If the first three episodes of "Lost" are any indication, this definitely isn't your mom's "Gilligan's Island."

The opening scenes of ABC's new Wednesday night drama are like what the kitsch 1960s shipwreck show might have been if Quentin Tarantino had directed it: a surreal, "Omega Man"-esque opening followed by a hurried action sequence with plenty of explosions, blood, gore and psychological trauma. It's enough to make your head spin.

Given creator J.J. Abrams penchant for head-twisting plots in his previous hit series, "Alias," it's pretty much par for the course — and one hell of a ride.

The well-publicized premise is like watching "Survivor" without getting that gritty, uncultured feeling that comes from watching so-called reality TV. Forty-eight survivors are stranded on a desert island after a plane wreck. Not everyone or everything is what it seems at first. Add in a sinister-looking golden retriever, an alcoholic doctor, a convict with a heart of gold and mysterious-somethings lurking in the bushes, and you've got the basic elements of the show.

However, the show initially suffers from weak dialogue once the hectic opening moments are out of the way. It's the kind of edgy, terse collection of misinterpretations that you might expect from people stranded on a desert island, not the standard drawn-out alternating soliloquies of other modern television dramas.

The pacing makes the simple phrases, like a slow count to five, even more significant. It isn't until the third episode that the characters air out their sentences and complete their thoughts, even though the dialogue still seems a tad unpolished.

But who needs polished dialogue when you've got a polar bear?

In particular, it's the polar bear that portends trouble for the show's future. The course that the show's initial episodes have plotted is a hard line to walk, somewhere in between "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Land of the Lost."

Watching what should have been a two-hour premiere unfold into two awkwardly separated one-hour segments was frustrating, but the payoff, which has to do with the convict's gold heart, is worth waiting an extra week just to build the suspense.

Even given the weaknesses, the show is worth watching just for the acting. Matthew Fox, whose last crisis du jour was trying to keep his orphaned family together on FOX's "Party of Five," gives a terse sincerity to the show's harried straight man, the Doctor Jack. Opposite him, with enough subtle finesse to make her character play to the audiences' assumptions, is Kate, played by small-screen newcomer Evangeline Lilly.

Honorable mention goes to Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid — a haunted former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard.

Topping it off with what must be the king hell of all ironies, Dominic Monaghan, aka Merry from "The Lord Of The Rings," plays Charlie, a drug-addled, washed-out rock star.

Monaghan's performance — especially on the heels of his bumbling appearance in "Rings" — adds to "Lost"'s surreal nature. If the 18 million viewers watching is any indication, it might be time for a little more "surreality" TV.

Grade: AB,”Brian O'Connor”

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