Lost Season 4 vs Season 5: The Power of the Question

After a horrific plane crash, something like 40 survivors find themselves stranded on a strange and somewhat paranormal island, desperate to stay alive and find a way back to civilization.

That's basically the driving goal of the first four seasons of the TV show Lost.

However -- SPOILER WARNING!!!-- at the end of Season 4, a small group of Oceanic Flight 815 find rescue and are able to return home. End of show, right?

No. (Those clever writers.) The Island apparently won't let them escape so easily... again and again, they are told they must return as a group to the island where the plane crashed. The problem is that not everyone within the group is even willing to go, and even those who are seem deeply torn about it. So now the new question hooking viewers into Lost Season 5 is this: Six passengers escape the island they were stranded on, but three years later, they are told they must return.

I haven't seen Season 5 yet. I'm curious as to whether this new idea was enough to sustain their viewership through the season. Because to me, survivors struggling to leave an island is a much more clearly understandable motive than escaped survivors being called back to the island by its mysterious forces. The question raises my curiosity, but the motive doesn't feel as strong to me as with the other seasons because I don't identify with this urge to return as I did with the urge to leave the island.

With any kind of writing, premise is power. I think the deeper the story's main question strikes the reader/viewer, the deeper we are hooked into that story. Think about the stories that stick with you long after they've been read/watched. For me, the ones that stick are the ones in which the characters have had the most at stake. Lord of the Rings is the first example that comes to my mind, though it doesn't always have to be so extreme. In the movie Penelope, she risks her ability to end the curse on her by exposing herself to the world outside her parents' home.

The point is that with any successful story, there is a goal we are drawn in to, something we invest in. So I'm curious to see if this shift in major goal is successful-- do I lose interest because I don't understand the motive, or do I continue to watch because the importance is communicated to me and I become invested in seeing the Oceanic 6 return to their island?