[Obviously, if you've never seen Lost and are waiting until the entire series is available on DVD, stop reading now]

Let the official countdown begin.  In 74 days, Lost one of TV’s best shows will begin its final season.  Starting with a two-hour season premiere on February 2, 2010 at 9pm E.T., we begin (or hope) to unravel the island’s final mysteries: the smoke monster, time jumping, the statue, the temple, the island’s healing power, why the dead appear to the living, and so many other questions.  It’s all come to this and 74 days seems like an eternity and yet by the time the series finale airs sometime in May 2010, it will feel like it was over too fast.

After its two-hour premiere (which will follow the inevitable yet likely helpful one-hour recap show), Lost will begin airing at its regular time slot of 9-10pm ET on Tuesday nights beginning the following week, February 9th.  So grab your constant, blow the hatch, and get ready for the end.  If you’d like to read the press release ABC sent us, hit the jump:

Fuck the spirit of competition.  Fuck the world coming together.  Fuck who in the world thinks they’re best at curling.  Fuck all of this because the 2010 Winter Games have broken LOST’s final season into two parts.  The show will resume in January and then have to take a brief hiatus for the goddamn Olympics.

We all know that “Lost” works better uninterrupted.  That’s why they moved it to January in the first place: so it could run straight through until May.  Yes, we had to put up with the occasional clip show but that wasn’t the fault of the Olympics.  Yes, the Olympics where we all gather to chant “USA” and then forget all but the most major of accomplishments.  Unless Jamaica is fielding a bobsled team, I want to see this last season without interruptions.  I hope the Olympics get destroyed by the smoke monster.  Hit the jump to read Co-Executive Producer break the bad news:

Until a week ago, I had never seen more than thirty seconds of Lost. There’s a good reason for this: I don’t watch TV. That’s not because I’m a snob, it’s because I always have a pile of movies to watch. And as that is the case, making time to watch television has always been a luxury I’ve denied myself. So, with that in mind there’s going to be two types of people reading this. People like me who never watched the show, and those who are religious about it, or got turned off at some point. I will gear the first part of the review for those who haven’t seen it and the second part for those who have. It’s all after the jump: