The Fifth Season of LOST was the first one I watched live from beginning to end. It is also the most intricately plotted season of the show, and really branches it off into entirely new dimensions (almost quite literally!). Those two things did not mesh well upon my first go-round with the season (spring of 2009). When having to wait week-to-week for each episode, and then being promised seemingly "all the answers" by the ABC promos each week, I always considered S5 to be perhaps the weakest season of the bunch. During my recent re-watch of the show, however, this actually became the season I was most wrong about. Season Five might just be the best of them all.
What needs to be understood about LOST is this: Seasons 1-3 are basically a separate show from what succeeds it. That portion of the series is mostly about a group of plane-crash survivors trying to get off an island and back to civilization. Sure, the island itself is full of mystery, but the driving force behind everything is a desire to be rescued. Season Four starts to change that narrative (and I would argue does so a bit erratically), and Season Five cements it in place. By this point, the show is no longer primarily a survival drama (even though it still is top-notch at handling its large ensemble cast). Now, it is a full-blown science fiction romp, complete with time paradoxes, body-swapping, and multiple timelines. I know a number of people who sort of melted away from watching the show during this season, and I strongly believe this change to be the reason why. For me, the change was incredibly exciting (and I'll argue also necessary to avoid stagnation) and stretched the show in ways it hadn't even attempted before.
I won't go into any major spoilers here, but Season Five deals in many different time periods. In the first few episodes, those left behind on the island find themselves skipping through time (thanks to Ben's turning of the wheel), while those in Los Angeles struggle to decide if heading back to the island is the correct decision to make. Once everything shakes out in those two scenarios, it is an absolutely brilliant idea to show the inner workings of the DHARMA Initiative by actually placing some of the castaways within it! All the scraps about DHARMA that viewers had been given in seasons 1-3 are able to be seen first-hand, and it is wonderful. The finale episode? Perhaps the best in show history, resolving both the DHARMA goings-on and completely blowing the doors wide open by introducing the mysterious, oft-mentioned Jacob and the equally enigmatic "Man in Black".
Not since S1 has this show been able to meld character elements with perfectly-paced plot lines as it did here in S5. As exciting and mind-bending as the time aspects are, it is equally as dramatic to see our favorite characters struggle to come to terms with being scattered to the winds of time, as it were. The mid-season episode "LaFleur", for example, is every bit as emotional as S4's "The Constant" in terms of emotional character development.
One final interesting note: When show creators Damon Lindelof & Carleton Cuse were negotiating with ABC for an end date to the show, they originally said five seasons. ABC countered with something like 8, and they eventually settled on six. That original "five seasons" proposal makes a lot of sense to me now, as to be totally honest I think that seasons 4 and 5 of this show could honestly have been combined to make one "super-season". In a number of cases, I felt like similar material was being covered, and I truly believe that S5 did it in a better fashion. Not saying that S4 is poor by any means, but I think some of its inconsistencies are smoothed out by the storytelling here.
Overall, then, S5 may be my favorite season of this entire show (with Season 1 being its main challenger). Both seasons are similar in the sense that all their aspects are woven so perfectly together. Whereas seasons 2-4 charge here and there full-bore into many different angles, seasons 1 & 5 are a bit more masterfully created (episode-by-episode) to hold up on even that micro-level. As long as you can accept that by this point LOST is no longer "Jack leading a group of survivors" and are willing to open yourself up to new storytelling possibilities, this slate of episodes will almost leave you speechless.
What needs to be understood about LOST is this: Seasons 1-3 are basically a separate show from what succeeds it. That portion of the series is mostly about a group of plane-crash survivors trying to get off an island and back to civilization. Sure, the island itself is full of mystery, but the driving force behind everything is a desire to be rescued. Season Four starts to change that narrative (and I would argue does so a bit erratically), and Season Five cements it in place. By this point, the show is no longer primarily a survival drama (even though it still is top-notch at handling its large ensemble cast). Now, it is a full-blown science fiction romp, complete with time paradoxes, body-swapping, and multiple timelines. I know a number of people who sort of melted away from watching the show during this season, and I strongly believe this change to be the reason why. For me, the change was incredibly exciting (and I'll argue also necessary to avoid stagnation) and stretched the show in ways it hadn't even attempted before.
I won't go into any major spoilers here, but Season Five deals in many different time periods. In the first few episodes, those left behind on the island find themselves skipping through time (thanks to Ben's turning of the wheel), while those in Los Angeles struggle to decide if heading back to the island is the correct decision to make. Once everything shakes out in those two scenarios, it is an absolutely brilliant idea to show the inner workings of the DHARMA Initiative by actually placing some of the castaways within it! All the scraps about DHARMA that viewers had been given in seasons 1-3 are able to be seen first-hand, and it is wonderful. The finale episode? Perhaps the best in show history, resolving both the DHARMA goings-on and completely blowing the doors wide open by introducing the mysterious, oft-mentioned Jacob and the equally enigmatic "Man in Black".
Not since S1 has this show been able to meld character elements with perfectly-paced plot lines as it did here in S5. As exciting and mind-bending as the time aspects are, it is equally as dramatic to see our favorite characters struggle to come to terms with being scattered to the winds of time, as it were. The mid-season episode "LaFleur", for example, is every bit as emotional as S4's "The Constant" in terms of emotional character development.
One final interesting note: When show creators Damon Lindelof & Carleton Cuse were negotiating with ABC for an end date to the show, they originally said five seasons. ABC countered with something like 8, and they eventually settled on six. That original "five seasons" proposal makes a lot of sense to me now, as to be totally honest I think that seasons 4 and 5 of this show could honestly have been combined to make one "super-season". In a number of cases, I felt like similar material was being covered, and I truly believe that S5 did it in a better fashion. Not saying that S4 is poor by any means, but I think some of its inconsistencies are smoothed out by the storytelling here.
Overall, then, S5 may be my favorite season of this entire show (with Season 1 being its main challenger). Both seasons are similar in the sense that all their aspects are woven so perfectly together. Whereas seasons 2-4 charge here and there full-bore into many different angles, seasons 1 & 5 are a bit more masterfully created (episode-by-episode) to hold up on even that micro-level. As long as you can accept that by this point LOST is no longer "Jack leading a group of survivors" and are willing to open yourself up to new storytelling possibilities, this slate of episodes will almost leave you speechless.
