TV series that baffle viewers but keep them watching

A Guardian roundup highlights a range of television series that leave viewers puzzled yet unable to switch off, from Tim Robinson’s The Chair Company to Twin Peaks, Lost and recent dramas such as Industry, House of the Dragon, The Morning Show and The Rehearsal, alongside the moody Scandi noirs.

The pieces note how The Chair Company resists straightforward explanation—the basic plot involves a man drawn into a conspiracy after a chair breaks, but the show prefers Lynchian oddities such as recordings of men screaming, a vampire and an antagonist that ends up with a baby’s head.

Industry is described as impenetrable for outsiders, with co‑creator Konrad Kay admitting a term like "DV01" is "financial gibberish" and partner Mickey Down calling much of it "technobabble"; yet the show’s sex, drugs and fights keep viewers hooked. Twin Peaks is remembered as baffling and wonderful, its surreal imagery sitting alongside a simple core story of a detective seeking justice for a murdered teenager.

Other entries underline similar tensions: House of the Dragon is criticised for confusing names and indistinguishable dragons; Lost combined thrilling mysteries such as the smoke monster, the Dharma Initiative and polar bears with a divisive purgatory ending that the article says revealed the characters were "absolutely not all dead the whole time".

Key Topics

Culture, Industry, Twin Peaks, Lost, The Rehearsal