Before the finale of ‘Game of Thrones’ pissed off fandom, there was ‘Lost’. For six seasons, ‘Lost’ was ABC’s flagship series and one of the hottest and most buzz-worthy shows on TV. Fans scrutinized each episode, searching for clues as to just what was happening to this group of survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, who found themselves washed up on the shore of a mysterious island that they soon discover is home to a smoke monster and a polar bear among other oddities. Obviously, this was no ordinary island, and fans began formulating their own theories, with one of the earliest being that the passengers were all dead and trapped in a very tropical version of purgatory. So imagine the outrage when six years later, THAT actually turned out to be the truth.
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Damon Lindelof oversaw the series, including the final episode. Luckily for him, ‘Lost’ ended in 2010. While the internet was in full swing, social media wasn’t quite what it is today. But suffice it to say, he sympathizes with the creators of ‘Game of Thrones’, after the very public negative reaction to the show’s eighth and final season, which aired earlier this year.
Lindelof attended the Television Critics Association’s press tour to promote his upcoming HBO show ‘Watchmen’— which might be the next ‘Game of Thrones’– and discussed the reactions to the endings of ‘Lost’ and ‘GoT’:
“You can only self identify as a fan and write this stuff for yourself to a degree and hope it connects with other people. If your intention is for everybody to love it, you’re not going to be able to do this job … When the fans rise up, they have a high-mind approach. There is an empirical belief that, oh, ‘the Lost finale sucked,’ or, ‘We are putting together a petition to demand X, Y, and Z.’ That’s not all fans. That’s some fans. What they in proportion to the overall fandom is anyone’s guess. We are living in a culture where online [people] dictate what the zeitgeist is saying.
“On Lost, fans demand things they wanted, but they also wanted to be surprised and that felt like a bit of a contradiction. I don’t know how to thread that needle. I’m confused by fan service sometimes and if it’s a good thing. Whether fan service is a good or a bad thing, my job remains the same to make something that pleases me. If I woke up every morning needing to make creative decisions that make fans happy, I don’t think I can be successful in that endeavor.”
Fan service is absolutely NOT the way to go, yet there is definitely a segment of fandom that feels that certain shows need to adapt their fan fiction or it sucks.
But a bad ending doesn’t ruin an entire series. Outside of genre projects, ’90s comedy ‘Seinfeld’s last episode is notoriously one of the worst wrap-ups in history, yet the series as a whole is considered one of the best sitcoms in history.
Do you see a similarity between the endings of ‘Lost’ and ‘Game of Thrones’? If you hated the endings, does that ruin the entire series for you?
Source: Entertainment Weekly
