LOST - Season Four [2007]

"You can't change the future."

After the game changing season three finale, LOST had a lot to live up to with the promise of a brand new storytelling format.

Instead of telling an alternate story through flashbacks, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse decided to shake things up a bit and introduce the concept of flashforwards to the all ready complicated non-linear plotlines.

While the present day storyline remains on the island, the flashforwards follow six survivors who got off the island and are known to the world as the Oceanic Six.  These six are trying to reintegrate themselves into their normal lives...but this is LOST and no action, good or bad, goes unpunished.

Season Four continues adding fascinating new characters to the story line without ever feeling like they're there just to fall back on lazy writing.  Character actor Jeremy Davies as twitchy physicist Daniel Faraday and Michael Emerson's SAW co-star Ken Leung as the cranky and sarcastic ghost whisperer Miles Straume are both entertaining and fantastic characters.  While Rebecca Mader as bitchy anthropologist Charlotte Lewis is most unwelcome with her irritating attitude and tendency to butt heads.  80's b-actor Jeff Fahey can't get enough screen time as the dry humored pilot Frank Lapidus who seems like he just wants to have a drink. Kevin Durand is an intimidating element of the show as dangerous mercenary Martin Keamy, a character whom you just love to hate.

Unfortunately due to the Writer's Guild Of America Strike in 200-2008, LOST's fourth season run was cut short.  Lindelof and Cuse had no choice but to make the best of it and they succeeded in every way. With TV's Buffy/Angel writer Drew Goddard and Y: The Last Man/Runaways comic book writer Brian K. Vaughan on board, Season Four kicked ass from start to finish.  It resulted in one of the best hours of television ever with the Desmond-centric episode The Constant, which dares you not to shed a tear by the end of it.  A hand-to-hand combat sequence with Sayid Jarrah is quite possibly one of my favorite TV fight scenes ever.

By the time the perfectly fast-paced Season Four comes to an end it's made very apparent that LOST knows exactly where it's headed and every minute counts now.  

14 episodes. 44 minutes each.

Episodes To See:

4x01:  The Beginning Of The End:  Hurley-centric episode that is just wow.  Action-packed, emotional and more twists and turns you won't be expecting.

4x02: Confirmed Dead: Freighter-centric episode.  A brisk, yet fulfilling introduction to each of the new characters on the series.

4x05: The Constant: Desmond-centric.  Not enough space to go into why this episode is THE BEST. Michael Giacchino's music is noteworthy.

4x12, 4x13 & 4x14: There's No Place Like Home: Oceanic Six-centric.  These 3 episodes fly by so fast you're left screaming at the end for more.

Episodes To Avoid:

None.  This is LOST's best season without a doubt.  There's no time to dwell on Vincent's poop.

Buyer's Guide:
LOST is widely available on DVD/Blu-ray in single season sets or a complete series collection.

5 Time Traveling Bunnies out of 5