PASADENA, CA.– The producers of Lost swear they have a compass for the series’ future, in fact they’ve got the ending in mind. They gave critics little indication of how things will end, but a better idea of when.
“It feels to me we re halfway there,” said executive producer Damon Lindelof. “One hundred episodes feels right.”
The series returns Feb. 2, for the second half of its third season, the 55th episode. Going forward “Lost” will air one hour later, at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on Channel 7.
The writers and producers are well aware of unrest among fans after a second season that raised more questions than it answered. Viewers and critics alike were annoyed by the focus on the mean ‘Others,’ and by the separation of Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Jack (Matthew Fox) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) from the rest of the stranded plane crash survivors.
“I think what the audience wants is more beach stories. We deliver,” Lindelof said. Most of the original ensemble will be reunited in the first five or six episodes.
Sex scenes to come: The Jack-Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) relationship and the Claire (Emilie de Ravin)-Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) story offer potential. The meaning of Jack’s tattoo and Locke’s (Terry O Quinn) wheelchair will be revealed.
And Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) is going to speak more English. ( “Thank you, ” Kim stage-whispered into his microphone.)
The frustrations of viewers are well known to the producers, but to build suspense, they decline to give in to certain wishes. Why, for instance, don t the characters compare notes and try to solve the mysteries of the island?
“We don’t allow the characters to focus on the mythology,” said executive producer Carlton Cuse. “When we work on stories, we work on how the characters interact. The larger audience is more interested in who will Kate choose than who Alvar Hanso is.”
Hanso, for those who don’t follow discussions of the mythology in chat rooms, in the online game The Lost Experience or in books spawned by the ABC series, is the head of the Hanso Foundation which uses questionable means to explore social science research on humans. .
to visit the fictional foundation’s website.
Cuse noted the producers are in discussions with the network about settling on an endpoint and announcing it in advance, in much the same way J. K. Rowling has with her Harry Potter books. That, he hopes, will allay audience fears about the meandering plotlines. In the business of network TV, however, where networks need to squeeze every dime out of a production to offset deficit financing, that discussion could be difficult.
It s always been discussed that the show would have a beginning, a middle and an end, Cuse said.
How long could they keep it going?
“For as long as it s good,” Lindelof said. “Nobody wants to do the stalling show, (like) we re building sandcastles this week.”
