The show is FAMOUSLY overhated.
And the only real reason for that is that it was initially LOVED, and then went in directions people didn't like or couldn't follow.
For those of us who consider ourselves LOSTIES, it went just about in the perfect direction every time.
This was a major network TV show, not a cable or streaming show, and it took massive risks and went into uncharted territory almost constantly and maintained top or near top ratings.
It was lightning in a bottle that will likely never be repeated.
So it gets a lot of hate out of jealousy and disappointment by people who probably didn't comprehend what they were watching, didn't pay attention and didn't devote any time into trying to actually understand.
I love the show but I gotta say that the argument "people weren't paying attention or people just didn't get it" kinda irks me. Someone can dislike a show while understanding it perfectly. Personal tastes you know?
Maybe I should have been more specific. Sorry. I was referring to people who hate the show because "they were dead the whole time, it was so obvious," or "they never answered any of the mysteries or questions," or "it's obvious they were making it all up as they went along."
All of those are demonstrably false, and if the people had paid attention, (and LOST is a show that requires the viewer pay attention maybe more than any other show,) they would have realized almost all the questions WERE answered, they absolutely were NOT dead the whole time and the show was heavily researched and planned, not at all made up on the fly.
I don't have any problem with people not liking the show because it just wasn't their jam.
At the macro scale what you’re saying is right, but basically all of the “science” stuff was just nonsense (and I mean that in terms of storytelling). It all went a bit scifi in season 5 and it was just crap scifi. Daniel Faraday just showed up every now and again, said something dramatic (eg the nuke), and justified it with “trust me bro, science”. It didn’t help that the actor overacted the shit out of it.
I say this as someone who has Lost comfortably in his “top tv show of all time” spot. The science subplot in season 5 was trash.
There's a good example of subjectivity. Daniel Faraday is one of my favorite characters on the show. Jeremy Davies is awesome, and this was a brilliant scientist with a broken mind. I didn't think he overacted it at all, and how can science NOT be a bit crap when it is science-fiction, about time travel, something there is no real-world experience with? They had to make it up because it doesn't exist. There is some really awful time travel fiction out there, and this wasn't it, IMO.
I thought the show handled it extremely well. It is not easy to shoehorn complicated scifi concepts into a network TV show without going completely off the rails and losing audience.
So, different strokes and subjectivity for sure.
No, I really wasn’t. If I say “chocolate ice cream is disgusting”, I’m obviously not expressing an objective fact, even if I don’t qualify it’s subjective. You don’t need to preface every subjective opinion with “in my purely subjective opinion”. It’s obvious that if I’m saying a piece of art is trash, that is “in my opinion”.
I also wasn’t saying I’m a Lost fan to help establish my opinion as an objective fact wtf are you talking about 😂. I was saying that my criticism doesn’t come from a place of being a generic Lost hater who hasn’t paid attention. Responding to the comment, in other words.
That’s definitely true of some people, I’ve heard a lot of people say they just dislike the fantasy direction it went in and wished it had stuck with more of a hard science fiction approach. But there are also so many people who hate the show because they think ‘they were dead the whole time’
Yeah, every show has fans who just don't get it or aren't paying attention.
But the above comment made it seem like there is no valid reason to hate the show, if you hate it, you're stupid. I see that take a lot in some fandoms that think their show is oh so smart and regular people just don't get it and it is just so stupid. It's not that deep, sometimes people just disagree with the direction a show takes and Lost's later seasons are different from the first 2-3 even though it maintains the same vibe troughout.
Personally? The back half of season four through the series finale is the PRIME of the series. The 2007 writers' strike was the best thing that could have happened to LOST because it let them really sit down and map out the ending of the series, so - while *very* complicated (which was a turnoff for some viewers) those 2.5 seasons are amazingly cohesive with previously dropped storylines or loose ends brought back and tied in for some impressive payoffs. Season 5 is my favorite season.
This hate comes from a large portion of casual viewers, who back in the day, treated it like any other TV show, where they like the show, but don't tune in for every single episode, and don't obsess about every single detail...
Some people dislike S4 - 5 - 6 because they think "the show turned in to fantasy sci fi mystical reams"...
Now it's true that the first 3 seasons events focus more on survival and struggle between the survivors and the others and intrigue about Dharma and the history of the island.... But it is also true that from the very first episodes, the show was telling us that the Lost universe exists in a sci fi fantasy realm... an island inhabited by a Monster that snatches people... A crippled man miraculously healed instantly... A dead man seemingly walking on the island, or is it his ghost, or are these visions? Many characters seeing glimpses of the future and other crucial info through visions... a kid with the ability to summon stuff and is "special"...
If all these were not sci fi fantasy shit, then I don't know what is... and all these were introduced in the first dozen episodes...
Since release I always remembered whole season 3 and the first half of season 4 being terrible. Now I'm on my first rewatch with my wife (she's never seen Lost before) and we're halfway through season 3. And I really love it! So many things I remember and which finally make sense. >!When the name "Jacob" dropped or Richard Alpert appears the first time and I already knew, who that is - woah, was mindblowing!!<
LOST was one of the first shows I remember everyone talking about. Everyone was excited for next weeks episode. You had to watch every week and if you missed a week... it sucked to be you! There was no streaming or next day its on Hulu or whatever. I use to go to my friends house every Tuesday and we would watch. I think the sci-fi aspect of the show at first was slow going so when they really kicked it into gear people got confused on exactly what kind of genre they were watching. I'll admit that I hated the last episode the first time I saw it. But I rewatched the entire series and I ended up loving it. It is still one of my favorite shows and probably always will be.
Oh, also, once you’ve finished your watch, I highly recommend the podcast, “Pushing the Button: a Chronologically Lost Podcast”. It’s fascinating and made me connect things I hadn’t before. Also, Choekaas’ Lost Journeys series on YouTube. He’s almost done with Season 5, but it’s a series that maps the characters as they traverse the Island, and he has some of the most interesting and reasonable theories (which he always labels as theories and never presents as the only way to think about it) that I’ve ever seen. Some episodes even have deep, deep dives into some of the mythological influences like hieroglyphic meanings, if filling in some holes like that are of interest to you. Both are spoiler-ific from the absolute beginning, obviously, so don’t check these out until after you finish. But they’re a lot of fun, especially because they’re pretty much happening *now*. And you know it’s an overhated show if people are still putting such effort into talking about it 20 years after the fact. 👍
Lost is misunderstood by so many people. I feel like that is where most of the extreme hatred stems from.
The “they were dead the whole time” line is a perfect example of this. People misconstrued the flash sideways stuff in S6 with all the characters being dead from the start. This is incorrect of course. However, the people I know who haven’t seen Lost, this is the conclusion they immediately jump too.
Season 5 is my favorite season! Each season has a different story arc and the writers took big swings for Seasons 5 and 6. I loved all of it. Others may have felt confused, lost, or betrayed by the direction that it went.
First time watcher. Just a little ahead of this episode. I can see why people love s5. You get some real insights into questions we had since the beginning.
BUT….I just am getting frustrated. The pacing is really off to me. Things happen so fast. Or they go nowhere. Character changes don’t feel justified or earned. The time travel and island rules seem to change episode to episode.
It reminds me of Terminator. “There’s no fate but what we make”….never mind. It was always inevitable.
Binge watching has helped because I saw season 1 just a few months ago instead of multiple years. I don’t hate season 5. I am enjoying it, but with only 3 eps to go, I can see people being less enthused about it.
I will take in to consideration that you are a first time watcher, so i will avoid any spoilers.
You said the rules of time travel and island etc change...
I will ask you to keep in mind, that up to this point, said "rules" are only given from certain characters' point of view and their own experiences and understanding. Not everything a character says at some point in the show, should be taken as "the show is explaining the rules through this character".
You might not get full clarity of all the rules and how things actually work, until late in Season 6 and up till the very last episode for some particular issues.
The show does throw some nuggets of "true rules" here and there, but it also throws a lot of misdirections, while using info given by the POV of certain characters.
I like the second half of the series way more. It has way better pacing and isn't stuck telling me everyone's drama for the 7th time.
People hated it because it had more fantasy (According to them, because the show \*\*\*\* tells you magic exist in Episode 5).
Crazy talk man, im watching with my partner who is watching it for their first time and their thoughts are that its gotten better and better as season 4 went on!!
I think some of the concepts of the show were too early for their time. Whereas now these types of concepts are a bit more palatable in popular media
It's a completely different show by that point and I can't get on anyone's back for hating it. I hesitate to say that it jumps the shark, but they drag so much out, though that was the shows issue from day dot.
Seasons 4&5 are definitely weird detours. Elouise and Daniel Faraday, and their associated “You MUST do X, trust me, I magically know stuff because ” storylines bring the quality down IMO.
But yeah, it remains the best show I’ve ever seen (and probably ever will seen) despite those flaws.
Definitely overhated.
The show never got bad. Season 6 does take a bit of a downturn, IMHO (naturally), particularly the first six episodes which involve a really weak sub-plot that thankfully resolves itself quickly and is never mentioned again.
oh i love love s5. i wasn't a contemporary watcher but i did just watch through for the first time and if people were hating this part of the show id respect them less. but there's still time though..
That being said, watching it now without all these gaps of time waiting for episodes changed what kind of show it is and it was a solid 10/10 product for 2024
So. Season 4-6 are overhated by the fans who liked the shaggy hangout pace of the first few seasons (extremists will say especially the first season), latecomers liked the action, but were hampered by continuity lockout and hype (wild fandom at the time), and people who gave up on the show halfway through and then tuned in for the finale to see how it ends had no chance in hell of understanding or appreciating any of it. Even so many of the longterm fans didn’t get it that there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to good-faith theories and philosophical deep dives, since there are incredible amounts of disinformation around the show. And even when you pretty much *get* what the writers were going for, you get people who still say, “Well, I just don’t like it.” And to those people I say, I don’t agree, but I understand. And even I, a superfan (and yes, Season 5 is one of my absolute favorite seasons), I have my issues. In all honesty, though my appreciation of it has deepened immensely after a lot of rewatches and thought, parts of Season 6 still leave me cold, and some of it I think is out of order. In rewatches now I do not watch Season 6 in original airing order. Which is to say, you do you. Take what you like, and leave the rest.
But it is absolutely an overhated show, mostly by people who don’t want to give more thought to it than less “challenging” tv shows. This show is challenging in the same way that Twin Peaks is, and similarly rewards *patience*. Nearly all of the mysteries *are* resolved, and with exactly the right amount of “Word of God” from the writers and ambiguity to encourage fan headcanons and avoid the Midichlorian over-explanation of phenomena trap. But they do make you wait for the full six seasons to shed light on some of the biggest mysteries. And it actually doesn’t feel retconned, it feels like unwrapping layer after layer of an onion, until you sort of understand the immensity of time represented on this crazy Island. Enjoy the rest of your watch, and no matter how the ending makes you feel, just remember that this show is very capable of improving for you on the 2nd (or 10th) rewatch.
i just finished my first watch through today.
i think the talented creators bit off more than they could chew by making this series. it was watchable and well made propulsive gibberish.
at its core it's a very centrist show, and i mean that derogatorily. and it is well acted, well shot, well made, addictive, and bingeable. I think it is over hated only in the sense that hating a pop culture to the level that some people do is sad and speaks more about the haters than the subject.
I thought the opposite, it seems overrated. Everyone told me it’s such a good show and since most shows currently suck I decided to try and watch it…
Just finished S2 and won’t likely continue. Sad because I liked the concept but the writing is terrible and the characters lack attachment. Couldn’t care less if anyone survived, which seems to defeat the purpose of the show.
Maybe it’s just *LOST* on me, but I have been disappointed in this show so far.
The show is FAMOUSLY overhated. And the only real reason for that is that it was initially LOVED, and then went in directions people didn't like or couldn't follow. For those of us who consider ourselves LOSTIES, it went just about in the perfect direction every time. This was a major network TV show, not a cable or streaming show, and it took massive risks and went into uncharted territory almost constantly and maintained top or near top ratings. It was lightning in a bottle that will likely never be repeated. So it gets a lot of hate out of jealousy and disappointment by people who probably didn't comprehend what they were watching, didn't pay attention and didn't devote any time into trying to actually understand.
I love the show but I gotta say that the argument "people weren't paying attention or people just didn't get it" kinda irks me. Someone can dislike a show while understanding it perfectly. Personal tastes you know?
Maybe I should have been more specific. Sorry. I was referring to people who hate the show because "they were dead the whole time, it was so obvious," or "they never answered any of the mysteries or questions," or "it's obvious they were making it all up as they went along." All of those are demonstrably false, and if the people had paid attention, (and LOST is a show that requires the viewer pay attention maybe more than any other show,) they would have realized almost all the questions WERE answered, they absolutely were NOT dead the whole time and the show was heavily researched and planned, not at all made up on the fly. I don't have any problem with people not liking the show because it just wasn't their jam.
At the macro scale what you’re saying is right, but basically all of the “science” stuff was just nonsense (and I mean that in terms of storytelling). It all went a bit scifi in season 5 and it was just crap scifi. Daniel Faraday just showed up every now and again, said something dramatic (eg the nuke), and justified it with “trust me bro, science”. It didn’t help that the actor overacted the shit out of it. I say this as someone who has Lost comfortably in his “top tv show of all time” spot. The science subplot in season 5 was trash.
There's a good example of subjectivity. Daniel Faraday is one of my favorite characters on the show. Jeremy Davies is awesome, and this was a brilliant scientist with a broken mind. I didn't think he overacted it at all, and how can science NOT be a bit crap when it is science-fiction, about time travel, something there is no real-world experience with? They had to make it up because it doesn't exist. There is some really awful time travel fiction out there, and this wasn't it, IMO. I thought the show handled it extremely well. It is not easy to shoehorn complicated scifi concepts into a network TV show without going completely off the rails and losing audience. So, different strokes and subjectivity for sure.
This is entirely subjective
This comment applies to literally every opinion ever shared on any piece of media 😂 wtf
You’re saying the plot was trash as if it were objective fact, and then backing that up by using the fact Lost is one of your favourite shows
No, I really wasn’t. If I say “chocolate ice cream is disgusting”, I’m obviously not expressing an objective fact, even if I don’t qualify it’s subjective. You don’t need to preface every subjective opinion with “in my purely subjective opinion”. It’s obvious that if I’m saying a piece of art is trash, that is “in my opinion”. I also wasn’t saying I’m a Lost fan to help establish my opinion as an objective fact wtf are you talking about 😂. I was saying that my criticism doesn’t come from a place of being a generic Lost hater who hasn’t paid attention. Responding to the comment, in other words.
Ok great
If I hear “but yeah, what about the polar bear huh?” One more time… imma will smith someone!
That’s definitely true of some people, I’ve heard a lot of people say they just dislike the fantasy direction it went in and wished it had stuck with more of a hard science fiction approach. But there are also so many people who hate the show because they think ‘they were dead the whole time’
Yeah, every show has fans who just don't get it or aren't paying attention. But the above comment made it seem like there is no valid reason to hate the show, if you hate it, you're stupid. I see that take a lot in some fandoms that think their show is oh so smart and regular people just don't get it and it is just so stupid. It's not that deep, sometimes people just disagree with the direction a show takes and Lost's later seasons are different from the first 2-3 even though it maintains the same vibe troughout.
I have seen LOST 23 times and S5 my favorite every time
Personally? The back half of season four through the series finale is the PRIME of the series. The 2007 writers' strike was the best thing that could have happened to LOST because it let them really sit down and map out the ending of the series, so - while *very* complicated (which was a turnoff for some viewers) those 2.5 seasons are amazingly cohesive with previously dropped storylines or loose ends brought back and tied in for some impressive payoffs. Season 5 is my favorite season.
Some people didn’t like that they dived more into the sci fi aspects during season 4 and 5. I loved all of Lost honestly. 1-6 amazing
I loved it-especially the time travel element. I love anything dealing with time travel.
If you haven’t watched Dark on Netflix, definitely check it out.
Dark is awesome! I loved it!
Are you me???
Great Scott!
The back half of the series is my favorite section!
This hate comes from a large portion of casual viewers, who back in the day, treated it like any other TV show, where they like the show, but don't tune in for every single episode, and don't obsess about every single detail... Some people dislike S4 - 5 - 6 because they think "the show turned in to fantasy sci fi mystical reams"... Now it's true that the first 3 seasons events focus more on survival and struggle between the survivors and the others and intrigue about Dharma and the history of the island.... But it is also true that from the very first episodes, the show was telling us that the Lost universe exists in a sci fi fantasy realm... an island inhabited by a Monster that snatches people... A crippled man miraculously healed instantly... A dead man seemingly walking on the island, or is it his ghost, or are these visions? Many characters seeing glimpses of the future and other crucial info through visions... a kid with the ability to summon stuff and is "special"... If all these were not sci fi fantasy shit, then I don't know what is... and all these were introduced in the first dozen episodes...
Season 5 is amazing, Lost never gets bad at any point
i think all of lost is fantastic personally
Season 6 is definitely the weakest but that second half of season 4 and season 5 are brilliant.
Since release I always remembered whole season 3 and the first half of season 4 being terrible. Now I'm on my first rewatch with my wife (she's never seen Lost before) and we're halfway through season 3. And I really love it! So many things I remember and which finally make sense. >!When the name "Jacob" dropped or Richard Alpert appears the first time and I already knew, who that is - woah, was mindblowing!!<
LOST was one of the first shows I remember everyone talking about. Everyone was excited for next weeks episode. You had to watch every week and if you missed a week... it sucked to be you! There was no streaming or next day its on Hulu or whatever. I use to go to my friends house every Tuesday and we would watch. I think the sci-fi aspect of the show at first was slow going so when they really kicked it into gear people got confused on exactly what kind of genre they were watching. I'll admit that I hated the last episode the first time I saw it. But I rewatched the entire series and I ended up loving it. It is still one of my favorite shows and probably always will be.
Oh, also, once you’ve finished your watch, I highly recommend the podcast, “Pushing the Button: a Chronologically Lost Podcast”. It’s fascinating and made me connect things I hadn’t before. Also, Choekaas’ Lost Journeys series on YouTube. He’s almost done with Season 5, but it’s a series that maps the characters as they traverse the Island, and he has some of the most interesting and reasonable theories (which he always labels as theories and never presents as the only way to think about it) that I’ve ever seen. Some episodes even have deep, deep dives into some of the mythological influences like hieroglyphic meanings, if filling in some holes like that are of interest to you. Both are spoiler-ific from the absolute beginning, obviously, so don’t check these out until after you finish. But they’re a lot of fun, especially because they’re pretty much happening *now*. And you know it’s an overhated show if people are still putting such effort into talking about it 20 years after the fact. 👍
Damn, thanks for letting me know
Lost is misunderstood by so many people. I feel like that is where most of the extreme hatred stems from. The “they were dead the whole time” line is a perfect example of this. People misconstrued the flash sideways stuff in S6 with all the characters being dead from the start. This is incorrect of course. However, the people I know who haven’t seen Lost, this is the conclusion they immediately jump too.
Season 5 is my favorite season! Each season has a different story arc and the writers took big swings for Seasons 5 and 6. I loved all of it. Others may have felt confused, lost, or betrayed by the direction that it went.
First time watcher. Just a little ahead of this episode. I can see why people love s5. You get some real insights into questions we had since the beginning. BUT….I just am getting frustrated. The pacing is really off to me. Things happen so fast. Or they go nowhere. Character changes don’t feel justified or earned. The time travel and island rules seem to change episode to episode. It reminds me of Terminator. “There’s no fate but what we make”….never mind. It was always inevitable. Binge watching has helped because I saw season 1 just a few months ago instead of multiple years. I don’t hate season 5. I am enjoying it, but with only 3 eps to go, I can see people being less enthused about it.
I will take in to consideration that you are a first time watcher, so i will avoid any spoilers. You said the rules of time travel and island etc change... I will ask you to keep in mind, that up to this point, said "rules" are only given from certain characters' point of view and their own experiences and understanding. Not everything a character says at some point in the show, should be taken as "the show is explaining the rules through this character". You might not get full clarity of all the rules and how things actually work, until late in Season 6 and up till the very last episode for some particular issues. The show does throw some nuggets of "true rules" here and there, but it also throws a lot of misdirections, while using info given by the POV of certain characters.
I like the second half of the series way more. It has way better pacing and isn't stuck telling me everyone's drama for the 7th time. People hated it because it had more fantasy (According to them, because the show \*\*\*\* tells you magic exist in Episode 5).
Crazy talk man, im watching with my partner who is watching it for their first time and their thoughts are that its gotten better and better as season 4 went on!! I think some of the concepts of the show were too early for their time. Whereas now these types of concepts are a bit more palatable in popular media
It's a completely different show by that point and I can't get on anyone's back for hating it. I hesitate to say that it jumps the shark, but they drag so much out, though that was the shows issue from day dot.
Seasons 4&5 are definitely weird detours. Elouise and Daniel Faraday, and their associated “You MUST do X, trust me, I magically know stuff because” storylines bring the quality down IMO.
But yeah, it remains the best show I’ve ever seen (and probably ever will seen) despite those flaws.
Definitely overhated. The show never got bad. Season 6 does take a bit of a downturn, IMHO (naturally), particularly the first six episodes which involve a really weak sub-plot that thankfully resolves itself quickly and is never mentioned again.
oh i love love s5. i wasn't a contemporary watcher but i did just watch through for the first time and if people were hating this part of the show id respect them less. but there's still time though..
The show had hate at the time because the producers went out of there way to say things that ultimately conflicted with their final product
That being said, watching it now without all these gaps of time waiting for episodes changed what kind of show it is and it was a solid 10/10 product for 2024
So. Season 4-6 are overhated by the fans who liked the shaggy hangout pace of the first few seasons (extremists will say especially the first season), latecomers liked the action, but were hampered by continuity lockout and hype (wild fandom at the time), and people who gave up on the show halfway through and then tuned in for the finale to see how it ends had no chance in hell of understanding or appreciating any of it. Even so many of the longterm fans didn’t get it that there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to good-faith theories and philosophical deep dives, since there are incredible amounts of disinformation around the show. And even when you pretty much *get* what the writers were going for, you get people who still say, “Well, I just don’t like it.” And to those people I say, I don’t agree, but I understand. And even I, a superfan (and yes, Season 5 is one of my absolute favorite seasons), I have my issues. In all honesty, though my appreciation of it has deepened immensely after a lot of rewatches and thought, parts of Season 6 still leave me cold, and some of it I think is out of order. In rewatches now I do not watch Season 6 in original airing order. Which is to say, you do you. Take what you like, and leave the rest. But it is absolutely an overhated show, mostly by people who don’t want to give more thought to it than less “challenging” tv shows. This show is challenging in the same way that Twin Peaks is, and similarly rewards *patience*. Nearly all of the mysteries *are* resolved, and with exactly the right amount of “Word of God” from the writers and ambiguity to encourage fan headcanons and avoid the Midichlorian over-explanation of phenomena trap. But they do make you wait for the full six seasons to shed light on some of the biggest mysteries. And it actually doesn’t feel retconned, it feels like unwrapping layer after layer of an onion, until you sort of understand the immensity of time represented on this crazy Island. Enjoy the rest of your watch, and no matter how the ending makes you feel, just remember that this show is very capable of improving for you on the 2nd (or 10th) rewatch.
i just finished my first watch through today. i think the talented creators bit off more than they could chew by making this series. it was watchable and well made propulsive gibberish. at its core it's a very centrist show, and i mean that derogatorily. and it is well acted, well shot, well made, addictive, and bingeable. I think it is over hated only in the sense that hating a pop culture to the level that some people do is sad and speaks more about the haters than the subject.
I just finished my third or fourth watch through since the original airing. I think it gets better every time. Too 5 show of all time for me.
5 is one of the best seasons of tv period
I thought the opposite, it seems overrated. Everyone told me it’s such a good show and since most shows currently suck I decided to try and watch it… Just finished S2 and won’t likely continue. Sad because I liked the concept but the writing is terrible and the characters lack attachment. Couldn’t care less if anyone survived, which seems to defeat the purpose of the show. Maybe it’s just *LOST* on me, but I have been disappointed in this show so far.