Lost (TV Series) (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

The second season of "Lost" proved one thing for certain: there's nothing insular about the island on which the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 crash-landed. Nothing is static. Characters come and go, as if there were a conduit to the mainland. And that's one reason why the show remained fresh and addictive. The other reasons were the same ones that made the first season such a runaway success: perfect casting and pacing, tons of unanswered questions and cliffhangers, interesting character backstories, and conflicts among the passengers . . . and with other creatures and humans on the island as well. A supernatural element kept it from being the nighttime soap opera that it might have been, and Season Two began with a cast that used to be unknowns who now had fan followings, and they continue to shine bright.

Season Two was just as strong as the first, and for proof one need look no farther than the Emmys. Though "Lost" couldn't duplicate its Outstanding Dramatic Series win from the previous year, the show still received nine nominations-for Outstanding Writing, Special Visual Effects, Single-Camera Sound Mixing, Single-Camera Picture Editing, Directing, Cinematography, Casting, and Guest Actor (Henry Ian Cusick).

Cusick is the big new character this season, playing someone who was working for a mysterious (what else?) progressive socio-scientific organization that established the DHARMA Initiative. The hatch that was discovered in Season One takes center stage, but it's not the only portal. This season fans are introduced to a group called the Others who live on the other side of the island, and it turns out that they were not the only survivors of the 815 crash. The new group includes Anna-Lucia Cortez (Michelle Rodriguez), Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and a psychologist named Libby (Cynthia Watros). This season Sayid (Naveen Andrews), who was once a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard, returns to the main group with a weird prisoner (Michael Emerson), and . . . . Well, I won't spoil things by giving plot specifics, but suffice it to say that whatever relationships and contentiousness (especially between enigmatic hunter Locke and the doctor-leader, Jack) emerged in Season One continued to develop in Season Two as the castaways realize that they're far from alone on the island.

Among characters returning this season are Dr. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), who has emerged as a rival leader; Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia), a large fellow who calls everyone "Dude" and was "cursed" by a big lottery win; Sawyer (Josh Holloway), the bad boy women always fall for; Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), a fugitive; Shannon (Maggie Grace), who lost her brother to the island; Claire (Emilie de Ravin), who gave birth on the island; Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan), a has-been rock star junkie; a Korean couple who don't speak English and aren't exactly in a blissful state of marriage (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim as Jin and Sun Kwon); a father and son who don't exactly connect (Harold Perrineau and Malcolm David Kelley); and the man who rose like a phoenix from the ashes of his wheelchair and now rises to become Jack's nemesis of sorts, John Locke (Terry O'Quinn).

Creators Damon Linidelof, J.J. Abrams, and Jeffrey Lieber seem to have a firm sense of where they want to take this show, and that partly accounts for the show's success. There's suspense, there's plenty of questions raised, plenty of tension among the characters, and an overriding sense of wonder that pervades "Lost," much of it attributable to the show's supernatural elements.

Once again, ABC-TV and Disney provide an excellent package that's missing just one thing: a list of the episodes, so fans can remember which disc they left off on--or maybe Disney thinks the show is so addictive that everyone is going to watch it nonstop from beginning to end. Twenty-four episodes are included, and I'll list them here (see, Disney, it's not that hard!):

"Man of Science, Man of Faith"
"Adrift"
"Orientation"
"Everybody Hates Hugo"