LOST 5.01 & 5.02 metareview

So, what did mainstream media think of Lost‘s Season 5 premiere? Let’s take a look.

EW‘s Doc Jensen offered his typically thoughtful and theory-laden take on “Because You Left” and “The Lie,” separately, saying about the former: ”Because You Left” was a wild winner in my book. And it was made possible, no doubt, by all the bandwagon fans that have fallen off over the years — the ones Lost doesn’t have to worry about alienating anymore. ”Because You Left.” How ironic.

USA Today‘s Robert Bianco gives the premiere 4 out of 4 stars, and raves: This is an epic big-screen adventure done for the small screen — and done in a way that makes most big-screen versions pale in comparison. Having it back is a hopeful sign that maybe, just maybe, better TV things are on the way. Tell everyone.

io9 did its usual review fueled by cynicism (the drug of choice behind almost everything io9 writes), but ultimately liked what it saw: Last night’s double-episode season premiere displayed the same sense of urgency, narrative, and fun that Season four left us with. Above all, the comforting sense that the writers really know where they’re going continues. I couldn’t agree more with that last part. “Because You Left” in particular was an exercise in extremely confident storytelling.

Zap2It‘s Ryan McGee has a positive review that’s overflowing with great theories, like this little gem: Private Jones will turn out to be Charles Widmore. This is long before he had most of Oceanic Airlines in his back pocket: here’s a young man with a fiery soul and a covetous heart. And that Island’s already his preciouusssss. You can hear it in the way he loathes Sawyer and Juliet for being on “their” Island. Wow, that would be something.

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune likewise has plenty of ideas, such as this mind-bending summary: I think the island is the source or the portal for some powerful, ancient entity or phenomena, one that allows time travel or can power time travel. There are special people who can control the island’s powers over life, death and time.

Televisionary has a rather philosophical, in-depth review: The two-hour season premiere seeks to answer the two sides of a single question: do bad things happen because people leave (as Jack believes) or because people lie (as Hurley believes)? Is one truly worse than the other? And are their actions to blame for the horrors that befall them? Or is it fate?

Nonfiction author Steven Johnson reviews the premiere for BoingBoing from a scientific and cultural POV: That a mass audience is willing to embrace this kind of storytelling innovation is truly remarkable, and has a kind of sign-of-the-times quality to it.

Pop + Politics‘ Courtney Reimer takes a geopolitical look at the premiere: Even if the most popular TV show about a plane crash didn’t have its season premiere last night, plane crashes (or almost-crashes) would still be at the front of the collective conscious right now, thanks to last week’s miraculous crash landing of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The American public is always drawn to the complex stories borne of a bumpy landing—real or imagined.

Newsarama‘s Troy Brownfield had a blast with both episodes: [The Hurley/Ana-Lucia scene] encapsulates what’s great about Lost now. Nearly anything, anything could happen, and it could still make some kind of demented sense. Amazingly, between the time flashes and mercurial location shifts occupying the bulk of the narrative, the creators managed to roll out revelations and connections that were occasionally mind-blowing in their own right.

Jay Glatfelter of the Huffington Post said: While all this “time warping” is going to be thought of as great science fiction, the thing that sets Lost apart from most other “science fiction” labels is that the science fiction on Lost serves the human drama. That, my friends, is why it is one of the greatest shows on television.

Adam Sweeney at Film School Rejects loved it, though he didn’t understand everything he saw (who did?): The story, as mind-boggling as it is, contained just enough explanation to give us the impression that we are starting put the pieces together… Honestly, is there anybody who has a handle on what is happening? I know this, Lost is a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream and the two episodes we saw last night were top notch.

Christopher Rosen of the New York Observer disliked the 2-hour block quite strongly: …as much as we’d like to say the highly anticipated season five premiere of Lost was all that we hoped for and more… we simply cannot. It wasn’t “Jack gets his tattoos” terrible, but the combination of “Because You Left” and “The Lie” has to rank as the worst season premiere the show has done to date.

All in all, that’s an exceptional number of positives. And the number of reviews to use the phrase “we hardly knew ye” in reference to Neil Frogurt? 2.