Television

Netflix To Fix 'Lost' Shortened Finale After Criticism From Damon Lindelof

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By Jack Giroux

I've been meaning to revisit Lost lately, but I'm sure glad I didn't do that on Netflix. The rental service had been streaming a finale missing 18 minutes of footage, which is, as Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof says, befuddling. At least Netflix has been quick to respond. Read more of Lindelof's reaction to the Lost shortened finale after the jump.

The Lost finale aired six years ago, but who knows how long Netflix had been streaming a butchered version of the finale. The final episode was an extended episode, which ran 104 minutes in length. Some fans picked up on this a while ago, even starting a thread highlighting the differences. Entertainment Weekly reached out to Damon Lindelof for a response. Here's what he had to say:

I am totally befuddled by all this. Love it or hate it, the finale that aired is the definitive finale and to alter it in any way defies explanation. Something tells me that this isn't Netflix's fault ... that it's an honest mistake and something got miscommunicated — I seem to remember ABC had to make an edit for rerun airings that tightened the show into 'format' (42 minutes to accommodate commercials), and somehow that [version] mistakenly got sent to Netflix. This sometimes happened with our finales — we'd ask for extra time and ABC would agree to air, but then we had to do another tighter version for subsequent airings and/or international [markets]. We usually left these (painful) cuts to the discretion of our editors... but as the show lives on in DVD form and on Netflix, there is ZERO reason to have the shorter version out there.

What exactly is missing from the finale on Netflix? According to a commenter on the thread, a few notable character beats:

1) Interaction between Jack and "Locke" when they're lowering Desmond into the cave. Locke said something about how it reminded him of the hatch. Jack says something about how he's not Locke and he is dishonoring the memory of the real Locke by wearing his face.

2) Someone makes a small comment to Richard on the plane about how he's got some gray hair.

3) Hurley and Ben interacting outside the church. Hurley telling Ben he was a good Number 2 and Ben telling Hurley he was a good Number 1.

Both ABC and Netflix are looking into this. To Netflix's credit, they quickly responded and are planning on streaming the original 104-minute long finale as soon as possible.

Netflix added that it was a "glitch":

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