FLASH FORWARDING LOST

Could LOST ever have a television sequel?

It is doubtful, but you can always imagine that network executives recycle old series all the time.

If LOST was Survivor meets Robinson Caruso, then a new edition could be The Love Boat meets Lord of the Flies if a cruise ship runs into a reef off shore, and a ensemble of passenger and crew survivors make it ashore.

But any sequel would have the daunting task of clearly stating what the island was, and who is in charge. The original series had difficulty figuring that one out.

Who would be left on the island? What would be its function or purpose?

In the post-LOST DVD world, there was a short take on Hurley's reign as guardian but that to most fans is not canon but revisionist history. All that was clear was Ben telling the Dharma food drop people that their jobs had been terminated. So did Hurley merely shut down the final strings of the Dharma era or did he shut down the island itself completely?

A sequel starring Hurley and Ben would be boring; in the sideways finale there was no coup or bad blood between Hurley and Ben.

What if Hurley wanted to move on but other people on the island did not? For example, Rose and Bernard seemed content to stay in their cottage away from civilization. When Hurley left, did he force them to leave to? Or did Rose and Bernard become the new guardians? Probably not.

Would there still be Others roaming around the jungle or temple? Perhaps. We never saw what happened to Cindy, Emma or Zach. They may be still hiding in the jungle, fearful of the smoke monster's return. Playing long form hide and seek from a perceived danger would not make a compelling show.

And would not the smoke monster(s) return to their island? Jacob and MIB were immortals (non-human). Were their alleged deaths faked? And if so, would not the sequel be merely a re-hash of the old scripts around the "conflict" between Jacob and MIB?

A sequel could answer a lot of questions left open when the original series terminated, and for that reason alone, TPTB will not create a new LOST.

A SECOND CHANCE?

Variety had a recent article on Damon Lindelof, one of the creative forces behind LOST. Lindelof was commenting about how social media was changing the way producers of content got immediate feed back from viewers.

And for content creators, it's key to let audiences know producers are listening to them, he said.

The article stated that Lindelof began posting his first tweets after the finale of LOST paying more attention to the platform while on vacation in Italy. He would retweet negative posts about the finale and comment on them to let viewers know, "I hear you," he said. "It started becoming therapeutic for me. The idea of acknowledging that sentiment" can be a powerful tool to connect with audiences, he added.

After LOST ended its run, there was a bitter feud between die-hard fans and TPTB over the direction of Season 6 and the sudden purgatory ending. TPTB dismissed the charges that they owed the fans answers to all the questions they raised in the various story arcs. TPTB said that LOST was a "character driven" show and they wrote the finale to give the characters their final reward. The negative comments led to show runners going into retreat mode, and the series quickly faded from mainstream consciousness. But at least Lindelof now admits that he understands the bitterness of a lot of fans on how "their" series ended. Time can heal some wounds.

However, the article also made a strange relevation. Lindelof said he has no interest in revisiting "Lost" anytime soon.

"It's been two years (since the series wrapped) and we told the story we wanted to tell," Lindelof said. But he admits ABC might look for ways to bring back LOST in some form. "I do feel like the world has not seen the end of 'Lost,' but I'm not going to have any involvement," he said.

Lindelof isn't bitter about the idea, however. "It would be hypocritical for me to say I'm going to do 'Star Trek' but I don't want anyone to touch 'Lost,' " he said.

A new LOST show?  It is like selling a salvaged automobile as a quality used car at an auto auction. As the backlash cooled enough to have some other writers "re-boot" the series (as a franchise as Disney likes to have in its inventory)?

The difference between LOST and the Star Trek franchise is that Roddenberry's vision of his universe was complete and had the sci-fiction continuity that made the premise of deep space exploration work. LOST fumbled the ball on created a coherent Big Premise of the island, sci-fi physics properties or explanations of the mysteries to capture the imagination of the disappointed die-hard fans. 

It is also easy to see why a re-boot could happen: most of the LOST cast have not gone on to bigger and better projects. Most are available for re-casting in a new series. Except, re-shooting the program with a better plot analysis is like trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube. 

A LOST sequel or prequel would have major obstacles to overcome. A prequel would have to deal with the transition from the military rule of the island to the Dharma period. One would then have to really explain the science properties of the Island and why it is so important. This is something TPTB refused to grasp in the original series. A sequel could involve the Hurley-Ben "rule" of the Island realm, but does that really matter anymore?


Besides, the Numbers (viewers) don't add up; there was a steady decline in viewership after Season 1 and a fall off during the uneven Season 6. There is no pent-up demand for a return to the Island.


To re-boot LOST today, you would have to overwrite a brand new set of characters and concepts over the existing Island structures and mysteries. And you would have to come out of the gate with clear explanations of the hieroglyphs, the Smoke Monster, and the Island's special properties and how they all tie together "to save the world." You would have to re-create the show in a manner that had the hooks in the die-hard viewers, who were blogging, commenting and screaming about their own magical theories, speculations and desires for the show. But that fan passion is gone. With franchises like Star Trek, that passion never went away, even when the producers stumbled with offerings like Star Trek the Movie or Deep Space 9.


I don't know if a nostalgic "what if" things were done differently could successfully re-boot LOST.