The last scene of ABC's Lost won't just finish the island drama, according to show writer and producer Jack Bender; it'll also finish epic television dramas in general... for awhile, at least. Hyperbole, or does he know something we don't?
Bender was speaking at the Banff World Television Festival, where the island drama won the Rocky Award for best continuing series this weekend. But, according to him, Lost's status as the final epic TV drama has less to do with the show itself as it does the changing face of television:
It's going to be one of the last huge television shows in terms of size of cast and scope of production... 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.
And if you're wondering what kind of ending Lost will give the epic drama genre, Bender isn't spilling any beans just yet:
There will be an ending to our show and I trust it will be a stimulating, satisfying ending... "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.
At least he managed to tell the Calgary Sun what the ending won't be like:
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.
Does this mean we can start making guessed by getting Lost staff to say what other TV show endings it's not like?
Director says 'Lost' will be last epic TV show, at least for awhile [Canadian Press/Google]