The folks here at TV Squad have been having quite an interesting conversation behind the scenes regarding last night's season premiere of Lost. I don't watch the show (I know J.J. Abrams has no idea what he's doing and is making it up as he goes along. That's what he did with Alias and it's likely what he's doing on Lost) but thought that the way those who had tuned in was worthy of publishing for the masses to see. So after the jump you can read the uncensored thoughts of the TV Squad staff.

Keith McDuffee
What did you other watchers of Lost think of the premiere? I thought it was pretty disappointing myself.

Tom Biro
I'd have to say that while there were some cool things that were unveiled (umm, like a civilizationish place on the damn island?), but while we keep learning a bit more about characters on the show, I can't decide if I'm happy or not that we just keep weaving and weaving and weaving. In a way, I can agree with the harsh critics who say that JJ and Co. have no idea what is going to happen. Then again, anyone who just decides that "we can make the show go seven years" is just setting themselves up for failure.

Brett Love
I found the first episode rather annoying, but wasn't sure if we wanted to put up negative Lost posts. My big issues with the show are first, enough with Jack and his freaking dad. We get it. There are a thousand more tales to tell, all of which would be more compelling. And more importantly, the show is becoming a game to see just how little they can actually tell the viewer and still manage to fill the hour. Walt? Kidnapped? Tests? Experiments? We're just forgetting about that? It was the cliffhanger
for season one for cryin out loud and they still haven't rapped that up. The thing that really burns my ass though is the Lost fan rally cry. After each episode that is ultimately a disappointment I never fail to read somewhere, "But next week looks good."

Jonathan Toomey
Am I the only one who liked it...? Despite what did seem like an excessive amount of commercials (there wasn't though, the ep was still about 45 minutes long), I thought it was good. We got more background on The Others in the first 5 minutes than we've gotten in two seasons even if it is still vague as to why they are there. And I honestly liked the Jack flashbacks in this one. Up until now, I wasn't really getting the tension between him and his father... now we do.

Tom
I think it's less about disliking and more about just shrugging and saying "oh, okay, whatever."

We "learned" more about the Others, but not really. It's like we saw the beginnings of Anakin Skywalker turning "bad" and then seeing the scene where the Emperor says "Rise, Lord Vader." Umm, okay, but like what about all the crispy stuff we've been hearing about?

We still have zero clue about the whole island area that they're on, how you get there, etc., what was that earthquake, and are they doing it on purpose, i.e. the remnants of the whole Hanso stuff, WTF was with the polar ending to last season, did we leave that alone? It's just frustrating to cherrypick stuff like this and not really have any consistency. One other thing - did Sawyer have a band-aid on his arm, too? Didn't notice.

As for the 45 minutes, that amazes me, but then again maybe it's just that they did like all the ads in four minute blocks, because that's just brutal. Even then, it's probably more because ALL the ads are stacked up in the last 40 minutes or whatever.

Annie Wu
I was desperate for some news about the other characters and... NOTHING. I got NOTHING. I know Kate, Jack, and Sawyer are generally the fan-favorites, but c'mon. That was just plain mean.

Bob Sassone
I actually liked it a lot. It would have been nice to see the other castaways, but this was a strong episode. I loved the beginning, because not only did we see the Others in their homes, it was really cool to see the plane crash from another angle, the Others' reaction to it, what Henry Gale told Ethan and others to do.

Another thing: I think we finally know that this whole thing REALLY happened. Remember all the talk of the plane crash wasn't real, it was an illusion, they're in hell, all that stuff, but now we've seen the plane crash was real, and I'm glad we've moved on to showing another community. (Oh, and the guy who brought Kate to her cell told Sawyer it took the bears only two hours to get the food...I guess that answers the polar bear question, sorta).

Jen Creer
I would have thought the little civilization that the Others have created was very cool if they didn't persist in conducting these humiliating psychological games with the plane crash victims. It was reminiscent of The Village-- only instead of fucking with the villagers' perceptions of reality and the time they really live in, they are fucking with the plane crash victims. And honestly, after you have survived a crash like that, do you really need this shit?

All we really know is that there is some kind of tension between Ben and Juliette (which we mostly get delivered in the form of her liking to read schmaltz and him not liking it), which just sets us up for knowing that she is eventually going to turn on Ben and help Jack. Anyone want to take that bet?

But who was the other guy in a cell, who tried to escape? And if you don't want people on your island, why don't you just get them the hell off your island?

I thought it was promising at first, but the weird-ass way the Others are treating everyone was just too unsettling. I promise to like it only if this is an allegory of the current political climate, and we are getting a full glimpse of the ramifications of recently passed legislation...

Brett
Did anyone recognize the boyfriend of Jack's wife? He looked familiar to me, but I'm not quite nutty enough to place him.

Joel Keller
So... what is this 'Lost' show you all are talking about? Is this on network TV?

Tom
BTW, what was the name that Juliette had for Henry Gale when they were in their little town, and he was upset that he was out of the book club?

Keith
Jack's wife's boyfriend sure looked a lot like McDreamy on Grey's. It's not though.

Richard Keller
I thought last night's episode was fantastic. All of the major plot points were resolved and we saw everyone on the island return to their normal lives. Of course, that was the episode I performed with finger puppets in my basement; I have no idea what happened on the television version. By the way, my finger puppet version is FAR superior and commercial-free!

Wil Wheaton
I loved the first season of Lost, and watched the entire thing on DVD in less than a week. When I got to the end, I went straight to iTMS and bought a subscription to season two, which I also watched in less than a week to get caught up to the new episodes on television.

Season two wasn't nearly as solid as season one, trading character development and those fantastic flashbacks for episodes that stretched ten minutes of story into an hour of broadcast. Once the creative team decided to make the show all about trickling out new bits of information about The Others and Dharma, I started to feel like I was watching Twin Peaks all over again. When I saw that giant four-toed foot at the end of last season, I was pretty sure the joke was on me.

Nevertheless, I'm invested in the characters, and the previews looked good, so I settled in last night with an eager and open mind.

For the first few minutes, I was as excited as I'd ever been. It was very cool to see the plane come down, and see The Others spring into action. In many ways, it reminded me of The Other 48 Days, but the episode quickly stumbled (not helped by the frequent commercials) and ended up being as unsatisfying as Three Minutes.

From a practical storytelling point of view, the excessive and frequent commercials were a very bad idea. They came so frequently, the show never really got a chance to develop much dramatic tension. The commercial breaks were obviously not a writing or creative decision, though; it's a network decision, and I think it was a big mistake that hurt the show. (ABC needs to recoup a lot of their investment in Path to Bullshit, though, so maybe they're using Lost ad sales to refill the company coffers.)

Commercials aside, from a creative point of view, the episode just wasn't that good. I waited all summer long to see where the story was going, and all I got was 45 minutes of what I sincerely hope is a set-up for a big payoff very soon, like in the next three episodes. A Tale of Two Cities did very little to move the story forward, and it had no second act. The lame flashback didn't help, either. (Okay. Jack has lots of problems with his dad. We get it. Do we really believe that his dad would sleep with his wife anyway? Come on, writers. That was lame.) Was anyone surprised by anything? Other than Henry Gale being "Ben," I mean. Thanks for that big revelation, writers. That was worth waiting all summer for.

While I understand that the story will play out over the rest of the season, as a fan of the show, I wanted the first episode after the hiatus to be a good one -- no, a great one -- one that validated my wait all summer and left me counting down the minutes until next week. When the show was over, I felt neither of those things. The content of last night's episode would have been a passable first hour of a two hour show, if the second hour was phenomenal, but I was left feeling annoyed and disappointed. I didn't even want to watch The Nine afterward, because I'm not falling for another show where I invest thirty hours in characters and a complex storyline, only to discover somewhere around the middle of the second season that the writers are
just making it up as they go along.

While it's too early to say that Lost has jumped over one of Dharma's mysterious sharks, their creative team is clearly strapping on water skis. I'm willing to give Lost two more episodes, but if they're like this one, I'm done punching in the numbers.