20 Great TV Shows That Everybody Turned Against

You can count on one hand how many TV shows had a better pilot than Lost. The first episode kicked off with a group of plane-crash survivors landing on a mysterious island, only to learn it's filled with deadly secrets. 

Viewers felt obligated to keep watching, since each storyline seemed to contain a clue to the overarching mystery. Even though flashbacks can be used lazily to pad things out, this structure helped flesh out the ensemble, making viewers care about every character, even the villains. Though questions were answered on occasion, that often led to further mysteries, driving fan theories and cultural obsession into overdrive. 

But all of Lost's buzz and excitement amounted to nothing. Although the later seasons contained too much filler and recycled plotlines, the biggest issue was the payoff, or lack thereof. 

Purists stuck with Lost for years, hoping to get some answers behind the otherworldly island's purpose and origins. Over a decade after it ended, even the biggest fanatics can't make heads or tails of the show's ending.

While Lost remains influential and memorable, its legacy serves as a cautionary tale for how compelling mysteries only work if their resolutions actually make sense.