Lost - Season 4

The fourth season of Lost was shortened by an agreement to draw out the end and shortened further by the inconvenience of the writer's strike (seriously, great job guys), but it was still entertaining enough to be the best one since the first, in my opinion. The last couple seasons were good, but at times didn't seem like they were going anywhere, just piling mystery on top of mystery without giving much explanation. This is the chief complaint about Lost among haters, but the difference between them and me is that they think it's impossible for everything, or even most of the loose ends, to be wrapped up satisfyingly at the conclusion of season six, while I'm still giving the creators the benefit of the doubt. Even if they are making it up as they go, they'd have to be amazingly good at it to keep it going this far without crashing and burning, so it doesn't really make a difference at this point.

Season three's finale was one of television's finest ever, and the final twist was that the flashback featuring a suicidal Jack popping pills and making an ass of himself was actually a flash-forward, a huge shift for the show. Now, instead of filling in characters' backgrounds and digging the show even deeper into its hole of secrets and twists, season four still keeps adding secrets and twists but does so while much more obviously moving towards something of a climax. The suspense was much more focused on "How do we get to this point in the future?" instead of just "What the hell is happening here?" They still flashed back at times, but we pretty much know who these characters are at this point and now we're seeing what's happening with the island. The finale wasn't as good as the last one, but it's definitely going to make the wait for the next batch of episodes difficult. The endless questions do get tiring, but I'm going to keep watching until they start answering some.