Final Thoughts on LOST before Wednesday

I need to concentrate on some other things than LOST this week - 24 and Battlestar Galactica need my love too, as do my iPod and comic books, so just a few thoughts:

• Why do the promo pictures look so damned PhotoShopped and inorganic? There's one in this week's TV Guide that looks pretty faked too. Aren't they all in Hawaii?
• The thing that will kill me on Wednesday will be this decision: do I start at 9:00 and deal with the commercials or wait until 9:20-9:25 to facilitate the DVR commercial blitz-through? I have a feeling Laura's going to make me wait. That 20 minutes may be just too much - I mean, it'll be on.
  

Thoughts on LOST, Season 5

With the 5th season of LOST approaching rapidly, I'd just like to put down some thoughts about it.

• The media blitz. This is one show that I've watched from the start (most of my other favorites - The Shield, Battlestar Galactica, How I Met Your Mother - I've come to the party late.) So I can really see that ABC has really thrown a lot at this. Chief is the partnership with the earnestly piano-centric band The Fray; iTunes has had a 3 minute trailer up for a few weeks using a mix of old and new show clips, inter cut with footage of the band on a bridge (Jack's from the Season 3 closer?) I'm fine with this, as long as the song doesn't show up in the actual show. I believe the word is pandering and the show doesn't need this.

• Speaking of the trailer, I have not heard or seen one person mention the subliminal flash of a new logo, one for "Ajira Airlines". First of all, the introduction of a second airline into the narrative opens up a lot of questions and elevates a normally mundane thing into something of a character (a la Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard.) Also, a visit to this site offers some interesting Easter Eggs for fans.

• I was heartened early last fall when news made the rounds that the season was going to pioneer a new storytelling device where the flashes, back or forth, would not be as directly obvious. That's great to me - I want to work at my TV drama - and I appreciate the show runners not overstaying their innovations. But...

• But, then I was disheartened when Damon Lindelof (hey, remember when it was "J.J. Abrams' LOST", and now it's "Cuse and Lindelof's LOST"?) made some comments about how fans were nervous that the two factions (off- and on-islanders) wouldn't reunite for most of the season. Hmmm. I don't know how long they plan to wait for reuniting the whole cast, but if they're all back in a group hug by the end of the second week, that's not going to play well with me.
  

• Initial spoiler-free reviews have indicated that there's little to nothing to worry about, which is good. The reports that say the first episode has a mind-bending opening, along with story beats that open up a slew of new possibilities is great.

Well, we've still got a week and a half. (sigh.)