Lost Co-Creator Damon Lindelof Regrets Amplifying Negative Reactions to the Series

Damon Lindelof is having a big week! His Watchmen series just scored 10 Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series. The creator has chosen to quit while he’s ahead and let the show remain a limited series, but Lindelof has plenty of experience with long-term shows. In fact, one of the things he’s most famous for is Lost, which ran from 2004 to 2010. The series finale remains one the most debated in television history, with lots of differing opinions floating around. In a recent interview with Variety, Lindelof revealed that he regrets amplifying the voices of those who disliked the ending.

“I didn’t invent the narrative that the finale was empirically bad, but I amplified it,” Lindelof explained. “The fact that people feel the need to say to me, ‘Hey, I actually kind of liked the way that it ended.’ Or the expectation some people have that ‘I have to know going in that the ending is going to be disappointing.’ The fact that I told people what to think about Lost is a big regret that I have.”

Lost‘s finale recently had its 10th anniversary. In honor of this occasion, Josh Holloway (James “Sawyer” Ford) revealed how he felt about his character’s send-off.

“Yes, I am,” Holloway replied when asked if he was happy with Sawyer’s ending. “He survived. There came a point where Sawyer just didn’t understand any of the sh*t that was going on and didn’t care. He was like, ‘I don’t give a sh*t. I’m gonna survive. I’m gonna survive this sh*t, and I don’t even know why.’ But he did, and he made it. I have closure there, with that. Of course, we all didn’t know how they were gonna end that show and whether they needed to run for the hills, if they did it wrong. The problem with a great hit show, with an amazing, intricate, layered story is that there’s no way out of it. Look at The Sopranos, it just ended. Sh*t, how do you do it? That’s why I’m not a writer. I can always point my finger and say, ‘They did it. I just did what they wrote.’”

What are your thoughts on the Lost series finale all these years later? Tell us in the comments!

All six seasons of Lost are currently available to stream on Hulu.