Lost: learn anything new?

[The Grumpy Celt]

The question of canon is murky around LOST. With a show like Star Trek, which had games, books, comic books and so forth, only the actual broadcast episode and movie where canon. I don't know where that line is drawn for LOST.

 

[Crothian]

I listen to the commentaries and watch the special features and I come away thinking that the writers and producers do not know what the real story of the island is because they are (by and large) making it all up as they go. They only have a kind of vague plan and follow it.

This is the same impression I've gotten over the past two years.

 

[Taelorn76]

The question of canon is murky around LOST. With a show like Star Trek, which had games, books, comic books and so forth, only the actual broadcast episode and movie where canon. I don't know where that line is drawn for LOST.

I think the difference between Lost and Star Trek is that with ST you had companion stories, or stories that did not really tie in with what happened in a certain episode. They were basicly side stories. With Lost I feel it is more of fill in the blanks that the show leaves open. Which in a way may hurt the show. If the revelations mentioned above have an impact on this season or any future episodes, people who haven't played along, ie me, may feel like they don't know what's going on and where did this sudden info came from. For it to be successfull they need to reveal this info on the show as well, or you risk loosing your audience. But when you do that who will want to spend the time roaming the net for clues and hidden meanings when in a few weeks you can get them on the show.

 

[Arnwyn]

But when you do that who will want to spend the time roaming the net for clues and hidden meanings when in a few weeks you can get them on the show.

You'd be surprised. There were people who went nuts with the I Love Bees Halo game, just to find out the release date and maybe info on the game - even though the full game was to be released in only a few months.

Some people out there...

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I think that the show will end will Jorge Garcia waking up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette and telling her about the dream he had and then the Bob Newhart theme running durring the closing credits.

Or better yet- Bob Newhart wakes up in bed, complaining of a bad dream about people trapped on an island, and turns to look at his bed companion- who is Jorge Garcia!!!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, yes and no to them making it up as they go along. They've said since the beginning they know how the show ends and the biggest events of each season. They fill in the details as they go, based on what works and what occurs to them. So yeah, a lot of the fiddly details are new, but that doesn't mean there's no plan.

I liken it to the producers know they're driving from LA to New York. They don't know which highway -- although they know they'd like to stop in Kansas City and try some BBQ, so that'll suggest certain things to them -- and they certainly don't know where they'll be stopping to eat along the way or what radio stations they'll be listening to or even where they'll be stopping to stay the night.

It's not unplanned, it's just very loosely planned.

And I expect the revelations from the book, Web stuff and phone episodes will make it into the show sooner rather than later.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Or better yet- Bob Newhart wakes up in bed, complaining of a bad dream about people trapped on an island, and turns to look at his bed companion- who is Jorge Garcia!!!

That is better.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Well, yes and no to them making it up as they go along...

That's is my point, that theya re following a rough plan and filling in the details as they go. But fans are reading too much into many small details.

Like the mural in the bunker - some fans are reading it as an deliberate indication by the writers and producers that the island is connected to Atlantis. The director of the first episode just painted the mural with a few show refrences in it, not as a secret spoiler for the show.

Or the fact a gold car has been used in most, if not all, of the wrecks featured on the show. That is not, as some fans have said, proof that each and every wreck was planned by Hanso Foundation. I just means the producers used the same gold stunt car.

So parsing down all those little details to the nth degree is not deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls of the show - the writers are not parsing down what they create to that level.

 

[Crothian]

I liken it to the producers know they're driving from LA to New York.

I don't like the anology because it is easy for most people to imagine who one goes from LA to New York. I think it is more like they are starting at the number two and ending at the color blue. They don't seem to have a good idea how to do that, but they are trying.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I don't like the anology because it is easy for most people to imagine who one goes from LA to New York.

Even if you went via Canada? Or (as Ewan McGregor did, although in reverse order), through Alaska, over the Bering Sea, across Asia and Europe, on motorcycle?

(In case I'm being obtuse, I'm just saying that I think Whizbang's analogy is perfectly apt. Just because the writers are taking a different- and unexpected, even to them- route than most people would think of, doesn't invalidate the analogy.)