Damon Lindelof talks about the ending.

uncleoswald

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5chCMRsEVo

Pretty interesting and in depth talk about the ending of Lost and the show in general. Not a great interviewer, he talks way to much and seems confused about whether everything happened, which I thought was pretty clear at the time never mind 2 years later. Lindelof comes across quite well though, he's still obviously a little defensive about the criticism but is thankful to be given a chance to talk honestly with someone who didn't like it.

Certainly doesn't change my mind on how I think the show lost the plot towards the end but Lindelof acknowledges that no matter how much he defends it it wont change anyone's mind.

Bits I found most interesting- Him agreeing that Across the Sea was a pile of crap, that the show had strayed too far from it's basic premise about a bunch of people who crash on a mysterious Island. I completely agree with the interviewer that it wasn't the "lack of answers" that was disappointing (they answered most original questions) but it is that the ending took away a lot of the meaning of what came before.

Sad Professor

I watched a bit of this during the week, but had to turn it off. Interviewer is a waffling idiot. I'd rather watch Lindelof interview himself.

Niles

Interesting to hear Lindelof speak on the finale. I too am surprised that the interviewer thought the flashsideways conclusion rendered the 'main timeline' meaningless; thought it was quite clear that all the events up to Jack's death were 'real'.

Sad Professor

I actually know quite a few people who thought everything was a dream. And they all had one thing in common: they weren't regular viewers of the show. Even then you'd have to not be paying attention to miss Christian Shepard explaining to Jack that "everything that's ever happened to you is real", etc. I really didn't care for most of what Christian told Jack in that scene as it felt like spoon-feeding for the slower members of the audience, who as turns out still didn't get it.

Re Across the Sea, I liked that episode, I just thought it was very poorly placed after the bloodbath of beloved characters that was The Candidate. At that stage nobody cared about Jacob and MIB, they just wanted to see what happened to the survivors. I think Across the Sea would have worked much better had it come after Ab Aeterno.

Mr. Incognito

What a fooking weasel..


"If there is any regret it's telling people the answers are coming.........."

"Up to season three there was a degree of improvisation..................."

They made the fooking thing up as they went along

Yep, still mad. Fook off and die.

Psychedelic

I also liked the Across the Sea episode, to be honest I was surprised at the time about the negative reaction it got, people were for ages crying out for an island back story episode. It could've been shown a few episodes earlier though.

Regarding the whole 'made it up as they went along' thing - at the end of the day what difference does it make, the show was either enjoyable to watch or it wasn't, it doesn't matter how much was planned, what matters is what we saw on screen and that, apart from some obvious filler, was brilliant television.

Just thought i'd revisit 2010 briefly by writing in a Lost forum...

Despite the interviewer not really having his homework done and being found out on 'not actually getting things that were spelled out for him', I still think it was a good interview. I do like those interviews that seem more like conversations, rather than the interviewer asking questions off a sheet.

Lindleof basically admitted that there was a fair bit of filler throughout the seasons, that he wasn't a fan of the 'Across the Sea' episode, that there was a lot of improvisation as they went along, and that they couldn't care less about what the audience thinks/thought about the show now that it is a finished story. Must hurtful of all was his mockery of the Architect scene from Matrix Reloaded!:D

I for one was glued to season 6 from week to week, serious anticipation, and at the time I was entertained. The finale moved me at the least, so I can't say I was overly disappointed with the show's resolution season. I could just as easily have hated it, as many fans did. But this thing of Lindleof saying (as he and Cuse did back when they were doing promo work for season 6) 'The show was never about the mythology, it's about the characters etc'...they can shove that up their asses. The mysteries/deepening mythology was what attracted the number of viewers to the show that it got from week to week, and the writers/producers knew this all along. I would have a lot more respect for Lindleof if he just said something like 'We realised early when writing season 5 that we had gone a little too far with the vital mythology aspect of the show over the years, and there was no way to address every question that was ever raised so we did the best we could with it.' Now that's honesty.

Of course not everything needs explaining and some things fare better when left in the imagination, I will never forget (in a bad way) MiB's "I'm going to channel the water and the light" line when he was building the donkey wheel. That line is my 'midichlorians/matrix architect' analogy for unnecessary explanations!

Anyway, I'm sure I will rewatch the show someday, but I doubt it'll keep me half as entertained now that I know that a lot of the mind bending, intriguing questions and mysteries raised throughout the seasons effectively amount to nothing. Hey maybe if I watch it strictly as a character piece (as apparently always intended by the showrunners) I will gain far more enjoyment from it. But it was a fun journey at the time, even if the destination sucked just a little.

Niles

For what it's worth I enjoyed Across the Sea. The 'magic cave of light' was a different direction than I expected it to take, but this didn't affect my enjoyment of the episode. I didn't actually interpret Lindelof has saying he didn't like that episode (even at the time Lindelof and Cuse admitted it had been polarising among fans), just that it was harder to invest in as it didn't feature any of the regular characters (that little flashback to season 1 doesn't really count). Though I personally think this adds to the episode's appeal. The fact that it came towards the end of the series helps, though arguably perhaps made it all the more of an anti-climax for those who disliked it. In some ways it's similar to The Magician's Nephew, the second last book of the Narnia series. Both came near the end of their series and both featured a mythology-heavy origin story devoid of the regular protagonists.

I actually liked the way they dealt with Jacob and the MIB in that episode; it would have been very easy to simply cast them as 'Jacob=pure good, MIB= pure bad' but this episode showed that they both were flawed, and perhaps both a victim in their own way.

I have to say I enjoyed season 6 in general (more so than season 5), I didn't have any clear preconceptions as to how the series would/should end and just decided to hear the story the writers had to tell. I have to concur with Lindelof on the 'architect' point; for me the finale would have been less enjoyable if it had been over-explained.

Each to their own I suppose.