It's hard to decide which season of Lost has been the greatest, but I consider the fourth year of the series my personal favorite.  With an end date in mind and fewer episodes to work with, executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse upped the forward momentum of the plots, resulting in Lost's most satisfying, action-packed season to date.  It's also the year the series fully embraced its gooey sci-fi center, integrating even more time travel, teleportation, and other strange things you might see on an episode of that other J.J. Abrams show, Fringe.  It's no surprise that season 4 placed Lost back in the Emmy race for Best Drama Series.

Fans have been waiting months to own the latest season of Lost on DVD, and they'll finally get their wish when the set arrives in stores tomorrow.  The episodes are certainly worth your hard-earned money, but what about the extras?  Read on for our review of Lost: The Complete Fourth Season.

In addition to the 14 episodes of season 4, the set comes with the following extras:

"The Beginning of the End" Commentary with Evangeline Lilly and Jorge Garcia

"The Constant" Commentary with Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and editor Mark Goldman

"Ji Yeon" Commentary with Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim and director Stephen Semel

"There's No Place Like Home (Part 2)" Commentary with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse

Lost Bloopers

Deleted Scenes

"Missing Pieces" Mobisodes

These 13 clips were originally released online and on Verizon phones between seasons 3 and 4.  They help fill in some gaps in Lost's history, and are definitely essential viewing for any fan.  If you've ever wanted to see Jack's introduction to Ethan or longed to watch Walt kill more birds, check these out.  The "Missing Pieces" add up to about a half an hour of new Lost goodness.

Course of the Future: The Definitive Flash Forwards

This nifty feature takes all of Lost's flash forwards and edits them together in chronological order, adding up to about an hour of content.  It's not exactly essential viewing, but it is interesting to watch.

The Oceanic Six: A Conspiracy of Lies

This 20-minute mockumentary points out the numerous inaccuracies in the story of the Oceanic Six.  How did they manage to change clothes before getting rescued?  Was Kate really pregnant with Aaron?  This plays out like Lost's version of the famous Loose Change video, and it's a ton of fun.

The Freighter Folk

This featurette includes interviews with the excellent group of actors who play the freighter folk.  Jeff Fahey, Jeremy Davies, Kevin Durand, Rebecca Mader and Ken Leung all say a few words, but don't expect them to reveal any big secrets.

Offshore Shoot

This is a short featurette detailing the challenges of shooting on the freighter.  It's not the most thrilling glimpse behind-the-scenes, but it's interesting if you like to see the difficulties of filming on location.

Lost On Location

These clips give viewers a look behind-the-scenes of eight different season 4 episodes.  These making-ofs include interviews with the actors and directors involved with the show, which is what all of us really want to see.

The Island Backlot: Lost in Hawaii

This was my favorite extra feature on the entire six-disc set.  How do the Lost producers make their Hawaiian locations look like Berlin, Tunisia, Korea, London and other places?  This featurette answers that question, going into detail about all the work involved in turning Hawaiian locations into other countries.  Watching this really gave me an appreciation for the hard work put into each episode, especially since the results are often seamless.

The Right to Bear Arms

Hey, did you know that guns play a really big role on Lost?  Well, now you do.

Soundtrack of Survival: Composing for Character, Conflict & the Crash

This 25-minute segment features interviews with Lost composer Michael Giacchino, who talks about his history with the series.  I'm a huge Giacchino fan, so hearing him discuss how he came up with Lost's iconic themes is quite a treat.

Lost in 8:15

This video packs every important moment from the first three seasons of the show into eight minutes and fifteen seconds.  It's wonderful to see, though like some of the other content on the set, it's also been available online for months.

As you can see from the list above, there are a ton of special features on this DVD set.  Even the most rabid Lost fans will learn new things and gain fresh insight into the season after devouring these discs.  My one complaint is that much of the content was available online prior to this release, but that's just a slight nitpick.  Overall, the fourth season of Lost has hit DVD (and Blu-ray) in a gorgeous package that is a must-own for any fan of the series.  It also comes with a hilarious Oceanic Airlines safety manual, which is almost worth $59.99 all by itself.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)