Lost: Looking back on the hit show 15 years after its debut

"We have to go back!"

In 2004, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber changed the game when Lost debuted on ABC. On paper, Lost shouldn't have worked. It was a bizarre mishmash of Survivor, The X-Files, and even a little Gilligan's Island. However, Lost quickly established itself as a massive water cooler hit. It may have even been the first television show with an audience driven by social media. 

SYFY WIRE is looking back at the Lost phenomenon to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the show. Along the way, we spoke with some passionate Lost super fans and a few prominent critics as they shared their thoughts on the show, as well as a few theories and their favorite episodes.

What separated Lost from the pack is that it had compelling characters, a great cast, and an enticing mystery that invited fans to solve it. Lost was one of the first shows to embrace AR storytelling, which has now become ubiquitous. Other networks, and even ABC itself, tried to recreate Lost's magic formula ... and have yet to find a way to recapture that lightning in a bottle.

But all good things come to an end, and that's the biggest problem some people have with Lost: the ending. It must have been impossible to craft a conclusion that would please everyone, but the Lost finale was unusually divisive. Some even claimed that it retroactively ruined the show for them. We wouldn't go that far. If the Lost finale had truly been that bad, we wouldn't still be talking about the show's beautifully convoluted mythology a decade and a half later.

For more Lost memories, check out the full video!