I liked it, but the show never lived up to the potential that I thought it had.

Well, that is what seems to happen to all television shows that start out smart and gritty. Networks get involved and demand that the show needs to keep the story telling at around 4th grade level, so they can sell more soap.

Seems to me that it happened to "LOST" half way through season two. The show became a very popular water-cooler chit-chat topic at workplaces around this time. And, it was about this same time they started dumbing down the scripts and it got much more sappy.