Featuring plots made up as they went along and cliffhangers left forever unresolved,
these sci-fi shows have left some fans scratching their heads for decades.
Netflix's "Altered Carbon" ran for two seasons with two different
lead stars — Anthony Mackie and Joel Kinnaman — playing the same character,
and that's the least befuddling part about it. A cyberpunk thriller,
"Altered Carbon" is set in a future where people can receive new bodies and swap minds.
Much of the confusion for this show comes simply from its complex fictional universe where unusual
political and social structures play key roles. New ideas are often given awkward slang terms
that can be tough to pick up. Factions like the Envoy and the Praetorians have motives and agendas
that aren't always easily defined. Characters receiving new bodies or "sleeves" thanks to their
"stack" — a disc that contains their memories and consciousness — is just the tip of the iceberg.
But moving past some already bewildering terminology and intricate world-building,
the series is also a murder mystery that's just as compelling and confusing as anything you'll
find this side of "True Detective." Like many on this list, "Altered Carbon" is a strange
journey through a bizarre sci-fi world that requires some focus and thought to follow,
leaving plenty of audiences perplexed.
Arguably one of the most disappointing sci-fi series of the past 20 years,
"Under the Dome" was based on an acclaimed Stephen King novel and showed incredible
promise in its first season. Telling the story of a small town that suddenly finds
itself encased in an invisible dome and cut off from the outside world, the initial batch
of stories amounts to a successful mystery and a suspenseful thriller. But trying to
turn a one-off novel into a multi-season show proved problematic, as the creators
introduced many wildly different elements that seem to come out of nowhere to extend the story.
This includes a war among the townspeople, an alliance with aliens, and even an episode that
introduces an alternate reality. Suddenly, what had initially hooked audiences as a compelling
but relatively straightforward mystery and character drama devolved into baffling sci-fi
schlock. To make matters worse, audiences were left dumbfounded as new storylines came and
went with no explanation. As a result, ratings fell — and by the time the show was canceled,
there were too many unanswered questions to wrap up the show in any kind of satisfying way.
But despite all the unresolved plotlines, the ending of the show still tries to
shove in a few more in the last episode. A decade later, "Under the Dome" is sadly
remembered as a frustrating sci-fi adventure that makes little sense.
In 1978, "Battlestar Galactica" mixed the fast-paced sci-fi adventure of "Star Wars"
with the wild theories of so-called "ancient astronauts." It only lasted a year, but garnered
a cult following that led to a long-awaited revival in 2004. The newer series greatly expands
on the mythology of the show — but for some, the added complexity just makes it more of a puzzle.
In this beloved series, a race of sentient robots known as the Cylons
decimates a thriving civilization whose survivors flee to the fabled lost world
called Earth. The twist? Some of the human characters are secretly robots in disguise,
which was enough to bewilder plenty of viewers as the show tried to write around its own retcons.
"We're Cylons. And we have been from the start."
The importance of a certain Bob Dylan song also made little sense,
even when they tried to explain it as some kind of prophecy.
But when you learn that series creator Ron Moore has admitted that the Cylons had no
overarching plans, the confusing nature of the show's plot starts to make more sense.
Of course, the most downright frustrating aspect of the series might be its shoe-horned religious
ideas of destiny and faith, which often feel like exercises in hollow symbolism. In the
final episode, a major character is implied to have been a heavenly angel all along,
and an attempt to hastily resolve a series-long riddle suggests everything
was just God's doing. For a show whose initial appeal was its grounded,
gritty realism, it still went on to confuse plenty of hardcore sci-fi fans.
The epitome of serialized stories that were sort of made up as they went along, "Lost" starts as a
plane crash survivor character drama. But before the end of the pilot episode, the series becomes
a captivating supernatural mystery as new sinister forces are revealed on the Island.
"It killed them. It killed them all."
By the end of its run, the story includes time travel,
alternate realities, and even some religious symbolism.
For the most part, though, the addition of the more fantastical elements works — it's
just that there's so much going on that it becomes overly complicated and, as a result,
fans have been left puzzled for years. While some audiences were more than confused by much of the
show's story, those with a keen eye were able to follow along. But with so much to keep track of,
it often feels like much of the larger philosophical issues at play are left
to languish. The show's focus on fate and free will kind of fizzles out, and some plot points
and characters that are implied to have deeper meanings are pretty much dropped altogether.
A lot of this can be chalked up to the writers acknowledging that they had no
idea where they were going with the story — or they kind of had an idea but had to change it
to keep network executives happy — not that it's any consolation to confused viewers.
The sci-fi conspiracy thriller "Mr. Robot" stars Rami Malek as cyber security engineer and hacker
Elliot Alderson, who is enlisted by an enigmatic figure called Mr. Robot to aid in his hacktivist
causes. Set in a world of intricate and complex conspiracies involving monolithic corporations,
faceless governments, and shadowy agents, the web of lies and back-alley deals in
this fictionalized New York City gets tricky to follow. But to add an extra level of confusion,
Alderson suffers from serious anxiety, depression,
and multiple personalities, meaning he can often be an unreliable narrator.
To emphasize Alderson's troubled mental state, the show is often intentionally confusing. Even
the show's most passionate fans have commented that serious attention is required to fully grasp
the story and connect every dot. Major revelations as early as Season 1 proved mind-boggling to many
viewers, while others insisted that all will be explained by the series finale. But no matter how
many times some fans watch it through, there's just so much densely plotted action on top of
confusing themes that it sometimes feels like "Mr. Robot" is more trouble than it's worth.
Even those critical of the show have acknowledged the quality of its writing,
acting, and directing — so if you're willing to put in the
work to understand "Mr. Robot," you'll be handsomely rewarded.
Running three seasons, the Netflix series "Dark" revolves around a child kidnapping
that reveals an elaborate scheme by sinister forces that stretches back
decades. Between its convoluted time-travel plot and examination of the human condition,
"Dark" was called "mentally exhausting" by Paul Tassi of Forbes Magazine — and for good reason,
as we're still struggling to figure everything out years later.
Even when binged, as many did in 2020 when the series was coming to a close and millions
were trapped inside, "Dark" proves elusive to understand. The series explores time travel in
a way that few others have, and forces you down a maze of ancestry that can be very challenging to
keep track of unless you've printed out a family tree. We meet characters when they're young and
old; we meet their forebears; their descendants — and sometimes, the ways in which they are related
isn't always so obvious. But that's hardly the only challenge, as we also discover much of
the series is set in divergent timelines, adding a whole other layer of complexity.
The series never lets up, either. It continues introducing new and
confusing elements right up until the end, giving
you no time to get acclimated to changes and fluctuations in time and dimension.
Like a turbo-charged " X-Files," "Fringe" follows an FBI agent thrown into the world
of the bizarre. This series also deals with more than just aliens and the paranormal,
though — in fact, by the end of the show's first season, it has introduced an entire
parallel Earth in an alternate timeline that is seemingly at war with our own.
With multiple versions of the same characters, each with hidden agendas, things only get more
complicated. Some viewers had trouble figuring out how things are connected, who is doing what, and
why. Then there's the war between strange visitors from an alternate future, whose own motives seem
to shift from season to season. The problem with this one, however, might be the opposite
of "Lost," as "Fringe" seems to have been planned a little too well at times. The show does a good
job of dropping hints about future storylines, but they are often buried a bit too deep.
"I realize, whoever you are, that this must seem very complicated. It is! Extremely!"
The series may have bitten off a little more than it could chew in Season 4,
where both realities merge and still makes for a confusing viewing experience today. Meanwhile,
stories that push the envelope with intentional misdirects only serve to
further muddy the waters. With a vast and intricate mythology that can be hard to
understand, there are still plenty of questions left unanswered on "Fringe."
We've seen shows that are confusing because of intricate webs of plot,
and stories that were written on the fly and are filled with plot holes. But "The OA" is something
else entirely — a series that is baffling but might have been comprehendible were it not
unceremoniously canceled before it could resolve its biggest questions. A series that ends on one
of the most jaw-dropping twists in TV memory, it begs for a follow-up season that never came.
"The OA" stars Brit Marling as a young blind woman who has been missing for seven years but
pops up with a new name and her vision restored. She speaks only to a small group of allies and
reveals that more missing persons can be saved through a strange dimensional portal that serves
as a gateway between multiple realms. But if that sounds strange, wait until you get to the
more magical and mystical parts of the show, including characters who suddenly manifest
supernatural powers. This includes one young woman who can communicate across realities,
a psychic nightclub octopus, a shadowy mystic with a mysterious past, robots, and a "Quantum
Leap"-style body transfer that allows characters to inhabit their own selves in other realities.
Think you're confused after that brief description? Wait until you
watch it. Just don't expect to get any answers,
as we're still trying to figure it out — even knowing we will never get a resolution.
Decades before every other entry on this list, the British sci-fi mystery thriller "The Prisoner"
was well known for its mystifying story and mind-bending visuals. Due to the technological
limitations of the era, it's remembered more for sheer weirdness rather than special effects,
making "The Prisoner" a spiritual precursor to the likes of "Twin Peaks."
"What's it all about?!"
"Sit down and I'll tell you."
The series starred Patrick McGoohan as a secret agent who resigns from his post,
only to be abducted and held captive on a strange island where nothing is as it seems. Beyond its
odd nature, "The Prisoner" became a groundbreaking landmark series that influenced multiple genres.
But despite its legacy as arguably one of the greatest single-season TV shows of all time,
it's also one of the most confusing ever produced. McGoohan's intelligence
agent is only ever called "Number Six" while his captors attempt to break his
will week after week for some nebulous purpose. Meanwhile, strange sights like
giant balloons that can incapacitate people — as quaint as they might seem to audiences
today — were unlike anything anyone had seen at the time. But beyond its unusual style,
the story is less than literal, playing out largely in metaphor and allegory,
with every prop and plot beat seemingly hiding some kind of deeper meaning and significance.
A series meant to be experienced and pondered, the story had little in the way
of a concrete conclusion — and fans have debated its meaning for nearly 60 years.