Many of us were a bit frustrated by the end of Lost last year.
And we weren’t alone.
Turns out that best-selling author George R.R. Martin also experienced a bit of frustration with the serialized drama. And he’s keeping that in mind when it comes to working on his best-selling novels, A Song of Fire and Ice as well as the upcoming HBO series based on them.
“I kept watching it and I was fascinated,” he tells the New Yorker. “They’d introduce these things and I thought that I knew where it was going. Then they’d introduce [something new] and I’d rethink it. … We watched it every week trying to ?gure it out, and as it got deeper and deeper I kept saying, ‘They better have something good in mind for the end. This end better pay off here.’ And then I felt so cheated when we got to the conclusion.”
As for how that impacts his writing and the upcoming TV shows, Martin knows his passionate fans won’t let him get away with something similar. Martin says that’s one reason he’s worked so long on the next installment.
“What if I f— it up at the end? What if I do a Lost? Then they’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches,” he says.
A Game of Thrones debuts on HBO April 17th. And we’ll have more about the show on this week’s Slice of SciFi.
I have a feeling we may never see the end of A Song of Ice and Fire. At least we got an ending to LOST.
Here's a thought. Maybe he should keep quiet until he ends his own series and has something to compare things to. It is easy to point fingers now, but when your fanbase is dying off from old age and your series is still not finished...that's a bigger issue for me.
Not everyone will be satisfied with how his story ends no matter how long he takes to write it. That's just how it goes. And such a long gap isn't something tv has a luxury for. In tv land you have to keep plowing through and don't get to go back 400 pages and tweak things so you can put a bow on top and say it is perfect. Should Game of Thrones take off on HBO and then have to stall for him to end the series...or worse, make filler episodes... Once again, wait to talk smack when you have a finished product. To me having an epic book series that never ends is the bigger infraction in the storytelling business.
@hilsto
I'm hoping that HBO backed up the money truck to such an extent that Martin can "afford" to work exclusively on finishing the books and be contractually obligated to ensure the TV series doesn't race past his writing.
Lets face it Season 1 (the first book) starts this month. HBO could air all of the seasons of ASOIAF we have books for and still beat the gap he took in writing A Dance with Dragons.
I can't imagine this hasn't come up in negotiations with HBO.
Martin has worked on television shows in the past--he worked on Beauty and the Beast in the 90s....so he may know a bit about creating an end point for a show.
And whether or not he's got an end point in mind for Song of Fire and Ice (I believe he does), I'd far rather see him take the time to get it right rather than put out crap and expect the fans to pretend its gold. I think it's better to have a quality series that takes a bit more time to finish than rushing to an end that makes no one happy--fans and writer.
I just hope Martin will finish the series or at least leave notes on how it should end. And who knows....the novels may finish in a different place from the TV shows if he doesn't get the novels done in time.
Also, as you may recall, Martin has said that the future books will take more TV time to develop and realize...so it could be that book four and five will run two seasons instead of one.
His fan base is not dying off. Ridiculous, he has his right to his ipinion just like the rest of us. I wish him well and it is his material. In additon if this is the best LOST can do after 7 years or more then it should not have been done at all. The ending was a huge let down after such a great show for the most part. I have LOST on DVD and am willing to give it away for free and even pay the shipping!!!1 However, no one has wanted them yet-!!!
I have no problem with people speaking their minds and opinions. I get annoyed when people say the same thing over and over again as if they're making some big important point.
Yeah, segments of fandom didn't like the way LOST and/or BSG ended, don't like the Star Wars prequels or the Matrix sequels or whatever else, are still peeved about cancellations of their favorite shows, and even outright hate the new direction of Doctor Who. You've said your bit and the rest of us know that you're an angry genre fan. Big frakkin' deal. Let it go and move on to something else. There's a big vast world of genre-related material for you to squee over, and life's too short to be bitter about how you think your life is wronged by some Hollywood bigshot. Go find your happy place and leave the rest of us to do the same.
The end of LOST was fine. I went in to the last season realizing:
1. Endings are overrated
2. This, of ALL shows, is about the Journey.
3. The show is about mystery and It actually ended with lots of mystery, too. It was as ambiguous as it was clear when all is said and done.
It's amazing to me that we're criticizing a show that has entertained us week after week, year after year, allowing us to (and in this is the best part) spend the time with the most flesh and blood characters TV has ever produced.
We are geeks. We criticize because we love