It’s just a TV series
Written 2nd April
You’re writing a TV series and so you are constrained by the laws that govern such a venture. You have deadlines and budgets; you have calibration of ideas and fights over direction; you have actors who get DWI’s and need to be fired to protect the image of the studio; and ect ect. In a word you as a writer/producer/studio have to be “flexible” and in a few words “This story wasn’t all written on day one and can adapt and change as time goes by”.
I have to admit that your theory crossed my mind plenty of times, simply because I can’t believe that no one and I mean NO ONE in the world who watches the series could find an answer to all questions. So either we all have too small brains or what you are saying is true. Honestly though I would prefer to be stupid because I couldn’t find the answers than being stupid watching for 6 six years over and over again more than 100 episodes of a stupid story!
Hah, I agree a lot with what you are saying. I was actually considering posting something similar to this but I was too worried about sounding like a Debbie Downer 🙂
However, I think that Ben does remember Sayid and just doesn’t let on because, of course, that would be a very un Ben like thing to do. I think that what Richard is saying isn’t so literal. But I guess I’ll find out next episode if I’m wrong. If I am it will be pretty funny because then they will have most definitely created an out.
Love it when someone reminds us that it IS just a tv show that has production problems, etc.
The writers gain my admiration almost every week by finding creative ways of presenting their material and ideas while writing around all the limitations.
If such an actor is not available or has gone on to better paying roles you just cannot write for them any more. If such a location is un-available or too costly to shoot in for this week’s budget, then too bad!
K
You know, 2 years ago I would have agreed with you. Then I watched Battle Star Galactica. And then Carnivale. And now Lost. And what I’m seeing in those shows is that some writers are just amazing geniouses. So lets say that the writers are are just going week to week building and building on top of an ever expanding plot. If that were 100% true, then there would be I think a much greater level of nonsense happening.
I do think that there are some things the writers have had figured out for a long time. It’s nothing really specific, just a general road map. Especially now that there is a deadline END for the show… that gives them plenty of time to fill in all of the gaps. Details, yes details are drawn up every week and extrapolated… but some of the undercurrents I think have been there since day 1. Smoky is a great example. Way way back in the beginning, Smoky wasn’t just playing random murderer, there was a method to the madness and a methodology to the words of the “manifestations” the visions that the Losties had. It might be next season before we get a reveal on that, as right now people are still trying to get a grasp on this whole time travel business.
Did they know Ben as a kid was going to shot by Sayid when they wrote the interrogation? Probably not. But they did know that Ben was the leader of the Others, which we did not. The writers use a lot of misdirection which makes things interesting… but I think it’s easy to get convinced that misdirection equals bumbling.
There’s been references to ancient Egypt over a dozen times in the show, starting with season Two. We haven’t gotten the reveal on that yet, and maybe the writers are still struggling with HOW to make that reveal, but it WILL happen, because it’s obviously important. If it wasn’t important, then the writers wouldn’t have used REAL heiroglyphs that make REAL words in Egyptian… they would have gone with the stock TV/Movie model of writing gibberish and pretending that it’s an ancient culture… even some VERY well written shows and movies in the past have glossed over details like that and let the art directors just have a field day. That level of detail shows planning… even if on an abstract level.
Your “theory” is just as valid as others, but I think part of the “spirit” of Lost is in unraveling the mysteries. I think the writers and producers have encouraged this behaviour because it makes it more fun for everyone. It’s a new model for TV that we’ve never really see before… well maybe back in the era of The Fugitive my parents saw it… but this level of mystery has never really existed in modern TV. If you CAN sit back and just enjoy what you are watching without asking questions… go ahead. 😉
Now, the X-Files… there’s a perfect example of a show hashed out every week with no real plot and the writers just throwing whatever they wanted at it. The result was a disappointing last season to what had been a great show.
what we need is a time cop
Yup; just a TV show. Evolving as they go along rather than a story set up from the beginning. The events of the season finale prove that remarkably. Here we have the introduction of a new and radical element to the show; an element never addressed earlier but with one episode we see that the element was integral to all the characters lives.
It’s as if they sat down toward the end of writing this season and put their brain storming hates on and put forth the question “So now how do we end this?”; what we saw last night was the result of that writing session.
It’s quite clear had they intended to have “higher-being-like” characters manipulating everything from behind the seasons they would have shown that invisible hand before now. Give the audience a little glimpse into that realty; or something to look back on and say “Oh yea!”.
But no instead they come up with this after the fact; and will now proceed to connect all the loss ends to this new development.