J.J. Abrams: What “Lost” Is – And Isn’t
“Lost” co-creator J.J. Abrams says he knows what “Lost” is and what it isn’t.
“It isn’t a puzzle before it’s a character piece. It’s not a sci fi series before it’s a character drama and an emotional drama,” Abrams says in a phone interview today. “A lot of people put the facade of what `Lost’ is and put it first. To me, while I would say it is (a sci-fi thriller), it’s almost an anthology. What’s going on in the flashbacks is about who these people are.”
Abrams says in Season Three, a whole new group of people get thrown into the mix. We assume he’s talking about The Others.
“(Copycat) shows like ‘Threshold’ or ‘Invasion,’ while they had great promise, were all happening in response to (the success of ‘Lost’),” Abrams says. “But (the success of ‘Lost’) wasn’t about genre, that was secondary. It’s all about what really makes Locke tick and what has Jin gone through.”
Abrams says the creative team knew even before the pilot was shot that there would be a hatch and there would be a man inside the hatch.
“It wasn’t clear that this man was going to be involved with the people or not,” Abrams says. “The beauty of a good idea of that you can explore different versions. It was clear where we wanted to go in short term (with Desmond), then we cast the actor. Now, wouldn’t it be cool if (we did certain things with that character). That’s the fun of series television, if you are lucky (enough to stay on the air), is to continue to make those decisions.”