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How do you improve a show like Lost? Make less of it, according to the showrunners

"The best version of Lost" is apparently half the episode length of the early seasons.

Jack flying a kite in Lost — Image credit: ABC

Published on Fri Aug 16 2024

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Lost has become one of the most celebrated shows of its era, with fans still obsessing over every small detail nearly 20 years after it first aired. However, there are ways that even great shows could be improved. In the case of Lost, the answer could have been to give us less rather than more of it, according to the people behind the show.

While doing a virtual panel back in 2020, Lost showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof provided a bit of a retrospective on the show and how it might have been improved. For Lindelof, that would have meant doing a bit less of it. “I think that we both agree, and certainly we were able to manifest this for… seasons four, five, and six, that the best version of Lost would have been maybe 13 to 15 episodes a season. There would have been a lot less filler, and there would have been a lot more control in terms of, you know, when we were running out flashbacks, and I think a lot more confidence in the storytelling.”

While many fans might not like the “less is more” approach suggested by Lindelof, needing to stretch the early seasons of Lost into the standard network episode count of 26 episodes definitely has an impact on the pacing, and you can feel them start to stretch things out by season three.

What would the showrunners have cut if they didn’t have to pad things out due to network demands? Carton Cuse has an easy answer. “Jack would never have flown a kite on the beach in Thailand.” So, nothing of value would have been lost.

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