Lost: Nikki and Paulo
Lost was one of the most iconic shows of the last decade, in large part because it was also the most divisive. It ran as much on backlash as it did actual appreciation, capped off by an ending that will inspire more heated arguments than even The Sopranos finale. One thing everyone does tend to agree on though, was that the show at its absolute worst could be summed up in a phrase infamous among fans: Nikki and Paulo.
Considering that Lost takes place in the contained space of a deserted island, it was downright jarring to have these two appear out of the ether, involving themselves with the main cast as though they had been a part of it the whole time. Worse than the conceit of forcing in new characters to fill time, was the fact that they were brutally uninteresting to boot; it speaks to the ambitious nature of the show’s first two seasons that, by season three, an island diamond caper seemed like a complete waste of time.
Nikki and Paulo represented Lost wheel-spinning at its most egregious, but the near-universal hatred towards them from fans also showed how willing to respond to its viewer base the writers were. They not only truncated their original plot for the two, but also wiped out nearly any trace of the pair following their appropriately painful exit: being mistaken for dead, and buried alive. Now that’s fan service.
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