Part of this problem lies in the fact that Lost creator, JJ Abrams, is no longer working on the show. This is typical of Abrams who is getting a reputation for starting a project and then leaving before the project is completed. I hope he doesn’t do that with Fringe on FOX because that’s becoming one of my favorite shows, too, but I digress.

My main problem with last night’s episode was that the creativity factor seems to be gone (or drastically reduced). For example, Benjamin Linus is plotting to get everyone back on the island and in the midst of his plan he walks into a butcher shop and, miraculously, the butcher lady knows everything and starts talking to Ben about his plan. What? Then Ben runs into a problem when Hurley gets himself arrested and it seems that he cannot return to the island. What does he do then? He walks into a temple of some sort which happens to be where some old lady appears to be marking the movement of the island. What?

Hardcore Lost fans would argue that finding out the answers to these questions is what this season will bring to the table. I disagree. Lost has proven that it won’t answer as many questions as it asks and with a set time frame on how many episodes are left in the series, I don’t think that the writers are creative enough to bring satisfactory conclusions to all of the open questions. As I was texting a friend of mine last night, I’ll begin to be pleased when I know the full story of the original Hostiles who eventually became the Others. Once we get that out of the way, I’d probably be less harsh on a random butcher lady being a key to Ben’s puzzle.

The writers need to be careful with the whole moving through time thing because it becomes very tiresome, very quickly. Nobody is interested in watching a show that you have to struggle to keep up with on a variety of levels. I’m not saying the show shouldn’t be for intelligent, quick witted audiences like Arrested Development used to be, but I am saying that the more aggravating thought you have to put into watching each episode, the less enjoyable watching becomes.

In the next episode, I need to see more about Daniel Faraday and more about how that secret room at the bottom of the island was accessed if the Asian guy who seems to be leading the Dharma Initiative didn’t instruct his team to get into the hole. I also want to know why Faraday was at the digging site so many years before Lost takes place. Has this guy been time traveling for a while? Putting that out there, I have to admit that it’s getting a bit repetitive to have an abundance of questions coming out of each episode of Lost.

The first season of Lost has to go down as one of the best seasons of television in history. It was dramatic, thought-provoking, interesting, and it kept you glued to your seat. The second season dragged a little bit and the third and fourth seasons were duds for a lot of fans. Last night’s opening episode for season five really tried to get back some of that aura that the first season had, but I don’t think it accomplished its goals.

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What does this mean for the automakers? Less inventory moving off of lots and less sales of new and used cars – both of which mean less revenue. As a consumer who is off-again, on-again in the market for a new or newly used car I can tell you that it’s just not worth buying a new car right now (so long as you have other means of conveyance). I spent last month looking around used car dealer lots and I didn’t find one deal. Not ONE decent deal! Sure, I understand that the people who work at these places need to pay the bills and eat, but you would think that in a tough economic time when an entire industry to collapsing there would be some ingenuity at the local or regional levels to cut prices and sell product.

I guess not.

In fact, the price disparities between the new and used cars weren’t even that far apart. In other words, I might as well have purchased a brand new car because I’d only be spending a few thousand more for it and I’d be getting a brand new machine with top of the line features. Oh, that reminds me – the feature packages are too expensive on new cars. Consumers know that you can get a great sound system installed in a car for a few hundred bucks (I said great sound system – not the type of system where you can take your car to a show a win awards). So when you see automakers adding $800 – $1,200 for such an upgrade, why would you purchase that upgrade? Add up a bunch of those large-scale “nickel and dime” pieces and you find yourself wondering why you’d buy a car from that dealer in the first place.

Now add all of this to the fact that American automakers have a reputation for shoddy workmanship while comparatively priced foreign cars have a reputation for lasting forever and American consumers have an easy choice to make. In this case, consumers aren’t even making a proactive choice to buy one car or another – they’re just not going out to purchase new vehicles period. But when they do one has to wonder how long they will continue to buy an overpriced, inferior, and out of date product.