Never better

I could easily squander the next 350+ words talking about "Lost"'s fifth season by spewing superlatives like an open wound. I figure, though, that my time would be much better spent explaining why the series is on the creative and aesthetic high it’s on at the moment.

By combining a "Back to the Future"-on-acid approach to fractured-time storytelling with a stellar cast of familiar and lived-in characters (as well as some memorable new additions), the series deals with the lofty themes of fate, coincidence, love, hatred, life, death, martyrdom and resurrection better than the weightiest religious text, all while continuing to spin an addicting and mysterious mythology.

Destined to be known as “the time-travel season” by serious and casual fans alike, producers Damon Lindelof and Cartlon Cuse succeeded in tying the island’s history together with its present, leaving its future, and the futures of every one of its inhabitants, in serious doubt with a season-ending nuclear blast.

There’s not a bad episode in the lot, although “The Little Prince” peppers in some Kate/Aaron melodrama for the ladies. This is easily forgivable for a season with such condensed masterworks as “Jughead,” “The Incident” and “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” (an episode that won Michael Emerson an Emmy and could’ve just as easily earned Terry O’Quinn another).

As fine a package as ABC has put together here, I have a serious bone to pick with the extras on this set due to what’s glaringly missing from my own set. The selected Darlton audio commentaries, behind-the-curtain footage, location diaries and Nestor Carbonell humor are all well and good, but the only way to access to the intriguing “Lost University” (the latest ARG from the producers and writers) is to the Blu-Ray edition. This marketing gimmick smacks of executive greed and leaves as bad a taste in my mouth as the WGA strike did a couple of years ago.

Now about those superlatives; Juggling countless plot threads and multiple timelines with the deftness of seasoned pros, Lindelof, Cuse and the rest of the "Lost" team have weaved what is probably the best season of the show thus far. With the sixth and final season starting on February 2nd, "Lost" has positioned itself to conclude as one of the greatest series in the history of television.