Season 2 of Lost hits the UK screens on May 2nd, returning to Channel 4 for a second chance to impress, perplex and frustrate its viewers all over again. For those of you who may have somehow missed the first series (where were you?) Lost is the story of a plane crash on a mysterious island. I’m not talking your average mysterious island here either, this one really does cater to the whims of the weird. So far it’s been home to polar bears, a weird “thing” which makes people disappear and an indestructible metal hatch planted in the ground. That’s just for starters…
The ensemble cast have been doing their best to survive against the odds in their new environment. Along the way friendships have been formed and unusual and unlikely alliances have been cemented. However rather than just focussing on the here and now the show has given us a little more insight into the characters by looking at portions of their lives leading up to the fateful flight. One of the most interesting things about the show is that learning about the characters in this way made you think you had a handle on their motivations. But as the show continuously reiterates, nothing is as clear cut as it seems. Its this ability to blindside the viewer while still feeding them enough information to stay interested which I suspect is what has made Lost the success it has become.
Of course the once a week dose of episodes helped (not counting the E4 sneak previews). Keeping you on a drip feed of suspense right up until that last moment where you figured all would be revealed…and it wasn’t. Now that folks, that was nasty.
Of course some people (cough) couldn’t stand the wait and had to sneak ahead and find some other way of getting a look see at Lost. Maybe it was just the prospect of coming away from a second series of something with that same frustration, excellent as the series was I didn’t fancy the prospect of being stung twice.
All I’ll say about Lost Season 2 (and I don’t want to give anything away) is that you can expect more of the same, and if you liked season 1, then you’ll love season 2. If anything in the formula has been tweaked for improvement then its essentially the pace, Lost was occasionally criticised for taking too long to get to where it was going (and then not get there). Season 2 addresses this, events move on at a greater speed and if you’re watching on a week by week basis then this is something to be grateful for.
You can expect to meet new and interesting people and travel to new and exciting places. Pretty much essential attributes for any show to grow (although I think the existing cast had a lot of mileage in them as they were in my opinion). One thing you can count on however is the recurring open mouth moments that the show has become good at hitting you over the head with. Sure you might get some answers, but its fair to say you’ll wind up with just as many questions. Stay tuned…
