Do you remember as a kid how much fun jigsaw puzzles were at first, and then some asshole decided to give you the deluxe monster puzzle with ten thousand pieces? Not that you couldn't manage, but "why bother".

I discovered Lost when a friend lent me the box sets for seasons 1 and 2. I was hooked - the show was like crack at first. Then I spent seasons 3 and 4 chasing the dragon, like most people, and unfortunately they didn't quite measure up, or perhaps the novelty had just worn off. The first few seasons had only a few simple parallel plots that always managed to come back around and intersect one another in some interesting way and leave you wanting more.

Season 5 just began after a long break and writer's strike troubles, making viewers rack their brains trying to remember what even happened last season, and whether they still care. The new season started off with a double episode involving seemingly 25 different parallel plots, and every 30 seconds there's someone with their back to the camera doing the "look at my back - you can't see me and I'm mysterious" thing, and when they turn around to reveal themselves like some daytime soap gimmick, it's supposed to be a big deal.

Sadly, like a codependent girlfriend - which pretty much describes anyone still watching - since I already have so much time invested, I will stick around until the end good or bad and in the hopes it gets better, and that all the random puzzle pieces actually amount to something.

Anyone else still watching? What do you think of the new season so far?

I know where you're coming from MarK_J. I feel the same. Similar situation with Prison Break. I've heard that after this season there will be only one more season of Lost and then it will wrap up. Of course they probably won't start the final season until January of 2010. I swear to god I'll never watch a continuous series again after this shit.

One thing you can be confident about is the writers' ability (or forced lack there-of) to stretch the show out finitely. There is a fixed end-date (end of season 6, supposedly), so pretty much every episode from here onward 'counts'. I'm sure they'll throw a few filler episodes in the middle of each season like they did in the past, but we're not just talking about your standard franchise where it has no defined limit. I give them some respect for setting some boundaries for themselves (for this initial series, anyhow).

There have been some holes and areas I found things lacking, especially the finale from season 4. They did this whole buildup about the Orchid station, and then went in, blew it up, and that was that. Think about how much time was spent finding out about the Swan, getting inside, figuring it out, etc in Season 2.

It looks like for Season 5, they will be filling in some of the backstories, adding in some of the future stories, and also adding in some of this "civil war" between the Others and the Dharma people.

Lots of unanswered questions still from the past seasons --

Where did the brand new (circa 2000's) washer and dryer prominently shown several times in the Swan station come from? No way that was on a pallet drop.

Is there really an infection?

Whatever happened with Dr. Candle / Chau / Wicklund / whatever his name is (shown from behind in season 5 premiere as being a family man)? When did his arm get crippled up (as seen in several (but not all) orientation videos later on)?

Who the fuck is Richard Alpert?

I was a rabid fan from the start, but then they did that season of alternating repeats (3rd season maybe?) that drove me right up the wall. 3 new, 2 old, 1 clip show, 1 new, skip a week altogether, 2 new back-to-back (so everyone's recorder misses the second one), 3 old, etc, for a whole freaking season.

Then the uproar over those repeats made them decide to just break the season over Dec/Jan the following season and not run repeats. They teased the replacement for weeks, telling us to watch the replacement for "Lost updates and clues!!" during the commercial breaks of the replacement show (and WTF was it called anyway?). Needless to say, the replacement tanked and was pulled after a couple weeks, who knows WHAT happened to the "new clues" we were supposed to see. By the time Lost started up again in the spring I couldn't care less.

I do miss it, though. I keep telling myself I'll rent a box set and run through a couple seasons some snowy weekend.

I watched the first episode of Season 1 and decided I didn't like it. Never watched it again.

I don't think I've ever seen a single episode.

I haven't ever seen the show but I know lots of people who to like it. My advice is to skip "Lost" And watch all of the "Trailer Park Boys" in one sitting while you get high as a kite and drunk as fuck.

I watched first season but lost interest into the second. I've been trying to catch up with repeats of the third season (which really blew) and the fourth which seemed to have a bit more momentum besides the strike. I LOVE Alan Dale (Caleb from The OC and Charles Widmore in Lost) but he's said he hates the show and think its stupid...maybe thats why he has such small roles. I had no clue Cheech was in it until a few weeks ago and he fucking rocks.

I've got some faith for this season; Faraday seems pretty cool and Sawyer remains my favorite character. When Farrday appeared next to the energy source in the 70s in the season opener means that he's lying when he says you can't change the past or is one of The Others who doesn't age. I figure he blew the wall open with that giant cylinder he acted like he dropped and could have caused all the problems in the first place (the real Michael Faraday is generally known as the best experimentalist in science).

The story tangent off the island is getting stale; hopefully they all gather up within the "70 hour window" and make it back so whole storyline can move on.

Its become a bit of a nerdy hobby to follow it after Heroes took ANOTHER giant shit this season; after Heroes season two blew, this season seemed so promising at first. A shit load of evil villains escaping leading to a giant battle between good and evil? The cheerleader getting her head ripped off? Sounded cool. By the third episode half the fugitive villains were dead (the Banshee, Magneto, Puppet Master and Abyss rip offs) and every other villain died subsequently in such lame ways (Adam Monroe turning to dust, Parkman's dad dying from a punch, and Elle being raped by Sylar after being killed? WTF?) I could write that fucking show so much better than NBC could.

I watched season 1, 2, and started to lose interest after that. at this point I have no problem waiting until it ends to watch the last seasons at one time.

pretty much that's how I roll nowadays. I'll buy a box or D/L a series...waiting around week to week is for the birds. Half the time I forget to watch shit or set the tivo.

Never seen a full episode. Now I'm too far behind to give a shit.

I think 20 million watched the first episode this year which was quite a bump from the 12-13 million watching it last year.

The time-jumping this year is serving to fill in an elaborate back story (e.g. Whitmore was a young soldier on the island in '56?, Richard Alpert is an never-aging constant who's communicating with John Locke throughout time? etc.).

Worthwhile.

Never watched it.

Suck it.
In sentiment.