“Lost” Producer Promises “Satifsying” Ending

Not only will the series finale of “Lost” wrap up the six-year storyline of the show, but it will be “one of the last huge television shows in terms of size of cast and scope of production.”

At least that’s what producer Jack Bender tells the Canadian Press.

“There will be an ending to our show and I trust it will be a stimulating, satisfying ending,” said Bender.  “This show needs to be building toward a story finish. The audience can’t feel like the creative wheels are spinning and critically, there were times during the seasons before … where we were critically, and in terms of our audience, getting busted for spinning wheels a little bit.”

“Given the fact that network television is changing, it may be one of the last great rides of this kind of big epic storytelling,” Bender said.

With the current state of the economy and the cost associated with producing “Lost,” Bender predicts that in the coming months and years, it will be increasingly difficult to get a serialized show like “Lost” on the airwaves.  And that doesn’t even take into consideration the price tag for the series to run to its final end point with the rising cost of production.

Bender says TV’s thematic pendulum is swinging away from serial television towards more stand-alone dramas. Procedurals are popular with networks, he notes, because it’s easier for audiences to drop in at any time.

“That’s not to say there won’t be another great big old show that is a serialized show in the future,” he says. “But for awhile I think it’s going to be smaller and more procedural.”

That said, Bender predicts a robust life for “Lost” after its TV run, noting its serial format lends itself well to what’s become a lucrative arm for the industry.

“The life of ‘Lost’ will eventually be viewed on DVDs and it will be read and viewed like a big novel,” he says.

Of course, promises of a “satisfying” ending will only elevate the already high expectations fans and critics have for how the series will wrap things up.   And while Bender can’t tell us exactly how the island drama will end, he does promise it will have a definitive conclusion.

“It’s not going to be a Sopranos-style blackout… I thought it was brilliant, by the way. But the Lost ending is not going to be like that. It’s going to be a real ending,” he said.”