The fifth season of ABC's sci-fi island drama "Lost," my favorite still-airing TV show, is six days away from starting, and I'm getting twitchy.

This is partially because the fourth season ended with an intense cliffhanger - the island disappeared - and eight months is a long time to wonder. I'm yelling "Marco" inside my mind, straining to hear the island's "Polo."

(Pre-emptive nerd-out: So my theory is it had to move in time, because of the clip of the rabbit shown before Ben went down and turned the ancient icy magic wheel. Also, questions that must be answered soon: Why does Richard not age? How was Locke tapped as special from birth, and why is he dead now under a different name? What are the very bad things that happened after The Oceanic Six left, and why does them going back change anything? And finally, the numbers' meaning, the four-toed statue, Jacob, Widmore, the nature and source of the island's mojo: What gives?)

Yet figuring that stuff out isn't what has me most psyched. I'm in countdown mode because it sounds like the elaborate tale will be unfurling in a new way again.

One of the show's creators, Damon Lindelhof, says in a wire story in today's Life section that the show is taking on "a new model in terms of the way we tell stories." Of course, there's little further explanation.

Were he a writer from any other program, I'd chalk this up as pretentious bluster. But "Lost" has a history of yanking the narrative rug from underfoot, and its storytelling tricks are its saving grace.

Yeah, the show's a doozy of a mystery, but it's the wrong kind of mystery for optimal appeal. Whether it's "Law and Order," "House," every reality show ever made, a two-year presidential election or one of the 57 flavors of "CSI," the couch-bound like guessing. But they prefer resolution by the end of the hour, unless it's eventually mandated by the U.S. Constitution or the relevant tribal council....

Read the full story at INFORUM. Permanent Link | 9:37 PM