spicedogs | ALL'S NOT 'LOST': IF STRIKE ENDS SOON, THERE COULD BE COMPLETE SEASON

By DON KAPLAN

"Lost" returns next week with eight episodes already completed. A full season would have 16 episodes.

January 25, 2008 -- 'LOST" is finally get ting found next week - huge news for the show's loyal fans.

The popular ABC drama returns Jan. 31 with the first of eight new episodes. It's one of the few shows airing new episodes because of the ongoing writers' strike that's spiked much of the season.

To help bring fans back up to speed on the show's increasingly confusing storylines, ABC plans a two-day barrage of "Lost" in prime-time.

On Wednesday, ABC will re-air last year's two-hour season finale (9-11 p.m.) and then a one-hour recap show on Thursday (8 p.m.) - followed at 9 p.m. by the fourth-season premiere.

To the uninitiated, "Lost" follows the adventures of plane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island, where a strange organization called the Dharma Initiative once conducted bizarre experiments in the 1970s.

The island's original inhabitants, called The Others, are all that remain of the original group - and, for some reason, none of the women can get pregnant.

The crash survivors and The Others have been at war since the series began, and last season it was learned that The Others' leader, Ben (Michael Emerson), was dying of cancer.

The crash survivors' leader, Jack (Matthew Fox), a surgeon specializing in cancer, grudgingly saved Ben's life and then somehow made it off the island.

Last season ended with a flash-forward that revealed Jack, back in civilization and living as a broken man.

Alcoholic and destitute, he decided that he somehow needed to get back to the island.

This season's "Lost" was supposed to air straight through to the May finale without repeats (a bonus for "Lost" fans who've complained about the number of repeats in past seasons).

The show halted production in mid-December when it ran out of scripts, due to the writers' strike - but not before at least eight episodes were completed.

If the strike were to end immediately, the producers of "Lost" could conceivably finish an additional eight episodes and meet their goal of 16 for the season, says co-star Jorge Garcia, who plays lovable fat man Hurley.

"I believe we are still within the timeframe that would allow us to finish the season without disrupting the flow of the season . . . but obviously that window is closing fast," Garcia wrote in a post on fuselage.com, the unofficial "Lost" Internet forum. Garcia is among the most prolific cast members on the site and communicates frequently with his fans there.

"I'm waiting in a sort of limbo right now," he wrote. "But I am anxious to start watching the show, too."

SOURCE: NYPOST.com