Just turned fifty, we take this opportunity to shed some light on the career and creative flair of showrunner Damon Lindelof , screenwriter, producer and cartoonist born in 1973 in New Jersey from a family of Jewish origins, nominated for 12 Emmy nominations with three wins achieved and included in 2010 by "Time" magazine in the annual list of the most influential people in the world.

Some of the projects in which he took part have become seminal for the products to come, others unfortunately ended up lost in the boundless sea of television seriality, without grabbing the right recognition. Known above all for being the co-creator of one of the most important series of all time - and we are clearly referring to "Lost" , which became a mass phenomenon when the fashion for TV series was not yet as rampant as today - to his visionary imagination we also have names like “The Leftovers”, the sequel to “Watchmen” and the brand new “Mrs Davis”, soon also in Italy.

But what is it that makes it so unique in the whole panorama? We can start by first clarifying a fundamental premise: without solid and functional writing, directing and staging alone can do very little. This basic rule was so structural throughout Lindelof's journey that it changed forever the way of understanding the TV series; this was seen above all with "Lost", after which smaller projects followed, but with an indisputable qualitative value. Right at the beginning of his career, Lindelof becomes the showrunner of “Lost” together with Carlton Cuse, taking care of the project for all six seasons after having conceived it together with JJ Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber, who will later distance themselves from it. He will return to collaborate with Abrams, and others such as Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci also previously involved in the making of Lost, only in productions related to cinema with projects such as "Star Trek" and "Into Darkness". Always for the big screen he collaborated in films such as "Cowboys & Aliens", "Prometheus", "World War Z" and "Tomorrowland".

From 2004 to 2010, "Lost" redefined the way of structuring the narrative and the characterization of the characters, relying above all on the massive development of the horizontal plot and on the recurring use of flashbacks. With the episode entitled "The constant", for example, the sentimental bond between the characters of Desmond and Penny is staged in a completely unique way, with a delicate interweaving of science, faith and philosophy . The magical tension that animates the entire episode remains intact until its conclusion, when we don't know if his phone call will be followed by her answer because many years have elapsed in the meantime. Always thanks to Lindelof's pen, Desmond - played by Henry Ian Cusick - is remembered as one of the most loved characters of the whole series, even if he took over only starting from the second season .

With the three HBO-branded seasons of "The Leftovers", based on Tom Perrotta's novel "Vanished into thin air" and edited by Lindelof together with the writer, the showrunner skillfully reaches and handles his highest degree of expressive maturity. Unlike usual, the most interesting episodes appear from the second season onwards, when Lindelof had to independently take care of the story without relying on the original reference work. Here too science and faith mix, inspired by a very dramatic incipit : half of the world's population vanishes into thin air, the effort to react in the face of such a tragedy pushes the survivors to absurd lifestyles, an extremely destructive conduct and ultimately elaboration of new professions of faith that attempt to make sense of the inexplicable. An extremely courageous TV series, albeit not worthily taken into account by the public and critics. With the four-handed work of Lindelof and Nick Cuse, the episode "International Assassination" still knows how to stand out among the competition for its original mix of elements - between drama and comedy, even imagining the possible scenarios that gave rise to the world - and for the applause interpretation of Justin Theroux, pushed to the maximum of his abilities.

An even more courageous and insidious adaptation - if we think who the author and the reference work are - is the direct sequel to "Watchmen", inspired by the original graphic novel, with a continuation and a conclusion - if you like - no less surprising of the first, timeless work. Well, here once again Lindelof demonstrates a marked intelligence in appropriating a narrative context and then betraying it professionally but also with due respect. To remember, for example, the puns with the titles of the episodes, as is the case for the eighth episode "A God walks into Abar", which somehow evokes religious parables and mentions the word "Abar", the surname of the vigilante Sister Night played by Regina King. As if we wanted to symbolize that a God has entered her, we thus participate in the story - through a long flashback - of how the character met her future husband in Vietnam.

And finally, the latest project created together with Tara Hernandez entitled "Mrs Davis" has just landed on the US platform Peacock and is preparing to arrive here too. Starring Betty Gilpin, the binomial science-religion is once again proposed through the story of a nun who puts her faith on the line by confronting an artificial intelligence. Also in this case there is a hint of a masterpiece, we really hope not to be disappointed.

John Scanu

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