Season one: introduced the characters well, the mysteries and had a very eerie foreboding atmosphere about it. Very consistent with only one or two weak episodes. A-
Season Two: A long drawn out mess. The worst season. D.
Season Three: Had a rough start but "Not in Portland" gave it a newfound sense of narrative purpose. They weren't stalling as badly, the Others were intriguing and lots of intriguing pieces of the puzzle were introduced that season 5 would revisit in exceptional ways--young Ben's time on the island, our first encounter with the woman who would become Eloise, the Dharma village, the pylons, the airstrip, the hope of rescue with Naomi, the New Threat, Horace, the cabin, Jacob/Ben power struggle, Richard Alpert and his lack of aging, the debut of the flash forwards, answering the question of whether they would get off the island etc. And my all time favorite LOST character was introduced--sweet Juliet. So a good season. A-
Season Four: Not one single bad episode in the bunch. The mystery of the Oceanic Six was compelling, the Freighter Folk were interesting although didn't care much for Charlotte. Widmore is introduced in a more urgent way. More pieces are introduced that would be addressed next season--the Orchid, the mysterious wheel, MIB although didn't know what he was at the time, Claire's disappearance. The cat and mouse with the Freighter Folks was interesting. And "The Shape of Things to Come", "Cabin Fever", and the three part finale constituted one of the strongest stretches of the show. A-
Season Five": Built on those successes and finally started pulling the threads together from the first four seasons in interesting and plausible ways--Eloise/Widmore=Others and Dan's parents, survivors always being part of Dharma in the 70s, we finally meet Jacob and see who has been pulling the strings all along, see the statue intact in the past, learned Richard was onboard the Black Rock, saw the well, learned who/what Christian was all along, gave more context to "The Man Behind the Curtain", got a beautiful timeline of events, some nice surprises like getting back to the island in episode 6 instead of the finale, learned how Dharma found the island with the reveal of the Lamp Post and the Biggest WTF reveal in the show's run--Locke's dead. The Juliet/Sawyer romance was one of the highlights of the season and the only romance the show attempted that I cared for-Kate/Jack Meh, Shannon/Sayid--ugh, Sawyer/Kate blech, Ana Lucia/Sawyer
.
The pacing was dizzying. They covered ground like there was no tomorrow feverishly determined to push the story forward with a keen sense of urgency. The initial time jumps offered a more satisfying trip down memory lane than S6 everdid. I loved the idea of having time travel drive an entire season's arc. I loved this season's adoption of following two parallel storylines--one in 2007 and the Other in 1977. We saw relationships and connections never would have expected and it gave me hope that with how well they were pulling all these various pieces from the life of the series together here it would only get better in season 6
This was a year where action adventure was done right. A-.
Season 6: Next worst season after season two. Instead of capitalizing on the successes of these 3 previous seasons and taking them that final mile and continue the process begun in season 3 of starting to pull everything together they just quit. This season was poised to be even better than S3-5 but it seemed like a completely different show. It went back to stalling, the island side story was a bunch of back and forth all over the various camps, the answering questions stopped. The epic storytelling was gone. The new characters they added like Dogen and Lennon were some of the worst the series ever had. It was nice to finally see the Temple but the time spent there was dull and didn't add anything to the series.
Hurley was as annoying as ever. The cameos were weak and the namedropping of people like Nikki and Paolo was gratuitous as was the forced way the writers were saying "look it is the final season there are the polar bear cages, there is the cave we stayed in...".
Jacob and MIB were two of the biggest disappointments lacking any sort of sensible and logical motivations or Plans. Their introduction in "The Incident" and the revelation MIB was Smokey hinted at great things but was botched by the writers in so many ways. Whether making them being once human or never supplying a consistent and coherent motivation or plan for either one. MIB was built up as Evil Incarnate but he became a standard moustace twirling villian who had an anti-climatic battle with Jack on a hilltop--were they channeling Soran and Kirk
We never learned what everyone was willing to die for other than some ill-defined metaphysical concept. Widmore and Eloise were wasted. Ilana was a character I actually liked in season 5 and wanted more of but they blew her up and that was it.
In the past stuff introduced early on in the season usually built up into this magnificent Picture but this season it added to not much of anything and felt like Cuse and Lindeloff were channeling the Heroes writers.
Sayid's arc was lame. He and crazy Claire flip flopped back and forth so much it was ridiculous. Kate was a non-entity thankfully. We never learned anything about the various structures or whose idea was the Protector. The mystery of the island was non-existent. The tease in "Across the Sea" about the Light had me expecting more but ultimately was just lame. The whispers were lame. The ominous Coming War hinted by Widmore in Season 5's "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" fizzled.
The show stalled again. The pacing was lethargic. The final crisis was a mess and not set-up very well. For comparison look at any of LoSt's finales from S3-5 on how you do that. And the series finale was a C only thing saving it were a few fleeting moments i.e. Sayer/Juliet's reunion and the final passage with the survivors spirits reuniting.
D+
