Lost: The Complete Fifth Season (Disney) – For a while it looked like “Lost” had indeed lost itself in its elaborate twists and strange turns but J.J. Abrams’ high concept survival series turned metaphysical epic is back on track and as riveting as ever. The castaways spent the first four seasons trying to get off the island. This season, the few souls who made it back to civilization spend their energy trying to get back while those left behind get tossed through time and manipulated in a power struggle that reaches beyond our mortal coil. Our castaways are mere pawns in a struggle that has gone on for millennia.

"Lost" and found

Disney really knows how to put together a special edition DVD for the show and this season is no different. Along with the 16 episodes on five discs are commentary tracks on select episodes, 8 deleted/extended scenes, the obligatory blooper reel and a handful of featurettes. “Making Up For Lost Time” dives into the production challenges of keeping the locations straight in a show that leaps back and forth through time in each episode, “Lost on Location” is a collection of brief featurettes on key scenes from the season, “Building 23 and Beyond” is a tour of the Burbank production facilities with tour guide Michael Emerson and “An Epic Day with Richard Alpert” follows the actor through the final day of principle photography. The high concept “Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative” is very clever—a mock-made-for-TV-doc presented as a lost episode of a short-lived 1980s series (it even looks like an old VHS recording)—but the gag wears thin long before it ends. Exclusive to the Blu-ray set is the BD-Live enabled “Lost University” with access to even more information on the show, while the “Season Play” function remembers where you left off and gets my vote for the most useful Blu-ray exclusive to date.

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