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In many ways, shows are defined by the era they are made in, both in terms of trends and plots and how they are formatted. From the way it was edited to its weekly release schedule, even down to the number of episodes in the first few seasons, Lost remains a product of a time when networks were the main way people watched television. So, what would change if Lost were made today, in the age of streamers and binge-watching?

The showrunners for Lost have given it a bit of thought, and it turns out it is difficult to bring it into the modern era without fundamentally changing how the show. “The restrictions [of network television] were part of what defined the content,” explains Lost showrunner Carlton Cuse. “Particularly the ad breaks… We wrote to those ad breaks, and so, when we were designing stories, it was always about ‘What’s going to make a great teaser out or what’s going to make a great Act One out. What’s going to make a great episode out that’s gonna make people come back next week.”

Cuse isn’t convinced that the lack of ad breaks that you see on a streaming service like Netflix would have necessarily improved Lost, but he does think there is one restriction they could have done without.

“I think the one thing was language – it felt sometimes a little restrictive that you have a very limited vocabulary of exclamation words in network television.”

For those following along, he’s talking about how the characters can be in the most life-and-death situation imaginable and the most colorful language they can use is “damn.”

Though the writers managed to sneak plenty of swearing into the descriptions in the script to help inform the actors’ performance, it isn’t quite the same. Safe to say, if Lost did get made in the age of streaming, there would have been a lot more F-Bombs sprinkled throughout.

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