'Lost': The biggest twist yet -- no reruns!

All Lost viewers live in fear of The Others. No, not the violent dinner theater troupe from the other side of Fakebeard Island — I refer to the dreaded other episodes, the reruns that fill the substantial gaps in the show’s 35-week schedule.

Well, fear not, fanimals. You won’t have to wait for new episodes ever again. Or rather, your waiting will be consolidated. Lost will air in two chunks next year: a seven-episode arc in the fall, followed by a 13-week break, then a straight consecutive airing of the remaining episodes. (The hiatus will be filled by Day Break, a Groundhog Day-meets-24 suspense series starring Taye Diggs.)

Whaddaya think? Is this setup preferable? It pretty much mandates a major mid-season cliffhanger, which isn’t such a bad idea (as Battlestar Galactica has demonstrated).

Of course, the other option is downloading new episodes directly into your brain as they’re written. They’re telling me it’s (mostly) safe in rats, and I haven’t had brain surgery since I had “J’Cuse!” tattooed in coquettish calligraphy down my medulla oblongata. (This was after a particularly opaque Lost podcast, and I’d been drinking.) Anyway… I’m due, baby!