Whatever you think of
“What’s amazing is, you realize how fickle your political affiliation is,” said co-creator
Lindelof can rest easy. The sixth and final season
is a guaranteed hit, thanks to a commitment to answer long-burning
questions and to end the series while it’s still hot.
Executives and actors recently shared their thoughts
about the birth of this unlikely smash, their favorite memories and how
it will all end.
“Lost” premiered in
pilot, the most expensive in the network’s history. His presence still
looms large — it’s his voice that introduces scenes from previous
episodes.
“A lot of credit goes to Lloyd. He really had a passion for it. I can
remember even joking with Damon about it, saying, ‘Don’t people have
GPS (units)? I think we can find those people.’
“It was such a tumultuous time at the network. The credit goes to
having a plan, having a mythology, having that storytelling technique
that really convinced me that not only were these two brilliant, but
that the show could be something incredible.”
The cast was largely unknown, but Canadian actress
McPherson: “Evangeline had not done a lot of work in
the U.S. We couldn’t get her into the country and were trying to get a
visa. It literally got down to 24 hours before we could get her. At one
point we were saying, ‘OK, who is the next actress we can get locally?’
Now she’s
The series was an instant hit that, along with “Desperate Housewives,” helped
crawl out of the ratings gutter. The show won an Emmy for best drama in
its first season and, in all, has been nominated for 146 major awards.
What’s most amazing about the series’ success is that it consistently
defies network rules, flipping major plot lines, reinventing characters
and establishing mysteries that can’t be solved in one episode or even
one season.
fascinating, and a credit to the writing staff, is that we’re in the
sixth season and they’re still changing the narrative style. I don’t
know of any other television show that’s been able to give the audience
and its viewers what they’ve come to love and want to see, but at the
same time keep it dynamic.”
Lindelof: “There’s a bridge that basically connects where the writers work on the
executives are. We start writing the show in the summertime, so usually
in June or July we walk across this bridge to present them with what
we’re going to do the following season.
“The progression of the walk usually begins with,
‘OK, we’re finally going to tell them what’s in the hatch,’ or, like
last year, turning to each other and saying, ‘Is there any other way to
say “time travel” without having to say “time travel”?’ But every time
we’d get over there, the sort of reception we’ve got and the faith
we’ve received — I know it sounds like blatant butt-kissing, but it’s
been pretty incredible.”
McPherson: “It will be arguably one of the most
influential shows of the decade, if not of all time. I think that it
proved that you could do serialized shows that were going to be that
challenging to the audience and that people could invest in.”
While “Lost” is a continuing adventure, certain moments have struck a chord with the audience, not to mention the cast.
Emilie de Ravin, actor: “I think my favorite moments
have been when we’re actually all together, the original cast, just
sort of hanging out, like the old days.”
Kim: “That feeling was kind of represented in the
finale of the first season. The launching of the raft was really a
special time for me, because I thought we’d all taken this incredible
journey as characters and as people on the island.”
Lilly: “For me, the most memorable moment on the
show happened in the first season — it was the episode where Claire
gave birth and Boone died. It just sort of culminated everything that
we were talking about on the show in these two very simple, very
natural and very sort of heroic moments. I don’t often cry watching my
own show, but I watched that episode, cried, and thought this was
something that I’m proud to be a part of.”
captures the whole of it best for me is when Ben and Sawyer are
standing on the cliff. We were looking out over the sea and trading
quotes from Steinbeck, and I had a rabbit in a backpack. It was so
absurd with beautiful, majestic scenery.”
exploding plane wing is something that’s always going to be emblazoned
in my head. Then there are those random scenes, like the time a comet
hit Mr. Cluck’s and I’m lying there and they’re throwing raw chicken
parts at me. I’m not going to forget that, either.”
Much of the goodwill that’s been built with fans might be shattered if
Lindelof: “We do feel like the worst ending we could
possibly provide everyone who has invested this amount of time and
energy is the safe ending, the one that tries to be the most appealing
to the most number of people. But also, you can’t take a risk just to
take a risk, because that’s a betrayal in and of itself. Fortunately,
we’ve been talking about how the show’s going to end since Steve gave
us an end date three years ago, so we really have no excuse to say
anything other than: This is the ending we wanted to do, on the terms
we wanted to do it.
“I don’t think it would be ‘Lost’ if there wasn’t an
ongoing and active debate amongst people who watch whether or not it
was a good ending. I think there will be people who’ll say it’s the
worst ending in the history of television and, hopefully, to balance
them out will be my mom, who will say it’s the best ending, even though
she doesn’t understand the show.”
—
(c) 2010, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
