Great Expectations

I’ll be here around 9 to live blog "Lost." In the meantime, my big question is: Can the “Lost” season premiere possibly live up to the hype?

And I’m not just referring to the stories in today’s news about the show’s long-awaited return tonight. Or all the casting trivia and plot conjecture that was published over the summer. During the past year, this series has been even more celebrated and exploited and dissected and glorified by the media than "Desperate Housewives."

Yes, and, well, mea culpa.

But right now, I’m thinking that if any TV series can beat wildly excessive expectations, it will be "Lost." So far, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof have managed to overcome great scrutiny and pressure in order to open and close every season with a knockout episode. Surely they will unveil some wonderfully ugly new events tonight, amid the island’s beauty.