Sometimes, a show sets itself up for a fall. Lost is a prime example of this...

When it started out, the critics were raving about it and it seemed as if everyone was desperate to see the next instalment. The format was certainly novel but ultimately, it was a structure that has led to the stagnation of the show... which seems to have pushed it to the point where the setting needed to change to actually make it look as if the story was moving on.

Ultimately, it painted itself into the corner with the ol' flashback scenario. To the point where it had pretty much shown you as much as it could about all the main characters and so had to introduce new ones to keep things going... because you could pretty much wrap up the plot of the first two seasons in a couple of episodes.

Strange, really but then any show which is so rigidly constrained by its format is never going to have a long shelf life... not that this will stop them pumping out another few years of it... the idea was certainly new - and bound to be imitated - but just coming up with a clever idea doesn't make for a good show... especially when the show is so up itself...

Besides, Lost is really just a big tease... week after week it offers only the merest hint of some big secret and after a while - as with any tease - you simply realise that the teasing has become tiresome and that the answers would always be somewhat disappointing after all the expectation. This is why calling Heroes "this year's Lost" is rather insulting to Tim Kring.