Reid About It

"Lost" returned last night, and as this will be a spoiler-free post, I'll just say that I enjoyed it immensely. "Lost" has never been much for giving us answers, but it certainly does a good job of making the old questions not relevant any more. I still wonder occasionally why they never told us why there are polar bears on the island, but we've got much bigger questions to wonder about now.

To me, the renewed appeal of "Lost" is wrapped up in one sentence. I know "Lost" will end in May 2010.

That's it. I know with as many questions as "Lost" brings up, in sixteen months it will all be over. Every episode will lead to that point, and the series is on the clock until then.

After a meandering third season, "Lost" announced it would run six seasons, then end. The fourth season picked up the pace tremendously, and made the show fun. No matter how weird it gets, I know they can't just string us along.

I think having a finite lifespan is a big bonus to a show that's going to tell a story. Perhaps "According To Jim" can go on forever with no distinguishable drop (or rise) in quality, but when you have a show based around a premise that asks questions, you really should let the audience know you're going to eventually pay off.

It's "The Shield" versus "Prison Break," for example. "The Shield" set a deadline, and you knew with every week, the situation was getting more and more intense. Anything could happen, because after a certain date, they didn't have to have enough characters left to put on a show.

On the other hand, "Prison Break" could have been a really good one-year show. After a few years the novelty of breaking into prison, then breaking out of prison, then breaking back in and out of prison just kind of gets to you.

"Heroes" is another good example. The first season was great. The second season was fairly awful, and the third season was even worse. The show is floundering badly in a retread of every plotline that ever worked, and I'm rapidly losing interest. Heroes started by answering questions rapidly, sort of the anti-"Lost." Since then, they've stretched things out to ridiculous lengths because there's no end in sight for the show.

With "Lost," the payoff on the investment of your time is guaranteed. I can respect that.