Lost, 8 years on: Co-creator Damon Lindelof stands by controversial final episode

The game-changing TV drama ended eight years ago today

The last ever episode of US drama Lost may have gone down in television history as one of the most audience-splitting series finales of all time, but co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof remains loyal to its ending.

Upon airing in 2010, the finale sparked anger from many fans who had stuck with the series throughout its six seasons, frustrated with the writers' refusal to answer some of the show's most burning questions (something which has consequently misguided many people's views over what actually went down - no, they were not dead the entire time).

Lindelof, whose most recent project - HBO series The Leftovers - drew to a close with one of the most critically-acclaimed seasons of the past year, reflected upon the legacy of Lost in a tell-all interview with The Independent in 2017.

Upon being asked what he had learned about his tumultuous experiences ending such a high-profile drama, Lindelof stated: “I don't know," acknowledging that he has "...[no] control over its legacy," but he did reflect upon what he personally took away from his time on the series.

“I guess the takeaway from Lost is [that] I am unapologetic about the fact I'm fascinated by ambiguity and questions that will never be answered because that’s what life is,” he continued.

“I'm just really interested in those stories and I understand that there is an experience of frustration and dissatisfaction but I also think that there is nobility in the exploration and the journey of these ideas.

Lindelof on the legacy of Lost:

"What’s interesting about the show is it ended in 2010. We're now seven years out and the legacy is going to change over time. I think what the short term legacy of the show was when it just ended is different to what it is now and will maybe be different 10 or 15 years from now. But I will say that, independent of whether or not you hated or loved the way that it ended, it’s pretty cool that people are still talking about it and have very strong feelings about it. That's the intention of any art - to basically last. If it lasts you're saying something even if people are saying it’s something that they don’t necessarily like. I think Breaking Bad is one of the greatest television shows of all time. I think the same thing about The Wire. But nobody ever talks about the finales of those shows because the endings were not as relevant as the journey themselves. With Lost, there's a fixation over the way that it ended and I think that in and of itself that’s a very interesting legacy for the show to have." 

The Leftovers, which Lindelof co-created alongside author Tom Perrotta, starred Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon and Christopher Eccleston and focuses on a world left reeling by the Sudden Departure, an unexplained event which sees more than 2% of the world's population disappear into thin air

He'll next oversee a version of the Watchmen graphic novels for HBO which will be a 'remix' as opposed to a direct adaptation.

You can read our full interview with Lindelof - conducted ahead of The Leftovers' final season - here.

If you're a longtime fan of Lost or simply looking for a new series to start, subscribe to new podcast 'The LOST Boys' following two of our writers' respective journey watching from the very beginning - one for the first time, the other for the eighth.

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