I still can’t stop but think how stretched out the Hobbit films were, for an otherwise short book. That’s a sin that stains forever with me. The Lord of the Rings films, do have their own flaws, but they’re fairly contained and can be debated as to whether they were good or not. I have so much trouble excusing anything with the Hobbit though.
And I hope we never, ever see anyone tackle The Silmarillion. Simply because, there will be so much improvised fluff in that would-be film, that it’d make the Hobbit films blush.
Lost and Battlestar Galactica aired approximately in parallel. Being a sci-fi fan, I watched BSG, of course, but many friends watched Lost. It definitely had more mainstream appeal and a higher profile. But from the sounds of things, it really lived up to its name! I’ve always been glad I got into BSG, even if it also went off course for a while.
IIRC BSG got screwed in part by the Hollywood writers’ strike. Did that impact Lost as well?