Did Lost/ABC just rip off Battlestar Galactica?


by Paul William Tenny

SyFy ran a promo image in the spring of last year 2008, teasing the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica. The image was a BSG-inspired version of Da Vinci's The Last Supper. There were supposed to be clues in the image about how the final season would play out, but in retrospect the big one -- a clue who the final cylon was -- wasn't present at all. It was cute, though, if not a bit of a cliche.

I guess ABC liked the idea, because they just stole it.
Right now ABC is running this promo image for the sixth and final season of Lost:

Lost: The Last Supper spoof
Here's SyFy's version from 2008:

BSG: The Last Supper spoof
It's every bit as cliched now as it was then. And there are other similarities. Both shows have what one might call a cult following with high critical acclaim, and both shows are going out with a confused whimper and a smaller audience than when they began.

I'm looking forward to seeing Lost wrap up and for the record, I stand by my original assertion that Lost isn't going out on its own terms. Any show that has a "predetermined" end date that wasn't established from day 1 (e.g. Babylon 5) has been de facto canceled. It doesn't matter to me if it's the end of the current season, or the end of the next. Once you have a date, you're canceled. And successful shows (read: making money) don't get taken of the air no matter what.

The network would never allow that. They'd hire a new writing staff, new producers, change out every single piece to keep a money making show on the air.

That said I've enjoyed Lost of the years after initially panning it, and I can't wait to see how it ends.

Note: If you've stuck with me long enough to get through my blathering, here's an interview that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof just did with James Hibberd (Hollywood Reporter), the two primary creative forces behind Lost these days.

Correction: Changed "fifth" to read "sixth" in the first paragraph to reflect six seasons of Lost, not five.
in Media Criticism, Television

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