B wrote:No one LOVES a pilot, but yeah, it sticks the landing. I always loved Lost, I just was never satisfied by the end. I always thought that the claim that the writers always knew what story they were telling from the beginning was bullshit
Well JJ's involvement with the show basically ended with the Pilot. So it our problem here isn't just a JJ thing.
Also, I'm pretty sure dime is saying that you don't like when I like something, not that we don't sometimes like the same things.
Finally, who care whether or not the writer's knew where they were going the whole time.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I feel like I remember more cool stuff to come. I mean, I haven't even seen the polar bear yet.
Right now, they're just people that crashed on a normal island that happens to contain a giant monster. They don't even know that the monster is black smoke.
Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sat January 10, 2026 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
B wrote:I always thought that the claim that the writers always knew what story they were telling from the beginning was bullshit
I don't think this is a real claim. Lindelof and Cuse have been very open about not knowing, especially in season 1. Lindelof wasn't even on the show for the first few episodes if I'm not mistaken. Post season 1 they would enter a season knowing the ending of that season and go from there. They probably knew their ending on the Island pretty early but not much beyond that.
epilogue wrote:Tough up, Buck. It's OK if some of us like the made up universe of no consequence in a different way than you do.
B wrote:You were the one implying that it was not.
I'll say it: it's not okay!!!
"I want to see the whole picture--as nearly as I can. I don't want to put on the blinders of 'good and bad,' and limit my vision."-- In Dubious Battle
I thought it was pretty common knowledge that they knew the beginning and the end from the get go. Beyond that they kind of explored along the way.
The show got a little convoluted and i was a little letdown by the end of the story but this show was all about the journey along the way. So much fun and still maybe my top show.
B wrote:I always thought that the claim that the writers always knew what story they were telling from the beginning was bullshit
I don't think this is a real claim. Lindelof and Cuse have been very open about not knowing, especially in season 1. Lindelof wasn't even on the show for the first few episodes if I'm not mistaken. Post season 1 they would enter a season knowing the ending of that season and go from there. They probably knew their ending on the Island pretty early but not much beyond that.
epilogue wrote:Tough up, Buck. It's OK if some of us like the made up universe of no consequence in a different way than you do.
B wrote:You were the one implying that it was not.
I'll say it: it's not okay!!!
that was my understanding as well
And they say that a hero could save us
I'm not gonna stand here and wait
Damon was brought in by JJ to be the show runner. Damon was involved (really the only one involved) from the beginning to the end (there was an original script written by someone else that JJ and Damon totally revised and changed). After the pilot JJ bowed out to focus on other stuff, serving as EP mostly only in name and with little to no interaction or contribution to the show. This left Damon on his own. It was Damon's fist time running a show and was in over his head.
So ABC brought in Carlton Cuse to help. Carlton had experience. I believe Carlton showed up and was implemented around episode 9 or 10 of S1 (can't remember exactly). Apparently, according to Damon, Carlton wanted to make some adjustments to the show bible. He had some ideas moving forward. So, over time he and Damon worked to totally revise JJ's show bible.
They did spin their wheels a lot and had to make a bunch of shit up as they went based on the number of episodes and not having a firm end date. They also "course corrected" based on cast chemistry and (sadly) fan feedback. They were very aware of fan theories and what the fans wanted/didn't want to see.
Coming into S3 they knew how they wanted to end the show but ABC wouldn't give them a firm end date. They wanted 5 seasons and done. ABC had a cash cow that they weren't keen to kill. Eventually, they worked it out but that's why you get Nikki and Paulo and Jack's tattoos and all of that. Because they had to extend and fill the story until they negotiated an end date.
Strat wrote:I thought it was pretty common knowledge that they knew the beginning and the end from the get go. Beyond that they kind of explored along the way.
The show got a little convoluted and i was a little letdown by the end of the story but this show was all about the journey along the way. So much fun and still maybe my top show.
I've heard that repeated a lot but I guess it depends on what a person means by "the end." They knew The Island specific ending (death of Jack) very early. From my understanding they didn't really start working on The End until they got ABC to agree during season 3 that the show would be 6 seasons. But at that point they mapped out the major points of the rest of the series.
"I want to see the whole picture--as nearly as I can. I don't want to put on the blinders of 'good and bad,' and limit my vision."-- In Dubious Battle
epilogue wrote:Damon was brought in by JJ to be the show runner. Damon was involved (really the only one involved) from the beginning to the end (there was an original script written by someone else that JJ and Damon totally revised and changed). After the pilot JJ bowed out to focus on other stuff, serving as EP mostly only in name and with little to no interaction or contribution to the show. This left Damon on his own. It was Damon's fist time running a show and was in over his head.
So ABC brought in Carlton Cuse to help. Carlton had experience.
Yeah I mixed up Cuse and Lindelof earlier.
"I want to see the whole picture--as nearly as I can. I don't want to put on the blinders of 'good and bad,' and limit my vision."-- In Dubious Battle
There was a great interview with Damon recently on some podcast (I can't remember the name) which I really enjoyed. He made a really great point, I thought, about mysteries solved. He said (paraphrasing), 'yeah maybe we didn't answer every tiny thing you wanted to know, like very detail about Sayid in the jacuzzi in the temple, but we answered the biggest fucking mystery in all of human existence: what happens when you die."
