Season 4, as you assuredly know by now, will last for 16 non-interrupted weeks. Season 5 and 6 will follow similar patterns. This schedule was borne out of three simultaneous desires:

• Lindelof and Cuse's desire to have a final, known endpoint for their narrative
• ABC's desire to milk the cash cow that is Lost for three, rather than two, years
• All parties' desire to avoid the angry, collective "What the hell?" that ensued with the 6-week start, 13-week stop, 16-week finish schedule that was Season 3

I do think that Season 3 will hold up better on DVD, since the six episodes that aired primarily centered around our nominal heroes being outflanked and outsmarted at every given turn. While this movement in the overall symphony of the season makes dramatic sense, it left many audience members at the time cold. It will be interesting to rewatch Season 3 without the huge time gap between watching "Born to Run" and "Not in Portland," and should allow for a more propulsive narrative experience for both first-time viewers and devotees alike.

Look at the bright side of that 13-week draught, however. It more than likely enabled the show itself to listen to the reaction of the fans and think, "OK, it's time to pick up the narrative pace a bit here." The plot, slow-moving at best, downright glacial by the time of "Born to Run," suddenly gained speed by leaps and bounds over the course of the remaining 16 episodes of Season 3. Fans cheered. Emboldened, Lindelof and Cuse became more forceful with ABC about setting a finite number of episodes for the show. The producers' insistence, along with fan disapproval at the seemingly unending reruns and hiatuses, put ABC in a defensive position, which more than likely made them more amenable to acquiescing to the producers' request.

Knowing that the show has an end date will only positively affect the show. While Lost can be rightfully accused of spinning its wheels on occasion (in large part due to not knowing if they would be able to carry out their narrative plan), those accusations should be a thing of the past going forth. The 16-episode structure will allow for more concentrated narratives, and will allow the writers and producers to effectively plan out not only each season, but the entire final arc in total.

Also, as more than a few people have already noticed, three seasons of sixteen episodes each means we have 48 episodes to go. Four and eight, of course, are the first two of "The Numbers."

Coincidence? I think not.

(OK, maybe it's a coincidence. But it's still fun, darnit.)

Are you happy with the new format? Are you glad Lost and ABC set a finite number of episodes? How would YOU have done things differently?

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.

Comments

I'm not too crazy about the new format.

Whatever happened to two FULL seasons instead of three mini seasons?

ABC is so self-fish!

Adam | Oct 17, 2007 12:49:21 PM | #

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I actually like it b/c they (the writers) likely had 3 season finales all planned out but instead of spacing out the seasons into 22-24 eps they will put all the material into 16 eps. Which is good for us (the viewers) as that means we will get better eps and eps with less setup and more movement - at least I hope I'm right.

Rishi | Oct 17, 2007 9:31:24 PM | #

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