Here’s the scoop: LOST will have 13 episodes total in season four (down from a planned 16). Eight episodes were finished pre-writer’s strike; five will be penned now that the strike is over. There will be a four-week hiatus after episode eight before the final (new) five. The writers will complete the planned story arc of season four (i.e., the season will end in the same place they’d planned for it two) — they’ll just do it in five episodes instead of eight. The three lost episodes will be “made up” in seasons five and six, so we’ll ultimately end up with the same number of total episodes for the show.
Overall, this is good news. Obviously, we’d love to have all eight episodes of season four and we’d love to not have a month hiatus — but, given the circumstances, I think this is a better result for fans than most of us thought we’d get. Here’s hoping the three lost episodes means season four will finish up at breakneck pace. I’ve really enjoyed the first two episodes of season four — it’s nice to have that, “is it Thursday yet” feeling back every week (of course, it used to that “Is it Wednesday yet?” feeling…but, whatever).
001 // Brian Ford // 02.13.2008 // 12:13 PM
I won’t like that “is it Thursday yet” feeling when I have 4 others shows that I also want to watch on Thursday.
Was Lost always expected to land on Thursday this Season? If not, I wonder if they saw an opening with the strike?
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings about the “tell in 13 episodes what we wanted to tell in 16” concept. That, to me, means that 13 perfectly paced episodes were going to be arbitrarily stretched out to 16 episodes.
002 // Jeff Croft // 02.15.2008 // 1:51 AM
It’s been known that it was going to be on Thursdays for quite a while now, but I do think the day change was strike-related.
I see your point, but I think you’re making the same mistake a lot of people make when they complain about LOST writers not knowing where they’re going, and such. That is: every line of the story isn’t written in advance. The 16 episodes weren’t already written. The story arc was developed, and I’m sure they could have found a way to tell that story arc in 4, 8, 16, 16, or 23 or 42 episodes, if they’d wanted. They’re going to do it in 13. They won’t be stripping anything out, because there’s nothing to strip from — the episodes aren’t written.
It’s like this: let’s say I told you that you needed to tell a story about a guy who meets a for on an airplane and then falls in love and then gets divorced and ultimately dies. That’s the story arc. If I told said you had 10 minutes to tell it, you’d develop the plot more accordingly. If I said you had 60 minutes to tell it, you’d develop it even further. But the story arc would still be the same.
I believe the LOST writers have a story much more on the “man meets girl on plane, man marries, man divorces, man dies” level than on the fully-fleshed out, 60 minute story level. They can tell that story in however many episodes they need to. Hell, they could probably tell the rest of the story of the entire show in a two hour film, if they needed to. And, they can make it well-paced no matter how many episodes the’ve been given to tell the story, if they’re good writers (and I believe they are). When they can’t pace things well is when they don’t know how long they have to tell the story, which was the case until about midway through season three.
003 // Glynis Clark // 04.22.2008 // 12:49 PM
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