Lost was a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the traditional network-tv system. And it’s a shame, because some of the storytelling was remarkable.

I never understood why people stuck with Lost. I stopped watching about 3 episodes into season 3 when it became obvious that the writers where just making shit up with no attempt at an explanation. Season 2 was really good, added a lot of mystery and it started to feel like something was happening, then season 3 went off a whole other tangent. At that point I turned to my wife and said “they’re dead, this is all just made up from one season to another. You can watch it without me in the future.” And guess what, 7 series later it’s revealed that they were all dead. No shit.

I might not have been the target audience though. People often go nuts for JJ Abrams and I’ve honestly hated almost everything of his I’ve watched. So I’m likely just not the kind of person he is targeting.

I think I stopped midway through Season 2 when they started going off on weird tangents and it became obvious this was going to be stretched out to make more money.

But maybe it was because I was young, and the format was new to me, but the first season did capture my interest.

"Stomp on the Mystery Box" is a good post going into the design of these shows, and why they are such traps for audiences.

https://qntm.org/mystery

Lost I can forgive. Magic Island answers a lot of questions.

Battlestar Galactica on the other hand? Cylons had a plan my ass.

Growing up as a kid, the original Battlestar was just this cool sci-fi series with robots. I didn't know about all of its religious overtones. The rebooted version was dripping in it, and got tiresome.