I used to love Lost. Not so much anymore.

Season 1 totally rocked. The story, the characters, the backflashes — it was all good. Then, came Season 2, with the weird hatch and weirder Others. The show lost its original focus — people trying to survive on a tropical island. Instead, we got debates about fate and destiny and religion and science. Not to mention more mysteries with few answers.

Now, we’re in Season 3. And it pretty much blows. The show has gotten too convaluted, and the storytelling just isn’t what it used to be. Case in point — this week’s episode. It was all about Mr. Eko, the drug runner turned priest haunted by his brother’s death.

I’d heard rumors that someone was going to die, and as soon as I saw Eko’s first flashback, I knew that it was him. They did the same thing with Shannon and Ana Lucia last year. If I was one of the Lost actors and having a flashback episode when one of the characters was supposed to get killed, I’d be really worried.

The flashback didn’t tell me anything new about Eko, other than why he decided to build a church on the island. But okay. I can live with that. Eko is still an interesting character. Even if I find it highly unlikely he can survive an explosion, get mauled by a polar bear, run a high fever, and still somehow walk miles into the jungle.

It was the monster that ruined it for me. Talk about stretching the realm of believability. I would have been okay if the monster had been genetically mutated polar bears or some sort of crossbred experimental bear-jungle-cat hybrid. Something, anything remotely believable. But black, boiling smoke as your monster? Yikes.

We’d seen the monster before last season, and I thought it was just as silly then as I do now. And it seems to have the ability to shapeshift into people. Weird. And kind of dumb.

As for having the monster kill Eko … what was the point? It would have made more sense (not to mention have been much more believable) to kill Eko in the hatch explosion or let the polar bear eat him. (BTW, the polar-bear special effects need a lot of work.) And why even kill Eko? We didn’t know him that well. His death won’t have the impact of Locke or Jack getting offed.

Then, there’s the other side of the island, where the Others continue to play mind games with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. I don’t know what they’re up to, and I’m almost to the point of not caring anymore. And tuning out. Permanently.

What about you? Are you still loving Lost? Inquiring minds want to know …