ABC’s Lost Comes Back to the Same Old Tune

Call me disillusioned with the show, but ABC’s "Lost" failed to make a winning impression on me with its return this week. This Wednesday, "Lost" had its first new episode in its new timeslot at 10PM Eastern Time, but the timeslot seems to be the only thing that changed. For a ‘nonstop’ spring season, the second half of Season Three is off to a slow start. The show made a weak comeback, repeating itself like a broken record, and the needle is skipping in the groove where many audience members are falling off and only tuning in hoping that something will be different and waiting for answers; so far, many of us feel we’re waiting in vain, and that feeling amplifies every week.

So far, all of my complaints remain the same. The first new episode of 2007, "Not in Portland," ignored half the show’s cast. The issues of segmented focus don’t just segment the characters but the audience as well. This episode also dragged out the few plot points regarding the Others and their mysterious motives and lifestyles, which are just as mysterious as when the season began. This is because every answer leads to ten more questions, digging more holes than the show can fill to stop viewers from falling through the cracks in the show’s quicksand trap of a mythology. There were no surprises, not any real ones, and too many scenes in this episode resembled moments from previous episodes that also led the three characters at the forced center of the story in circles with a significant number of bored and impatient fans in tow. "Lost" needs to pick up some speed if it hopes to gain momentum, and that momentum needs to be aimed forward.