Lost series finale
Did anyone else pick up on the throwaway line in this week’s Entertainment Weekly about ABC’s “news of a potential series finale for Lost” in their portion of the recent presentation to the journalists at the Television Critics Association press tour?
Cost too much money? Did the producers run out of ideas on how to keep it going? Thoughts? Rumors?
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Ed
Tue :: 30 :: Jan :: 2007 :: 08.18 am
This is actually good news. Creators Abrams, Cuse and Lindelof approached ABC and asked for a couple of things:
1. They want the show to run similar to 24 – start in January and run straight through as they feel the interruptions stall the narrative flow. Seeing the success of 24 in that format, ABC is in favor of programming Lost in that fashion next year.
2. They asked ABC to allow them to end the show after 5 seasons (versus the 7 that they are contracted through). The reason for this is narrative strength versus pure business. When Lost was first developed, the group mapped out a definitive beginning and end and had a five year arc in mind. ABC added the remaining 2 years with the option for more after that. The problem there is it forces the creators to fill in the space between and pad the story out. Anyway – ABC is open to allowing a defined endgame – giving the creators the ability to carefully plot everything with a goal in sight. Lindelof cited the X-Files as his biggest fear. He said that as that show went on and on and on (largely because Fox demanded it) Carter lost sight of the narrative. Anyway, ABC is in favor of their approach however I believe they ‘owe’ ABC either a spin-off or similar property to make up the remaining years on the contract if the show continues to do well.
Believe me this has nothing to do with cost. Lost gets a huge tax discount from Hawaii and makes a killing in ad revenue. Plus it’s a hit overseas as well. Hence the producers fears that they would be forced to keep this show running for a decade plus – at which point it would have obviously been truly Lost.
All of this broke over the winter which bodes well for the remainder of the season and the next two (last two) seasons ahead.
Sean
Sat :: 03 :: Feb :: 2007 :: 06.47 pm
@Ed: With the Mooninite craze, I forgot to comment back on this. Anyway, it all sounds good to me now with your explanation, but the way EW makes it sound, they make it real fuzzy as to whether or not that series finale would happen this year, especially since they were talking this Spring’s schedule.