Have Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof LOST their minds?

The creators and producers of the amazing ABC TV show LOST have really got fans buzzing after airing just one episode of the final season.

"Darlton" had promised LOST's loyal audience that after five years of a series told with flashbacks then flashforwards they were going to unveil a new storytelling device for this final season, which premiered last Tuesday. The show featured two seemingly alternate and parallel versions of reality. Now, the ABC LOST website has up a page explaining the phenomenon as a flashsideways.

I know this all sounds a little nutty to the non-LOST fan, but as the show winds to a close in the next few months devotees like myself will be looking for the series to tie up a boatload of loose ends and explain a whole bunch of mysteries seen as key to the show's mythology. So for the writers to seemingly introduce a deeply complicating plot device was shocking to say the least.

LOST, the TV series airing on Tuesday night's this season, is just one part of a larger fan experience:

I begin the experience of each episode with a "pre-hash" audio podcast released two or three days before each new show and available free through iTunes. Carlton and Damon talk about what happened last week and what we can expect in the next episode. They read and sometimes answer questions submitted by fans. They definitely prompt you to notice something you wouldn't otherwise, or wouldn't consider significant at least.

Then, after watching the show on ABC, I go to Mac Slocum's great LOST blog. He writes a fully cross referenced episode recap, post usually four hours or so after the show airs. Mac's blog entries are well organized, insightful and funny as hell. Then an incredible community of fans discusses the show's minute details and the potential meaning of it all. (Link to this blog lives always in the list at right.)

I then try to watch each episode a second time before the next one rolls around. ABC knows LOST fans like to do this, and has in past years even run a pop-up-video-version of last week's episode just before this week's new one. The so-called enhanced and non-enhanced versions of each episode are also available to watch anytime for free at abc.com

LAX one sentence review

Season 6 of Lost will be confusing, but Juliet says "it worked," so I guess we're gonna be okay.

Lost episode LAX tonight at 7:00

It's here! Finally, Lost fans can rejoice. Just hours until we get to see episode one of the final season on KATV and ABC.

As I said in an earlier post, I've seen the two-hour episode already, though I didn't hear much of it. Looks like another bewildering storytelling device will replace the flash backs and flash forwards of recent seasons.

Look for star Evangeline Lilly early in the episode climbing around in a tree, something the producers have said the actress does regularly. It's part of the character Kate's charm that she is fearless, and a bit of a tomboy.

Lilly's acting career outside of Lost hasn't amounted to much yet (she has a tiny role in The Hurt Locker) but she has recently started appearing in commercials for Cover Girl or some other cosmetic company, so I see her beauty hasn't been entirely lost on the entertainment industry.

I'm smitten, of course.

Lost leak

This weekend, ABC staged an event in Hawaii to screen the season 6 Lost premiere for fans. There was a red carpet arrival followed by a few words from the producers and then a commerical-free screening of the two hour show on a beach at sundown. Wow.

A Hawaii fan was on hand to record the whole thing, and you can watch here , at least until the lawyers take it down.

The video and especially the audio are piss poor, but if you are a big fan who can't wait until Tuesday night, you can bear with it.

I just watched, and must say I'm more confused than ever. No spoilers here, but let's just say the first episode title of LAX is correct... Oceanic 815 does land in LA instead of crashing on the island. Yet it appears there are still plenty of adventures to come for our castaways on the island. Say whut?!?

Anyway, it's nice to see some of our former cast members back... the reappearance of Charlie seemed to draw a lot of cheers from the crowd.

Lost returns!

What better place to start a new blog than an entry about Lost, the best show in years on network TV.

The final season of this landmark series begins Tuesday night @ 7:00 on ABC, and this year we may actually get to see every episode live here in central Arkansas. In the past, Lost has aired on Wednesday nights, which meant that about two out of every three episodes were pre-empted by SEC basketball on KATV. Channel 7 taped the show and aired it late that night, after the 10:00 news, after According to Jim (or whatever other crap sitcom they aired at 10:30), after Nightline AND after Kimmel, usually around 1:00 a.m.

What was particularly irksome was that it wasn't just Razorback games, but other non-hog SEC games that 7 was contracted to air... or so they claimed. I did a story for KUAR a couple of years ago about this crazy phenomenon, and KATV program director Richard Farester said they had no choice but to air the SEC games, but the ABC station in Fort Smith/Fayetteville somehow managed to keep Lost on in primetime when there was not a hog game. Same network, same hog contract, different outcome. Hmmm...

Anyhow, as I said recently on http://www.filmfodder.com/tv/lost/ (the best Lost blog out there) "I love Lost, this wonderful episode recap and discussion group, AND the producers' weekly audio podcast. Taken together, they've been the richest, most immersive television experience ever."

So, for those of us addicted to the show, just a few days of waiting left. For those of you who are not hip to Lost, well I regret to say it's probably too late to get on board now. The best advice I can offer: buy the whole series on Blu-Ray, take off work for about three weeks, lay in a supply of junk food and watch it from the beginning.

Another reason to watch: Lost star Evangeline Lilly. Here she is from a season one episode.