort of private notion that Ben would be revealed to be in a more positive light.'

"They just told me, 'Hold onto that. We'll come back to that in a different direction later on.' It's all part of the misdirection of this series, I suppose. Maybe it really serves their end to have the audience believe me to be a ruthless villain."

Emerson laughs good-naturedly, freely admitting that - aside from the episodes he’s already filmed - he's as in the dark as the millions of viewers who watch "Lost" every week and obsess over every newly revealed detail of the show's broad-reaching story arc.... Read the full story at The Daily Times. (7:07 AM)

... This season's "Lost" was supposed to air straight through to the May finale without repeats (a bonus for "Lost" fans who've complained about the number of repeats in past seasons).

The show halted production in mid-December when it ran out of scripts, due to the writers' strike - but not before at least eight episodes were completed.

If the strike were to end immediately, the producers of "Lost" could conceivably finish an additional eight episodes and meet their goal of 16 for the season, says co-star Jorge Garcia, who plays lovable fat man Hurley.

"I believe we are still within the timeframe that would allow us to finish the season without disrupting the flow of the season . . . but obviously that window is closing fast," Garcia wrote in a post on fuselage.com, the unofficial "Lost" Internet forum. Garcia is among the most prolific cast members on the site and communicates frequently with his fans there.

"I'm waiting in a sort of limbo right now," he wrote. "But I am anxious to start watching the show, too." Read the full story at New York Post. (6:49 AM)

Will eight be enough?

Viewers will have to decide whether Lost is half-empty or half-full when the ABC adventure-drama returns for its fourth season Thursday (9 ET/PT). Because of the Hollywood writers' strike, only eight of 16 planned episodes have been produced.

Cast members say that ABC's decision to provide some Lost rather than none is smart and that they are pleased with a quickened pace and more answers to Lost's mysteries.

"We're all going to be disappointed that there are only eight instead of 16, but the eight episodes are amazing, and I think fans will be very satisfied," says Yunjin Kim, who plays Sun, the pregnant wife of Jin (Daniel Dae Kim). "I feel like this season all the episodes are self-contained. The speed of the story is faster. Each episode contains a question and an answer, finally. So there's a lot of satisfaction."

That approach may be the result of the unusual decision to set an end date for a hit series, with 48 episodes over three seasons. Knowing when the story concludes (which may be reflected in the title of the one-hour season-opener, "The Beginning of the End") has helped writers map out a faster, more focused pace, says Matthew Fox, who plays Jack Shephard, the reluctant leader of the survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815.

"Lost is a story with a beginning and an end. Knowing he's got 48, (co-creator Damon Lindelof) can make each installment move the narrative forward to that conclusion with momentum," Fox says.... Read the full story at USA Today. (6:35 AM)

Of all the current crop of hot TV shows, ABC's Lost and NBC's Heroes have the kind of worldwide following that should result in a successful video game. It just so happens that Ubisoft has snapped up both properties and last week I headed into central London to check out Ubisoft Montreal's effort to bring the mysterious Lost to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Unlike many movie licensed games, the Lost video game - which goes by the title Lost: Via Domus - does not mimic events from the series; instead Ubisoft and ABC have created an all-new storyline which runs parallel with events from the first three series. Players will assume the role of Elliot Maslow, one of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. Elliot is a photo journalist from Washington and following the traumatic crash awakens suffering from amnesia.

The game is presented as seven episodes - said to total around 10 hours gameplay - with each following the tried and tested formula of the show, even down to cliff-hanger endings and recaps at the beginning of each new episode. This Episodic nature to the game's structure also lends itself well to future downloadable content, something Ubisoft is keen to offer providing there's a strong enough audience for it.

Each episode is played out primarily through adventure sections, involving lots of interaction with the stars of the show who dish out tasks to complete and helpful advice should you get stuck. Your first encounter is with Kate whose bottle of water triggers the first of your flashbacks - each rebuilding your broken memory. In the flashback you're back on Oceanic Flight 815 and must take a picture of Kate at the moment which causes a memory to come flooding back - in this case when Kate takes a bottle of water from a stewardess revealing the handcuffs she's wearing. You have to be careful to ensure the picture is in focus and of the correct subject and then the memory will play out in full.... Read the full story at VideoGamer.com. (6:28 AM)

He has kept his profile so low that most people outside of Los Angeles won't even know what his initials stand for.

But movie producer, writer and director JJ Abrams has just been crowned the new King of Hollywood after one of the most incredible runs in film-making history.

The mild-mannered New Yorker has just shaken the film business up, breaking box office records with Cloverfield, a low-budget high-concept thriller that was promoted and marketed through the internet.

Then the day after he captured the imagination of the world with that film, which could end up as one of the most profitable ever made, his encore was to send the internet into meltdown with a trailer for his eagerly-awaited Star Trek movie.

And if that was not enough, he's also found time to put the finishing touches to the latest series of his pet TV project, Lost, which starts its fourth season soon.

The 41-year-old was also behind the cult spy series Alias and a string of hit films from Armageddon to Mission: Impossible III. He even turned down Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg when they asked him to remake War of the Worlds as he was busy with Lost.... Read the full story at The Daily Record. (6:20 AM)

Next Thursday, "Lost" makes its highly anticipated return to ABC.

The show will enter its fourth season with a two-hour premiere starting at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31. "Lost," moving from Wednesdays to Thursdays, will air at its regular 8 p.m. slot starting Feb. 7.

Not only will hard-core Losties get to spend hours trying to decipher all-new clues, but the series will be a bright spot for TV viewers looking for a reprieve from the slew of shows ("Crowned" or "The Moment of Truth," anyone?) that have been dumped on air as a result of the ongoing writers strike. "Lost" will be in a unique position as the only big-name scripted show on network TV with new episodes — eight so far — in the can.

Producers of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series confirmed last year that “Lost” will wrap up in May 2010. More good news for fans: The backlash that ensued when producers put out six episodes in fall 2006 then waited three months before airing another new one convinced them to never try that again. So, for each of the next three scheduled seasons, "Lost" will run for 16 straight episodes, meaning a new show every week from January or February through May.

We understand that watching "Lost" can be very a serious, often frustrating business.

But as you prepare to go back to the island, why not have some fun?

The multitude of hidden clues, catchphrases, nicknames and fake products scattered throughout the show makes perfect fodder for a viewing party. The following tips come courtesy of Stacy Conradt of Des Moines, Iowa, who maintains a regular blog about life and pop culture. Conradt and her husband tuned in to "Lost" toward the end of the first season and became "rabid fans pretty much immediately," she said.... Read the full story at Taunton Daily Gazette. (5:54 AM)

Congratulations are in order for Michael Giacchino, the musical score composer of Lost, for being nominated at this year's Oscar awards! Giacchino is nominated for Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) for his work on the Pixar animated film Ratatouille. He is up against Dario Marianelli (Atonement), Alberto Iglesias (The Kite Runner), James Newton Howard (Michael Clayton), and Marco Beltrami (3:10 to Yuma). This is Giacchino's first Oscar nomination.

Congratulations! We'll be rooting for ya! (10:42 PM)

One of the best parts about being a Lost fan is the amount of Lost-related fun that can be had when the show isn't even airing. Because of the show's cryptic, intertwining, time-shifting storytelling, Losties have been known to rewatch episodes over and over, unearthing new clues each time.
Lost is a game...finally!

Lost has also found a warm welcome online, where it has been the subject of several dedicated fan sites and a pair of nifty alternate-reality games (ARGs) put forth by ABC. So it's only natural that a Lost video game would soon hit store shelves, as was announced about 18 months ago.

Ubisoft, one of gaming's largest publishers, is developing the game--Lost: Via Domus--at its studios in Montreal for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game is due out in late February, and will likely retail for about $59.99 on the consoles and $39.99 on the PC.... Read the full story at TV.com. (10:37 PM)

Find out Which Lost Character Are You at LiquidGeneration.com!

With the anticipation of the new season of Lost mounting, the good folks at Liquid Generation have come up with a fun little quizlet to determine Which Lost Character Are You?. (Apparently, I'm a Hurley.) Check it out! (10:33 PM)

As you might recall, for the past several months, I've been analyzing the songs used on the ABC TV series "Lost," and tying them to certain characters on the show.

For instance, fickle castaway Kate has been linked to the Patsy Cline ditty "Walkin' After Midnight," while enigmatic Other Juliet is associated with the Petula Clark chestnut "Downtown."

For this series, which I've dubbed " 'Lost' in the Music," I've parsed these songs for meaning, talked about how they relate to these characters and tried to use them to solve the mystery that is "Lost."

Yet my enthusiasm for this project has waned in recent months. I mean, it's hard to get excited about the connection between pop songs and fictional characters when the whole fate of scripted television is hanging by a thread.

I'm speaking, of course, about the ongoing writers' strike. Many scripted TV shows have run out of new episodes due to the strike, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.

And here we are, only a week or so away from the fourth season premiere of "Lost," which will air only eight episodes this season due to — you guessed it — the writers' strike.

Sigh.... Read the full story at The Connecticut Post Online. (8:11 AM)

Lost, ABC’s phenomenal mind-boggling adventure series returns to the primetime schedule, Thursday, January 31. Although the producers promise they will answer some questions, you can bet they will also leave viewers with brand new puzzle pieces to ponder.

The last time I personally saw the cast of Lost was last year as they were in Pasadena, on hiatus from their Hawaiian location filming. It felt like I was in the middle of the Dharma Project, which is at the center of the show’s mysteries. Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly), plus Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) were taking a stroll around the Ritz-Carlton Hotel before an ABC promotional event. Hurley (Jorge Garcia) was going out for a drive with friends. The Korean couple, Jin and Sun (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim), were also there making new friends. And everybody’s favorite bad boy Sawyer (Josh Holloway) was relaxing poolside, soaking up the sun.

It was as if the survivors of Oceanic Air flight 815 had been rescued and their lives were back to normal. Not a chance!

Jorge Garcia explained that their lives haven’t been “normal” since the series debuted.... Read the full story at Entertainment Today. (8:06 AM)

Time is ticking away on the Fans4Writers Silent Auctions! And this week, we have some fantastic LOST items up for grabs. These auctions end on January 21.

We're raising funds for The Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund, which helps 'below the line' crews affected by the strike.

Up for grabs this week are:

* A complete set of LOST Season 1 trading cards - still in the Inkworks plastic wrap. Plus, the box will be autographs from Carlton Cuse, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, personalized to the winner.

* Shannon action figure by McFarlane, still in the box. The box has been signed by Maggie Grace.

Check out the auctions at http://www.fans4writers.com/news/. (12:17 AM)

Lost star Harold Perrineau, Jr. and his wife Brittany are expecting their second child, the couple tells OK!.

"It's a girl," Brittany proudly tells OK! at the Cloverfield premiere, adding that she is due in May.

Harold, 44, and Brittany, who have been married since 2002, are already parents to daughter Aurora, 12.

Though the birth is just months away, Brittany says they have yet to pick out names for their new bundle of joy. "No, not yet. We're going to meet her first."

Read the full story at OK! Magazine. (12:14 AM)

Seven and a half months later, we're still picking brain matter off the wall. There we were, innocently watching Lost's season 3 finale on May 23, trying to figure out the direction of the flashback sequence in which Dr. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) had become an oxycodone addict/Grizzly Adams look-alike, when suddenly...WTF?! This is a flash-forward?! He and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) are both off the island?! Wait...now he wants to go back? This stunning episode - in which Jack led the castaways to near rescue (or not, depending on those freighter folks), and Dominic Monaghan's Charlie embraced his watery fate - represented a return to glory for ABC's acclaimed island drama, which had left critics and fans disgruntled earlier in the season. It also marked another potent acting performance by Fox, 41, who's served as a Lost leader, on screen and off, ever since Flight 815 crashed in 2004. ''I felt, and heard many other cast members say, that the show had hit a new plateau - and that Matthew in particular had gone there with it,'' says Michael Emerson, who plays Jack's eerie nemesis, Ben.

During a strike-created break from shooting season 4 - eight episodes were completed before the shutdown - we caught up with Fox (who also stars in next month's political thriller Vantage Point) near his Manhattan Beach, Calif., home. He looked back at the finale as well as the producers' decision to end Lost for good after 48 more episodes, and even offered us a peek into the future before the series returns on Jan. 31 (now on Thursdays at 9 p.m. - set those DVRs!). ''I think the show's going to be better in its last three seasons than it was in the first three,'' he notes, adding, ''There's going to be some huge mind-blowing s---.'' You heard the man: Helmets on. (And for more clues about how Lost will play out from here, don't miss EW.com's video interview with Matthew Fox, including behind-the-scenes footage from his on-the-beach photo shoot for Entertainment Weekly.)

Read the full story on EW.com. (6:09 AM)

Check out the billboard in Portland, Oregon for the new season of Lost. A friend of mine, Chris, shot this photo recently.

As you can see, it's a billboard advertising Oceanic Air, which is the fictional airline in the series. The billboard includes the website FlyOceanicAir. Of course, I checked out the website and it is for Oceanic, but it appears to have been hijacked by a possible new character for the next season. There's a video message from a guy named 'Sam' who says he is looking for Sonya, a flight attendant who he also calls his "partner".

Sam's video has flashes of another website, Find815, which is Sam's personal effort to keep searching for flight 815, the Oceanic flight which crash landed on the island and started this whole fiasco. That website has a little challenge for fans-- to find the differences in two pictures of Sonya. It's pretty obvious, but I'll let you check it out without spoiling things.

While I thoroughly enjoy wacky marketing like this, I imagine that a lot of drivers in Portland fully believe there's a new airline that wants them to fly to Seoul, South Korea.

Read the full story at TV Squad. (5:59 AM)

Disappointed by the available commentaries on the Lost Season 3 DVDs? Some fans - with the help of one Jorge Garcia (Hurley) - got creative and recorded a commentary for the episode "Tricia Tanaka is Dead." You can listen to the commentary featuring Jorge, Jay Glatfelter from "The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack," and The Dharmalars at http://dharmalarspodcast.blogspot.com/. (2:08 AM)

Catch up on all three previous seasons of ABC's hit series "Lost" before its return on January 31 (9:00 p.m. ET) with a special 8-minute, 15-second trailer, "Lost In 8:15." The trailer is available at ABC.com and additional websites and tells the story to-date of the survivors of Oceanic Air's Flight 815.

"Lost" premiered September 22, 2004 and soon became the most talked-about new show of the season, with a never-before-seen storyline that spawned water-cooler talk and blogs galore. In its premiere season, "Lost" was the No. 1 scripted series on Wednesday night with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. On average, "Lost" delivered the highest Adult 18-49 rating for any 8:00 p.m. drama on any network in seven years.

"Lost" has garnered numerous awards including six Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, a Producers Guild Award, an NAACP Image Award, a Prism Award, and two ALMA Awards, just to name a few. (1:22 AM)

Flights Begin December 31 To Nine Markets

Oceanic Airlines announced today their return to the airways. Beginning December 31, operations and flights to nine markets will resume, "Taking You Places You Never Imagined." Destinations include:

Los Angeles, CA

Tustin, CA

Ames, IA

Miami, FL

New York, NY

Portland, OR

Knoxville, TN

Seoul, South Korea

Sydney, Australia

"We are very eager to resume flying and apologize for any inconvenience our temporary closure may have caused our loyal customers," said Michael Orteig, President, Oceanic Airlines. "Oceanic Airlines is proud to be a top tier flight provider and looks forward to providing travelers with many more years of unparalleled service."

About Oceanic Airlines

In business for over 25 years, Oceanic Airlines is a major airline carrier and offers the highest caliber of service for international and domestic flights. Destinations include Los Angeles, London, Sydney and South Korea.

Visit the official Oceanic Air website at http://www.flyoceanicair.com/. (1:09 AM)