Lost Season 4

Lol, I just finished watching it yesterday, so I'll write some inputs on it here. Warning: Spoilers Ahead - Like Prison Break Season 3, Lost Season 4's episodes were cut down to 13 due to the Writer's Guild strike. Lost Season 4 continues from the point where the survivors of the Oceanic flight actually found someone who could contact the outside world. This someone, Naomi, was unfortunately killed by Locke but the communication equipment was still there. Three new additions were placed into the show - Daniel Faraday (an obvious allusion to physicist Michael Faraday), Charlotte Staples Lewis (pointing to author C.S. Lewis) and Miles Straume. There was a surprise return of Michael Dawson, who was unseen in Season 3 after leaving the island.

The mystery about the Oceanic survivors' "deaths" is debunked. Nope, they are not in purgatory or in a meta-physical world. Instead, some rich fella called Charles Widmore actually placed a replica and random corpses into the sea to divert the media and world attention from the island. As the story progresses, it was clear that the newcomers from the outside world were not there to rescue them. The survivors themselves were divided into two, one group following John Locke and the other Jack Shepard. There were flashbacks in Season 4, but instead of backwards flashbacks on history, it's future flashbacks, which is life after leaving the island. It was revealed that only 6 made it out of the island - Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hugo, Sun and Claire's baby - Aaron.

As usual, Season 4 has lots of twists and stuff. I think the one of the best episodes of Lost that is ever created is Episode 5 "The Constant", which deals with time travelling. The concept is intertwined with the romance of Desmond Hume and Penelope Widmore to give it a wonderful combination. Haha, the Scottish military slangs were nicely done =p. Totally loved it..lol. The producers were careful indeed not to get caught with the paradox of time travelling. It was reported that they took double the time to write this episode so as to ensure that the events won't affect or make it inconsistent with the future. So, in that episode, the viewers can see Desmond switching back and forth from 1996 to 2004, trying to search the constant of his life.

Lost and Prison Break has always been my top 2 English dramas to watch. Whenever I feel I'm in a philosophical mood, I'll tune in to Lost..haha. I think not many people outside America will have the stamina to follow Lost after the first two seasons. Lost itself deals with many interesting philosophical and scientific concepts plus American cultural reference. It's easier for many folks to keep tab on Prison Break instead. So, if you're just a common TV viewer with no interest to think further other than watching the stuff on your screen, Lost may seem to be too complicated and confusing. Not only that, if you miss one or two episodes, you'll miss lots of stuff and future plot lines may seem to be rather foreign. Haha, for me, I kinda get excited whenever I watch Lost because of the concepts and creativity that are present in the show. Some of the stuff reminds me of the things I read in my arts course. In fact, the general theme of the show is inspired from William Golding's Lord of the Flies and the movie Cast Away. Clever use of names such as Kate Austen (allusion to author Jane Austen), Desmond Hume (philosopher David Hume), Danielle Rousseau (philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau) and Juliet Burke (Edmund Burke) gives a new dimension to the characters. There always seem to be so much of talking points in the show..haha.

Of course, with season 4 concluding, viewers are going to wonder, how long are they gonna pull this islander thing on? 10 seasons?..haha. The producers gave a reassuring word that they have an end in mind and it was not made for the sake of extending it (unlike Smallville which doesn't seem to have an ending..haha). So, there will be a season 5, which is slated to be out next year and it will end with Season 6 in 2010. Wooo..I'll be looking forward to them returning back to the island (if they can find it..haha). For now, it's back to tuning in to Prison Break, with their own Season 4 now showing in America. =p