“Ultimately, “Lost” didn’t succeed because of the mythology. We’ve seen too many examples of mythology-heavy, character-light series fail over the last six years to think that. “Lost” succeeded on emotion, whether that emotion was fear of the monster in the jungle, or grief over Juliet dying, or joy at Desmond reuniting with Penny, or thrills at Sayid’s breakdance fighting and Hurley riding to the rescue in the Dharma bus. When “Lost” was really and truly great, it locked you so deep into the emotions of the moment that the larger questions didn’t really matter.”

The rest of the review is also interesting, if you care.

First, let me point out that this has been a kick-ass season of Lost. The flash-forwards have been inspired, the stories have been gripping, last night’s Sun and Jin flash-forward-and-back love story was phenomenally touching. (Though I did think to myself, if you’re a working actress, you will most likely some day be called on to pretend to give birth, and that must be as daunting as it is inevitable.)

The reveals have been coming quickly, but as with good twisty mysteries, each one presents new enigmas. Wrapped in riddles. Etc. Tiffany and I keep comparing this to The X-Files and thanking our lucky stars that it seems these folks have a plan and a destination. By the time The X-Files ended, any ambition for an over-arching plot was abandoned, but by that time, nobody cared. Us included.

Some thoughts I’ve had recently about Lost:

• The battle royale between Ben and Penny’s Pops is shaping up to be the defining struggle of the series. But where does the Dharma Initiative fit in there? And what sort of devil’s agreement did the Oceanic Six make with Ben or Pops to be allowed off the island?
• With the flash-forwards, the producers have solved a serious problem they were going to have to deal with. Now they can kill off major characters without having to remove them from the series. I predict that Jin will not be the last one.
• You can put Jeff Fahey in a scraggly ‘do and a bermuda shirt, but you can’t take away those hypnotic Lawnmower Man eyes. As a result, ‘copter dude still gives me the willies, despite his aw shucks attitude.
• I just love Jeremy Davies (plays Daniel Faraday). Just caught him in Solaris the other day, which is not as bad a movie as some would have you believe. It’s just slow.
• Michael seems like he’s just back for a guest-starring role. Whatever, it can’t be more disappointing than the much-hyped letdown of Fisher Stevens. I’m hoping he returns in a flashback.
• What happened to Walt? (Michael might be able to answer that in the next ep.) And what do his superpowers (killing birds with his mind and creating polar bears out of thin air) have to do with all of this?
• Puff the Magic (and noisy) Smoke Monster, we miss you.

Okay, so, all y’all (Denny) who wanted to chat about Lost… comment below.

They start over tonight with the two-hour pilot. ABC. 8/7c. Don’t miss it.

See: Official ABC Lost Site, now with cool plane crash sound effects!