BLU-RAY L LOST: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON

LOST: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON

Written by TroyAnderson Nov 26th 2009 Hits: 793 Favorites

0.0

0.0 (0)

THE PLOT THUS FAR

Since Lost made its debut as a cult phenomenon in 2004, certain things seemed inconceivable. In its fourth year, some of those things, like a rescue, came to pass. The season ended with Locke (Terry O'Quinn) attempting to persuade the Oceanic Six to return, but he dies before that can happen--or so it appears--and where Jack (Matthew Fox) used to lead, Ben (Emmy nominee Michael Emerson) now takes the reins and convinces the survivors to fulfill Locke's wish.

As producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse state in their commentary on the fifth-season premiere, "We're doing time travel this year," and the pile-up of flashbacks and flash-forwards will make even the most dedicated fan dizzy. Ben, Jack, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) arrive to find that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) have been part of the Dharma Initiative for three years. The writers also clarify the roles that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) play in the island's master plan, setting the stage for the prophecies of Daniel's mother, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), to play a bigger part in the sixth and final season.

Dozens of other players flit in and out, some never to return. A few, such as Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), live again in the past. Lost could've wrapped things up in five years, as The Wire did, but the show continues to excite and surprise. As Lindelof and Cuse admit in the commentary, there's a "fine line between confusion and mystery," adding, "it makes more sense if you're drunk." Other extras include deleted scenes, featurettes, a "lost" episode of Mysteries of the Universe, and commentary from writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz on "He's Our You," a reference to Sayid, who tries to change the future by changing the past.

WHAT WE THOUGHT

Lost: Season 5 began with the survivors of Oceanic 815 and their various allies split into two groups. The Oceanic Six are back in the real world, but Jack and Ben are determined to lead them all back to the island. The rest back on the island - at least those that are still alive, most having died - have, like Billy Pilgrim, become unstuck in time. They find themselves moving from one year or decade - heck, from one century - to another. And when the Oceanic Six return, they find themselves stranded in a different time themselves, back in the seventies with the Dharma Initiative and the Others. Most poignantly, Sun has found out that Jin is till alive, but they are stuck thirty years apart.Jack joins forces with his former enemy Ben, trying to bring the Oceanic Six back together and get them back to the Island. But Charles Widmore has been sending assassins to kill Hurley and Sayid, and someone is sniffing around Kate's relationship to Aaron. Their only hope of getting back to the Island is to follow the instructions of Eloise Hawking, a woman who has intricate knowledge of time and space -- and the Island.

Meanwhile, the Island is randomly leaping through time, flinging Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte and all the others from one time period to another. And when the Oceanic Six (minus a few) arrive on the Island again, they find that it is now 1977 -- Sawyer, Juliet and their friends have all been living there for the past three years, as part of the Dharma Initiative. Sun and Ben end up in the hands of the remaining Others -- along with a supposedly dead man now returned to life.

But as the fateful Incident approaches, Jack and Co. end up having their plans unravel around them, and a bunch of gun-toting Dharma people out for their blood. With the help of Daniel Faraday and his mysterious journal, the splintered little group sets out to somehow reset everything that has happened on the Island -- even as Ben and the Others approach an ancient monument, where the Island's fate will be changed forever.

There's a sense of melancholy in the fifth season of "Lost." Okay, it's never been a cheerful show, but it's clear that many of the plot threads are being wound together, and the characters that are killed have wrenchingly tragic send-offs. What's more, this short season reveals a whole lot more about the Island than we ever knew before -- the stone foot, the Incident, Eloise Hawking's knowledge about time, and the Island's mysterious ruler Jacob.

The Blu-Ray comes with exclusive features as SeasonPlay, in-depth discussions of the show's 100th episode and Lost University. Lost University has been getting hyped up as this massive look at the show and where it's heading in Season 6. If you want to learn more, visit LostUniversity.org for more info. The other featurettes are also available on DVD, but you get them in stunning HD quality here. But, not quite the DTS-HD audio that is sported on the episodes.

Whether it's Michael Emerson leading use on a tour of the writers' room or Richard Alpert showing off the island...we learn everything. Yet, we discover how little we know as we tour the secret knowledge of the Dharma Initiative. There's some bloopers and other deleted scenes. But, that doesn't amount the level of sheer joy you'll have pouring every little detail related to where the show will conclude. Couple that with the reference quality visuals for quite an experience. THIS IS A MUST BUY!

RELEASE DATE: 12/08/09