Lost

Author: Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams And Damon Lindelof

LOST is a show that took all the convoluted twist and turns of The X-Files, mixed it in a setting as weird as Twin Peaks, and populated with characters as flawed as those you'd find in a Coen Brothers movie. It was an absolute masterpiece of television when it first debuted, and though it turned and twisted about a dozen times along the way, it never stopped keeping the audience guessing. The story of a plane crash, the fight for survival, the incredible difficulties of maintaining the weirdest island in the Universe, and the struggle between the base and better nature of mankind are the major themes, but it's also a series of love stories, a string of journeys of self-discovery, and a deeply spiritual piece. Not only did Abrams and his team play with the story, they presented it in a way that stepped through the veils of time and space, with heavy use of flashbacks, flashforwards, and side-steps. Yes, the ending left as much in the air as the beginning did, but at the same time, it was exactly the ending that we needed, because it wasn't about telling us what the truth was; it was about making care that there might be truth. Why it's on the list: As a singular story, there are few shows of any kind as poetic or wide-ranging.