ABC has officially announced that its ultimate milk and honey show, Lost, will begin its final season on February 2, 2010. The station will attempt to make an event out of the evening by airing one of their hour-long recap episodes right before the two-hour Lost premiere airs. The final season is set to air 18 episodes, with the premiere and likely two-hour finale counting as four of the total episodes. There have been talks of the show possibly taking a short break when the upcoming Winter Olympics take place, but that is still unknown for sure.

The sixth season has the ultimate of challenges ahead of it. The show has consistently delivered some of the best writing and most compelling television in the history of the medium, but with so many questions left to answer, the task at hand is for them to remain as flawless as they’ve been while still answering most of the mysteries that remain. And with one of the mysteries being the random “sightings” of deceased characters, expect to see many familiar faces within the final run.

This is somewhat bittersweet news for the true die hard fans. Like Battlestar Galactica, you feel happy that the show isn’t going to over-stay its welcome and play itself out until cancellation. However, just like BSG, you also fear that you’ll miss it too much to care if it played itself out, so long as you keep getting more of that wonderful, wonderful world.

Obviously, the only thing that truly matters at this point is how they end it. All eyes will be watching as their finale unfolds, critics searching for flaws to point a glaring finger at, and fans hoping it’s all bundled up nice and cozily.

Just a little over two months to go, kids. Let it begin!

[Source: /Film]