‘Lost’ to End in 2010 - Not Soon Enough

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Tuesday, May 8, 2007

ABC is attempting to revive “Lost” by announcing its cancellation — three years from now.

ABC is attempting to rescue once-hot “Lost” by ending the show — in 2010. Bowing to the fact that convention isn’t working for the drama about plane-crash survivors on a surreal island, the network is taking the unusual step of turning “Lost” into a limited-run series.

It will run for three shorter and uninterrupted seasons until its “highly anticipated and shocking finale” in the 2009-10 season, ABC said Monday.

The series, which saw its ratings drop this season amid complaints about scheduling, an increasingly meandering plot and unpopular new characters, still must prove itself to disenchanted viewers to survive.

“Due to the unique nature of the series, we knew it would require an end date to keep the integrity and strength of the show consistent throughout and to give the audience the payoff they deserve,” ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said in a statement.

I’m not sure that setting an end date — let alone one three years into the future — is going to do much to compensate for bad writing. They turned a sci-fi show about a handful of characters stranded on an island with monsters and mysterious “others” into a soap opera with an endless stream of characters. A once-unique show turned into something ordinary, with competing love interests, a seemingly endless supply of disposable characters that could be killed off to heighten drama. Further, the once-clever revelation of character backstories through flashbacks got old and served as a hindrance to plot development. Indeed, the show is now almost through its third season and they’re, what, three months into their experience on the island?

Frankly, if they had a two-hour series finale next week, that’d be fine, too. I really have almost no interest left in these people.