There’s been rumours over the past week regarding Lost’s future, and Variety has the breaking story this morning: Lost will end at some point during the 2009-2010 season.
Variety.com – ‘Lost’ set for three more years
It was a contingency to the continued involvement of Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and has been foreseen for quite some time…and yet it comes with an interesting couple of twists that were not forecasted.
With the announcement comes a confirmed number of episodes remaining after the end of the third season: 48. This isn’t too surprising, and coincides with rumours earlier in the week…but what doesn’t coincide is the fact that these 48 episodes will be spread out over three seasons of 16-episodes. This won’t be too unfamiliar for fans of the series; we’re currently at the end of a 16-episode block, so each season will now basically be what we’ve experienced this Spring. Each season will run uninterrupted, and will likely fall in the Spring of each year, although this hasn’t been confirmed.
The producers have given a few reasons for the switch to 16-episode seasons, all of which I pretty well agree with. Most importantly, it does provide them with less episodes to worry about in a particular season, giving them more time to tune scripts, or schedule actors, or perhaps even more money for better special effects (Although ABC might try to cut their budget with 6 less episodes, we’ll see). Less episodes might mean less filler, episodes that are pretty well meaningless but need to be made in order to meet episode orders. Also, with only 16 episodes Lost becomes a bit more of a yearly event, which I think will benefit the series. Every year we’ll look forward to four months of serial television at its finest.
I’ve tried to think of a problem with this lineup, but I haven’t really come up with one. I thought that it might limit the number of backstories provided, but it’s not like there’s going to be less overall episodes (two seasons of twenty-four = three seasons of sixteen), and if anything we might avoid lazy and annoying backstories like Jack’s tattoos in the process. The only thing I can really pinpoint is that it means fans of the series will be shelling out more cash for DVDs, as they’re likely to charge the same price for 16 episodes and we’ll have to do it three times.
But, that has nothing to do with the show’s quality. In 2010, most likely, Lost will come to a close. This could bring a change to serialized television, and it should be interesting whether other shows (I’m looking in your direction, Heroes) attempt to follow this lead or find their own path. Should other shows start planning their own dooms, or milk it for all its worth. For now, all we know is that there will be no spinoffs, no movies, no radio plays, no musicals. There are 50 episodes remaining in the ‘Lost’ story.
The next chapter airs Wednesday at 10pm EST.
Cultural Learnings 
One quick glance at the AICN talkbacks about this will give you LOTS of problems with this decision (most of them totally irrational, of course).
Two of them do carry a bit of weight. The first is that to break what was (by all accounts) a five year plan into a six year one is akin to telling J.K. Rowling to split the last Harry Potter book into two parts – it totally affects the “plan” that is laid out for the series (if one exists).
The second is that television is such a risky business that extending the end date by an extra year increases the likelihood (however slim) that the show might not reach its end if things go downhill on the network.
But the bottom line is that ABC owns this show and can do whatever the hell they want with it – that they’re able to come to this solution with the showrunners is about as good a result as one could hope for (as anyone who lived through the X-Files debacle can attest).
As for #1 – The way I look at it, the producers have to divide two parts into three, which is slightly different than one into two. Unlike with Season Three, where producers asked them to divide a single season into two parts and ended up creating a really boring epilogue and an awesome core season, here there is plenty of time to plan along these lines. They can accomplish the same goals, achieve the same reactions, develop the same characters, within a different, but not compromising time period.
I’m hoping it means that we’ll see less filler as they are somewhat forced to open strong and end strong in each season. Two books would make the finale of Harry Potter drag on and on…if anything, I think that three seasons will avoid that dragging within each season.
As for #2, ABC will never cancel Lost as long as it remains a strong Demo performer, and I don’t see that changing. Lost’s likely position in a February-May run also puts it in a prime position to make up for Fall pilot failures, so even lower ratings will still make it an asset for ABC.
And yeah; while I hate universally lowered expectations, because they give ABC too much credit, it’s true. This is a best case scenario, all things considered.
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