LOST’s Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse Comment on Sopranos Abrupt Ending
Someday, we’ll all be in Damon’s shoes when it comes to watching our favorite show, LOST, come to an end before our very eyes; for that reason, it’s not such a bad idea to get a feel for how LOST’s co-creator felt about the enigmatic cut heard around the world. Not that Lindelof is in any way going to be inspired by the Sopranos’ ending, but as a gauge of what he finds acceptable or not.
Personally, I LOVED the Sopranos ending. Color me crazy, but it was the only ending that could possibly fit. We’re so into the lives of these characters logically, that it would seem too contrived for some mega-whack situation to evolve. Instead, we’re left with a subtle nugget of a scene. Affirmation that morality is still in flux. The end that says these archetypes never end, reality does not stop, it goes on and on and on and on. Trying to end Tony’s creed would be like trying to kill a bacteria culture with a sledgehammer.
But the point of this is, a lot of Soprano fans did not like the ending. They thought it was horridly executed, and felt that it left an open sore that would never heal. The outrage was palpable.
Lindelof, amongst many other television writers, commented positively on the ending to the New York Times. “I’ve seen every episode of the series. I thought the ending was letter-perfect. the scene cut off right as Meadow is coming through the door and right at the word ‘stop’ in the Journey song. My heart started beating. It had been racing throughout the last scene. Afterward I went to bed and lay next to my wife, awake, thinking about it for the next two hours. And I just thought it was great. It did everything well that ‘Godfather III’ did not do well."
Of course the fact that Lindelof, as a fan, loved the ending while others hated it means nothing to us when it comes to how Lindelof and Cuse will end LOST. It does, however, punctuate what Lindelof has said about the ending is true, some will love it, some will hate it; that is just the nature of things. However, when musing the philosophy behind writing an ending to something like the sopranos, Lindelof said “If you feel that everybody is going to hate it anyway, no matter what you do, there’s a certain liberation in writing it.” In context, I think what Damon is saying is that when you are writing an ending to a show that nobody wants to end, you know it is going to be universally despised.
Cuse was feeling the heat in watching the ending. “A sense of fear ran through my veins, thinking that we are going to be in this position, we know the end is coming in 48 short episodes.”
Initially, Carlton didn’t like it, “But it settled well with me, In that blank screen, there was a certain kind of purity in the choice Chase made to make it the fulcrum of the ending.”
Source - The New York Times
I’m glad to hear Carlton didn’t like it (initially, at least). A finale has to have SOME closure to it; otherwise, a show like Lost might as well end a season w/ an episode like, say, “SOS” — just another day on the island. The hope that we’ll discover the answers behind the mysteries is what keeps viewers coming back, and while i’m all for stretching out the mysteries as long as possible (as opposed to the “ANSWERS NOW!” lost crowd), a finale has to cleverly wrap things up. Given how good CC/DL have been, I have confidence they’ll be able to pull it off.
Comment by Kevin — June 12, 2007 @ 6:39 am
Well heres my feeling. The two shows are very different in nature and purpose. LOST has to have a definite ending with storylines because these are straight storylines from the beginning. However, i think the social drama of what happens to Jack, Kate and the rest of them will be left up to us to decide. WIll Jack become the wreck we have seen? Its up to us to decide.
With the Sopranos the whole show has been a brilliant look into the mind of immorality. And the way they ended that show by telling us immorality cannot be killed by immorality was genuine and perfect. Sopranos ended the way it should have.
Comment by jalocke — June 12, 2007 @ 6:54 am
As Long as LOST does not end like Carnivale I will be happy.
Comment by Sara — June 12, 2007 @ 7:33 am
Nice article Doc. Your source link is broken, in case you’re interested.
Comment by TrillianM — June 12, 2007 @ 10:11 am
Umm…it’s just a source he didn’t copy and paste the article. If you don’t like it here get going no one’s holding a gun to your head.
Comment by TrillianM — June 12, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
Wow davendra samaroo, captain observation, eh? Actually, aside from Cuse and Lindelof’s quotes, it’s all me baby. So I guess my response is… thanks for the compliments! Next time, though, try reading the article you think was copy and pasted before shooting your mouth off.
Comment by DocArzt — June 12, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
“i knew that article was too coherent and well put toget5her to be written by you…”
Did you really spell together with a 5? A slam on grammar, diction, and sentence structure really isn’t that good when you yourself spell shit with numbers. You big dummy.
Comment by Higdon — June 12, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
“i knew that article was too coherent and well put toget5her to be written by you…”
You go to hell, ok?
Doc is pretty much our dad, so he has no flaws.
Comment by Taylor — June 12, 2007 @ 1:02 pm
As a huge fan of both Lost and Sopranos it sorta bothers me to hear that Damon liked the ending. I am torn in deciding if I liked it or not but I do know this much, I DO NOT want to see Lost end the same way. That type of ending might be ok for a show like The Sopranos, maybe we do need some mystery as to what Tony and The Family did after the Journey song ended. Maybe he is laying face down in a plate of noodles and red sauce, who knows, but for a show like Lost with so many leading characters we need closure. I really hope the fans POV was put into consideration when tossing around Finale ideas for Lost.
Oh and Davendra, Dont throw stones if you live in a glass house, its very unproductive.
Comment by Stumpy McNubb — June 12, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
Lost is a television show which has already leaped way beyond the bounds of reality. To give a bland uneventful ending which answers and resolves nothing is insulting to the fans who have invested so much in discovering answers. It would also appear as the Sopranos ending did as a means to release a future movie or in some other form of media down the line. This is TV, no need to make it anymore meaningful than it needs to be. I know die hards will disagree because they are devotees who have a hard time listening to criticism. I do not think its necessary for us to be debating the philosophical nature of Lost long after the show is over as the themes are basic and understood at the present. What I want as an audience member is character resolution. Do not mistake that statement as a plead for a neat uncomplicated happy ending for all but as a need to really at least know what direction the characters are going in. The television show Angel ended abruptly with the characters still fighting ever onward as they had before and as they probably will in the future. In that case the ending was perfectly fitting. For lost I want something more.
Comment by Mick — June 12, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
I’m really leaving myself at their mercy as far as what we’ll get for an ending; I have some idea of what I’d like to see, but ultimately I don’t think the show is ever going to lose its edge of delivering as close to the unexpected as possible. Still, in broader terms I think it would be a crime if the show did not leave us with one last big enigmatic mystery to sort out as part of its legacy. Something with closure, yet with a sort of lingering subtext that can be solved in many ways. A good example is “The Prisoner.” Well, it’s also a bad example in way.
I can’t find the quote for the life of me but one thing that Lindelof said re the end of LOST (Beware, major paraphrasing ahead) was something like “Everybody expects a ‘Twilight Zone’ ending, why not a ‘Citizen Kane’ ending?” I strongly suspect, though, that it will be a “LOST” ending, and as we all know that could mean anything.
Comment by DocArzt — June 12, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
As a LOST fan and first time contributor, I’d like to add my 2 cents on how this show ends.
I always have wondered, if the show hadn’t been picked up for a second season, how would the writers have wrapped up the story after just the first season? I look at the first season DVD’s and try to find the point at which they knew they were greenlighted for another season and changed the plot or arc or characters. I can’t find it.
Could they have neatly finished the story after one season or would it have been a pause in the action, like ‘Jericho’, or would it have just been a suspended mystery like ‘Invasion’?
In LOST there is obviously some wiggle room in character development as one person becomes popular (ie. BEN) and his story expands, or conversly EKO, who though a popular character is written out. Does the story arc play out to a satisfactory finish?
LOST fans want release, we want answers. Sure they can be doled out in small digestable bits, but if were left with too many mysteries at the end of this adventure, then many of us will feel unsatisfied, no release.
I really don’t expect everything to wrap up in a nice neat package, or even necessarily a happy ending. But we have been teased with so many themes, time travel, redemption, fate, etc. it would be nice to at least have some closure to all these threads.
Count me in the camp that would like to see a ‘Twilight Zone’ ending.
Comment by Hatchling23 — June 12, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
I have a feeling that the ending of Lost will be closer to Citizen Kane than Twilight Zone. It won’t be that we get a final creepy twist, but rather that we get a final moment that puts everything from the show in perspective.
Now that we’ve seen that the audience will be shown some of the characters in their post-island lives, I think it’s safe to assume that the characters stories will all be pretty wrapped up. Some happily, some not, but we’ll know where they’re headed. I don’t think we’ll get that same closure for the island itself. We may get the answers to all the mysteries, but the central issue of the island won’t be resolved.
By the way, Doc, make sure to archive the entire thread from last year’s ending writing contest (all the entries, not just the top ten). It’ll be interesting in 2010 to see who was closest in 2006…
Comment by hexonxonx — June 12, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Sara I agree. I hated how Carnivale ended. I hope Lost doesn’t end like Carnivale, Deadwood, or The Sopranos.
Comment by Senia — June 12, 2007 @ 7:45 pm
I must say I tightened my fist when the Carnivale peeps said they felt the series had reached an acceptable conclusion. Damn HBO… damn them to hell
Comment by DocArzt — June 12, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
I am SO GLAD that the Sopranos ended the way it did. I was honestly afraid that we were gonna see a “mega-whack” scenario, or a Scarface kinda thing, which has been done in almost every mob movie ever.
To me, the real ending (as far as the mob stuff is concerned)came when Tony went to see uncle Junior. When Tony tells him that he used to run all of Jersey and all Junior can say is “That’s nice”, it really hammered home the feeling of how all the violence and manipulations associated with their line of work really didnt mean anything, not even if you manage to survive to an old age.
And then it’s back to business as usual, just like real life. Peace is made with NY, Carmela puts her head gratefully back in the sand and gets started on her next little project, AJ goes back to being a spoiled douche, et cetera et cetera.
What’s so great about the Sopranos is the believability of the characters and plots. And it’s way more believeable that life would just go on. Chase rarely took the easy road as far as story was concerned and I’m glad he didn’t here.
Although I understand how some people could be upset with the dramatic buildup and cut to black of the last scene, I thought that too was a perfect way to hammer home the paranoia that is a part of Tony’s daily life.
Comment by jimmy zer0 — June 12, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
And also, as far as Lost’s series finale is concerened, the Sopranos style ending WILL NOT FLY.
The last ep of Lost had better be an orgy of revelations and resolutions, or I’m going to kill Darlton with guns.
Comment by jimmy zer0 — June 12, 2007 @ 10:18 pm
Hatchling23, I think that episode 8 was the end of the first commitment of scripts. Episode 9 had Ethan and Rousseau in it though I think Ethan was there only for a small clip…I also think that there is a little but of a tone shift towards conspiracy as opposed to a “survivor meet castaway.”
But this is just speculation, I’m sure if you looked you could find the announcment from ABC commiting to a complete the season or ordering more scripts in Variety or Hollywood Reporter
Comment by Michael S Patterson — June 13, 2007 @ 4:28 pm