"Lost": Season 3 DVD set is fabulous, but...

Hold on to your hats, Losties.

The "Lost" Season 3 box set, which officially arrives Dec. 11, is phenomenally wonderful for all of us who have been jonesing for a "Lost" fix during the long months since the third-season closer aired in May.

There's a disc packed with bonus materials, and it's loaded with Easter eggs, for bonus-bonus fun. (Just keep clicking your directional buttons on the title-menu pages, you'll find 'em.)

As great as it is to have last season's adventures looking especially beautiful on DVD, it's also a little bittersweet. Usually the DVD box set release is the part of the big tubthump for a show's new season. Unfortunately, the writers strike has put "Lost's" fourth season somewhat in limbo. It's still unclear whether ABC will go ahead and run the eight or so episodes it has in hand starting in early February, or wait to stick with its original pre-strike plan of running all 16 segs of this season over consecutive weeks with no breaks and no repeats. (My money's on them running what they have in hand, though exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse won't be happy.)

Given that the WGA and the studios have been as friendly as the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 and the Others these days, it could be an even longer winter for "Lost" fans.

In the meantime, the "Lost: Missing Pieces" minisodes on ABC.com provide something of a fix. They're ultra-cool, and WGA, DGA and SAG approved, through special contracts that Lindelof and Cuse took pains to negotiate more than a year ago, before the whole town was in flames over this very issue. Funny to think the scribes and helmers stand to make more off these two- and three-minute bits than they do (at least for now) on the web streaming of full episodes.