New Releases

• Ultimate Arsenal | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ultimate Arsenal (3 Discs)

• Another Station: Another Mile | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £10.38   |  Saving you £4.61 (30.80%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Tracklist 1-20. Another Station: Another Mile

• 30 Days of Night: Dark Days | Blu Ray | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Almost a year has passed since Barrow Alaska's population was decimated by vampires. Stella mourning her husband's murder has been travelling the world trying to convince others that vampires exist. When a group of lost souls offers her a chance to exact revenge upon the vampire queen Stella joins their mission to stop evil from striking again.

• Ancient Discoveries: Uncovering History | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-2.24 (-12.50%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Ancient Discoveries: Uncovering History (3 Discs)

• Lost: The Complete Seasons 1-6 Premium Box Set with Senet Board Game | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £173.99

  This box sets has the same contents as the box set available on Amazon.com.Lost: Season One Along with Desperate Housewives, Lost was one of the two breakout shows of 2004. Mixing suspense and action with a sci-fi twist, it began with a thrilling pilot episode in which a jetliner traveling from Australia to Los Angeles crashes, leaving 48 survivors on an unidentified island with no sign of civilisation or hope of imminent rescue. That may sound like Gilligan's Island meets Survivor, but Lost kept viewers tuning in every Wednesday night--and spending the rest of the week speculating on Web sites--with some irresistible hooks (not to mention the beautiful women). First, there's a huge ensemble cast of no fewer than 14 regular characters, and each episode fills in some of the back story on one of them. There's a doctor; an Iraqi soldier; a has-been rock star; a fugitive from justice; a self-absorbed young woman and her brother; a lottery winner; a father and son; a Korean couple; a pregnant woman; and others. Second, there's a host of unanswered questions: What is the mysterious beast that lurks in the jungle? Why do polar bears and wild boars live there? Why has a woman been transmitting an SOS message in French from somewhere on the island for the last 16 years? Why do impossible wishes seem to come true? Are they really on a physical island, or somewhere else? What is the significance of the recurring set of numbers? And will Kate ever give up her bad-boy fixation and hook up with Jack? Lost did have some hiccups during the first season. Some plot threads were left dangling for weeks, and the "oh, it didn't really happen" card was played too often. But the strong writing and topnotch cast kept the show a cut above most network TV. The best-known actor at the time of the show's debut was Dominic Monaghan, fresh off his stint as Merry the Hobbit in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. The rest of the cast is either unknowns or "where I have I seen that face before" supporting players, including Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, who are the closest thing to leads. Other standouts include Naveen Andrews, Terry O'Quinn (who's made a nice career out of conspiracy-themed TV shows), Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Yunjin Kim, Maggie Grace, and Emilie de Ravin, but there's really not a weak link in the cast. Co-created by J.J. Abrams (Alias), Lost left enough unanswered questions after its first season to keep viewers riveted for a second season. --David Horiuchi Lost: Season Two What was in the Hatch? The cliffhanger from season one of Lost was answered in its opening sequences, only to launch into more questions as the season progressed. That's right: Just when you say "Ohhhhh," there comes another "What?" Thankfully, the show's producers sprinkle answers like tasty morsels throughout the season, ending with a whopper: What caused Oceanic Air Flight 815 to crash in the first place? As the show digs into more revelations about its inhabitant's pasts, it also devotes a good chunk to new characters (Hey, it's an island; you never know who you're going to run into.) First, there are the "Tailies," passengers from the back end of the plane who crashed on the other side of the island. Among them are the wise, God-fearing ex-drug lord Mr. Eko (standout Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje); devoted husband Bernard (Sam Anderson); psychiatrist Libby (Cynthia Watros, whose character has more than one hidden link to the other islanders); and ex-cop Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), by far the most infuriating character on the show, despite how much the writers tried to incur sympathy with her flashback. Then there are the Others, first introduced when they kidnapped Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) at the end of season one. Brutal and calculating, their agenda only became more complex when one of them (played creepily by Michael Emerson) was held hostage in the hatch and, quite handily, plays mind games on everyone's already frayed nerves. The original cast continues to battle their own skeletons, most notably Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Michael (Harold Perrineau), whose obsession with finding Walt takes a dangerous turn. The love triangle between Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway), which had stalled with Sawyer's departure, heats up again in the second half. Despite the bloating cast size (knocked down by a few by season's end) Lost still does what it does best: explores the psyche of people, about whom "my life is an open book" never applies, and cracks into the social dynamics of strangers thrust into Lord of the Flies-esque situations. Is it all a science experiment? A dream? A supernatural pocket in the universe? Likely, any theory will wind up on shaky ground by the season's conclusion. But hey, that's the fun of it. This show was made for DVD, and you can pause and slow-frame to your heart's content. --Ellen Kim Lost: Season ThreeWhen it aired in 2006-07, Lost's third season was split into two, with a hefty break in between. This did nothing to help the already weirdly disparate direction the show was taking (Kate and Sawyer in zoo cages! Locke eating goop in a mud hut!), but when it finally righted its course halfway through--in particular that whopper of a finale--the drama series had left its irked fan base thrilled once again. This doesn't mean, however, that you should skip through the first half of the season to get there, because quite a few questions find answers: what the Others are up to, the impact of turning that fail-safe key, the identity of the eye-patched man from the hatch's video monitor. One of the series' biggest curiosities from the past--how Locke ended up in that wheelchair in the first place--also gets its satisfying due. (The episode, "The Man from Tallahassee," likely was a big contributor to Terry O'Quinn's surprising--but long-deserved--Emmy win that year.) Unfortunately, you do have to sit through a lot of aforementioned nuisances to get there. Season 3 kicks off with Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) held captive by the Others; Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) on a mission to rescue them; and Locke, Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) in the aftermath of the electromagnetic pulse that blew up the hatch. Spinning the storylines away from base camp alone wouldn't have felt so disjointed were it not for the new characters simultaneously being introduced. First there's Juliet, a mysterious member of the Others whose loyalty constantly comes into question as the season goes on. Played delicately by Elizabeth Mitchell (Gia, ER, Frequency), Juliet is in one turn a cold-blooded killer, by another turn a sympathetic friend; possibly both at once, possibly neither at all. (She's also a terrific, albeit unwitting, threat to the Kate-Sawyer-Jack love triangle, which plays out more definitively this season.) On the other hand, there's the now-infamous Nikki and Paulo (Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santoro), a tagalong couple who were cleverly woven into the previous seasons' key moments but came to bear the brunt of fans' ire toward the show (Sawyer humorously echoed the sentiments by remarking, "Who the hell are you?"). By the end of the season, at least two major characters die, another is told he/she will die within months, major new threats are unveiled, and--as mentioned before--the two-part season finale restores your faith in the series. --Ellen A. Kim Lost: Season Four Season four of Lost was a fine return to form for the series, which polarized its audience the year before with its focus on The Others and not enough on our original crash victims. That season's finale introduced a new storytelling device--the flash-forward--that's employed to great effect this time around; by showing who actually got off the island (known as the Oceanic Six), the viewer is able to put to bed some longstanding loose ends. As the finale attests, we see that in the future Jack (Matthew Fox) is broken, bearded, and not sober, while Kate (Evangeline Lilly) is estranged from Jack and with another guy (the identity may surprise you). Four others do make it back to their homes, but as the flash-forwards show, it's definitely not the end of their connection to the island. Back in present day, however, the islanders are visited by the denizens of a so-called rescue ship, who have agendas of their own. While Jack works with the newcomers to try to get off the island, Locke (Terry O'Quinn), with a few followers of his own, forms an uneasy alliance with Ben (Michael Emerson) against the suspicious gang. Some episodes featuring the new characters feel like filler, but the evolution of such characters as Sun and Jin (Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim) is this season's strength; plus, the love story of Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) and Penny (Sonya Walger) provides some of the show's emotional highlights. As is the custom with Lost, bullets fly and characters die (while others may or may not have). Moreover, the fate of Michael (Harold Perrineau), last seen traitorously sailing off to civilisation in season two, as well as the flash-forwards of the Oceanic Six, shows you never quite leave the island once you've left. There's a force that pulls them in, and it's a hook that keeps you watching. Season four was a shorter 13 episodes instead of the usual 22 due to the 2008 writers' strike. --Ellen A. Kim Lost: Season Five Since Lost made its debut as a cult phenomenon in 2004, certain things seemed inconceivable. In its fourth year, some of those things, like a rescue, came to pass. The season ended with Locke (Terry O'Quinn) attempting to persuade the Oceanic Six to return, but he dies before that can happen--or so it appears--and where Jack (Matthew Fox) used to lead, Ben (Emmy nominee Michael Emerson) now takes the reins and convinces the survivors to fulfill Locke's wish. As producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse state in their commentary on the fifth-season premiere, "We're doing time travel this year," and the pile-up of flashbacks and flash-forwards will make even the most dedicated fan dizzy. Ben, Jack, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) arrive to find that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) have been part of the Dharma Initiative for three years. The writers also clarify the roles that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) play in the island's master plan, setting the stage for the prophecies of Daniel's mother, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), to play a bigger part in the sixth and final season. Dozens of other players flit in and out, some never to return. A few, such as Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), live again in the past. Lost could've wrapped things up in five years, as The Wire did, but the show continues to excite and surprise. As Lindelof and Cuse admit in the commentary, there's a "fine line between confusion and mystery," adding, "it makes more sense if you're drunk." --Kathleen C. FennessyLost Season SixIt’s taken a long time to get here, but finally, the last season of Lost arrives, with answers to at least some of the questions that fans of the show have been demanding for the past few years. In true Lost fashion, it doesn’t tie all its mysteries up with a bow, but it does at least answer some of the questions that have long being gestating. In the series opening, for instance, we finally learn the secret of the smoke monster, which is a sizeable step in the right direction. In terms of quality, the show has been on an upward curve since the end date of the programme was announced, and season six arguably finds Lost at its most confident to date. Never mind the fact that it's juggling lots of proverbial balls: there's a very clear end point here, and the show benefits enormously from it. Naturally, Lost naysayers will probably find themselves more alienated than ever here. But this season nonetheless marks the passing of a major television show, one that has cleverly managed to reinvent itself on more than one occasion, and keep audiences across the world gripped as a result. There's going to be nothing quite like it for a long time to come. --Jon Foster

• The Smurfs and the Magic Flute | Blu Ray | (11/10/2010) from £9.69   |  Saving you £10.30 (106.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Johan PeeWee and the Smurfs have their hands full when several magic flutes turn up which have the power to make people dance even against their will. The trouble begins when the flutes fall into evil hands.

• Ultimate Gangster Collection | Blu Ray | (11/10/2010) from £68.83   |  Saving you £-18.84 (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Titles Comprise: American Gangster: Drug-kingpin Frank Lucas smuggles heroin into the US by hiding it with the bodies of soldiers killed during battle in Vietnam. By delivering a product that is far superior to his competitors Lucas has rapidly established his status as Harlem's most innovative drug dealer. While Lucas delicately constructs his own criminal empire Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) one of the few honest detectives in a corrupt system senses a sizeable shift within the hierarchy of the drug underworld and sets out to investigate this hitherto unknown power player that has come out of the shadows to dominate the drug trade. But with Detective Trupo (Josh Brolin) Roberts' crooked and jealous colleague wanting to obstruct and ruin the integrity of his idealistic counterpart Roberts is left with little option other than to take desperate measures to end Lucas' rule in Harlem. Carlito's Way: Sprung from prison on a legal technicality by his cocaine-addled attorney (Sean Penn) former drug kingpin Carlito Brigante (Pacino) stuns the local underworld when he vows to go straight. Taking a job managing a glitzy low-life nightclub he tracks down his onetime girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller) and rekindles their romance promising he's changed for good. But Carlito's dream of going legitimate is undermined at every turn by murderous former cronies and even deadlier young thugs out to make a name for themselves. Ultimately however his most dangerous enemy is himself. Despite good intentions Carlito's misguided loyalties and an outmoded code of honour will plunge him into a savage life-or-death battle against the relentless forces that refuse to let him go. Casino: Robert De Niro Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese's riveting look at how blind ambition white-hot passion and 24-carat greed toppled an empire. Las Vegas in 1973 is the setting for this fact-based story about the Mob's multi-million dollar casino operation - where fortunes and lives were made and lost with a roll of the dice... In an era of over-the-top glitz Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (De Niro) is riding high as front man for the Mob's multi-billion dollar Las Vegas operation. To protect their 'investment' the bosses send in Ace's boyhood pal - hot-headed enforcer Nicky Santoro (Pesci). It's a winning hand: Ace's brain and Nicky's muscle... until sexy wildcard Ginger McKenna (Stone) turns up the heat. Public Enemies: Acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp Christian Bale and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard in the story of Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger: the charismatic bank robber who was relentlessly pursued by renowned FBI agent Melvin Purvis in a legendary game of cat-and-mouse.

• From Toni With Love | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-1.09 (-15.60%)   |  RRP £6.99

  A collection of music videos by American R & B diva Toni Braxton.

• Anne Of Green Gables: A New Beginning | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Anne Shirley (Golden Globe-winner Barbara Hershey) returns to Avonlea in 1945 and relives buried memories from before her time at Green Gables. This fascinating prequel features performances by Academy Award-winner Shirley MacLaine and Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Young Anne.

• Ben 10 Alien Swarm /Race Against Time (Double Pack) | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Titles Comprise: Alien Swarm: Since Ben Tennyson discovered the Omnitrix he's used it to turn into a multitude of different alien heroes each with unique abilities. Now Earth is threatened by a new alien invasion and Ben will need all his powers - and all his friends - to save the day. Race Against Time: When summer comes to an end the adventure begins! Ben Gwen and Grandpa Max leave their alien battling life on the road for the humdrum world of school and the suburbs. But when Eon - Ben's arch nemesis from another galaxy - shows up to claim the Omnitrix as his own and destroy the earth things back home get really exciting!

• Irish Railways | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £25.90   |  Saving you £-10.91 (-72.80%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A box set of three DVDs on Irish Railways. 1. Irish railway miscellany. 2. The swansong of steam in Ulster. 3. The Irish narrow guage 1939-1959

• Heart of Fire | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £4.81   |  Saving you £1.18 (24.53%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Luigi Falorni directs this drama based on the true story of a young female soldier who grows up in the midst of the Eritrean civil war. Despite Eritrea's ongoing war of independence against Ethiopia Awet (Letekidan Micael) has hitherto had a peaceful childhood in an orphanage run by Italian nuns. One day Awet finds out that her father a freedom fighter is still alive. He removes Awet and her sister Freweyini (Solomie Micael) from the orphanage and offers their services to the Eritrean liberation army where they come face to face with brutality fanaticism and death.

• Lords Of The Mafia - Chinese Triads | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £5.98   |  Saving you £4.01 (40.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Black Dragon: The Triads of China. With roots in ancient Chinese dynasties the triads of today are still secret societies and also among Asian's most feared criminal organizations running illegal operations throughout the Pacific rim. It was during the roaring days of Prohibition that gangsters in America first united to form a national crime syndicate. Since that time organized crime has grown to become a worldwide menace. In Lords of The Mafia we look not only at the crime families and bosses of the Cosa Nostra in the U.S. but also at the most notorious and ruthless criminal organizations around the globe. In this DVD we expose the violent and profitable Chinese Triads.

• Sweat | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sweat

• Rockin' Down The Highway | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-1.09 (-15.60%)   |  RRP £6.99

  An historic concert uniting the three lead vocalists of the Doobie Brothers for a special greatest hits performance.

• Fruitfly | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-5.24 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Bright effervescent and witty Fruit Fly gives a musical twist to Tales Of The City-esque drama with sparkling results. HP Mendoza's critically-acclaimed directorial debut follows Bethesda (LA Renigen) a young performance artist in search of her career and birth mother in San Francisco. As she moves into an art commune and surrounds herself with a loving gay family Bethesda finds herself fully immersed in the city's vibrant queer quarter and quickly becomes the fag-hag of choice for her many male friends while uncovering long-hidden family secrets. Full of quirky melodic and uplifting musical performances Fruit Fly is a glittering love letter to the birth-place of American gay culture.

• Britain's Most Haunted Box Set | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £49.93   |  Saving you £-9.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  For the past 18 years renowned paranormal investigator Richard Felix has been searching for the truth behind ghosts. One of his many projects has been the Ghost Tour Of Great Britain. This box set contains some of the spookiest locations that he has visited. Listen to eye witness accounts as they recall personal tales of ghostly goings-on and visit some of the most haunted sites throughout Britain. You will never see these historic sites in quite the same light again as Richard takes you on his chilling tour.

• Vegas Vampires | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £5.55   |  Saving you £7.44 (134.05%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Vegas Vampires

• Lost: The Complete Seasons 1-6 Premium Box Set with Senet Board Game | Blu Ray | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £217.99

  This box sets has the same contents as the box set available on Amazon.com.Lost: Season One Along with Desperate Housewives, Lost was one of the two breakout shows of 2004. Mixing suspense and action with a sci-fi twist, it began with a thrilling pilot episode in which a jetliner traveling from Australia to Los Angeles crashes, leaving 48 survivors on an unidentified island with no sign of civilisation or hope of imminent rescue. That may sound like Gilligan's Island meets Survivor, but Lost kept viewers tuning in every Wednesday night--and spending the rest of the week speculating on Web sites--with some irresistible hooks (not to mention the beautiful women). First, there's a huge ensemble cast of no fewer than 14 regular characters, and each episode fills in some of the back story on one of them. There's a doctor; an Iraqi soldier; a has-been rock star; a fugitive from justice; a self-absorbed young woman and her brother; a lottery winner; a father and son; a Korean couple; a pregnant woman; and others. Second, there's a host of unanswered questions: What is the mysterious beast that lurks in the jungle? Why do polar bears and wild boars live there? Why has a woman been transmitting an SOS message in French from somewhere on the island for the last 16 years? Why do impossible wishes seem to come true? Are they really on a physical island, or somewhere else? What is the significance of the recurring set of numbers? And will Kate ever give up her bad-boy fixation and hook up with Jack? Lost did have some hiccups during the first season. Some plot threads were left dangling for weeks, and the "oh, it didn't really happen" card was played too often. But the strong writing and topnotch cast kept the show a cut above most network TV. The best-known actor at the time of the show's debut was Dominic Monaghan, fresh off his stint as Merry the Hobbit in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. The rest of the cast is either unknowns or "where I have I seen that face before" supporting players, including Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, who are the closest thing to leads. Other standouts include Naveen Andrews, Terry O'Quinn (who's made a nice career out of conspiracy-themed TV shows), Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Yunjin Kim, Maggie Grace, and Emilie de Ravin, but there's really not a weak link in the cast. Co-created by J.J. Abrams (Alias), Lost left enough unanswered questions after its first season to keep viewers riveted for a second season. --David Horiuchi Lost: Season Two What was in the Hatch? The cliffhanger from season one of Lost was answered in its opening sequences, only to launch into more questions as the season progressed. That's right: Just when you say "Ohhhhh," there comes another "What?" Thankfully, the show's producers sprinkle answers like tasty morsels throughout the season, ending with a whopper: What caused Oceanic Air Flight 815 to crash in the first place? As the show digs into more revelations about its inhabitant's pasts, it also devotes a good chunk to new characters (Hey, it's an island; you never know who you're going to run into.) First, there are the "Tailies," passengers from the back end of the plane who crashed on the other side of the island. Among them are the wise, God-fearing ex-drug lord Mr. Eko (standout Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje); devoted husband Bernard (Sam Anderson); psychiatrist Libby (Cynthia Watros, whose character has more than one hidden link to the other islanders); and ex-cop Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), by far the most infuriating character on the show, despite how much the writers tried to incur sympathy with her flashback. Then there are the Others, first introduced when they kidnapped Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) at the end of season one. Brutal and calculating, their agenda only became more complex when one of them (played creepily by Michael Emerson) was held hostage in the hatch and, quite handily, plays mind games on everyone's already frayed nerves. The original cast continues to battle their own skeletons, most notably Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Michael (Harold Perrineau), whose obsession with finding Walt takes a dangerous turn. The love triangle between Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway), which had stalled with Sawyer's departure, heats up again in the second half. Despite the bloating cast size (knocked down by a few by season's end) Lost still does what it does best: explores the psyche of people, about whom "my life is an open book" never applies, and cracks into the social dynamics of strangers thrust into Lord of the Flies-esque situations. Is it all a science experiment? A dream? A supernatural pocket in the universe? Likely, any theory will wind up on shaky ground by the season's conclusion. But hey, that's the fun of it. This show was made for DVD, and you can pause and slow-frame to your heart's content. --Ellen Kim Lost: Season ThreeWhen it aired in 2006-07, Lost's third season was split into two, with a hefty break in between. This did nothing to help the already weirdly disparate direction the show was taking (Kate and Sawyer in zoo cages! Locke eating goop in a mud hut!), but when it finally righted its course halfway through--in particular that whopper of a finale--the drama series had left its irked fan base thrilled once again. This doesn't mean, however, that you should skip through the first half of the season to get there, because quite a few questions find answers: what the Others are up to, the impact of turning that fail-safe key, the identity of the eye-patched man from the hatch's video monitor. One of the series' biggest curiosities from the past--how Locke ended up in that wheelchair in the first place--also gets its satisfying due. (The episode, "The Man from Tallahassee," likely was a big contributor to Terry O'Quinn's surprising--but long-deserved--Emmy win that year.) Unfortunately, you do have to sit through a lot of aforementioned nuisances to get there. Season 3 kicks off with Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) held captive by the Others; Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) on a mission to rescue them; and Locke, Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) in the aftermath of the electromagnetic pulse that blew up the hatch. Spinning the storylines away from base camp alone wouldn't have felt so disjointed were it not for the new characters simultaneously being introduced. First there's Juliet, a mysterious member of the Others whose loyalty constantly comes into question as the season goes on. Played delicately by Elizabeth Mitchell (Gia, ER, Frequency), Juliet is in one turn a cold-blooded killer, by another turn a sympathetic friend; possibly both at once, possibly neither at all. (She's also a terrific, albeit unwitting, threat to the Kate-Sawyer-Jack love triangle, which plays out more definitively this season.) On the other hand, there's the now-infamous Nikki and Paulo (Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santoro), a tagalong couple who were cleverly woven into the previous seasons' key moments but came to bear the brunt of fans' ire toward the show (Sawyer humorously echoed the sentiments by remarking, "Who the hell are you?"). By the end of the season, at least two major characters die, another is told he/she will die within months, major new threats are unveiled, and--as mentioned before--the two-part season finale restores your faith in the series. --Ellen A. Kim Lost: Season Four Season four of Lost was a fine return to form for the series, which polarized its audience the year before with its focus on The Others and not enough on our original crash victims. That season's finale introduced a new storytelling device--the flash-forward--that's employed to great effect this time around; by showing who actually got off the island (known as the Oceanic Six), the viewer is able to put to bed some longstanding loose ends. As the finale attests, we see that in the future Jack (Matthew Fox) is broken, bearded, and not sober, while Kate (Evangeline Lilly) is estranged from Jack and with another guy (the identity may surprise you). Four others do make it back to their homes, but as the flash-forwards show, it's definitely not the end of their connection to the island. Back in present day, however, the islanders are visited by the denizens of a so-called rescue ship, who have agendas of their own. While Jack works with the newcomers to try to get off the island, Locke (Terry O'Quinn), with a few followers of his own, forms an uneasy alliance with Ben (Michael Emerson) against the suspicious gang. Some episodes featuring the new characters feel like filler, but the evolution of such characters as Sun and Jin (Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim) is this season's strength; plus, the love story of Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) and Penny (Sonya Walger) provides some of the show's emotional highlights. As is the custom with Lost, bullets fly and characters die (while others may or may not have). Moreover, the fate of Michael (Harold Perrineau), last seen traitorously sailing off to civilisation in season two, as well as the flash-forwards of the Oceanic Six, shows you never quite leave the island once you've left. There's a force that pulls them in, and it's a hook that keeps you watching. Season four was a shorter 13 episodes instead of the usual 22 due to the 2008 writers' strike. --Ellen A. Kim Lost: Season Five Since Lost made its debut as a cult phenomenon in 2004, certain things seemed inconceivable. In its fourth year, some of those things, like a rescue, came to pass. The season ended with Locke (Terry O'Quinn) attempting to persuade the Oceanic Six to return, but he dies before that can happen--or so it appears--and where Jack (Matthew Fox) used to lead, Ben (Emmy nominee Michael Emerson) now takes the reins and convinces the survivors to fulfill Locke's wish. As producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse state in their commentary on the fifth-season premiere, "We're doing time travel this year," and the pile-up of flashbacks and flash-forwards will make even the most dedicated fan dizzy. Ben, Jack, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) arrive to find that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) have been part of the Dharma Initiative for three years. The writers also clarify the roles that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) play in the island's master plan, setting the stage for the prophecies of Daniel's mother, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), to play a bigger part in the sixth and final season. Dozens of other players flit in and out, some never to return. A few, such as Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), live again in the past. Lost could've wrapped things up in five years, as The Wire did, but the show continues to excite and surprise. As Lindelof and Cuse admit in the commentary, there's a "fine line between confusion and mystery," adding, "it makes more sense if you're drunk." --Kathleen C. FennessyLost Season SixIt’s taken a long time to get here, but finally, the last season of Lost arrives, with answers to at least some of the questions that fans of the show have been demanding for the past few years. In true Lost fashion, it doesn’t tie all its mysteries up with a bow, but it does at least answer some of the questions that have long being gestating. In the series opening, for instance, we finally learn the secret of the smoke monster, which is a sizeable step in the right direction. In terms of quality, the show has been on an upward curve since the end date of the programme was announced, and season six arguably finds Lost at its most confident to date. Never mind the fact that it's juggling lots of proverbial balls: there's a very clear end point here, and the show benefits enormously from it. Naturally, Lost naysayers will probably find themselves more alienated than ever here. But this season nonetheless marks the passing of a major television show, one that has cleverly managed to reinvent itself on more than one occasion, and keep audiences across the world gripped as a result. There's going to be nothing quite like it for a long time to come. --Jon Foster

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  A Perfect Day