LOST 5.08 metareview

“LaFleur” rebooted the Season 5, kicking off a major new story arc for the show which finds our beloved castaways living among the Dharma Initiative in the 1970s. Reviews were largely very positive for the ep, though a few critics had trouble with the back-and-forth-through-time nature of how it played out. (You’d think they’d be used to that by now.)

My standard disclaimer about grading reviews on a curve: Lost at its worst is already better than most of the dreck on TV, so anything less than a positively glowing review gets an ‘x’. Everything else gets a checkmark. You, however, may not consider every x to be a strictly negative review.

Entertainment Weekly’s Doc Jensen: Stepping up as leader, savior, and super-cool boyfriend — and succeeding wildly at all three — Sawyer found himself born again in the Dharma Initiative past… Coupling him with fertility doc-turned-motor pool mechanic Juliet? Totally worked for me.

The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan: I was ambivalent about last week’s Locke-centric episode of “Lost.” But I loved this week’s episode so much I think I want to marry it.

Time’s James Poniewozik: I can watch Dharma Initiative stuff until the second coming (of Locke, anyway), so I was in geek heaven with this one…

Variety’s Cynthia Littleton: Holy Horace Goodspeed, this is why I love this show.

E! Online’s Jennifer Godwin: Sawyer has finally gotten in touch with his sensitive side, trying to save old bald friends who jump down wells, rescuing women and babies, inspiring anxious doctors, sympathizing with the drunk and despondent, and last but not least, picking daisies to give to nice ladies.

Zap2It’s Ryan McGee: …the show found its footing this week with “LaFleur,” literally and figuratively.

Televisionary, aka Jace Lacob: [Sawyer] is a very different man than the one we met all those years before and seeing him in his guise as LaFleur, the head of security for the Dharma Initiative, it’s clear that he’s realizing his potential.

The Star-Ledger’s Allan Sepinwall: …the storytelling model of the last few seasons means that every now and then we need a filling-in-the-blanks episode, and this was one of the more entertaining ones they’ve ever done.

The Monitor’s Al Trautwig: [The title] is two-sided… One is symbolically the flower that Sawyer gives to Juliet, and the other is that he takes on that name and loves being anyone but himself.

Huffington Post’s Jay Glatfelter: Sawyer, who started out this show as one of the characters you love to hate, has officially made the turn as one of the characters you love and go “Awww” over… ["LaFleur"] actually made me care about a relationship that isn’t Penny and Desmond’s.

The L.A. Times‘ Patrick Kevin Day: For those Lost fans more interested in the romance than the mystery, the great Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet love square just connected two more dots as Juliet and Sawyer finally hooked up.

Film School Rejects‘ Adam Sweeney: The best scene had to be right after Juliet successfully delivered a child, sharing the moment with Sawyer. The unspoken joy and relief shared between the two had us feeling a little warm inside. Moments like this are why we love this show.

TV Squad’s Jonathan Toomey: I think the best way to describe this episode was safe. Nothing crazy or out of place happened and you knew how it was going to end the second it began.

Paste Magazine’s Rachel Dovey: If there were more time given to the Sawyer/Juliet relationship, we might be able to empathize with his torn emotional state. But as is, with less than 20 minutes establishing their connection, it’s hard to care that he might go running back to Kate.

If Magazine’s Emerson Parker: …I can’t help but be a little let down by the episode as it was a definite bridging the gap between the two groups to bring them together for the next episode but will we always be stuck in the 70s? Doesn’t that just mean almost nearly everything we have seen is pointless from the past four years?

Cinema Blend’s Katey Rich: For the third or fourth time this season, Lost has hit the fast-forward button on a plot line that would have taken an entire season in the past… I almost wish they’d dragged things out. Imagine even thinking that at the beginning of season three, and marvel at the turn-around this show has managed.

New York Magazine’s Emily Nussbaum: We’ve long favored Sawliet, so this was basically our dream episode — full of spooning and miracle births and Alpert eyeliner jokes! And four-toed statues!… Sawyer and Juliet 2gether 4ever.

The Birmingham News‘ Dave Sharp: This is a huge growth episode for Sawyer, who over three years learns compassion, friendship and selflessness.

io9’s Lynn Peril: The frequent back-and-forth cuts between 1974 and 1977 were a bit disorienting, but on the whole I liked this episode a lot; it’s not the season’s best or worst, but a very solid hour nonetheless.

mlive.com’s Troy Reimink: A solid episode, “LaFleur” provided an extended, maybe even gratuitous, fleshing out of the Dharma story.

Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny: The introduction of LaFleur is pretty wonderful. Sawyer just took back ownership of a significant piece of the show’s mythology. He’s not just a survivor. He’s a guy who knows how to live along the way.

Mania’s Joe Oesterle: Finally Sawyer is happy. This is who James Ford might have been if Locke’s father, aka Tom Sawyer hadn’t used his considerable charms to con little James’ mother out of the family savings and eventually lead to her murder in front of the frightened hiding little boy.

Creative Loafing’s Allison Keene: What if the Dharma years of Lost had its own spin-off? The U.S. version of Life on Mars may not have worked out, but the 70s were so far out man why not try again, can you dig?

Image: CTV.ca.