I am – Hercules!!


Tonight’s first new hour of “Lost” gets an A-plus. Lots of interesting stuff going on on the relocated island with Daniel Faraday and John Locke! Questions are answered and intriguing new questions are posed.

The wheel-spinning second hour, which pulls the focus away from the island and toward Hurley and the Reyes clan, drifts into B-minus/C-plus territory. It nonetheless has its moments thanks to a couple of unexpected returns – and an intriguing denouement.

The fifth season’s third hour, airing next week, is 100% free of Hurley, Jack, Kate, and of the rest of the Oceanic Six, and bounces us right back into that realm of A-plus storytelling.

Fun fact: Daniel Dae Kim is billed as a regular this season but doesn’t appear in the first three episodes.

The best news, perhaps, is the character-centric flashbacks and flashforwards have finally been phased away.

Find my 2008 write-up of 2009’s first two hours here.

Here’s a new clue. Carlton Cuse has been contending in interviews that time travel on “Lost” can’t alter fate – but Cuse’s creation, Daniel Faraday, differs on this point. And, based on tonight’s installment, I’m more inclined to back Faraday’s take.

USA Today says:

… Yes, I know. You have questions and you want answers. Happily, Lost's two-part return provides them, along with more jolts, twists, wit and sheer entertainment value than almost any other show on television. … it's hard to name a series that is as engaging, surprising and flat-out gorgeous as Lost, or one in which every effort and penny expended seems to be put to shimmering good use. …

TV Guide says:

… gets off to a thrilling start … you’d be a fool not to watch …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… Although the series is now headed toward a definite conclusion, a little more than a year away, there is no way that whatever happens from here on in will account for everything that has happened up until now. The writers have been too profligate with the apparitions and coincidences to wrap them up neatly. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… one of the few challenging series on mainstream television. It doesn't spoon-feed the American public a trite, easily predicted ending. Its ambition and creativity - and yes, the confusion - are what fuel the basic greatness of "Lost." …

The Boston Globe says:

… Truly, the "Lost" premiere is riveting, which, for a two-hour episode in the later stages of a series run, is an impressive accomplishment. … Please, please, please don't let "moving the island" become the new three-word phrase for what happens when a show loses its sense.

Variety says:

… if you love it, you should still … approaches its twists with what appears to be a greater degree of intellectual rigor than almost anything else on primetime. Even when it's difficult to keep track of the myriad connections, a sense lingers that somebody knows -- which is strangely reassuring. … there are only 32 hours to go, and I don't plan on missing a single one of them.

9 p.m. Wednesday. ABC.