Lost is a really good TV show. Not phenomenal (most of the time, anyway.) Just really good. A-minus. However, one thing we must give Lost is that it is groundbreakingly original in the way it has unfolded its mysterious, occasionally goofy, always compelling story. If you ask me, Lost was spiraling to its creative doom, with ratings following suit, when the creative team made the decision that saved it: to end it. Season one was fresh and intense stuff, season two struggled with its identity, and the first half of season three further failed to deliver. Season three, recall, suffered from a move by network higher-ups to split it into one barrage of new episodes before Thanksgiving, then another nothing-but-new streak when it returned in Feb. ‘07.* Right about then, executives and producers decided to announce that Lost would end after its fifth season. Suddenly, the rest of season three got really good. It’s no coincidence. Remember, Lost has been experimental and risky from inception. The pilot was the most expensive to produce to date by far. (Copycats burst out the following season, with every network willing to inflate the budgets if it meant their own version of the sensation Lost had become. They pretty much all failed. The pendulum swung the other way, to the point that NBC has recently made statements about not wanting to fund pilots at all any more.) The ensemble cast is huge and therefore expensive. (Evidently, when searching for their original cast, they didn’t cast with regard to race at all. Yunjin Kim auditioned for the role of Kate, and they liked her so much, they created the role of Sun around her. And then added a husband, expanding the cast by yet another, meaning everything cost all the more, before they’d shot a frame.) All told, it was a risky package, but a fantastic concept. And then someone found what is the absolute key of Lost’s success: the flashbacks. Each episode would focus on the backstory of one of the characters, intercut with what happens to that character on the island in the present. As Charlie might have said, bloody brilliant. The show would be able to get us off the island, all the while telling us, nay, showing us the inner workings of the people stuck on it. We, unlike their islandmates, would know their secrets. Mix in an uncanny ability to tease us with tiny hints, then big reveals that only ask more questions, and you have a hit.

That alone would have earned Lost status as one of the truly innovative programs to come along in a long time. But it was the move at the end of season three that blew us all away. The flash FORWARD. In last year’s finale, suddenly we see the story into the future. We know they’re going to eventually get off the island. We know it ruins our protagonist. However, in true Lost fashion, we don’t know how or, especially, WHY.

So I was excited to see this week’s premiere of season four, and discover that the flash forward is presumably here to stay. What an exciting and masterful risk for the showrunners to take with their storytelling! So far, Lost maintains its strongest trait, that of continuously enticing. Oceanic Six? Did only six people get off the island? If so, which six? There are still others on the island, still alive? Who was the man posing as a lawyer to Hurley in the institution? Jack eventually craves getting back onto the island, but roars at Hurley in this week’s episode that they’re never going back.  What changes?

While keeping the best of what they do, the Lost creatives reinvented themselves. I know friends, big fans of the show, who admitted they were starting to tire of the flashbacks structure. This should keep them interested.

The change in device would no doubt never have happened if they thought they might need to stretch the story out to eight or nine seasons. The finite ending after five years is what allows for winding down. It’s built into the title of the season four premiere: “The Beginning of the End.” They broke some eggs. They made an omelette. Good for them. And good for us.

* Producers felt that the split in the season really hurt them last year. As a serialized show, momentum is a part of their success. Going off the air for months at a time meant the audience forgetting the juicy details of the story. So this year the compromise was that Lost would not return until mid-season, and would then run continuously, a full season of new episodes shown from February to May. That was before the writers strike. Show producers hoped the network would wait before showing the episodes of Lost that had already been shot. After all, if the strike doesn’t end, there’s a real risk that a big interruption in the season will occur again. Add another reason to hope for successful strike resolution soon.