Today's column, in which Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse try to detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of press tour:The "Lost producers have a plan that they think will finally satisfy their legion of demanding fans:To read the full thing, click here. Also, Lindelof helped bring the funny to an ABC showrunners panel later in the day.They're going to end the show.
Maybe.
"That's one of the things we're in discussion with the network right now, picking an endpoint to the show," producer Carlton Cuse told a roomful of skeptical critics. "Once we do that, a lot of the anxiety and a lot of these questions, 'We're not getting answers,' a lot of them will go away. I know there's a lot of anxiety, people think we don't know what we're doing. J.K. Rowling has announced that there's going to be seven Harry Potter books, and it gives people a certainty that the story will reach a conclusion. It's time for us to find an endpoint for the show."
Cuse and fellow showrunner Damon Lindelof have insisted in the past that they do know what they're doing, that there is a master plan, but that they have to reveal things in haphazard fashion because they don't know how long they have to stretch out the story. By setting a finishing date far in advance instead of following the usual TV business model of running a show into the ground, they feel they'll be able to have a more coherent storytelling approach going forward.
This is a general comment about TV stars. I once read (it might even have been you) that on the average, TV and movie stars tend to be small people with larger-than-normal heads, because this photographs better. Is this true? Have you been in rooms with small big-headed people?
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you run across info on The Closer, I'd be curious. They ran a big two-hour "season premiere" on Dec, 5 that neatly tied up their prior cliffhanger. But since then, nothing. TNT's web site and the fan sites are devoid of info. Is this coming back? When?
Loved the Gervais interview.
eyebrown
If they keep up their current pace of 2 story days per episode, by season 8 it'll be less than a year later but everybody will be 8 years older. They'll have to pull some BSG-style flash-forwards, I guess.
ReplyDeleteNOW will Lindelof have time to finish that Wolverine/Hulk Comic?
ReplyDeleteIn one sense I agree that they need an end date to write the series. But in another, it seems like an excuse for more fan disapointment. This show had a really great first season and since then they just haven't been able to live up to it. I feel like talking about an "end date" is a way out of trying to make it better.
ReplyDeleteLOL, dan! I think by now it's officialy been a year late. Psst, Marvel Comics and Damon Lindelof, in case you were wondering, the work you're looking ofr is "cancelled". Gorgeous art, though.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Lost, I have no interest in the show as a mythology anymore. I'm watching because it can occasionaly produce a gem or two, and because the actors are too good to be overlooked. But the story? Who are they kidding? J.K. Rowling didn't suddenly decide that her story will have a specific ending while she was writing the third or fourth book. When you go back and read the early adventures of Harry, you find stuff that don't pay off until Book Six, or (I'm sure) Book Seven.
Now, one can only hope that by Season Five of Lost we'll find out about every bit from Season One, but I kinda doubt it. :P
ABC needs to get a grip and buy into a specified end date. If it follows the traditional model of waiting for ratings to hit bottom, it may end up losing the show sooner because of viewer frustration. I doubt we'll see much rating bounceback once season 3(b) starts up again, whenever that is, unless the show gets much more interesting than it was in season 3(a). That's not a trend Lost survive for more than about another season, maybe two.
ReplyDeleteTyler: Yup, it's been officialy canceled, despite reports that Lindelof has been working on them all last year. If it had stayed on schedule it would have been finished by now.
ReplyDeleteI'm sick of everyone complaining that Lost Season 3 has sucked after only 6 episodes. Yes, the scheduling of 6 before a break did not work (they picked a very bad place to stop the show before a 3 month hiatus), a nd not much has happened thus far (in the whole big revelation front), but the season is just in the introdutory phase. Nothing was revealed in the first 6 episodes of either season 1 or 2, just questions. You can't just expect the show to be as thrilling and climatic as the ends of the previous seasons when the season is in the expositional phase.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the show could use an end date if only to hush all the impatient quick-to-judge viewers out there. Damon and Carlton have not let us done in the past two seasons, they have not yet this season, and they are not going to in the future. Let them get the end date, so they can schedule everything out and know when they can reveal things without ruining the show. And wait until we get closer to the end of the season before you decide if the show has gotten bad.