The original post: /r/television by /u/Teenage_dirtnap on 2025-03-26 08:59:44.
What’s something that a show build up as being a big deal, but ended up having little to no effect on the story in retrospect?
I’ll get the obvious one out first: LOST. I love the show, but the writers definitely had a bad habit of hyping certain mysteries up as super important and then pretty hand waving the whole thing away later, because it didn’t fit the narrative anymore. Probably the best singular example is the character of Walt. Him being special is hinted at several times throughput seasons 1 & 2. Him being a target for the Others is a major plot point of S2. Then he is written out due the actor out-aging the character and he has pretty much no bearing on the plot after that. I know he’s featured in the epilogue, but the early seasons definitely felt like they were setting him up to be a major player in the show.