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Relax, Lost will have a conclusion.

Minor spoilers: "It's not going to be a Sopranos-style blackout," promises producer Jack Bender.

lost-benMinor spoilers: Lost Producer Jack Bender was speaking at the Banff World Television Festival, where the drama won an award for best continuing series over the weekend.

He has put to rest any fears that the show might finish next year with an inconclusive ending.

“There will be an ending to our show and I trust it will be a stimulating, satisfying ending…” he said.

“This show needs to be building toward a story finish. The audience can’t feel like the creative wheels are spinning and critically, there were times during [earlier seasons] where we were critically, and in terms of our audience, getting busted for spinning wheels a little bit.

“It’s not going to be a Sopranos-style blackout… I thought it was brilliant, by the way. But the Lost ending is not going to be like that. It’s going to be a real ending,” he said.

Bender also nodded towards the end of a television era where big productions are no more, in terms of cast and scope.

“Given the fact that network television is changing, it may be one of the last great rides of this kind of big epic storytelling. That’s not to say there won’t be another great big old show that is a serialized show in the future, [b]ut for awhile I think it’s going to be smaller and more procedural.”

Meanwhile actor Matthew Fox says, “I think it is going to be very satisfying and cathartic and redemptive and beautiful. I’ve talked to Damon [Lindelof, co-creator] pretty extensively and every time I talk to him it’s sort of surprising how moving it is just to talk about it.

“Like a third of the way in, I would guess we are going to [settle] in one time frame and it will be very linear – no more flashbacks, nothing,” he said. “It will be on the island and sort of a final conflict to the end.”

Lost winds up in 2010, or whatever year they decide to call it….

Source: Io9.com, Digital SPy

11 Responses

  1. @bindi – that’s possible since the point of the bomb was to fix the timeline and therefore everyone would go back to where they should have been if the plane had not crashed. Spoiler – remember ‘Juliet’ (Elizabeth Mitchell) has a lead roll on the new version of V which goes to air around the same time as Lost, early in 2010.

  2. craig i saw the spoiler, should i tell you? Spoiler Warning:. it is in the quote from matthew fox, at the end of the last episode juliet exploded the bomb and the main cast would have all been killed, so they have to come up with a story line that lets them survive. i thought one way was for them to all get flashed through time again and guessing from that quote that is correct, they start time jumping again.

  3. I would like to think everyone who has stuck with Lost will get the biggest payoff. Sure, old viewers will tune in to the final episode to see how it ends, I’d even like to think Channel 7 will make a big deal of it and show the finale in an 8.30pm timeslot. But these old viewers won’t get the same fulfillment as those who have been loyal, those who will have seen the complete journey, not just the beginning and the end. I’ll be sad to see it end, but cannot wait to know how it ends! The last season in particular was amazing.

  4. @RichoTB: I think a portion of the ratings drop for Lost can be attributed to people sourcing the show from places other than Australian FTA. Rather than risking seeing spoilers on the net while waiting for Ch7 to screen eps (although, to give them credit they’re not as far behind as Survivor’s 2 seasons!), many hardcore Losties have already seen the season currently airing in Australia and don’t bother tuning in to see it chock-full of ads.

    As to the drop in US ratings, as with here some of it is also certainly due to some people losing interest for various reasons, including missing a few too many eps and being unable to catch up with the storyline. But I’d be interested to know if those rating figures include viewers who Tivo it to watch later or those who watch via legal online means such as Hulu or the ABC website.

  5. Agreed, Paull. The Simpsons has well-and-truly run out of steam. The same storylines are being rehashed, over and over. It should have ended at least a season or two ago. To shake it up, maybe they should advance the characters five years for a whole season, just like Desperate Housewives. How funny would that be?

  6. Sadly he’s right when he says this will be last show of it’s kind (for at least some time). Audiences demand shows that allow them to miss an episode or 2, even a season, and still be able know what’s going on- I guess that means more ‘days of lives’ style shows during prime time. Missing 4 years worth of episodes is the equivalent of missing the first five minutes of a lost episode.

    I hope the lost franchise continues in some way, shape or form after the finale. I wouldn’t mind Lostmovies.

    By the way, the simpsons needs to end- wednesdays episode ‘marge and homer’s 4th wedding’ was absolutly shocking, and spoilt quite a few characters on going stories (such as sideshow bob’s rivalry with krusty).

  7. I think it’s the best thing I’ve seen on tv since Twin Peaks. It’s a shame its critical acclaim is not matched by viewing numbers. Season 5 was brilliant and I can’t wait to see the last season. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

  8. Whether people will see it through to the end or not is another story. In America season 1’s 18 million viewers have long since deceased, with season 5 reaching a series low of 8.7 million viewers. Over half the audience has eroded and stopped caring. Not to mention the massive drop in popularity it received here, going from reaching 2 million viewers in season 1 to a mere 250,000 for last week’s finale. That’s a 90% drop in audience. Even Heroes is doing better, getting 350k for the latest ep.

    That being said, I still enjoy the show and I expect a lot of people will tune in for the last ep just to see how it ends.

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