In dog days, three series get it right

-- "Lost" (Thursday, 9 p.m. ABC): Many good series eventually go bad from neglect - creative neglect. If that seems too harsh or simplistic, how about being deaf to the complaints of your core audience? It happens all the time (though these days, with the online component being crucial and many producers having their own blogs or personally scouring fan sites, it's happening less often).

Shows that are serialized especially need to be aware of viewer apathy. If you lose the loyalists, your show is dead. What "Lost" managed to do last season is notable. Its creators, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof - two show runners who keep hyper-vigilant tabs on viewer feedback - responded to fan and critic complaints that the series was moving too slowly, that more questions were being raised than answered, and the complex mythology of the series was in danger of imploding instead of continuing to entertain.

And so they fixed it. The second half of Season 3 quickened considerably and many of the superfluous characters were done away with. More important was the announcement from the producers that there was an endgame to the series - it would go on for three more 16-episode seasons. That allowed them to not only imagine an end but work backward from it - which strengthened the story arc and made this season so thrilling and addictive. Though the strike will rob three episodes from this season, they will be added into the totals of the next two.

Viewers won't want to miss episodes of "Lost," which is now at the top of its game. Its milieu of castaways and strange-island happenings has never been more compelling. By having a willingness to course-correct, "Lost" found creative freedom. The boldest move yet was transitioning from "flashbacks" - which explored the background of each character in the first three seasons, to "flash-forwards," which is revealing their fates once they're off the island. A magnificent stroke.

Source: SF Gate