Despite its legendarily divisive ending, ABC's Lost has still gone down as one of the greatest TV series of all time, setting the standard for "mystery box" shows ever since. Across its six seasons, it boasts some of the most acclaimed and memorable moments in TV history, from its groundbreaking pilot to its infamous flash-forward twist at the end of Season 3. Fans of the series no doubt have different picks for the best season, whether it's Season 1's setup of the island's many mysteries, or Season 3, which opened up the world of the show in all kinds of fantastic ways.
While the show's storyline got weirder and harder to follow in later seasons, Season 4 just might be the series at its very best, an ideal fusion of its island intrigue, high-concept sci-fi, and character development. It features some of the series' biggest payoffs, both from a plot standpoint as well as an emotional one, and contains one of the most acclaimed episodes of television of all time with the Desmond-centric "The Constant." Much of the credit goes to showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and the writing team, whose deft handling of the increasingly complex plot formed the basis for an addictively compelling series, but at least some of the credit should go to an unexpected source: the 2007-2008 WGA strike.
Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Lost TV-14 Adventure Drama Mystery Sci-Fi Supernatural 4 /5 Release Date September 22, 2004 Network ABC Showrunner Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse Directors Jack Bender, Stephen Williams Writers Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof Cast See All Evangeline Lilly Naveen Andrews
Creator(s) J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber Powered by Expand Collapse What the Strike Meant for 'Lost' Season 4 Close
By the time the WGA strike began on November 5th, 2007, eight episodes of Lost's fourth season had been written, with another eight planned to bring the season's total to 16. Given that the show's writers were not allowed to work on any more scripts during the strike, the final number had to be revised in order to meet the deadlines for shooting. The strike ended up lasting a little over three months, and officially ended when Guild members voted to end the restraining order on February 12th, 2008.
Because of this delay, Cuse and Lindelof had to cut the remaining scripts from eight down to five. ABC later agreed to split the extra-long finale into two hour-and-a-half episodes, bringing the season's final tally to 14. Losing two episodes might not seem like a huge deal, but given the sheer size of the story being told, having to condense the narrative by two hours had major implications. The writers had to cut a great deal of material from the overall season plan, but the final product was still met with considerable acclaim.
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For those who might need a refresher on what goes on in Lost Season 4, the season picks up one of Season 3's most exciting narrative developments: the arrival of a mysterious freighter off the coast of the island, staffed by a crew whose purpose isn't immediately clear. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) end up on the freighter and attempt to negotiate with the ship's mysterious captain (Grant Bowler) and helicopter pilot Frank (Jeff Fahey) to get more of their people off the island. It also picks up where the Season 3 finale left off, cutting to flash-forwards showing the lives of the so-called "Oceanic Six," a small group of survivors who made it off the island. It all culminates in an extremely exciting two-part finale that reveals the island can be moved (!), as the six escapees are narrowly rescued after the freighter explodes.
The season feels like a mid-point between the series' mystery-heavy beginnings and the final two seasons, which attempt to bring the show to a satisfying conclusion. It features some of the series' best writing, with the aforementioned "The Constant" serving as a tour-de-force encapsulation of the show's strengths, blending time travel hijinks with a deeply satisfying emotional core, reuniting lost lovers Desmond and Penny across time and space. It's a brilliant display of the show's ability to anchor its high-concept narrative in characters that are worth rooting for.
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The condensed story may have led to a season that felt rushed or incomplete, but Lost's fourth season is actually one of its most focused and narratively tight offerings. Having to cut two whole episodes led the writing team to sharpen their story, doing away with some of the filler episodes that hampered previous seasons. The need to fill a lengthy broadcast TV schedule led to a handful of diversions in earlier seasons that were often entertaining, but frustrating to fans who had to wait a week (or sometimes longer) between installments. Season 4's shorter span means there are almost no extraneous moments, leading to a propulsive narrative that still manages to be emotionally satisfying.
Lost's fourth season may have unintentionally predicted the shift to shorter episode orders that's become commonplace in the current TV landscape, where seasons tend to top out at 13 or so episodes, much closer to Season 4's 14 installments than Season 1's 25. Season 4 showed that a more condensed narrative could actually lead to a better final product, one that focused on more efficient storytelling. Lindelof and Cuse have often said they had to fight ABC to end the series after six seasons rather than keep it on the air just for the sake of ratings, and season four proves that sometimes constraints can be beneficial for creativity.