Lost

The show opens with Chahhlie taking an arrow to the throat - woah, that was the nastiest thing I've seen on TV. Of course, it is actually one of Desmond's flash-forwards. He foresees yet another Death of Chahhlie, but this time wants it to happen because he believes it will lead to finding his girlfriend. Who apparently took a helicopter to the island and then parachuted out. Only he can't allow Chahhlie to die, and the parachuter doesn't end up being his girlfriend, but it's another chick who knows him. Also, she had a picture of Desmond and Penny in a Portuguese book. The people at the end of last season who worked for Penny and discovered the electromagnetic signature of the island were Portuguese.

Desmond has lived a hell of a life - military, prison, monk, boat racer, Dharma lackey.

The good:

Jin telling a ghost story in untranslated Korean. The debate over who would win a footrace, Superman or The Flash, with Hurley answering why Superman would even enter a footrace -- "for charity."

When the monk "fired" Desmond, there was a picture on his desk of him and the creepy antique-store lady who told Desmond about how he can't change the future or whatever. I noticed this because the picture was horrifically Photoshopped. It looked like a kid's scrapbook or something. Spend some money on the production values, people.

The bad:

I am really sick of these fake backdrops. Filming in Hawaii makes for gorgeous island scenes, but it also means that you get horrifically fake backdrops for all the flashbacks. They looked like paintings. Again, spend some money on CGI, or fly people to LA for Christsakes.