The biggest difference I see with LOST is that it seems that they started very early deciding how it would end, even if they weren't sure how long they would have to get there.

Meanwhile, on HEROES, they had this fantastic idea for the first season, that there would be a revolving cast of characters each season. But, once the show became a hit, they scrapped that idea so we could see how one dimensional many of those characters really were.

But, anyway... I'm anxiously excited for LOST and thrilled that they've had time to work and adapt the story in such a bad-ass way.

IMO, they could get rid of at least *SOME* of the HEROES no one cares about now (or ever).

And by that, I mostly mean Mohinder and Ali "What is her character's name these days" Larter (and maybe Matt Parkman if they leave him in Africa all season long...).

Of COURSE they were making some things up as they went along. That's the organic nature of the TV show. What they said was that once they knew there was going to be a full season (because why come up with a complicated, long term mythology if you're only going to have 9 episodes?) they started to flesh out an actual long-term outline.

And in previous interviews they've said they don't ask questions unless they know the answer to them already. So to me, they seem to be ahead of the game of most serialized TV shows, most specifically to me, Alias. I loved Alias for the first couple of seasons until it became realized that this Rambaldi stuff was nothing more than a giant MacGuffin with no real payoff.

And anyone who hasn't watched the TED presentation with JJ Abrams should do so immediately and you'll become instantly informed of how that man cares absolutely zilch for answers. He's all about the interesting questions.

"Shit boys, this pilot's really taken off! What can we do? We haven't written enough material for a long run?"

"No sweat, Bro - let's just write a stream-of-consciousness run of flashbacks for each character, and when we run out of ideas, we'll just toss some new characters in and run with them!"

"Erm...'new' characters? They're marooned on an island, dude. The viewers will never fall for that!"

"It's ok - we'll just have flash forwards as well as flashbacks! They'll be too busy trying to work out the overall plot that they won't realize there isn't any!"

Genius! Now what about that polar bear?"

"Shh!"

It's also dissapointing because that arc with Ecko challenging Locke sounded sweet. Seriously, if you knew you were going off to shoot a serial in a foreign place, don't you think you would decide if you liked it or not, BEFORE you committed?

My guess? Ben was really going to be just the little loser who lead the Losties into the arms of the Others and then there was a new leader who would take over from there.

However once they got a chance to see how cool and creepy Ben's character was, they decided to make him the leader and keep him around. So the main points of his story could have existed with someone else, for example, remember when it seemed that Mr. Friendly was the real leader? All they did was take the story elements of Mr. X and then twist them to work within the story of a creepy loner named Ben Linus, and viola, you have this quirky dude with a dramatic story arc that makes him integral to the entire framework of the show.

But again, it is too bad cause he was such an awesome actor and so incredible in his role. My only complaint was the episode when they killed him. In one quick sentence they totally robbed him of all his earlier motivation and betrayed the conflict that had existed in him since his youth. His whole "I ask for no forgiveness" was so trite and weak, IMO, that it pissed me off they would do that given how distraught he had been prior.

But here's the thing. I watched and enjoyed 'Lost' for a season and a half before I realised that they genuinely had no idea where they were going with it. I realized then that I could either carry on putting up with this lazy screenwriting - having my cock teased every week with no money-shot ever to look forward to - or I could realize that I'd been had and spend my time elsewhere.

The fact that you KNOW this is how they've played you as a viewer, and yet continue to pander to it, is sad. I'm angry on your behalf, dude.

And Smackfu, meCPS and good old Thunderbolt - the reason people like me still troll the 'Lost' talkbacks is that, because of that anger. Because there was that amazing, gripping first season, we trolls know that there was a fantastic show in there somewhere and that it was frittered away by intelligence-insulting, pedestrian writing.

I'm on a mission to save you from yourselves, comrades! Turn off now and send 'em a message - that you won't put up with being spoon-fed garbage any more. Unless Evangeline Lilly gets her tits out, of course...

LOST is, by far, the best show on television right now.

Me? I'll stick with LOST. You can save yourself the trouble.

Why was there a polar bear? - Answered.

Who was on the radio with Boone? - Answered.

How did the plane crash, or why? - Answered.

What was the hatch? - Answered.

Who are the others? - Answered.

What was the Dharma initiative? - Answered.

I could go on and on. Now if you come back at me and say, "oh yeah, but what is Island? And what is the monster all about, huh? HUH?" Then you have proven you are a dickless shit with no discernable intelligence, as those are major questions yet to be answered by the end of the show, which is coming in two seasons, so calm the hell down.

Well played Sally, well played.

You really think sitting throught twenty-odd hours of filler for one treat a season is a reasonable return on your time and intellectual investment?

There, now that's off my chest I can go and search for my missing dick...

And anyway, if your whole reason for watching a show is to make sure that every question has a neat little answer tied up in a pretty bow by the end of the show, then go watch CSI Miami or some shit like that. The greatness of a show like LOST is in the journey, not necessarily these amazing answers.

Answers to the questions are pretty boring narrative, relatively speaking, unless you care so much about what is happening to these people that you wade through their lives, stories, and experiences to understand them better.

Stephen King made the point in his Dark Tower treatment, that if you only want to know what happens in the end, then you are someone who considers sex to be only the paltry squirt at the end, not the lovemaking that lead up to that drip of bisquick from your tool.

Anyway, be a sport and tell me WTF a polar bear was doing on a tropical island, eh?

Did you read the first 100 pages of The Fellowship of the Ring and say, "ahh fer God's sake, what is this ring nonsense, why does it make you dissapear, where did it come from, who are these black riders, why did Bilbo leave, where did he go? You mean there is a 1000 more pages to wade through?DAMN Tolkien, what the hell!?!? Stop teasing me with all these mysteries, just tell me if Frodo destroys the ring or not, I can't wait through the rest of this book plus two others, its just way too much! What a cocktease, this idiot had no idea where he was going or what he was doing, he was just meandering through a story about elves and wizards and shit, what a crock!"

This included psychological studies, paranormal activities, zoological studies, etc. etc.

The polar bears were being tested with a series of conditioning testing. So we know how they go there.

As to why polar bears, many have theorized that they were being taught to "push a button" so that they could be used to enter into the ice cave a push the button or pull the lever that essentially "moves" the island, since it requires that the individual who does this be transported from the island, never to return again. We saw proof of this in the polar bear skeletons found in Tunisia by C.S. Lewis (Charlotte).

So there you go. Now if you haven't seen any of seasons 3-4, you most likely have no idea what I am talking about, oh well.

I genuinely hope the show resolves in a satisfying way for you and the fans, though. Peace.

But were there other examples of the Others being superhuman? I am not being sarcastic, I am asking?

Then again, this is also due to the perception of the Lost folk, they were barely surviving, and these people knew the island like the back of their hands, and so that would give the perception that the were more powerfull than they actually were.

This is part of how LOST works, you see something one way, then you realize you are seeing the truth from another perspective, sort of a Rashomon effect played out over the multiple seasons. Pretty cool if you ask me.

That being said: I am excited about the end of January. We have a lot to look forward to, at least in regard to LOST.

It would be lousy for you to be suckered with a lame cop-out ending after sticking with it all this time, wouldn't it?

Why do you care, why do you troll? I think you know as well as I that it is because you don't think we should go on in peace, you think we and anyone else who enjoy LOST are wrong and should go away and shut the F up! Which means you are subject to being proven wrong whenever you err in your argument, as you did by saying the show provided no answers. That is all.

Everyone does understand how silly it would be to plan out every detail in a show that lasts an indeterminate amount of years with no idea what actors will be able to stay around or what characters will gain that unexpected "it" factor, right? Good.

Oh, and I don't know if someone else answered to this one, but to the person that said jack/kate/sawyer were kidnapped for absolutely no reason: If you can't comprehend basic storytelling, please don't comment on it, unless you simply say, "I can't comprehend basic storytelling." Thank you.

Also, I apologize for the snarkiness, I'm over it now. Sometimes the talkbacks get to me. It's sad, really.

But honestly, I really hope for your sakes it all resolves successfully. I don't think it will though. I think when the interest wanes enough they'll cobble together a rushed ending that'll have you guys flaming from now 'til Doomsday. Ah well, I could care less...

Off now to watch porn as it's all my limited attention span can handle. Can you recommend any good ones, Oisin?

But like Jason, Freddy, Michael Myers, and Russian Eye-Patched wearing freak, Mikhail, can we ever be sure he is really gone? one wonders.

If you ask me, Season 4 was near perfection. Season 1 obviously started it all off, and we needed the countless flashbacks to discover who these people were, but after that Season 2 sort of stalled because we didn't need to know that much more. Season 3 picked up a lot more, but still had some stalls, but by Season 4 we were rocking and rolling, with only a sliver of episodes that seemed weak or pointless, the Juliet one being the clear winner there. All I know is that with so much happening, I have high expectations for season 5 and can't wait for what is in store.

End of season 1 they introduced the hatch, and we saw Mr. Friendly and the boat of Others cruse away on a decrepit POS with Walt. By the beginning of Season 2 we see that Dharma was a long lost experiment gone wrong, everything was dated and the remnants seemed to be living like savages.

HOWEVER, something happened where they realized they wanted the Others to have contact with the outside world, they wanted to make them more powerfull and more connected, maybe they morphed who the Others were (savages) with who the Dharma group became (Mittelos Bio-Science) and Ben's little cult of science junkies and new age believers. So at that point then had to figure out a way to explain why the Others had been savage, and viola, they made the whole thing a scam, a rouse, with fake beards and tattered clothes.

You knew they had been thinking this by the time they showed Mr. Friendly at the fire circle, all of a sudden his beard and eyebrows looked overly ridiculous. His eye shadow and lashes had people surmising the gay aspect for the first time, but there was definitely something fake there.

The only support for thinking that they meant for them to always be "civilized" and not savages was Ethan. Ethan had access to semi-normal clothes, and he was taking Claire for some reason, and even back then you knew it had something to do with her baby. So how they tied all that up with Juliette and the fertility of women on the island, made a lot of sense.

The show is not perfect, there have definitely been some "are you serious?!?" moments, like the time that Paulo was in the Pearl hatch and Ben brings Juliet all the way down there just to show off Jack and reveal a part of his plan. Why not go to Mikhail's, didn't he have full video access?

Also remember the rocks that Sawyer and Kate were smashing at the beginning of Season 3, what happened there? Supposedly they were building an air strip, and it was referenced in a deleted scene, but one has to ask how does a plane land on an island with the time vortex swirling around it?

Also remember how it seemed like such a mystery as to what happened with the children and those who were "taken" because they were "good" people? What happened to them, we know they ended up with the Others, but what did the Others show them to keep them in line? What did they show them that they could cure cancer and some other neat tricks, and Cindy the stewardess was like "Crikey, that's a bloomin' good magic act, I'm on board fah sure! When do I get my tattered clothing and a weapon?"

What pisses me off with the anti-LOST proselytites is there need to point out the obvious flaws, as reason for why the entire show is crap.

Those of the faith can have inhouse debates as to some of the show's more problematic elements. Those who just want to bash it, to prove they are the kings of the Snarky Cock-Breath Award can keep their cum stained teeth hidden behind their shit smeered lips and shut the hell up!

First it shows him in a family, where he is accepted and such. It just seemed to revolutionary for a man who was more about reading about life experiences rather than actually taking the risk of living them out. Secondly he is so damn dumb in that episode, he never suspects his "family" are liars and a-hole drug dealers? He actually believed their "all for one and one for all" sense of community, while they were reaping the benefits of selling massive amounts of dope? C'mon, John was supposed to be smarter than that. I don't know, that episode made John seem infantile, not simply emotionally insecure, but truly dumb and it is one of my least favorite episodes, along with the death of Ecko.

How many shows in the history of TV have decided to make game changing risks like that. It just doesn't happen, and it was refereshing to say the least.

anytime someone has physically left the island ( alpert, friendly, ben etc) they have always been in the real world at the current time that is suppose to be taking place. So what i mean is ben has been traveling back and forth etc but we know that locke will end up off the island with the O-6 in current/present time. So if the island moved to the past between mid 70s-mid 90s, how does locke end up traveling from the island mid-whenever to current time. The producers said there won't be paradoxes so he can't leave the island mid-whenever and wait for current time so ... i don't know its the one thing i can't put my finger on.

Damn that was funny

The kidnaps did seem awfully amazing, but were they anything more incredible than what some well trained black ops people could do?

I think we are supposed to suspend disbelief that it was all a combination of good training, island mojo, and the fact that the Losties were scarred shitless and confused as hell. I mean Ecko killed some, Anna killed Goodwin, Charlie (freakin' Charlie) killed Ethan, so they were hardly invincible.

But it is true, he did sidle up next to Walt, Charlie, Boone, and later had the adoration of eyeliner wearing Richard.

But he did conspicously avoid Sawyer and Jack. Jack, cause he most likely wanted to be the one to wear the pants, and didn't think Jack would like pretty in a dress.

Sawyer, well maybe he avoided Sawyer cause he knew he had spent time in prison and figured either his cornhole had teeth, or else he was going to get Hep C, and even the island can't cure certain STDs, like Hep C and the clap, oh and herpes, cause Ana definitely got that from Sawyer, as did Kate, and as will Juliet soon enough.

or

It was a replay of when Locke let Boone die.

Or it is all a giant tease, and it is just the drug plane, with some happy coincidence that Kelvin was there to see it, or some little easter egg like that, like "hey remember the plane that crashed, yuk yuk, well heeeeere it is!!!"

Rousseau is supposedly coming back this season (presumably for flashbacks) and her flashback was always one I wanted to see with her science teams entrance to the Island and eventual slaughter.

As for Locke being dead... are we QUITE sure he's dead ? Just saying, Ben rigging a fake death for Jack and the Oceanic6's benefit is hardly beyond his powers. As well as the fact that Jacks Dad coming back to the Island would seem to point to Locke perhaps having quite a bit more to do even if he IS dead. Locke becomes Jacob ? Perhaps.

Just like they explain in that movie, you can go back and revisit and see new things you never noticed before or see them in a new light, but the movie will always remain the same - you can't actually CHANGE anything, the only thing that changes is YOU!

-James Cole, talking to Dr Railly in the movie theatre, while they're watching Vertigo (which he's seen before)

as for the rest of us...

Just coz there's going to be stuff happening in the 70's next season, doesn't necessarily mean it's because the ISLAND has moved to the 70's - somebody already mentioned Alpert in the 50's and him not necessarily coming FROM the 50's - we could just be seeing bits of FLASHBACK, or watching some individual time travellers...

Has it not actually been confirmed Faraday is Dr Candle's cameraman? I thought that was obvious...?

"$3.99 for an issue of CRISIS?! And it's delayed until WHEN?! Spider-Man's not married to Mary Jane?! And...and...they finally made the WATCHMEN movie? Without the squid? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

And the scenes with Daphne and Matt creep me out for some reason... I didn't mind in the future episodes where her hair was normal looking, but her and him together in the present time seems weird...

I don't really get why Arthur doesn't hypnotize more people into doing his bidding. Still love Nathan's flying effect.

KB carried the show on her back last night, then handed off to Angela and Matt and everybody else. Heroes is such deepest doodoo when her deal runs out next month. But how can anyone, me included, begrudge her the bright future that's staring her in the face? FIVE movies next year she'll be in. TV's loss is movies' gain.

Or did Ando just happen to pull the very issue containing events that Isaac predicted would happen way in the future after his own death?

So how about some episodes of Lost now.... please .....and whilst I am begging....some free booze too.

New Hatch! That's what we want and need. And Frenchy (even if she is dead) I'm off to listen to some season 4 LOST commentaries. ;-)

I got a Lost question - in the teaser trailer, who is the guy in the yellow Hazmat suit pointing a gun at?

It all just goes by so quick! The QoS editor must have cut it

This brings up a question for me. Many people think the Island traveled back to Dharma prime (i.e. the 70's), but if we are going to witness the Purge then it would have to be much later. The Purge was in 1992. We don't really know if Kelvin arrived before or after the Purge but one would suspect before since he said he responded to an ad by Dharma to join (unless it was outdated, but then how did he get there?). Of course Kelvin could be lying off his ass, but assuming he's telling the truth it makes me wonder if Kelvin will appear if we are to witness the Purge.