The Producers Of Lost Say Their New Series, From, Won't Be As Frustrating (We Don't Believe Them)
Two of the executive producers of "Lost," Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner, are reuniting with Harold Perrineau — who played the castaway Michael on the show — for the new Epix series, "From." The premise of "From" sounds similar to "Wayward Pines" in that it "is set in a nightmarish Midwestern town, where no one can ever leave and terrifying creatures prowl after sunset." That's the description via The Wrap, which was recently at a Television Critics Association panel where Bender and Pinkner spoke about "From," and how it will seek to apply the lessons they learned from "Lost" to this new story they are now telling.
"Lost" was perhaps the ultimate "mystery box" show, meaning it adhered to the concept that sometimes it's better to keep teasing the mystery inside a metaphorical box without actually opening said box to see what's inside. The phrase was made popular by J.J. Abrams, who gave a literal TED Talk on the subject (as opposed to just tweeting something and saying, "Thank you for coming to my TED Talk," as people are liable to do nowadays). Abrams created "Lost" with Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber, though Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were more involved in overseeing the series as showrunners.
"Lost" did provide answers to some of the mysteries it introduced, but viewers weren't always satisfied with those answers, and the show was ultimately more interested in its characters than any of its crazy plots shenagians. At the TCA panel for "From," Pinkner said:
"I think that having done 'Lost' and then taking the lessons of 'Lost,' the storytelling lessons and sort of ran them through a filter [of] 'Fringe' and tried to apply them here, I think we're approaching every season like its own chapter with its own questions and its own answers."
"We're aware of what the audience is asking"
Pinkner went on to explain how the audience reaction to "Lost" informed his approach to the mysteries and storytelling of "From," adding:
"The show is sort of reinforcing and playing along with the audience's experience of the show... we're aware of what the audience is asking and looking for, and so being mindful of the questions and knowing that we have answers, and using all of it really just to focus back on what are the characters going through, really that's the reason we're so enamored with our cast is we're taking kind of a 'Twilight Zone'-y trope and using it to explore humanity."
Pinkner also said that the 10-episode first season of "From" will have a "contained arc," which is good news for anyone who's interested in the show but worried that it might draw out its mysteries over multiple seasons. This is something that even Showtime's critically acclaimed "Yellowjackets" appears to be doing. It recently wrapped its first season, but some questions went unanswered in the finale and that show is gearing up for four more seasons, so there's no telling when it will provide a resolution to certain things.
"From" strands Perrineau in a small town instead of on a desert island, and Pinkner and Bender at least appear to be taking into account what an audience that is always hungry for answers might be expecting from a mystery-infused show like this. The series premieres on Epix on February 20, 2022.