Is this the third season, and the viewers still don't really understand what's going on? That boggles my mind, that people would continue to watch, without a payoff, for that long. Unless you have been let in on the backstory and I just didn't know it...

Perhaps I am just dense, but I fail to see the appeal of shows like Lost, other than the great bodies of the participants of course.

It has not been totally predictable. It has (mostly) kept viewers guessing. I think that is the main appeal. TV is SO PREDICTABLE and even though it is certainly not totally original, there is some glimmer of originality to Lost.

Well that was underwhelming.

Profoundly so.

It's on ABC, which we're supposed to boycott for the distorted 9/11 mini-series. So I won't be watching.

My predictions for this season: (Don't spoil anything, we'll probably not get this for another 6 months)
- I think this will be the last season.
- A significant part of the action will happen off the island.
- Lots of major characters will die.

If Sawyer gets tied up repeatedly, I will be happy.

Oh, and that opening scene really blew my mind; it certainly isn't what I was expecting. The rest of the episode didn't really live up to it, although the cage experiment part was very funny (however, I figured out what the joke was going to be as soon as I saw the red button).

Ok, I only watched because I watched Dancing With The Stars Eliminataion first. That makes me a bad person, I know.

Well the writers were swearing in Season 1 that they had the first five seasons at least partially figured out. I doubt that, but it at least indicates that they want to make it last. I expect them to pull a Chris Carter. The X-Files mytharc was really interesting for a few seasons but it became obvious that it was being made up week by week despite Carter swearing he had it all planned out. Consequently several reset buttons were pushed and the show went nowhere.