Since Neotron is on vacation (who’d a thought?) I’m going to handle the Lost forum today.

I don’t have as many wild or interesting theories as Neotron, and I don’t troll Lost message boards, like Neotron, so don’t expect that kind of insight here.

First a bit of news: Hollywood Reporter is reporting that ABC has granted lost an extra hour for each of the last two seasons, upping the total content for season 5 and 6 to 17 hours. That’s pretty much good news for all of us.

A good excerpt from that article:

For the upcoming season finale, Lindelof promised a more action-driven cliffhanger instead of the mind-bending flash-forward time shift that stunned fans last season.

“The finale this year will not be as tricky as last year,” he said. “Hopefully, this year it’s a little bit more of a straightforward action-adventure narrative. But the ending of the episode will hopefully engage and intrigue people looking forward to the next season of the show.”

Lindelof declined to say whether the flash forwards will continue, but did leave open the possibility of the show’s main story line on the island catching up with the flash forwards that have taken place on the mainland this season.

“It’s very exciting that the audience is going to be wondering when is the present going to be (next season),” he said. “We’ve moved backward in time, now we’ve moved forward in time. The present of the show has always been on the island — that may not necessarily be the case in the future.”

On to last nights Lost. I will say that there were about 5 minutes of the episode where I was scratching my head and I’d decided for about 4 minutes that Lost no longer made any sort of sense. Which is actually what I like about the show. Every time I come around to thinking I’ve got a reasonable handle on what’s going on, Jacks dad shows up, has a drink with somebody, and the show changes.

Which is fine, the guy who plays Christian Shepherd is really good. And Claire was actually downright creepy in her scene.

And I’m still having trouble comprehending eye-liner guy. He’s been in pretty much every time period as is.. From Locke’s childhood, to Bens and on to the present without aging a day.

Another character I’m enjoying a lot? Jeff Fahey, the helicopter captain. I’ve always really liked his acting, though I don’t know why. Maybe I saw Lawnmower Man a few more times than I should have, but he was great in Planet Terror. And did anybody else get the idea that he tossed the radio out of the helicopter with the purpose of warning Jack and the gang of where they are so they can stay away? And Jack seems as though he’s going to lead them all to a massacre? That sounds like an action packed finale to me and I can easily see things going in that direction.

Anybody have any theories about who the last member of the Oceanic 6 is? I’ve got nothing.

So, hopefully that’s enough for everyone to chew on until Neotron gets back.