This eyeball also holds the hopes and dreams of fans of genre television for the last 15 years. This is the first year that “Lost” is on the air sans “Alias,” its former sister show (in spirit) run by the same creative and producing team and with the same emphasis on mythology. “Lost” is some fans of creative television’s last connection to the classic genre-show of yesteryear; if “Alias” was built on the templates “X-Files” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” created, then “Lost” is the heir to the cult-fantasy/sci-fi show throne on this TV season.

But “Lost” also contends with a new batch of mythological-driven shows that have propped up in this TV season, most likely because of the success of “Lost;” the most notable one is probably NBC’s “Heroes,” a near-literal TV adaptation of “X-Men,” but lest not forget “Eureka” or “The Nine.” “Lost” is also contending with the affection of fans of the sci-fi epic “Battlestar Galactica,” which is set to start this season with its biggest-yet initial fanbase, as well as fans of “Veronica Mars,” TV’s true heir to the witty hyper-literate “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Alias” throne, not “Lost.”

This eyeball opening “A Tale of Two Cities” has a lot of pressure on it (and I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout glaucoma). It helps that the opening sequence of the season three premiere of “Lost” is absolutely exhilarating, probably the most intense five minutes of television since “Lost’s” season finale last spring.

The eyeball belongs to Juliette, a promising character who’s an “Other,” the “Lost” de-facto squad of mysterious villains. We see, through the Others’ point of view, the events of the series premiere – the splitting apart and crashing of Oceanic Flight 815, with the tail end falling to one end of the island and the fuselage falling to another end. Henry Gale, who is apparently now called “Ben” (for our purposes he’ll be known as “Benry”) sends his followers to handle the situation, setting up many hours of dramatic television that occurred over the last two years on “Lost.”

It’s after the opening segment of “A Tale of Two Cities” that this episode falters – the flashbacks unfortunately focus on Jack, just like last season’s premiere. I loved last season’s Jack flashbacks because of Matthew Fox’s amazing performance, but in this episode, Fox goes way, way too over-the-top with the angry-jealous-ex-husband-drama that I couldn’t help but giggle my way through every flashback sequence. A disappointing set-up for Jack’s character this season; it’s too bad we probably won’t be getting another Jack flashback until February sweeps month.

The plot in the episode focuses on Jack, Sawyer and Kate, who were kidnapped last season by the Others and brought to their camp on the island (which turns out is some kind of suburban fairy-tale. Could this be the influence of ABC’s other uber-hit “Desperate Housewives?”). Each character experiences a different form of captivity, with Sawyer being thrown into an animal cage, Kate being torn down emotionally by the Other by being forced to wear a dress and follow their kinda-creepy orders to be passive, and Jack being locked into a former shark tank in an underwater hatch/laboratory that’s part of the Others’ base of operations and being talked at by Juliette through a glass wall.

The episode wasn’t entirely exciting, but it was very smart of the writers to only focus on the show’s three lead actors (excluding Locke) and to slow the pace of the show just a little. It didn’t feel like the new characters were intruding on the established characters we already know and love, because the rest of the enormous-sized cast were left off-screen (thankfully).

As for this “Lost” viewer, the fact that the “Lost” writers were able to make a well-written, well-paced episode right off the bat bodes well for my enjoyment of the rest of the season. I was skeptical at first whether or not I was going to devote myself to “Lost” again this season, but I liked what I saw in “A Tale of Two Cities” and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season… which is something I certainly wasn’t thinking during much of last year.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS…

This year of “Lost” is going to be broken up into two parts: an initial six-episode run focusing on the captivity of Sawyer, Kate and Jack; this “mini-season” will run for six weeks straight, followed by a loooong hiatus until 2007 when the show will return for the rest of the season, focusing on the Others and their storylines. What this means for the rest of the cast is unknown – where do periphery characters such as Claire, Sun and Jin fit into all of this? – but what is known is that the pacing issues of last year will not be a problem for last year. Too bad we won’t be getting any new “Lost” for part of November, all of December and probably all of January too. But, hey, that’s what “Battlestar Galactica” and “Veronica Mars” are for. Yay!

Rating: 4 out of 5 fish biscuits

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