If Lost was reduced to one season instead of six, which elements of the show would you keep and which would you cut out for the sake of brevity?
Lost as an one-season miniseries
- Thread starter Joe Washington
- Start date
Eliminating Boone and Shannon, Fine. Jin and Sun? I can see an argument for that (but I wouldn't like it). But no Charlie, Claire, Hurley, and Desmond? That's ridiculous. They're all core characters.
That being said, I can't see the show being one season anyways. Sure, there's a lot of filler and side adventures that can be cut down, but a lot of the substance of the show would be lost (no pun intended), particularly the flashbacks.
That being said, I can't see the show being one season anyways. Sure, there's a lot of filler and side adventures that can be cut down, but a lot of the substance of the show would be lost (no pun intended), particularly the flashbacks.
I wouldn't want to shrink it...but rather expand on the Dharma thing...maybe as video game? With all this multimedia interactivity..it could make that aspect of the LOST universe really interesting..
The problem with LOST wasn't that it went on too long, but that the story we are introduced to at the beginning of the show is not the actual story. Every season or so they would have some big reveal that basically said "everything up until now was bullshit, HERE is the real story." When all was said and done, the final reveal was that, yet again, it was all bullshit.
No matter how good the character pieces were, no matter how interesting the flashbacks were, no matter how well any of it was done, the promised resolution was never going to be good enough. From about half way through I thought the end would be pants (I couldn't think of any way they could pull it off) and yes, it was pants.
The ride was great, but the destination was never going to live up to it. Shortening it would have reduced the amount of time I wasted on it, but not improved it...
Except for its needlessly labyrinthine plot and excessive characters, Lost was a flawless television masterpiece.
I agree with this. I wasn't really disappointed in the ending because I never built up unrealistic expectations about it. What many people fail to catch is that the ONLY "purgatory" scenes are the flashbacks in the final season. Cut those out and the rest of the story actually happened in the context of the plot. I really liked the resolution and sense of closure for most of the characters, especially Ben and Hurley.
I do think the original poster is somewhat on the right track though. In the interest of milking the cash cow, the show went on way too long. Four full seasons would have been more than enough to tell the story well and completely.
Obviously they wouldn't have time to do the whole "they left the Island... then years later they came back" or "some of them lived in the 1970s for three years"
And we wouldn't have gotten bearded alcoholic Jack.
"WE HAVE TO GO BACK, KATE!"
No way could LOST be done in a single season.
However, I think it could have been trimmed a bit. Season 3 should have evolved twice as fast. I got bored with the caged encampment bit. And I agree with the others that 5 and 6 could have been combined. The building up of the "crossed lives" took too long and was also a bit too esoteric for most people. When LOST ended there were so many people in an uproar about the confused ending (it was "The Prisoner" all over again). I don't suggest that the sophistication of the story be compromised to help reduce the whining, but I think it could have been conveyed in a little more "digestible" manner that would still keep the story integrity and satisfy a lot more people.
But in the end it was all about money making, and LOST sure made quite a number of people very VERY wealthy. It sure worked for them.
However, I think it could have been trimmed a bit. Season 3 should have evolved twice as fast. I got bored with the caged encampment bit. And I agree with the others that 5 and 6 could have been combined. The building up of the "crossed lives" took too long and was also a bit too esoteric for most people. When LOST ended there were so many people in an uproar about the confused ending (it was "The Prisoner" all over again). I don't suggest that the sophistication of the story be compromised to help reduce the whining, but I think it could have been conveyed in a little more "digestible" manner that would still keep the story integrity and satisfy a lot more people.
But in the end it was all about money making, and LOST sure made quite a number of people very VERY wealthy. It sure worked for them.
I would agree that it might have been better if it was only four seasons long.
As for the ending, it had the misfortune to air in the same way another show earlier in the week end (Ashes to Ashes). So you had two shows that had similar themed endings.
In the meantime...as they apparently are still trying to milk something out of Lost (we see it on occasion on Facebook)...I think they need to partner with Aldi, and re-label some of their "brand" labels with Dharma labels..and see if sales rise.
It would be easy enough to delete Season 2 completely. That whole season is basically "OMG the tail section!" which ultimately becomes useless as pretty much everybody except Bernard gets killed.
You'd have to introduce The Others immediately, and anything having to do with Jacob or the Man in Black would probably have to be deleted.
What's funny to me is that, while playing the new Tomb Raider game, all I kept thinking the whole time was, "This could totally be the island from LOST."
You'd have to introduce The Others immediately, and anything having to do with Jacob or the Man in Black would probably have to be deleted.
What's funny to me is that, while playing the new Tomb Raider game, all I kept thinking the whole time was, "This could totally be the island from LOST."
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