Damon and Carlton started with a basic framework for Lost, and an overall plot for the first season. After the first season, when the show found such an obsessively attentive audience, Damon and Carlton decided that the best way to ensure that the fans will continue to be surprised by Lost is this: they monitor the show's most popular blogs and newsgroups, and take note of our theories. When we hit on something that's close to the mark, the team of writers do whatever it takes -- bring in a new character, expand the story in a different direction, etc. -- to make it so that our theories turn out to be incorrect, thereby keeping us continually surprised as the story unfolds.
Essentially, then, the answers are being made up as the show goes along. The team of writers' jobs are to take our guesses, and then find a way to work out different answers from what we've guessed. If they can't find a way to formulate a different answer, they'll simply alter the *question* -- or, in some cases, introduce a whole new set of questions.
At some point, presumably during the final season, Damon and Carlton know they'll have to abandon this strategy and tie everything up in a sensible way regardless of whether it's something we've guessed or not. They've known this since the beginning, and are content that their "experimental" method of show creation will end up creating something innovative. Just as the Hatch workers were being experimentally observed by Dharma, we, the viewers, are being observed, too -- with the goal being "cooler television programs." And just like "If I told you what I saw, it would change the picture" (Desmond's words), we are changing the "picture" with each new weekly episode.
Theory by Ken
Essentially, then, the answers are being made up as the show goes along. The team of writers' jobs are to take our guesses, and then find a way to work out different answers from what we've guessed. If they can't find a way to formulate a different answer, they'll simply alter the *question* -- or, in some cases, introduce a whole new set of questions.
At some point, presumably during the final season, Damon and Carlton know they'll have to abandon this strategy and tie everything up in a sensible way regardless of whether it's something we've guessed or not. They've known this since the beginning, and are content that their "experimental" method of show creation will end up creating something innovative. Just as the Hatch workers were being experimentally observed by Dharma, we, the viewers, are being observed, too -- with the goal being "cooler television programs." And just like "If I told you what I saw, it would change the picture" (Desmond's words), we are changing the "picture" with each new weekly episode.
Theory by Ken
