LOST IS BACK, and if you're expecting answers anytime soon, don't hold your breath.

But who cares?

Yes, the show was frustrating to the point of giving up on it altogether for a while. But since the middle of last season things have improved dramatically. What with an end date in sight — 48 more episodes — the writers have found their way again.

After an hourlong episode (7 p.m., Ch. 4) that recaps what's happened to date, "Lost" begins its forth season with an episode (8 p.m., Ch. 4) titled "The Beginning of the End." I don't want to give too much away, but rescuers of some kind reach the island; six survivors will get off the island; some people will die (which doesn't, of course, mean we'll never see them again); and mysteries will deepen.

Oh, and after three seasons of flashbacks, we're going to get a bunch of flash-forwards. Which, in the first couple of episodes, will give us a bunch of tantalizing clues ... but no firm answers.

Those are coming. Eventually. Just maybe not as quickly as planned. We were supposed to get three 16-episode seasons, but only eight episodes were completed this season before the writers' strike began.

But they're coming. And, in the meantime, "Lost" is still wildly intriguing and only somewhat aggravating.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com