New Book Makes Allegations of Racism And A Toxic Workplace BTS of Lost

[DramatistDreamer]

A new book about the making of the ABC hit series Lost makes some serious allegations about racism and toxicity in the workplace. I have already requested that my library purchase this book so that I can read it.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/lost-showrunners-racism-toxic-writers-room-damon-lindelof-1235628095/

[Faulkner]

These people are such unrepentant @ssholes. Fake memory lapses don’t exonerate anyone.

Racism isn’t even the worst of their crimes.

They plain dehumanized people.

[Vee]

Nothing about this show (which I never liked) or its production surprises me.

[DramatistDreamer]

Those statements by Abrams and Cuse are total gaslighting.

It showed up on screen, so I agree, it’s unsurprising. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to say that the majority of writers rooms are like, or very similar to this— an exclusionary space where offensive behavior, under the guise of freewheeling creativity is prized and anyone who doesn’t fit into that archetype is othered and treated with an undercurrent of hostility, that is, if they let you in.

In the very beginning, I had hoped for the show and admittedly, the diverse cast is what drew me in, but yeah, I could see that the story was narrowing in on the triangle between Jack, Kate and Sawyer, which was so disappointing because it seems so conventional and basic- a storyline that has been done to death. Then the argument between Locke and, (was it Jack?) about faith vs. science, which was so convoluted and reductive, yet people treated it as if it were some sort of elevated discussion. I liked most of the actors and that’s probably the most I can really say about it. I lost interest in the series but felt compelled to watch the final two episodes, probably because they brought the original cast back together.

But yeah, the ending was dumb too. It made me think, this is not going to be the ending, is it? But yeah, it was. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by DramatistDreamer

[Vee]

There's going to be a certain amount of freewheeling behavior in any creative space no matter what. It certainly exists in the places I work. A fair amount of it is not okay with me. How you engage with it or don't based on what you feel is right or wrong to tolerate or participate with is down to the individual. But the work I do also isn't nearly as claustrophobic or high-pressure a closed-in environment as the writers' room of a network TV show from 20 years ago. Most of the work I do as a writer is remote and has only a few points of direct contact; if I don't want to engage, I simply don't reply. Most don't have that luxury.

I do think you can chalk some of what went down onscreen at Lost to the times generally being very different in the culture in general - the network and creative focus on white leads, white love triangles, etc. above all. But the offscreen frathouse mentality, while also exceedingly and drearily common, reaching such wild heights at a show that prided itself on headlining media criticism courses before it went off the air, on being 'the thinking man's hit' just because it named characters after famous philosophers is... well, also unsurprising.

I never thought anyone at that show was a creative genius. I have generally made it a point to avoid following most of the creatives' work since, though some are genuinely talented. I also watched a great deal of the latter half of Lost when it aired once it was given a clear end date, in a period in my life where I had very little to do with my time lol and because I wanted to see if they could possibly square the circle with all the mystery boxes and empty hype they'd built themselves around (I'd watched bits and pieces of the first several seasons). It was hatewatching, and the answer to my above question is they couldn't. Watch it again; for the bulk of the run of the show they simply go back and forth from Point B to Point C, learn nothing and continue to have circular 'character building' flashbacks. It was a formula and it was for treading water.

But Lost is still venerated today. Everything it is credited as having done for popular entertainment and storytelling was done first and much better by other shows, Twin Peaks among them and most noticeable. Yet Lost gets the lion's share for making this kind of storytelling marketable and broadly commercial, because it is a show led predominantly by bland white leads embarking on a series of Legend of Zelda fetch quests while propped up with savvy mid-late aughts viral-marketing tie-ins and charismatic showrunners. To me Lost is a how-to manual for making a certain kind of successful four-quadrant hit, not any kind of artistic legacy.

This is what always enraged me about the show. Even Ryan's (very well written) excerpt suggests it is settled fact that Lost was well-written and elevated drama. I never felt that way and I still don't. It was poorly done but passed off as high art. Which, fine, you can sell art to the general public by packaging it a certain way onscreen, I understand that and I champion it - but other people have done it better and smarter, to say nothing of more inclusively.

It was clear they were winging it in so many ways, yet to this day they claim that ending was some true north for them all along. Come on.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Vee

[DramatistDreamer]

I will never watch that show again. 

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[Vee]

Me neither!

[DramatistDreamer]

During the series run of Lost, I was in the midst of an M.F.A. program in Dramatic Writing and of all the criticisms I have had about such pre-professional writing programs, I can at least be grateful that Lost was never held up as any paragon of dramatic writing, at least not in any the courses that I took. 
 

I agree though that they were totally winging things—the zeitgeist was intent on presenting Lost as doing something extraordinary when they were pulling plots from nowhere. The sudden appearance of a smoke monster…well, it’s not exactly Masterpiece Theatre, is it?

Your mention of circular character building made me chuckle a little because I immediately thought of what Mad Men did with Don Draper. At least with Draper, the conclusion served to confirm how shallow a person Draper was.

[Aback]

Lost was an extraordinary show and it changed serial night-time television forever.

[Vee]

You are entitled to feel this way. Clearly, I disagree!

[DramatistDreamer]

How so? I would genuinely like to know how. 

[Bright Eyes]

I binge watched seasons 1 and 2 after the series ended. I've never been able to watch any farther than that. The main thing I remember about this show is Dominic Monaghan stating non-clamantly in an interview that Matthew Fox was a wife beater. Wild times!

[Vee]

Javier Grillo-Marxuach's full statement is a lot.

Oh, BTW: @marceline will be pleased and/or enraged to know the book apparently extensively covers Sleepy Hollow.

 

[DRW50]

There's a lot of narrative rewriting about Lost because it ticks many of the boxes of what was supposed to be - in terms of diversity, and expansion of network television mindsets - but at the time, the show mostly got buzz in that first season. The second and third seasons got a ton of negative response (especially the third) and even when things stabilized after that, there was a great deal of mockery of the navel-gazing "mystery box" world to help hide that there were no clear plans in place. 

Even at the time I remember fans pointing out what hacks Lindelof and Cuse were. That's true for fans and producers in general, but that label has stuck, deservedly so.

I always got bad vibes off the show, as well as Desperate Housewives, and consider both to be classic examples of narrative and media hype mattering more than the product itself. I'm sorry to hear just how ugly the atmosphere was backstage at Lost, but I can't say I'm surprised. It's one of those shows where the vileness bled onto the screen, especially in the deaths of those (mostly non-white) who were deemed unworthy.

[DramatistDreamer]

Just started reading Grillo-Marxuach’s statement and already am taken aback by the use of portmanteau of Lindelof and Cause’s names. Were they really called “Dalton”?

Hopefully my local library will get the book in some form (I made a request for an audiobook and an ebook) because this sounds like an interesting read.