Lost: The Complete Fourth Season arrives on Blu-ray looking great and loaded with a ton of special features that are sure to please fans of the series. The fourth season shows the series is starting to get a bit formulaic, but the show’s writers throw in plenty of twist, turns and questions to keep you hooked and waiting for season five.
For Season Four, Lost fans can look forward to some answers, but even greater questions. We also get more flash forwards than backwards; a bit of time traveling; a heated up love triangle between Jack, Kate and Sawyer; and a truly great villain performance from Michael Emerson's "Ben." The season also takes viewers off the island with flash forwards to what has happened after six of the Oceanic Air flight 815 crash survivors were rescued.
Like past seasons, Lost continues to keep me hooked thanks to the performance of its cast. Some of the actors are getting a bit annoying (I am getting a tad bit tired of Matthew Fox's Jack Shephard who has to always be right, and Josh Holloway's Sawyer with his perpetual five o'clock shadow beard), but others continue to make the series worth watching (Jorge Garcia's "Hurley" continues to be the series' heart, and you have to enjoy the love story between Daniel Dae Kim's Jin and Yunjin Kim's Sun).
For me, this season kept me hooked with the performance of Michael Emerson. The actor has brought one of the best villains (if you can call his character that) to the television screen. Ben is the master of manipulation, and you never quite know what is going on his head.
Emerson perfects the character with beady eyes that seem wimpy and intimidating at the same time. As Season Four rolled on, I found myself caring less about what the survivors were going to do, and more about how they were going to survive their encounters with Ben.
When the island is invaded, Ben’s love as a father is put to the test, and you have to wonder if he really did care about the outcome. Emerson has created a character that is impossible for the audience to read and figure out.
Like the island, Ben is a mystery, but clearly someone not to trust. Or can you? Although he is just a supporting actor, Emerson’s character was the reason I kept watching the fourth season, and one of the reasons I am interested to see season five.
Like past seasons, Lost: The Complete Fourth Season is filled with twist and turns, and it is still quite impossible to figure out where the series is headed or just what the island is.
The survivors continue to try and get off the island, but have to deal with all the weirdness that comes their way. Nothing is what it seems – even the people who show up to rescue them.
We do learn some secrets this season (thanks to the flash forwards and the rescue attempt), but the show’s creators throw even more mysteries at viewers for every answer they give. This keeps the series interesting, but is also starting to get a bit grating for me. I enjoyed the cliffhangers and am still hooked enough to want to watch what comes next.
However, I am also concerned Lost is heading into X-Files land – where there are more questions than answers and cliffhangers just for the sake of hooking the audience. Some of the actors are also getting a bit boring and you wish the show would have the guts to kill off one of the big cast names (my vote is for Jack who cried way too much this season).
Whether you liked Season Four or not, the show looked simply amazing on Blu-ray’s 1080p picture. The lush island colors pop, and you can make out all kinds of details on the show that you couldn’t before (such as some of the details on Jack’s tattoos).
The Blu-ray also comes loaded with special features that will take fans deep into the series, and continues the tradition of past DVD sets. I have always appreciated how the Lost DVD sets seem to come with a ton of features for the fans that make the sets worth their price.
The Blu-ray has behind the scenes looks at the guns that are used on the show; a look at the new faces from the freighter and a look at the freighter set; a look at the shooting location (Hawaii); an underwater documentary on the crash (don’t want to give any season spoilers away); the music of the show; great bloopers and deleted scenes; and audio commentaries.
The Blu-ray also features a SeasonPlay which lets you start right where you left off on an episode. This feature worked pretty good for me, but was a bit annoying from time to time. There is also a deeper look at the flash forwards with insider information, script pages, and an introduction from the show’s producers.
If you are a fan of Lost, you will be happy with the Blu-ray version of the fourth season. The show continues to have enough mystery to keep your interest, and great performances to keep you hooked. While some of the series is getting a bit old, I am still looking forward to seeing what the island has coming next.
Lost: The Complete Fourth Season is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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