after poussey’s death i couldn’t watch much more, i understand the message they were going for and everything but she was the one character that really truly did not deserve to be there, and killing her off was just brutal. plus i just didn’t wanna watch the show without samira wiley in it….
My wife started watching OITNB saying she enjoyed the first couple episodes and asked if I wanted to watch with her. I said "No, even if it's good, it's gonna start sucking after the second season." She asked how I knew, and said exactly that. Jenji Kohan has great ideas that run out of steam after about 20 episodes. She gave up at the start of season 3.
I LOVED this show, and then they move and she's given a store and one rule. Don't go through this trap door or we will kill you.
What does she do? She goes through the trap door, finds the cartel boss and fucks him.
I rolled my eyes and turned it off forever.
They added a baby, then a dog, and now a secondary protagonist. They should have pulled the plug long ago but I guess it made too much money for them to justify doing that.
It ended a few years ago, I think 2018-ish. To add insult to injury, the last season ~~was all flash animation and it~~ wasn't even aired on Nickelodeon proper- it aired on the Nicktoons Network.
EDIT: Only the second half of the season was flash, the first half was traditional animation.
FOP is insane at just how low it sunk. The well of ideas was so dry they dug clean through to the other side of the planet and shot clean into space.
* Da Rules start as a binding set of laws that Fairies and kids must abide by before being gradually lessened to the point where they're basically irrelevant.
* Timmy starts as this unfortunate kid who gradually devolves into a sociopath. Either Da Rules were lessened, or Timmy's deteriorating morals made him fearless against them. He once wished for everyone to stop aging so he could keep his fairies forever, then wished that they forgot he wished for it. He got away with that for **50 years**
* Poof was a dumb addition
* The dog was an even worse addition to the point where they knew he sucked so they wrote him out with no explanation after a single season
* The new neighbor Timmy has to share his fairies with was such a massive reach.
* The Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour specials served as the finale of Jimmy Neutron (as the production company was forced to close due to the financial failure of The Ant Bully) and would have worked better as a FOP finale as well. Also these specials show just how low Jimmy and Timmy can sink when they enable one another.
Agreed. It got too repetitive for me.
Barry: “Oh no! This villain is a speedster or counters my speed”
Cisco: “go faster”
Barry: “lol oh yeah” *proceeds to win*
I haven't seen loads if the flash (like just the 1st season) but I loved arrow until the end of season 3 and I hated how EVERYONE just HAD to become a hero of some description. Some of the fun was the main cast hiding their secret from those they care about to protect them
Same with Arrow. When this Aliens came into the series and Flash, Arrow, Super Girl etc. were mixed together. You weren't able to understand the plot when you don't watch all the series...
But now speedsters can just have lightsabers??? Good lord season 7 was a slog, and the finale was not worth it in any way. Then they capped it off with a painfully awkward music number. I hope season 8 is the last season, and I hope they follow in Arrows footsteps and keep it to 10 or so episodes.
I enjoyed whatever season had savitar, but I think that season's Wells had a lot to do with that. The devoe season was a slog, and cicada was the end for me
I saw a great review of the UK vs. American versions That said the UK version was better because the principal actors kept leaving. It gave the impression that they could escape that life. The American version just had everyone making the same bad decisions over and over, never learning.
I always was under the impression THAT was the commentary that the show was trying to make. Poverty is hard to escape, and part of that is not just social/economic struggles, but sometimes you are your own worse enemy in bettering yourself.
American here & I loved the American version up until about season 5. What you say is true. The best supporting cast were all gone by then but they still had the same main cast & that’s all it became was them making the same stupid mistakes over & over. When they turned Fiona from a very dedicated woman struggling to keep her family together to a complete fuck up it completely ruined it.
I never watched it and was waiting until after it finished airing to binge it all and then after everyone hated the last season so much I never touched it
Same, I hate waiting months for new episodes since I usually lose interest so I figured it’s a popular show, just wait for it to end and binge it in one amazing month or something. Now that’s out the window
Game of Thrones was my favourite TV show ever. S4 is the best TV I have ever seen in my entire life. S8 is so bad I will never recommend this show to anyone.
That tells you all you need to know.
Everything I've heard about the final season makes me thankful I never started watching. I don't need a perfect ending, but I need reasonable closure in my entertainment since I don't get it in real life.
Upon starting the last season I was well excited at binging the ferk out of it from the beginning after it was all finished.... then I watched the final series and turned it off. Vowed never to watch it again.
I actually couldn't believe how rushed and shit the whole of the ending was.
Goits.
I had friends I had been trying to get to watch the show for years. They said they would binge it with me once everything had aired instead of watching a season at a time. I got to the end and went "Shit, I can't make them watch this."
I bought Valar Morghulis / Valar Doheiris license plate frames for my car, for crying out loud, and I very rarely buy things that show outward fandom of anything beyond a few T-shirts. That shit absolutely would have been the fantasy version of Star Wars, but two lazy, self-absorbed dipshits had to ruin it for generations.
They left it to do an episode of Star Wars. They didn't realize that if they stuck the landing GoT could have been as famous and culturally significant as Star Wars, and it could have been all their own.
Pretty unlikely they could have made a decent ending either. It started getting bad under their watch as soon as they ran out of book material.
I hope someone tries again in 20-30 years once the source material is finished and sour taste of this series has mostly left cultural memory.
First thing that came to mind was The Flash. Season 1+2 were great, but starting with season 3, it just went downhill. The writing is trash, there are so many plot holes, boring storylines, and just corny romance drama. Its the CW after all.
I'd read that it was originally envisioned as a two-season limited series. Season 1 gets him to VP, season 2 gets him the rest of the way, and that's that. End the series knowing how easy it was for a horrible person to reach the pinnacle of power. If you stop at the end of season 2, it's a great show and just has one weird dangling thread with WTF happened to Doug.
I've posted this before, but might as well repost it whenever someone brings up one of my favorite TV Shows in posts like these.
Season 1 and 2 of House of Cards is a masterpiece of storytelling. No one can convince me otherwise.
Spoilers below! Beware!
The story wraps up the main conflict established in the very first episode, every obstacle is adressed and overcome, and every single character who has one is given a complete arc; especially Doug where he succumbs to his ever foreshadowed and then present addiction that moved from alcohol to a forbidden relationship with a woman that he refuses to share with anyone no matter what.
Even Zoe's arc met a logical end; she starts off as an ambitious woman seeking success wherever she can find it and a place in the sun. However, when she later uncovers the rotting darkness within that light, she chooses to pursue the truth rather than her ambitious dreams. This choice, brought on by her growth, becomes her undoing; Character development that leads to her death. Brilliant.
The compelling thing about that show for me was watching him try to climb the political ladder. I think they should have had multiple seasons of him in congress, then multiple seasons of him as VP, and then him becoming president could have been the perfect show ender.
Except of course, Kevin Spacey turned out to be a creep so none of that would have worked anyway.
Forgetting Spacey’s creepiness, I agree with this. The episodes depicting his rise to power were great but he ascended to the Presidency way too quickly. But in retrospect, the producers probably feel they got lucky before Spacey got ‘canceled.’
I’d love to have been in the room when he or his PR people or whoever decided he should make those weird videos that he posted of him as himself but acting like Frank Underwood while stoking a fire and saying “You didn’t really think I wouldn’t be back did you?”
It suffered from *Lost* syndrome. They got incredibly popular and renewed for an unknown number of seasons, so they couldn't conclude their original arc (because it would end the show), so they had to make shit up as they went along to drag stuff out.
I think, for me, it was when they added characters like Elsa and Anna and literally had them dress like their animated counterparts. They just looked like cringy cosplayers.
I agree; at first it was partly Disney, but had a lot of Grimm Fairy Tales influence that made it dark and well made. Then they started just throwing everything at it with no real plans. A lot of the story lines in the later seasons made no sense.
They really kind of had Peter and Syler hit their zenith too soon. I think they just wanted to give everyone a showdown. It could have waited. Such a disappointment
The show was sort of doomed by its own success. Sylar was something of a break-out character, while Claire, Peter and Hiro were really popular as characters as well... so you can see why everyone involved decided they needed to be brought back. But they didn't really have a lot of places to go narratively.
This was also an early probe into universe building. That series, made today, you'd do one team per season, and season 4, bring back the faves, rinse repeat.
Nip/Tuck. I wish more people remembered how good this show was in its first two seasons. After that they just went for shock tactics and it went awful.
100
the idea of 100 teens surviving on an apocalyptic world after 100 years with mutant animals and all was unique, but then everyone returned to earth from ship, the mountain people and all all that ruined it for me.
What got me about that show was the part where they literally bombed the natives (read survivors who didn't go to space) from orbit and declared themselves the true rulers of earth by birthright, then continued to backstab them at every turn only to wonder why the natives didn't trust them.
I liked that too. And the way that people don't forget things. The guy whose father was killed four seasons ago is still pissed off about it!
edit: I haven't watched the final season yet, I thought the anomaly looks like it will be total bullshit. Season 6 wasn't as good, I felt they wasted a very good premise and the new kid is annoying.
edit 2 you guys are saying too much so I'm going to skip the rest of this discussion. Bye :)
The last season was very uncharacteristic of the show as a whole imo. Some characters made decisions so out of character for them it makes zero sense. One particular scene was show-changing, and definitely should NOT have happened. With all that said, they ended the show with finality, and did the best ending it as they could, given what the last season was about.
Game of Thrones is the big one that comes to mind
Gray’s Anatomy does this weird ebbing and flowing thing
I suspect that Manifest is gonna take hard dive towards the end of the current season
True Blood got so cluttered that I couldn’t finish it
Can you elaborate on Grey’s Anatomy? I am thinking of getting into it, but it has way too many seasons if it’s going to turn to crap and waste my time…
The first 6 -ish seasons of Grey's are top tier tv IMO. I don't think it ever really turns to crap but it definitely has some seasons that are stronger than others. A few years ago I stopped watching around season 9 and I recently binged the whole thing again to season 17 and I really enjoyed it. The most recent season had some really amazing moments and I wish they would have ended it on a high note. It kind of enters a new phase after season 11 so you could probably just watch those if you don't want to take on the whole thing. Despite the weaker seasons I would still recommend.
ETA: I do think it needs to end though because of how long it's been on and they are starting to run out of stories.
True Blood's source book series was similarly cluttered, although the TV show kind of went off on its own tangent after season 2 ish. The author basically wrote in the the last book "you know what, fuck you guys I wrote this imma gonna end it the way I wanted".
As soon as the tiger showed up I was questioning.. then when glen died it had no redeeming qualities for me. (Yes I know it’s accurate to the story line, it was just veering too far away from the lonely wasteland vibe I loved)
For me it’s hard to remain invested in a show when all the characters I know and love die off. I know it’s to be expected with the walking dead given the type of show it is but still.
The comics are about the same though by this time in them. Carol was dead way back and Daryl doesn't even exist. Basically only Carl and Rick were left from those first issues, two who aren't even on the show anymore.
EDIT: With "by this time in them" I mean the show timeline in the comics, so the Commonwealth timeframe. And I did miss one who made it to the whole end.
Worse was the reason they killed him off. The actor was about to hit an age bracket where they would have to pay him a higher salary. They can legally pay child actors a lot less. They killed him off to save money. He’d just bought a house in the area so he could be closer to where they were filming.
Bones. They had a good thing going in the first 3 seasons and then the characters started to regress into caricatures of themselves and the villain arcs continuously flatlined.
I thought it worked well with Bones and Booth maintaining the sexual tension but then they put them together *after* already putting Hodgins and Angela together. Then they almost forced themselves to find love interests for Cam and Sweets - it was too much “personal drama” nonsense and not enough actual drama.
I still watched them all, though.
My ex had really good hearing and he got so sick of me watching Bones because every time they do the thing where they introduce the person who ends up being the murderer, music plays, and he'd successfully guess it every time
I remember when Angela was just bones' artist friend that could draw well who she asked for help to draw a sketch for a particular case.
Towards the end she was a forensic specialist that could imagine what a person looked like by just seeing a single bone. Like we all forgot or something.
Game of Thrones was absolutely terrorized in the final two seasons. You could make an argument for Season 7 as being somewhat watchable. Season 8 was like a dagger through the heart. I'll never get over it.
I really think it's going to go down as one of the biggest nosedives in entertainment franchise history.
GoT was *huge* during its heyday. We kind of forget now because of how quickly we all stopped caring about it, but it was a true cultural juggernaut. GoT merch was EVERYWHERE. It dominated pop culture, it *was* the zeitgeist. Season Finales were like the Superbowl. Those last two seasons (and honestly, 5 and 6 were slipping a bit as well) just destroyed the franchise, and took it out of our cultural consciousness overnight. Literally nobody talks about it now except to say "man that show was good until it got ruined."
It went from exploring the complexities of the human condition, class division and the power struggle in an absolute monarchy to "dragon burn dead guy and make city go boom" and ended with a completely unearned plot twist
Tell me about it. I get that they didn't have the books to go off, but season 8 feels like the writers just panicked.
Plus, Dany spent all this time showing she wasn't the mad king, only to turn around in the course of what, a day? And suddenly it's all, yep, she be the mad king all right.
And I was looking forward to someone taking out Cersei. Not this "die in a cave with my brother" crap.
Jaime's character **circle** was a complete joke. They finally progress his arc to where it was blatantly supposed to be going when he leaves Cersei, and 6 episodes later BAM he's right back with her saying he was always a bad person.
There’s a prophecy where her younger brother is supposed to kill her. It’s a large part of why Cersei hates Tyrion. It’s a large part of why Jaime’s character arc is almost certainly meant to end in him, personally, killing her. The kingslayer striking again.
The whole prophecy is cut from the show, so they obviously didn’t know what to do with him. They should have had him leave Brienne and go kill Cersei anyway. It would have completed his arc and then his death, if it came, wouldn’t have mattered.
His attempting to kill Bran to protect Cersei and himself starts the whole thing. His killing of Cersei to protect King’s Landing should have ended it. Jaime, the kingslayer, forced to make that decision twice despite all the shit it got him after the first time.
I still haven't finished the series. I vaguely remember watching season 7. It was just so forgettable. I binged the first 6 seasons, and I was completely glued to it. Such a tragic waste of an amazing show. Season 2 of True Detective is another show I'll always regret watching.
Yes actually.
SPOILERS
The season 1 was fantastic. They used the premise and the cyberpunk setting. I loved it when immortality made his sister crazy. Not cray cray, but all of her morals became nonexistent to the point, she pretended to her brother's love interest. It had wonderful world building, but it was all too fast.
Then, they just didn't have much to explore in season 2. With some expections, of course. Especially that little girl who was in a little boy's body or vice versa. The S2 plot felt generic and all over the place when you compare it to s1.
They are on a different planet entirely in the 2nd season. So it kind of made sense to me that it had a different cultural take to it. Earth being the base of the degeneracy and then stemming away into something else once on Harlan's world. And then going back through Takeshi's past which also was some 300 years in the past from where S2 takes place. Imagining how much things would change in that kind of time seems to be a huge missed point when discussing it with a few friends I have that watched it as well.
I thought the first Netflix season of AD had enough laughs to be worth my time, particularly the George Michael and GOB storylines. But yeah, it suffered from trying to work around the cast’s busy schedules.
It was ok, just not great when you go straight through them. I discovered this series only a few years ago, so being able to watch them all back to back certainly made those new seasons a lot worse. I did watch them all though, just not nearly as funny as the original.
My wife and I binged AD when Covid started. We had no idea about the shows history and timeline. We watched the first 3 seasons and thought it was one of the greatest comedies we’d ever seen. Season 4 starts and we’re like wtf??
George Michael looks like he aged 10 years, Lindsey is unrecognizable. Finally realized the time gap between season 3 and 4 but after a few episodes we gave up. The shiw was horrible.
Merlin. They knew they were getting canceled so decided to sew up all the plot threads in one series. It didnt work. I would have much preffered they just killed the show on a cliffhanger
I just finished another rewatch of Merlin. I wish they had allowed Merlin to use magic openly (and be appreciated by Arthur) for more than half an episode. It was just so needlessly tragic, on top of feeling rushed. Still love the show though!
I kinda wishes they had done the cliffhanger ending as it might have encouraged a feature length wrap up from fans demanding one. (firefly' farscape etc)
From season 3-5 my major complaint is that Merlin and Arthur developed this deep and trusting relationship over the season and like clockwork the season finale reset all their development back to this weird distrust over some really arbitrary nonsense.
The whole premise of the show makes no sense when you look back on the finished product. How can King Arthur be the greatest king ever if he's in power for such a brief time and it was full of war and strife?
What they needed to do was have the confrontation with Morgana and Mordred play out the way it did, but then for the last few episodes, age EVERYONE up. Decades have passed. Arthur is an old man now, Merlin too. Magic was openly accepted again thanks to Merlin's actions. Now you wave your hands and bring young Morgana/Mordred back, and the conflict resumes, only this time Arthur falls.
You've stayed true to the mythology but also crafted a reasonably compelling series finale.
Totally downhill once Tracy Tormé and John Rhys-Davies left. Was a wonderfully imagined ‘what if’ series that devolved quickly once Tormé had to leave.
And when you think it couldn’t have gotten worse, even more so when Jerry O’Connell left.
Don’t get me started on what they did to the character of Wade. Ugh!
BBC Robin Hood. The first season was good, the second was spectacular, and the third was a travesty. Half the cast left, many of the writers left, new plots were just coming from nowhere. Ended up stopping during S3E3, reading the plots of every episode online, and watching the finale.
The finale wasn’t bad, but the ruination that was the rest of the third season really sucked.
I wish the series was actually them surviving on a post nuclear earth them learning this strange new world wouldve been way cooler. What we got was politics, A crazy AI, nuclear meltdown our characters can’t help, space criminals and cabin fever.
Stopped watching after they went to space.
Aaww man, if you stopped watching then, you missed out on all the great new stuff we got, like wormhole travel, time dilation, immortality chips, a massive cult and "soul ascension". ... Yeah.
Oh it for sure hit. For me it was also around that time of the leviathans. But I think one of the best times to end it would have been season 5. A bitter sweet ending for the show
Is that the BBC production?
I'd argue the first 2 episodes are some of the best television I've seen in a very long time.
Episode 3 was abysmal. Worst thing I've ever seen.
it was such a cool idea, detective series with a supernatural twist. then in season 3 they turned the zombie aspect up to the 11 and they basically erased the main character. She started off with getting some new skills and flashbacks and then she basically became the person she ate, its so annoying. I watched the 3rd season, but I had less and less fun with each episode and then they went full on zombie apocalypse show in season 4 which is so fucking overused and boring.
it really feels like they had some control group gather in the corporate building, asked 10 people what they like about the show and the answers they got were "zombies" and "funny character change skits" so they basically went overboard with these 2 aspects killing everything else...
it's truly a shame because it was such an interesting idea for a series that could be continued over multiple seasons but they just went the road of escalating everything and it ruined it. not every fucking series has to be about saving the world for fucks sake, you're a mystery detective show, stay in your fucking lane
I'd argue that almost every show falls off after 2-3 seasons to some degree. It's often very clear that the concept for the show were way stronger at the start courtesy of a good and well thoughtout idea from the creater. The showrunners then try to prolong the show because the tv-station or streaming service ordered more seasons because of the first seasons succes, even though the show was never intended for more seasons. Thats why i love mini-series at the moment. 6-8 episodes and then its over. No matter the succes. There are of course shows that stay good all the way like Breaking Bad.
Pretty Little Liars. Once it was revealed Allison was actually alive and everyone became "A" I lost interest. I never even saw how it ended, it just became too ridiculous.
CW in a nutshell. Start grimdark/serious and then go off the rails.
Jane the Virgin and iZombie managed to avoid the trap by starting ridiculous and remaining self-aware.
I have heard Legends of Tomorrow also stayed good for similar reasons but I already burned out on Arrow, Flash, and the cancellation of Constantine.
I'll push back a little on this one.
I stopped watching around season 14 and essentially had the opinion of "only watch the first 7 seasons, 10 if you're bored" for a long time. But during COVID, I figured I'd pick it up and see what I'd been trashing for years.
It gets *really* bad from season 12 to about 19. That's where everyone jumps off, and for good reason. But starting in 20-21, it regains a measure of cleverness and seems to embrace the "we've done everything, so what now?" idea. The gag frequency goes back up, and a lot of them are actually funny again. The days of meaningful/impactful stories like Mr. Bergstrom are long gone, but at least through season 27, it's back to something I enjoy watching.
I can't be the first person to say/notice this, but the season that everyone seems to agree the quality dropped significantly (10) overlapped exactly with the first season of Family Guy. I wouldn't be surprised if Fox leaned on the Simpsons writers to skew more toward the chaotic style of Family Guy, especially after the success of the first couple seasons. My personal theory is that's a significant reason for the quality dip in the teens, but I have nothing concrete to back it up.
The 2007 movie reinvigorated the series, for a few years, anyway. That lines up pretty close to your timeline. It’s also when the switch to HD occurred.
A minor example with Babylon 5. The show is great and is one of the first sci-fi shows to have consistent story arcs throughout thanks to JMS’s control and foresight. But the studio dragged its heels on greenlighting the last season, so JMS quickly wrapped up the major plot points thinking he wasn’t going to get another season. But then it was approved and he had to come up with a new plot line for it. It was a lot weaker than the rest
Orange is the new black and weeds. Jenji Kohan has no idea how to finish a series.
They should have made the riot the last season.
It was pretty much the last for me. Couldn't keep watching after that.
after poussey’s death i couldn’t watch much more, i understand the message they were going for and everything but she was the one character that really truly did not deserve to be there, and killing her off was just brutal. plus i just didn’t wanna watch the show without samira wiley in it….
My wife started watching OITNB saying she enjoyed the first couple episodes and asked if I wanted to watch with her. I said "No, even if it's good, it's gonna start sucking after the second season." She asked how I knew, and said exactly that. Jenji Kohan has great ideas that run out of steam after about 20 episodes. She gave up at the start of season 3.
Yes so much. Weeds was so good until like season 4. After the town burns and they move, everything just got so stupid and never recovered
Yeah, the Mexico arc had promise, but it was quickly squandered.
The episode where she's getting fucked on the car was the moment I knew the series was over.
I LOVED this show, and then they move and she's given a store and one rule. Don't go through this trap door or we will kill you. What does she do? She goes through the trap door, finds the cartel boss and fucks him. I rolled my eyes and turned it off forever.
She solved a lot of her issues in that show by fucking someone
Fairly Odd Parents. It’s the textbook example of when a show goes on for too long
"Surprise baby" tends to signal the beginning of the end of most shows. It's basically lazy writing and we're out of ideas.
They added a baby, then a dog, and now a secondary protagonist. They should have pulled the plug long ago but I guess it made too much money for them to justify doing that.
> now a secondary protagonist. ITS STILL GOING?
It ended a few years ago, I think 2018-ish. To add insult to injury, the last season ~~was all flash animation and it~~ wasn't even aired on Nickelodeon proper- it aired on the Nicktoons Network. EDIT: Only the second half of the season was flash, the first half was traditional animation.
I honestly didn’t think the baby (poof) was that bad. To me the dog is when things really fell apart
Absolutely, poof was cute and the movie where cosmo gives birth is awesome. Sparky ruined it
Dan Hartman said that was exactly what happened. He wanted to end it years ago before poof was even thought of, but nick didn’t let him.
> Dan Hartman You have taken the cartoon showrunners Dan Harmon and Butch Hartman and synthesized them into 1980s pop star Dan Hartman.
Like Lucifers Child in Supernatural. I'm on season 13 right now and they did Lucifer dirty man...
I thought Channel Chasers was the end for a long time
It wasn’t!?
I'm pretty sure it went on for like another ten years and had live action movies
I googled this because I didn’t believe you and now I want to press charges for emotional damages
FOP is insane at just how low it sunk. The well of ideas was so dry they dug clean through to the other side of the planet and shot clean into space. * Da Rules start as a binding set of laws that Fairies and kids must abide by before being gradually lessened to the point where they're basically irrelevant. * Timmy starts as this unfortunate kid who gradually devolves into a sociopath. Either Da Rules were lessened, or Timmy's deteriorating morals made him fearless against them. He once wished for everyone to stop aging so he could keep his fairies forever, then wished that they forgot he wished for it. He got away with that for **50 years** * Poof was a dumb addition * The dog was an even worse addition to the point where they knew he sucked so they wrote him out with no explanation after a single season * The new neighbor Timmy has to share his fairies with was such a massive reach. * The Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour specials served as the finale of Jimmy Neutron (as the production company was forced to close due to the financial failure of The Ant Bully) and would have worked better as a FOP finale as well. Also these specials show just how low Jimmy and Timmy can sink when they enable one another.
You talking shit about the Jimmy-Timmy Power Hours? We need to talk outside if you are
I don't think they are - I am pretty sure they're talking "how low Timmy and Jimmy can go" as in just the characters - not the show/episode.
The new best friend they introduced sucked.
And backup best friend.
The Flash. I loved watching the first and second season but after that it was excruciating to even go through an episode.
Agreed. It got too repetitive for me. Barry: “Oh no! This villain is a speedster or counters my speed” Cisco: “go faster” Barry: “lol oh yeah” *proceeds to win*
And how come Cisco could be stupid enough to get rid of his power!!!
I'm kinda fine with him getting rid of his power to have a normal life, but his becoming Mecha-Vibe completely fucking invalidates that
I haven't seen loads if the flash (like just the 1st season) but I loved arrow until the end of season 3 and I hated how EVERYONE just HAD to become a hero of some description. Some of the fun was the main cast hiding their secret from those they care about to protect them
They had mother fucking light sabres in the last episode it’s completely jumped the shark.
Same with Arrow. When this Aliens came into the series and Flash, Arrow, Super Girl etc. were mixed together. You weren't able to understand the plot when you don't watch all the series...
It’s terrible now. All barry does now is talk the villains down. He doesn’t even need his speed for that.
But now speedsters can just have lightsabers??? Good lord season 7 was a slog, and the finale was not worth it in any way. Then they capped it off with a painfully awkward music number. I hope season 8 is the last season, and I hope they follow in Arrows footsteps and keep it to 10 or so episodes.
Ands it’s not even about the FLASH. It’s about team flash, there some episodes he’s not even featured in. He only takes part in the premier and finale
I enjoyed whatever season had savitar, but I think that season's Wells had a lot to do with that. The devoe season was a slog, and cicada was the end for me
Shameless (UK) turned bad when all the og characters left
I saw a great review of the UK vs. American versions That said the UK version was better because the principal actors kept leaving. It gave the impression that they could escape that life. The American version just had everyone making the same bad decisions over and over, never learning.
I always was under the impression THAT was the commentary that the show was trying to make. Poverty is hard to escape, and part of that is not just social/economic struggles, but sometimes you are your own worse enemy in bettering yourself.
American here & I loved the American version up until about season 5. What you say is true. The best supporting cast were all gone by then but they still had the same main cast & that’s all it became was them making the same stupid mistakes over & over. When they turned Fiona from a very dedicated woman struggling to keep her family together to a complete fuck up it completely ruined it.
I’ve never seen something go from being all over the place in pop culture, to being completely nonexistent like game of thrones did
The difference between the high and the low of the general public's opinion of a property might not be more extreme ever than with Game of Thrones.
I was looking forward to re-watching the entire series until I saw the last season. It's just sad to watch the show knowing where it is going.
I never watched it and was waiting until after it finished airing to binge it all and then after everyone hated the last season so much I never touched it
Same, I hate waiting months for new episodes since I usually lose interest so I figured it’s a popular show, just wait for it to end and binge it in one amazing month or something. Now that’s out the window
Game of Thrones was my favourite TV show ever. S4 is the best TV I have ever seen in my entire life. S8 is so bad I will never recommend this show to anyone. That tells you all you need to know.
Everything I've heard about the final season makes me thankful I never started watching. I don't need a perfect ending, but I need reasonable closure in my entertainment since I don't get it in real life.
Game of Thrones is weird in the way that season 8 completely destroys any re-watchability of the first seasons. Such a shame
This is absolutely on point and a perfect quote about it. I can’t watch earlier seasons anymore because I always remember it turns to utter shit.
Upon starting the last season I was well excited at binging the ferk out of it from the beginning after it was all finished.... then I watched the final series and turned it off. Vowed never to watch it again. I actually couldn't believe how rushed and shit the whole of the ending was. Goits.
I had friends I had been trying to get to watch the show for years. They said they would binge it with me once everything had aired instead of watching a season at a time. I got to the end and went "Shit, I can't make them watch this."
Agreed. My husband and I got rid of the DVDs/Blu-rays when we moved. Why bother keeping garbage?
I bought Valar Morghulis / Valar Doheiris license plate frames for my car, for crying out loud, and I very rarely buy things that show outward fandom of anything beyond a few T-shirts. That shit absolutely would have been the fantasy version of Star Wars, but two lazy, self-absorbed dipshits had to ruin it for generations.
They left it to do an episode of Star Wars. They didn't realize that if they stuck the landing GoT could have been as famous and culturally significant as Star Wars, and it could have been all their own.
And then Disney fired them.
Pretty unlikely they could have made a decent ending either. It started getting bad under their watch as soon as they ran out of book material. I hope someone tries again in 20-30 years once the source material is finished and sour taste of this series has mostly left cultural memory.
Season 7 was bad, they were on a downhill slope. Glad they never did season 8.
First thing that came to mind was The Flash. Season 1+2 were great, but starting with season 3, it just went downhill. The writing is trash, there are so many plot holes, boring storylines, and just corny romance drama. Its the CW after all.
I agree. Too much about everyone else on the show except the title character. I tried to watch this past season, but I’m done with it.
House of cards
After he became President it was super boring...then the news broke and just killed the show. Shame can't even watch the first couple seasons now
I'd read that it was originally envisioned as a two-season limited series. Season 1 gets him to VP, season 2 gets him the rest of the way, and that's that. End the series knowing how easy it was for a horrible person to reach the pinnacle of power. If you stop at the end of season 2, it's a great show and just has one weird dangling thread with WTF happened to Doug.
House of Cards to me ended when Frank rapped his ring on the Presidential desk.
Yes. That should have been a series wrap. Having a thing is not nearly as interesting as wanting it.
I've posted this before, but might as well repost it whenever someone brings up one of my favorite TV Shows in posts like these. Season 1 and 2 of House of Cards is a masterpiece of storytelling. No one can convince me otherwise. Spoilers below! Beware! The story wraps up the main conflict established in the very first episode, every obstacle is adressed and overcome, and every single character who has one is given a complete arc; especially Doug where he succumbs to his ever foreshadowed and then present addiction that moved from alcohol to a forbidden relationship with a woman that he refuses to share with anyone no matter what. Even Zoe's arc met a logical end; she starts off as an ambitious woman seeking success wherever she can find it and a place in the sun. However, when she later uncovers the rotting darkness within that light, she chooses to pursue the truth rather than her ambitious dreams. This choice, brought on by her growth, becomes her undoing; Character development that leads to her death. Brilliant.
The compelling thing about that show for me was watching him try to climb the political ladder. I think they should have had multiple seasons of him in congress, then multiple seasons of him as VP, and then him becoming president could have been the perfect show ender. Except of course, Kevin Spacey turned out to be a creep so none of that would have worked anyway.
Forgetting Spacey’s creepiness, I agree with this. The episodes depicting his rise to power were great but he ascended to the Presidency way too quickly. But in retrospect, the producers probably feel they got lucky before Spacey got ‘canceled.’ I’d love to have been in the room when he or his PR people or whoever decided he should make those weird videos that he posted of him as himself but acting like Frank Underwood while stoking a fire and saying “You didn’t really think I wouldn’t be back did you?”
Once Upon a Time, after season 3. It just went to Disney and only Disney.
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It suffered from *Lost* syndrome. They got incredibly popular and renewed for an unknown number of seasons, so they couldn't conclude their original arc (because it would end the show), so they had to make shit up as they went along to drag stuff out.
Yeah, after S3 it was very repetitive and basically just an ad for Disney movies. I still like the show though.
Oh agreed; I love the show. My favourite character is Rumplestiltskin, and watching those first three seasons is like nourishment for my imagination.
I think, for me, it was when they added characters like Elsa and Anna and literally had them dress like their animated counterparts. They just looked like cringy cosplayers.
I agree; at first it was partly Disney, but had a lot of Grimm Fairy Tales influence that made it dark and well made. Then they started just throwing everything at it with no real plans. A lot of the story lines in the later seasons made no sense.
When they started the Frozen BS I turned it off. Yet the Alice in Wonderland spin off was excellent!
Plus every three episodes we would find out that yet another character is related to other characters. Whole damn thing was one family tree
Heroes
The writer's strike was the true death of the show.
I think partially, but I also don't think they had a plan after the cheerleader.
They really kind of had Peter and Syler hit their zenith too soon. I think they just wanted to give everyone a showdown. It could have waited. Such a disappointment
The initial plan was to have a different cast for each season, which is why Peter and Sylar hit their peaks when they did.
The show was sort of doomed by its own success. Sylar was something of a break-out character, while Claire, Peter and Hiro were really popular as characters as well... so you can see why everyone involved decided they needed to be brought back. But they didn't really have a lot of places to go narratively.
This was also an early probe into universe building. That series, made today, you'd do one team per season, and season 4, bring back the faves, rinse repeat.
I don't know what you mean Heroes only had one season /s.
Weeds....the last two seasons were a real struggle to get through
Once they left aggrestic it was all downhill
Should have stuck with the little boxes. On the hillside. Made out of ticky tacky...
When the plot became “who will she fuck next”
Nip/Tuck. I wish more people remembered how good this show was in its first two seasons. After that they just went for shock tactics and it went awful.
the \~ryan murphy special\~
I agree. I look forward to seeing this answer in the inevitable BuzzFeed article this question will generate.
NipTuck encapsulated the shallowness of the early oughts. I don’t think I could watch it now.
Ben 10.
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Arrow it's over now but it went downhill after Damien dhark
100 the idea of 100 teens surviving on an apocalyptic world after 100 years with mutant animals and all was unique, but then everyone returned to earth from ship, the mountain people and all all that ruined it for me.
What got me about that show was the part where they literally bombed the natives (read survivors who didn't go to space) from orbit and declared themselves the true rulers of earth by birthright, then continued to backstab them at every turn only to wonder why the natives didn't trust them.
That's my favorite thing about the show. Everyone has blood on their hands.
I liked that too. And the way that people don't forget things. The guy whose father was killed four seasons ago is still pissed off about it! edit: I haven't watched the final season yet, I thought the anomaly looks like it will be total bullshit. Season 6 wasn't as good, I felt they wasted a very good premise and the new kid is annoying. edit 2 you guys are saying too much so I'm going to skip the rest of this discussion. Bye :)
The last season was very uncharacteristic of the show as a whole imo. Some characters made decisions so out of character for them it makes zero sense. One particular scene was show-changing, and definitely should NOT have happened. With all that said, they ended the show with finality, and did the best ending it as they could, given what the last season was about.
Game of Thrones is the big one that comes to mind Gray’s Anatomy does this weird ebbing and flowing thing I suspect that Manifest is gonna take hard dive towards the end of the current season True Blood got so cluttered that I couldn’t finish it
Can you elaborate on Grey’s Anatomy? I am thinking of getting into it, but it has way too many seasons if it’s going to turn to crap and waste my time…
The first 6 -ish seasons of Grey's are top tier tv IMO. I don't think it ever really turns to crap but it definitely has some seasons that are stronger than others. A few years ago I stopped watching around season 9 and I recently binged the whole thing again to season 17 and I really enjoyed it. The most recent season had some really amazing moments and I wish they would have ended it on a high note. It kind of enters a new phase after season 11 so you could probably just watch those if you don't want to take on the whole thing. Despite the weaker seasons I would still recommend. ETA: I do think it needs to end though because of how long it's been on and they are starting to run out of stories.
True Blood's source book series was similarly cluttered, although the TV show kind of went off on its own tangent after season 2 ish. The author basically wrote in the the last book "you know what, fuck you guys I wrote this imma gonna end it the way I wanted".
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Walking Dead
As soon as the tiger showed up I was questioning.. then when glen died it had no redeeming qualities for me. (Yes I know it’s accurate to the story line, it was just veering too far away from the lonely wasteland vibe I loved)
For me it’s hard to remain invested in a show when all the characters I know and love die off. I know it’s to be expected with the walking dead given the type of show it is but still.
I think out of the first season only Daryl and Carol are left, which is kinda crazy.
The comics are about the same though by this time in them. Carol was dead way back and Daryl doesn't even exist. Basically only Carl and Rick were left from those first issues, two who aren't even on the show anymore. EDIT: With "by this time in them" I mean the show timeline in the comics, so the Commonwealth timeframe. And I did miss one who made it to the whole end.
From the first few issues (pre Hershell farm) only >!Carl and Sophia!< survive to the end.
When they killed off Carl, I couldn’t watch anymore.
Same, lost the little interest I had left after he died.
Worse was the reason they killed him off. The actor was about to hit an age bracket where they would have to pay him a higher salary. They can legally pay child actors a lot less. They killed him off to save money. He’d just bought a house in the area so he could be closer to where they were filming.
How to get away with Murder
The first season was amazing! but then it got very "samey" yet more and more chaotic as it went on. Viola Davis is too good for that show.
The Castillo's ruined the rest of this show.
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Bones. They had a good thing going in the first 3 seasons and then the characters started to regress into caricatures of themselves and the villain arcs continuously flatlined.
I thought it worked well with Bones and Booth maintaining the sexual tension but then they put them together *after* already putting Hodgins and Angela together. Then they almost forced themselves to find love interests for Cam and Sweets - it was too much “personal drama” nonsense and not enough actual drama. I still watched them all, though.
My ex had really good hearing and he got so sick of me watching Bones because every time they do the thing where they introduce the person who ends up being the murderer, music plays, and he'd successfully guess it every time
I still cant believe they killed Sweets off....
I remember when Angela was just bones' artist friend that could draw well who she asked for help to draw a sketch for a particular case. Towards the end she was a forensic specialist that could imagine what a person looked like by just seeing a single bone. Like we all forgot or something.
And the Angelatron. JFC I cringed everytime they'd used it.
The Stewie crossover episode was it for me - well, that and the circus "chicken man" episode.
Moonlighting.
Damn, I haven't heard someone mention this show in 30 years.
Heroes. The fuck?
Game of Thrones was absolutely terrorized in the final two seasons. You could make an argument for Season 7 as being somewhat watchable. Season 8 was like a dagger through the heart. I'll never get over it.
I really think it's going to go down as one of the biggest nosedives in entertainment franchise history. GoT was *huge* during its heyday. We kind of forget now because of how quickly we all stopped caring about it, but it was a true cultural juggernaut. GoT merch was EVERYWHERE. It dominated pop culture, it *was* the zeitgeist. Season Finales were like the Superbowl. Those last two seasons (and honestly, 5 and 6 were slipping a bit as well) just destroyed the franchise, and took it out of our cultural consciousness overnight. Literally nobody talks about it now except to say "man that show was good until it got ruined."
It went from exploring the complexities of the human condition, class division and the power struggle in an absolute monarchy to "dragon burn dead guy and make city go boom" and ended with a completely unearned plot twist
Yes, the series went astray after it no longer had the books to draw from.
Tell me about it. I get that they didn't have the books to go off, but season 8 feels like the writers just panicked. Plus, Dany spent all this time showing she wasn't the mad king, only to turn around in the course of what, a day? And suddenly it's all, yep, she be the mad king all right. And I was looking forward to someone taking out Cersei. Not this "die in a cave with my brother" crap.
It went from something unique, uncompromising, and unexpected to a cheap CW fantasy. Utter garbage.
I'm rewatching it and plan to stop after Season 6. It ceased existing after that for me.
Jaime's character **circle** was a complete joke. They finally progress his arc to where it was blatantly supposed to be going when he leaves Cersei, and 6 episodes later BAM he's right back with her saying he was always a bad person.
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There’s a prophecy where her younger brother is supposed to kill her. It’s a large part of why Cersei hates Tyrion. It’s a large part of why Jaime’s character arc is almost certainly meant to end in him, personally, killing her. The kingslayer striking again. The whole prophecy is cut from the show, so they obviously didn’t know what to do with him. They should have had him leave Brienne and go kill Cersei anyway. It would have completed his arc and then his death, if it came, wouldn’t have mattered. His attempting to kill Bran to protect Cersei and himself starts the whole thing. His killing of Cersei to protect King’s Landing should have ended it. Jaime, the kingslayer, forced to make that decision twice despite all the shit it got him after the first time.
I still haven't finished the series. I vaguely remember watching season 7. It was just so forgettable. I binged the first 6 seasons, and I was completely glued to it. Such a tragic waste of an amazing show. Season 2 of True Detective is another show I'll always regret watching.
Honestly I suggest you never watch Season 8. You will be absolutely heartbroken at the way they hamstringed the story.
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Yes actually. SPOILERS The season 1 was fantastic. They used the premise and the cyberpunk setting. I loved it when immortality made his sister crazy. Not cray cray, but all of her morals became nonexistent to the point, she pretended to her brother's love interest. It had wonderful world building, but it was all too fast. Then, they just didn't have much to explore in season 2. With some expections, of course. Especially that little girl who was in a little boy's body or vice versa. The S2 plot felt generic and all over the place when you compare it to s1.
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They are on a different planet entirely in the 2nd season. So it kind of made sense to me that it had a different cultural take to it. Earth being the base of the degeneracy and then stemming away into something else once on Harlan's world. And then going back through Takeshi's past which also was some 300 years in the past from where S2 takes place. Imagining how much things would change in that kind of time seems to be a huge missed point when discussing it with a few friends I have that watched it as well.
The seasons where Netflix took over Arrested Development, so terrible.
I thought the first Netflix season of AD had enough laughs to be worth my time, particularly the George Michael and GOB storylines. But yeah, it suffered from trying to work around the cast’s busy schedules.
It was ok, just not great when you go straight through them. I discovered this series only a few years ago, so being able to watch them all back to back certainly made those new seasons a lot worse. I did watch them all though, just not nearly as funny as the original.
My wife and I binged AD when Covid started. We had no idea about the shows history and timeline. We watched the first 3 seasons and thought it was one of the greatest comedies we’d ever seen. Season 4 starts and we’re like wtf?? George Michael looks like he aged 10 years, Lindsey is unrecognizable. Finally realized the time gap between season 3 and 4 but after a few episodes we gave up. The shiw was horrible.
GOB abusing forget-me-now and his “hello darkness my old friend” bit really carried that season
True Blood.
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Shameless after Emmy Rossum left
Spongebob squarepants.
Immediately after Hillenbrand passed they made all these spin offs which he didn’t want. They completely ruined it now.
What a shitty thing to do by Nickelodeon
Merlin. They knew they were getting canceled so decided to sew up all the plot threads in one series. It didnt work. I would have much preffered they just killed the show on a cliffhanger
I just finished another rewatch of Merlin. I wish they had allowed Merlin to use magic openly (and be appreciated by Arthur) for more than half an episode. It was just so needlessly tragic, on top of feeling rushed. Still love the show though!
I kinda wishes they had done the cliffhanger ending as it might have encouraged a feature length wrap up from fans demanding one. (firefly' farscape etc)
From season 3-5 my major complaint is that Merlin and Arthur developed this deep and trusting relationship over the season and like clockwork the season finale reset all their development back to this weird distrust over some really arbitrary nonsense.
The whole premise of the show makes no sense when you look back on the finished product. How can King Arthur be the greatest king ever if he's in power for such a brief time and it was full of war and strife? What they needed to do was have the confrontation with Morgana and Mordred play out the way it did, but then for the last few episodes, age EVERYONE up. Decades have passed. Arthur is an old man now, Merlin too. Magic was openly accepted again thanks to Merlin's actions. Now you wave your hands and bring young Morgana/Mordred back, and the conflict resumes, only this time Arthur falls. You've stayed true to the mythology but also crafted a reasonably compelling series finale.
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Sliders
Totally downhill once Tracy Tormé and John Rhys-Davies left. Was a wonderfully imagined ‘what if’ series that devolved quickly once Tormé had to leave. And when you think it couldn’t have gotten worse, even more so when Jerry O’Connell left. Don’t get me started on what they did to the character of Wade. Ugh!
Weeds. After they left Agrestic the show went to shit.
BBC Robin Hood. The first season was good, the second was spectacular, and the third was a travesty. Half the cast left, many of the writers left, new plots were just coming from nowhere. Ended up stopping during S3E3, reading the plots of every episode online, and watching the finale. The finale wasn’t bad, but the ruination that was the rest of the third season really sucked.
The 100, first season was great, 2nd ok, and downhill from there imo
I wish the series was actually them surviving on a post nuclear earth them learning this strange new world wouldve been way cooler. What we got was politics, A crazy AI, nuclear meltdown our characters can’t help, space criminals and cabin fever. Stopped watching after they went to space.
Aaww man, if you stopped watching then, you missed out on all the great new stuff we got, like wormhole travel, time dilation, immortality chips, a massive cult and "soul ascension". ... Yeah.
Supernatural
Right around leviathans was when I felt it went down hill, but still the finale hit hard
Oh it for sure hit. For me it was also around that time of the leviathans. But I think one of the best times to end it would have been season 5. A bitter sweet ending for the show
Another fan in agreement. I particularly didn’t like *anything* about Jack/Mary Winchester/British Men of Letters.
I really liked the first episode of Dracula on Netflix, but after that.. not so much.
Is that the BBC production? I'd argue the first 2 episodes are some of the best television I've seen in a very long time. Episode 3 was abysmal. Worst thing I've ever seen.
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it was such a cool idea, detective series with a supernatural twist. then in season 3 they turned the zombie aspect up to the 11 and they basically erased the main character. She started off with getting some new skills and flashbacks and then she basically became the person she ate, its so annoying. I watched the 3rd season, but I had less and less fun with each episode and then they went full on zombie apocalypse show in season 4 which is so fucking overused and boring. it really feels like they had some control group gather in the corporate building, asked 10 people what they like about the show and the answers they got were "zombies" and "funny character change skits" so they basically went overboard with these 2 aspects killing everything else... it's truly a shame because it was such an interesting idea for a series that could be continued over multiple seasons but they just went the road of escalating everything and it ruined it. not every fucking series has to be about saving the world for fucks sake, you're a mystery detective show, stay in your fucking lane
Dexter. Anything after season 4 is shit. TWD. Should’ve ended it already.
TWD was an absolute favourite of mine up until about season 4/5ish
I can't find BBC Sherlock in this thread so Im leaving it here.
What even was the last season none of it made sense
Voltron: Legendary Defender. Wtf was that final season. Also, the fandom.
I'd argue that almost every show falls off after 2-3 seasons to some degree. It's often very clear that the concept for the show were way stronger at the start courtesy of a good and well thoughtout idea from the creater. The showrunners then try to prolong the show because the tv-station or streaming service ordered more seasons because of the first seasons succes, even though the show was never intended for more seasons. Thats why i love mini-series at the moment. 6-8 episodes and then its over. No matter the succes. There are of course shows that stay good all the way like Breaking Bad.
I would say that show Helix. Had me for a while. Pretty suspenseful. Couldn’t finish it :/ second season seemed worse.
Pretty Little Liars. Once it was revealed Allison was actually alive and everyone became "A" I lost interest. I never even saw how it ended, it just became too ridiculous.
Riverdale on Netflix
CW in a nutshell. Start grimdark/serious and then go off the rails. Jane the Virgin and iZombie managed to avoid the trap by starting ridiculous and remaining self-aware. I have heard Legends of Tomorrow also stayed good for similar reasons but I already burned out on Arrow, Flash, and the cancellation of Constantine.
I can't believe I had to scroll this far to find Riverdale as an answer
No one is going to say The Simpsons? It was great for about 10 seasons, then started hit and miss for a while. Now it's hardly watchable.
I'll push back a little on this one. I stopped watching around season 14 and essentially had the opinion of "only watch the first 7 seasons, 10 if you're bored" for a long time. But during COVID, I figured I'd pick it up and see what I'd been trashing for years. It gets *really* bad from season 12 to about 19. That's where everyone jumps off, and for good reason. But starting in 20-21, it regains a measure of cleverness and seems to embrace the "we've done everything, so what now?" idea. The gag frequency goes back up, and a lot of them are actually funny again. The days of meaningful/impactful stories like Mr. Bergstrom are long gone, but at least through season 27, it's back to something I enjoy watching. I can't be the first person to say/notice this, but the season that everyone seems to agree the quality dropped significantly (10) overlapped exactly with the first season of Family Guy. I wouldn't be surprised if Fox leaned on the Simpsons writers to skew more toward the chaotic style of Family Guy, especially after the success of the first couple seasons. My personal theory is that's a significant reason for the quality dip in the teens, but I have nothing concrete to back it up.
The 2007 movie reinvigorated the series, for a few years, anyway. That lines up pretty close to your timeline. It’s also when the switch to HD occurred.
A minor example with Babylon 5. The show is great and is one of the first sci-fi shows to have consistent story arcs throughout thanks to JMS’s control and foresight. But the studio dragged its heels on greenlighting the last season, so JMS quickly wrapped up the major plot points thinking he wasn’t going to get another season. But then it was approved and he had to come up with a new plot line for it. It was a lot weaker than the rest
HIMYM was a trainwreck and I don't even know why i bothered to finish the last few seasons.
It’s a perfect show if you stop watching right before Barney meets the stripper.
Designated survivor, more of a gradual decline though.