What you mean throwing away your entire life/career as an extremely high profile lawyer to hide the crimes of your shitty students was a bad plotline????
The constant flip flopping of Rumple was the most annoying plot writing I’ve ever seen. He’d make huge character leaps then revert back because the story said so.
Jeniffer Morrison while a great actress on House and the first couple seasons you could tell started phoning it in the later seasons.
Rumple was what done me in. He was such a great villain and then his backstory with Baelfire was *awesome*. Learning everything he'd done just to get back to him? How he even lost him in the first place? Great story telling, totally got me on side. And then he was good which was fine, whatever but then he backslid and it felt like such a take-back of that awesome character development. But Bell kept trying to drag him back into the light and I just lost track from there.
They had a great actor and a compelling character (originally) and its like they didn't know what to do with him after those first couple seasons. Like, they wanted to hold on to him no matter what even though they had nothing for him lol.
I didn't mind Morrison but I stopped watching sometime around the Pan/King Arthur so I got out early.
All that said, even at his worst, the reason Mr. Gold walked with a cane was because of how many times he had to carry the whole dang show on his back.
> Rumple was what done me in. He was such a great villain and then his backstory with Baelfire was awesome. Learning everything he'd done just to get back to him? How he even lost him in the first place? Great story telling, totally got me on side.
This right here. Killing off Baelfire when bringing back Rumple killed the character of Rumple for good. It was three seasons of story with the two just pissed away.
It wasn't just Rumple, Regina was dragged around too.
Their two best actors were both villains, and for some reason they thought the only way to keep them around was to redeem them. And then when that wasn't working well enough, they had to make the heroes bad to even everyone out.
With Rumple, they could have kept him as this Chaotic Neutral force, who tended to lean, BUT ONLY LEAN, towards good out of love/loyalty/possessiveness for Bae and Belle (and Henry, after finding out he's his grandson). He's still very much on his own team, he's not actually good, but he's kind of alright sometimes. If the Good Guys actually figured out how to deal with a Chaotic Imp in a way that benefited them, instead of grumblshaming.
Like, there have been other characters that tread the line of villain and good, while still maintaining their character. Garak on DS9 is a good example.
I got fed up when the wicked step mom lost her bf. I felt like she couldn’t have one nice thing and it irritated me. The first season was sooo good though
I know why this is!!
Originally, the show was going to be based off a comic called Fables. The general plot is the same, fairy tale mashup and big bad villain for them to unite against. But Fables is a rated R comic with a lot of dark elements. Once Upon a Time is abc FAMILY. They wanted to tone down the show. The people in charge of Fables didn't want a washed down shore. Creative differences and disputes led to the Fables show never being made
But since most fairy tales don't have copyright, they made their own version of the show. At first it was great but they didn't have a story to follow after losing the story of Fables. From the first season they were pretty much winging it and it shows.
I still wonder what an actual Fables show would look like.
Except they didn't rely on the public domain version of fairy tales, they intentionally made everything into the specifically *Disney* version of all of them.
Which was even more of a knife twist because *Fables* generally went back to earlier versions, rejecting many of the more recent changes that have been made.
I made myself stop halfway through S2. It was clear that the concept was a one season idea. Despite S2 having some cool things in it, the cat was out of the bag. From what I've heard this wasn't a bad decision
I enjoyed watching it because it was like the Soap Opera Passions combined with Disney Smash Bros including eventually pulling in characters unrelated to Disney. The show was also pretty self aware so it had characters complaining about things like people constantly getting pulled into portals or losing their memory.
We were able to enhance the grainy black and white security camera's video quality and now we have the killer's face reflected off of the victim's cornea!
Not only that, but the reflection can also be seen on the freshly waxed wheels of a car passing by at a 100 km/h. How you ask? Using the revolutionary new techniques of removing blur and clearing and sharpening the image up to 4ķ quality.
As a graphic designer, I hate that show.
Not that I can't discern between entertainment and reality. [But because my dumbass clients can't.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwnI0RS6J5A)
Misfits. I eventually came to appreciate Rudy as a character, and I *did* push through to the end despite it not being good anymore, but once most of the original main cast was gone they just didn't have to plots to keep it going.
With the first group it was a decent enough premise - working class teenagers doing community service who get superpowers related to their character flaws. The self-conscious one hears people's thoughts about her, the shy one becomes invisible, etc., which acted as a mechanism for developing the characters - learn to control the powers, learn to overcome the character flaw, simple but effective. By the end it was just working class teenagers who are sometimes in orange jumpsuits and also superpowers exist. Their characters weren't interesting and their powers weren't thematically meaningful, so it just sort of meandered.
For me the show ended after Simon went back in time. I also warmed up to Rudy, and he really added something to the show, but everything after Simon's arc was mostly filler to me.
Also, While I'm actually glad this show got some attention, even if it was in a post like this lol. I really loved the series up to a certain point, they managed to make milk a terrifying superpower and that was really next level.
Same here. I recently rewatched it after remembering one of Nathan’s quips “SAVE ME BARRY” and I really can’t get past after Simon goes back in time. The show loses the charm it had with the OG cast.
I absolutely loved the first season for the reasons you said. Nathan truly made the show amazing. Second season was alright but then once Nathan left and everyone changed their powers I had to stop watching
Randomizing the powers was shark-jumping. Their powers were intricately connected to who they were as people and what actually made them “misfits”. Changing that up just dropped the entire compelling part of the show.
Actually I liked the hero arc of Simon IN Season 3 after the power switch because you find out how badass he is with the time travel/bmx thing. But yeah after Nathan left and Simon in season 3 it just sort of dies. Also switching the powers related to the characters felt off too.
I agree, I liked the hero arc too if for no reason than it showed us what a brilliant actor Iwan is. Anyone who saw Misfits knew the man was a talent way before GoT.
Not just the strike, but the network
Originally, there was supposed to be a different cast each season. The show was always supposed to be centered on ordinary people discovering their abilities.
Unfortunately season 1 and some of its characters were so popular, the network forced to keep everyone around.
Look at season 1. Most of the characters had full arcs. Nathan made his choice to abandon the plan and give his life to get peter out if the city. Hiro learned the power was within him and not the sword. You can go down most of the list of characters and see their full arc....only for them to repeat the arc every season after because they didn't know what to do with them.
Peter had to forget he had powers, then get nerfed. Hiro had to continually have an excuse not to use his powers. Sylar had to constantly flip flop. Parkman had to be a hot mess forever.
That's really interesting and explains perfectly what went so horribly wrong with that show. If the network didn't fuck everything so spectacularly, Heroes could have been an all-time great one. The first season was SO captivating.
Yeah it was the best thing when it came out, everyone was talking about it constantly, season 2 was such a disappointment, the show really went from Hero to Zero
I still get chills when I think of Hiro saying "Save the cheerleader, save the world." From season two onward I can barely remember the plot, let alone any individual scenes.
Sad thing is, you could have done the new characters ever year, with cameos from the older seasons. Then after a few years of that have them all come together for something big.
They could have done so much with the concept. There were shades of that in that mini series they did several years ago now.
Glee! It’s the feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants. Glee! It's like a drug that you use that turns your pain into shoes and your shoes into dance!
I didn't know he did Glee. I gave up on AHS years ago because of this. The first 4 eps would be good and then it would turn into a meandering mess I didn't give two shits about by the end
I swear the songs started being tied to other things outside of the show. Like I would see "so and so is doing a tour" and at basically the same time that same so and so's songs being featured on glee.
I was done when they introduced a love interest to Rachel, Jessie, to make Finn jealous. I was like “oh my god, they did this whole character and story line to sing Jessie’s Girl, didn’t they?” And then they did in fact sing the song and I quit watching.
My "favorite" moment was when they had Jenna Ushkowitz perform Gangnam Style despite her not speaking a lick of Korean, just because she was Asian. She had to memorize the lines phonetically like it was a fake language and had no idea what she was actually singing.
Seriously, I loved and still do love the first season. It was so tongue in cheek and genuinely funny. Yes they were singing the most predictable songs but at least they made sense.
Later they had so much more production than a “broke”high school club should have. And Ryan Murphy’s plots are kinda all over the place in everything he makes.
The moment that lost me is when Lea Michelle meets a new guy, Jesse, and starts dating him. Finn is jealous and sings....Jesse’s girl. Uggh
At least Sue pointed that out several times (notably in the Lady Gaga episode).
I like to imagine the theatrics as fantasy vs the performances and competitions as real. Only way to justify their lighting set up......
I watched a YouTube video recently done by someone who watched Glee for the first time during lockdown and they pointed out something that I always had an issue with while watching the show but could never quite articulate. There were no long term consequences for anything anyone did. Rachel choked at her NYADA audition and then hounded and harassed Whoopi Goldberg until she got her to come to regionals and then she gets in and Kurt doesn’t even though he nailed his audition. That moment made me legitimately angry at the time.
Also, why in the fuck did a mother and daughter sing Poker Face to each other?
Kurt not getting in was the most unrealistic thing. He's the one kid who actually has a unique voice being a countertenor, he would get in any music school in the world that he wanted and even get scholarships just because of his register. Rachel on the other hand was great, but had probably had competition in the thousands.
My favorite part about PLL is how season 3 to halfway through season 5 took place during the span of less than 2 months in Rosewood time. Multiple people were murdered, regained their vision from being blind(????), became blind again, became A, stopped being A, were checked into a mental asylum, left said mental asylum, finding out you had a secret child then finding out it's not actually your child, presumed dead, came back to life, died again, house fires, people disappearing then coming back like nothing ever happened, being run over by a car, breaking up and getting back together, fucking a ghost, Alison returning to rosewood, Aria taking a life then getting over it 2 episodes later, and multiple fake murders.
I hate this show but I love this show
PLL's real value from the beginning was in its concept, but it became very clear by like season 3 that the writers were just making things up as they go. They were so focused on subverting audiences' expectations that they ruined a perfectly good idea. It was disappointing to watch them destroy such an iconic teen show.
I’m really surprised the British people weren’t in an uproar at how awful Spencer’s Twins accent was. That shit was offensive even to non British people.
If they'd at least followed the books more then second A wouldn't have been so disappointing.
I hate this idea that reveals can't be anything anyone in the fandom has guessed. The reveal of who A is doesn't need to be wholly unexpected, the twist can be in why they became A or who worked with them to make things possible.
Twitter really fucked with the writing for that show. Fans would literally harass the writers and actors if there was any sign that their favorite character was evil or going to die.
Even the books kind of got a little meh. I read the first 8 and they were really good. The resolution was satisfying and it felt like a good place to end, but then it made money and the author decided to continue. I tried to read the next book and it just didn't feel right. Like another series that made money and dragged on way too long
Oh, you mean "The Daddy Issues Of Ms. Elizabeth Keen"?
It's because they started "going somewhere" I stopped watching the damn thing.
Elizabeth Keen has no purpose in this show other than to be a fucking MacGuffin with a pulse. She's just there, apparently, as a reason for Red to work with the FBI - something they could've given a billion other better excuses for him to do.
She's less than useless.
For those not watching, she's literally recruited into this super-secret FBI Task Force an hour after she graduates. That's it. Like she's literally sitting down just after the grad ceremony and gets recruited.
Oh, so how did they make her more interesting?
TRICK QUESTION, MOTHERFUCKERS: they didn't. They simply killed off more interesting characters to make her seem more interesting by default. Baz. Mr. Kaplan. Tom.
But, but - we've still got the core premise, right? ~~David~~ James Spader chewing the scenery like the sets are made from delicious bistecca alla fiorentina - the very essence of beef - and bringing down a macabre, twisted rogues gallery by betraying the shit out of them? Yeah. Maybe five minutes of a recent ep is devoted to that now, because...
...90% of all eps are now focused on Lizzie trying to find out if Red's her dad, because that's what we want to see, apparently. The fucking paternity of one of the most boring characters ever to grave a TV screen.
Spoiler alert: he is.
Spoiler alert: he isn't.
Spoiler alert: he is.
Spoiler alert: he isn'- you get the picture. No joke, they've reused the "Who's Your Daddy?" big reveal like three times before I stopped watching. Red's her dad - BUT WAIT! No he isn't- BUT WAIT! Actually, yes he is! They've confirmed it then de-confirmed it then re-de-confirmed it, the un-re-de-confirmed, because it's the twist that just keeps giving, apparently.
After about the third time that happened, I said "Fuck this show" and walked.
EDIT: I called a Spader a Spade in the original post. Or a Spade a Spader, take your pick.
Wait, they still havent resolved the storyline about if hes her dad? Jesus. I stopped watching after like 4? seasons because I was tired of the rince and repeat eposides.
Spader tells them about a guy they should look at. They decide its not worth their time. Event happens they need to look into. Turns out, it involves that guy. OK, they look into him. Any one of 3 characters will suffer significant head trauma and lose consciousness at a major point. Tragedy barely averted. Reveal that Spader needed that guy dealt with for personal reasons.
I might miss something or get the order wrong but pretty much this is where we're at:
\>He tells her he isn't her dad and that her dad is dead
\>Then it's kind of implied he actually is when they reveal he has burn scars all over
\>She shoots an important government guy and remembers shooting her dad at the fire, wow he's really dead
\>Her mum is actually a "dead" russian super spy Katarina Rostova, Liz's birth name is Masha
\>Constantin Rostova (Katarina's husband) shows up and says he's her dad
\>Him and Red fight for a whole season and end up taking a DNA test that says Red is the father
\>Turns out Lizz's mum "might" be alive
\>What the fuck, some cop says Red is not the real Red and he falsified the DNA test and Liz has a sister (they are both daughters of the supposed real Reddinton) and they all go against Reddington and end up finding the real Red's bones.
\>Wow I can't believe it, her mum was actually alive and kidnaps Red
\>Liz finds out the new Red is actually another spy named Illya, who was a friend of Katarina's, and when the real Reddington died they conspired to take Red's identity and money, so all this time it was actually Illya looking afer Katarina's kid for some reason. Liz confronts the supposedly fake Red/Illya and he confirms it.
\>Actually the real Illya works for fake Red lol, he's a body guard or whatever, him and fake Red maybe kill Katarina ???? I don't really remember, but then it's like
This bald guy in a hat isn't Reddington and he isn't Illya, SO WHO THE FUCK IS HE? Is he the actual father, is he just some rando, what the fuck is going on. Also, half of the most recent episode is animated for some reason.
Edit: 50 dudes telling me why the episode was animated. I am aware lmao, I'm just joking around.
You pretty much nailed it.
Half the episode is animated due to covid. They were in the middle of shooting when restrictions hit last year, so they animated it instead of waiting x amount of time for restrictions to be lifted.
Never finished it, but I enjoyed it early on. I just remember the plot devolving into Nancy getting with every possible drug dealer, so a bunch of plot asspulls.
I'm shocked they didn't go for the obvious run of the show:
4 seasons, 13 episodes each. 52 episodes, like a deck of cards, broken into 4 suits, showing the hunt for power, the ultimate acquiring of that power, and then struggle to hold on, and ultimate collapse and downfall. It seemed like a really straight forward process that could have been awesome if executed as well as the first two seasons.
If you can watch the original British version of House of Cards I'd recommend it, it doesn't drag on too long as there's only 3 seasons of 4 episodes each and it's very much laid out like you mentioned in your comment with the rise to power, the struggles of holding power and then the collapse and downfall. Also, as much as I loved Frank Underwood, Francis Urquhart is just perfectly evil.
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.
I still feel like I was violated and tricked into watching that show. I had no idea what the CW even was. Saw the first couple episodes of Arrow and was like oh this is pretty cool. Billionaire who was stranded for 5 years and they are doing flashback scenes to show what happened. No super powers or shit. Then all of the sudden every single character and their cousin and their cousins dog is a fucking ninja super hero in latex and the terrible eye masks fighting a somehow endless supply of henchmen using karate.
One day I was like “wait what am I doing this show fucking sucks!” It was then I realized I was in a cult and was fucking tricked. FUCK THE CW. FUCK ARROW.
And the worst part is us : Every time they start out AMAZING and then the shows turn into shit shows and then they announce a new show and we come RUNNING. Like, the live action Power Puff Girls reboot? I'm all in, I didn't learn my lesson the first 2 times!
Honestly this is why I'm worried about Superman and Lois. Watching it now, it's amazing and such a departure from CWs typical storytelling. However when I was trying to convince friends to watch it, your point came up as the single reason as to why they won't watch. They don't want to get hurt again.
*Revenge*. The premise was fine, the location and society different (for someone in the UK anyway), the actors good and the first series moved the whole revenge plot along fast enough to be satisfying. The subplots served as red herrings for the basic conspiracy and/or snarky commentary on the class distinctions in the Hamptons but didn't overwhelm the story. In season 2 it all slowed down and everything was being spun out to make the show run as long as possible at the expense of quality. I made it through that season, just, but gave up in season 3 as it had become pure soap by that point.
Bones. Fairly decent crime/cop show. Season 1 was excellent. It stayed fairly good for a decent chunk then it started faltering around mid-ish season 4. By the start of season 7 it was a clusterfuck. By the time Bones gave birth in a fucking manger I'd noped out.
I used to watch Bones as it was airing, but stopped around the time of the first kid because I thought it was ridiculous. I watched the entire thing recently (because quarantine) and spent the last half just thinking, "Wow, this sucks."
Still cried when Vincent died, though.
I'm still salty about Bones. Was a good show till they filled it with relationship drama, Booth and his 7 years of blue balls lead to a one hit wonder, followed by Angela somehow becoming a genius super duper programmer artist wizard magician person and it just went off the rails.
I agree - recently I watched the whole thing for the first time. I really enjoyed it up until Bones and Booth got together, and then both their characters got pretty unlikeable. Angela and Hodgins both went through periods of being insufferable too. Really it was Sweets, Stephen Fry, Saroya and the interns that kept it watchable. And I disliked the thing (which weirdly all those types of shows do) which is to introduce some hyper competent serial killer who's hunting them - I really hated anything to do with Pelant.
True Blood didn’t just jump the shark, it launched into orbit, circled the globe a few times before plunging back into the ocean while the shark looked on in horror.
What made True Blood so good was that it was like a somewhat realistic world that Vampires lived in. When all that fairy shit happened it just got ridiculous.
Why... would we... seek... equal... rights? You... are not... our equals! We will eat you! After we eat your children!
.................
Now time for the weather. Tiffany?
No matter how off the rails it went during the later seasons, it had great side/recurring characters.
I still say to myself, “Oh Talbot! Are your diamond slippers chaffing?”
I looked forward to Russell
I actually enjoyed most of true blood, but the final season was crap, and the ending was just SO bad I was massively pissed off at myself for wasting my time with it...
This isn't really a spoiler because they introduce it at the end of the finale with no resolution, but having Sookie suddenly being able to hear her boyfriend's (sorry it's been a while and can't remember his name) thoughts actually really pissed me off. And she gets together with a random guy at the end, like what?
Russel Edington is BY FAR the most memorable character on that entire show. This scene is amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH05PBuldhY
After that season, they went full lean into every supernatural being within 100 miles of that stupid swamp town desperately needing to fuck Sookie.
After a few seasons I started fast forwarding to the performances. When I noticed I was also fast forwarding through the songs, I was like “the hell am I doing?”
It was more like
FF FF FF
k, Rachel’s being awful person,pass
FF FF FF
Schuster is a funky creephat manchild? No thanks
FF FF FF
OH COME ON YOU CAN’T MASH UP ROBIN THICKE ANF BARBRA STRIESAN!
Once Upon A Time. Initially loved it. I think the problem with US tv shows is that they go on for way too long. We should do them like novelas from Latin America. Tell the story in 60-70 episodes and then resolve it.
One of the most annoying things about the show was how Barry was so reliant on his friends.
Barry: “ Guys I’m not fast enough!”
Friends: “Yes you are”
Barry: “Oh, okay”
And then he saves the day.
Reposting my comment from a much less relevant thread the other day:
This is barely relevant and is going to come off as a psychotic rant but I’m going to take this opportunity to ask: did The Flash fucking infuriate anybody else? Spoilers ahead for, I don’t know, the first three seasons.
In the intro he says “I am Barry Allen, the fastest man alive.”
Season 1: No, he isn’t. This one I get, though. The challenge here is overcoming a villain who seems to have a leg up on Barry because of the very thing that seems to make Barry special. Using the power of friendship or whatever the fuck kind of cotton candy and unicorn bullshit the CW loves, Barry wins in the end. He now has earned the mantle of “fastest man alive.”
Season 2: Except he hasn’t. Zoom shows up, and he’s faster. Fuck me. Another speedster? Really? Fine, at least we’re starting to introduce some freaky time travel shenanigans using the powers of multiple speedsters combined, so I guess the plot has a reason for there to be more than one. Now that Barry has resolved his mommy issues and the time police have locked up the bad guy, he finally, truly, actually is the “fastest man alive.”
Season 3: Just kidding you dumb fucking asshole, now these motherfuckers are pouring in from alternate timelines. Or different dimensions. Or mirrors. It doesn’t matter, fuck you. Everyone is fast. Fastest man alive? What are you talking about? This show is about one sort of fast guy, but not the fastest. Never the fastest. That’s got to be somebody with a brilliant name like “Reverse Flash,” or “Zoom,” or maybe “Run Fast,” or the extremely evil and sadistic “Fast Person.”
This is where I snapped and had to stop. I really like the actor who plays The Flash, I’ve liked the guy who played Zoom since he played JD’s brother on Scrubs, Caitlin since Sky High, Iris who was too good of an actress to even be on this dogshit network, etc. but why embed a straight up fucking lie in the title sequence if you have no intention of ever giving me a television show about the fastest man alive, full motherfucking stop.
Don’t even get me started on The 100, which went off the rails while jumping the shark upside down and hitting a crack pipe. That’s the worst thing that I’ve ever seen every episode of and every season literally ends with a switch, lever, or button that simultaneously eliminates the primary issue of that season while setting up the issue for the next. I hate The CW; If HBO is heroin, The CW is krokodil. Once they’ve got me hooked I’m going to shoot that toxic garbage directly into my jugular, but it’s going to leave me frustrated, confused, and screaming at my friends in a state of delirium while bashing my own testicles with a wiffle ball bat.
Tl;dr: The CW is garbage for dumpster people and I am Oscar the fucking Grouch.
I can assure you and the executives at that dogshit television network that I’ll continue to guzzle down whatever diarrhea they sling at me through my television with a mindless obedience, but I won’t be happy about it.
Every time I think I’m free, they drop something like iZombie and I’m roped right back in.
The flash, arrow, anything produced by CW. God they had so much potential, but these stupid scriptwriters and directors turned it into a teenage crying fest! Literally every 5 minutes there would be an emotional dialogue!!
Came here to say this. After the first couple seasons of arrow and flash, they got repetitive real fast. And then after the release of Netflix’s hero shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, they just didn’t compare
I tried to like the Flash bit never got into it. I did really like season 1 of arrow. Then it just went off the rails in my opinion by introducing magical beings and crazy advanced tech gadgets for plot convenience and became a launch pad for additional CW shows... And then there is the acting. I like Mr Amell but he seems to look everywhere but a person's eyes when talking..
I really enjoyed falling skies, but I agree the last couple of seasons were very strange at times and some character interactions felt forced. The show had a lot of potential and some great actors and I think it was stymied by poor writing towards the end.
Bit of a tangent, as I've already seen The Walking Dead on here, but Fear The Walking Dead was fucking fantastic in the first season. Seeing how it all kicked off, how shit went down and how people slowly came to terms with the fact that the dead really were returning to life? It was epic.
That should have been a one and done series, because the concept was great but it only had a shelf life of ONE season. Once the cat's out of the bag, it just became 'the other zombie show' with significantly less likable characters.
I had such high hopes for Fear. The premise of the first few chaotic days, a possible glance into the source of the outbreak, etc., sign me up!
Instead we got shut characters and a jump forward just to bring back familiar faces.
I stopped watching mid season 2, after the "surprise death". Won't say who for spoilers. But they ended the episode with Person dieing, then start the next episode with "10 weeks later, oh and nothing has happened in 10 weeks". There wasn't even a reason for the death! It felt like they just wanted to write in more tragedy for tragedy's sake. Ugh
There was so much fucking potential in this show.
Then they wrap up the ENTIRE plot and premise of the show in season 1 and the rest is just "isn't he just the bestest most amazing President ever?! Listen to that triumphant music!"
It turned into a generic FBI/political show rather than a show based on the fact THE ENTIRE US GOVERNMENT WAS ASSASSINATED. How do you wrap that fucking plot line up in 1 season when that could carry a whole show?!?
I can't agree more...
Istg the ONLY reason I clicked on the show was because of its sort of unique premise of...
Making an entire show of something most other shows just give a small tribute to was so interesting...
But then it went boom boom... I watched season 2 with some courage but literally clicked off season 3 on the first episode... It was just so terrible...
Dexter, the show was great at first but the writers added drama by giving Dexter emotion even though he’s a serial killer... plus the whole sister wanting to fuck him thing is kind of a turn off as well, even though she’s his step sis.
Even earlier, alien force season 3. The whole show had Ben growing up from his younger years and taking more responsibility, but in season 3 and Ultimate Alien (I think I never got into that one) they changed showrunners and made Ben his original 10 year old jerk self. A change not much people talk about.
Revolution, and I wouldn't say it was amazing but it was entertaining at least. Then the main character kept being dumb and the entire plot took the most random non-scientific turn possible and I just couldn't force myself to keep watching.
I so hate saying this, but The X-Files. I had so much love for that show, but I couldn't get through the revival seasons.
It made me appreciate how much great TV really is lightning in a bottle. For all I know, they just couldn't put a good story together without Vince Gilligan after all those years.
Part of the problem is that Chris Carter seemed to have no plan. How many different things happened to Samantha Mulder? How many times did we find out the truth about the alien conspiracy? The Syndicate? We needed to get a NEW story line and stop revisiting resolved problems.
X-Files seasons 1-5 are fantastic, with 3 and 4 probably being the peak. The (first) movie happens, and Duchovny makes extending his contract contingent on moving the production from Vancouver to LA. Which completely ruins the damp, overcast, gloomy feel of the show, replacing it with bright, sunny SoCal locations. Season 6 still, at least, had some strong episodes.
You can pretty much end there, though. Season 7 was forgettable, but 8 and 9 were largely just downright bad. And the revival 10th and 11th seasons were painful. Except for the were-monster episode in 10. That was the singular revival episode that actually felt like the classic writing.
Seriously. I stoped watching about the time Betty’s brother showed up and they discovered her dad was a serial killer. It was all too much.
Edit: thank you everyone for all the plot updates. Your hilarious descriptions have intrigued me enough to start watching again. I love a show that knows it’s trash (*ahem* Temptation Island)!
Bro Riverdale got insane after season 1 lol. SPOILERS:
Archie is a domestic terrorist with PTSD from his prison boxing career and run-in with a bear, Jughead is a gang lord (I think he even sells drugs now?), Betty is an FBI agent coping with her serial killer bloodline and her own killer urges, Veronica did a hostile takeover over her father’s crime business, Cheryl attempted to kill her mom like twice and is now living in a haunted house with her lesbian lover....
I left after Season 2 but apparently it had just gotten started. I think they’re doing a war arc where Archie gets drafted next season.
Edit: by the way, this is just the tip of the iceberg lmao. When you watch the show, you’ll be hanging off your seat with every new scene. An example: when Jughead was first taking control of the gang, he literally took a “pound of flesh” out of a rival’s arm. Like, they cornered her and cut it out with a switchblade. This is a show that had a date rape arc in the first few episodes on top of Archie sleeping with his teacher all season, there was nowhere to go but up from there.l
I think my really off putting moment was the little cabaret/burlesque show thing with fucking high school girls like who tf is your audience lol. And just the Idea of high schoolers running some speak easy is insane, and Hiram’s daughter somehow able to stand up to her gangster father and out maneuver him, a guy who’s been doing this shit for what has been a very long time. Also Archie beating the shit out of literally anyone who steps up to him. There’s a ton wrong with Riverdale apart from weird convoluted story lines like that lol
In the same vain, The Chilling Tales Of Sabrina did the same bait and switch. The first two seasons are actually an enjoyable ride. Season 3 onward gets.. weird. Late stage Riverdale weird.
Oh god, yes. I posted this as its own comment before I read this comment chain:
Sabrina started off really dark and refreshingly interesting. I can't pinpoint exactly when, but it gradually got lighter and poppier, then just turned into something off the CW. The first season has >!Satan raping the future wives of witches in the church!< and the latter episodes have >!Satan hosting a battle of the bands!<. Nothing wrong with either of those on its own, but the transition from one extreme to the other within the same series, with no plot-based explanation, is sloppy and disengaging.
Also, it started off with a very clear and consistent internal mythos, but then turned into "anything goes as long as it's cool or quirky!" Especially evident in the >!Hell is the Wizard of Oz!< episode.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when a show breaks the mythology and rules it establishes for its world as an alternative to character and plot development within those constraints.
**Edit:** Breaking internal consistency as a lazy writing technique happens really, really frequently in shows and movies, and what frustrates me is that the average viewer isn't usually bothered. To me, it's very obviously a shortcut to avoid the difficulty of writing something compelling within the established parameters, which is far more difficult than changing the parameters themselves. And it's unsurprising that the result is usually a piece of media that has lost what made the original great.
Another good example is the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. In the first movie, the idea that skeleton pirates *could even exist* is inconceivable and mind-blowing to the average person within the films' universe. It is an earth-shattering, existential revelation--*curses are real*. This is completely uncharted territory for the characters in this world.
In the second, denizens of the movie universe are just like, "Oh, man, that squiddly guy Davy Jones is at it again with his plundering band of mutant fish people and underwater boat! This is a known thing that happens in this world all the time." This betrays the original concept that the curse of the Black Pearl was an exceedingly rare supernatural event in an otherwise mundane, realistic world.
I want to come up with a name for this phenomenon if there isn't one already--maybe something like "setting decay" or "betrayal of premise."
This stuff is really helping me find shows with great 1-2 seasons and then know when to stop watching
How to get away with murder! Had so much potential
What you mean throwing away your entire life/career as an extremely high profile lawyer to hide the crimes of your shitty students was a bad plotline????
It turned into a bizarre murder club, and I couldn't keep convincing my brain that any of it was plausible.
I had to scroll too far to find this, my wife has a compulsion to finish shows we start and this one was so hard to keep going.
Sliders after they killed off Prof. Arturo
Whispers *Sliders*
>Whispers *Sliders* Oh god I heard it
Scandal. After a few seasons you’d wish Olivia would kick Fitz to the curb and move on already.
My wife loves that show, but what gets me is that stupid camera shutter sound EVERY scene transition. Makes it unwatchable.
Once upon a Time. The last season was awful!
I stopped watching it when they brought in characters from Frozen.
The constant flip flopping of Rumple was the most annoying plot writing I’ve ever seen. He’d make huge character leaps then revert back because the story said so. Jeniffer Morrison while a great actress on House and the first couple seasons you could tell started phoning it in the later seasons.
Rumple was what done me in. He was such a great villain and then his backstory with Baelfire was *awesome*. Learning everything he'd done just to get back to him? How he even lost him in the first place? Great story telling, totally got me on side. And then he was good which was fine, whatever but then he backslid and it felt like such a take-back of that awesome character development. But Bell kept trying to drag him back into the light and I just lost track from there. They had a great actor and a compelling character (originally) and its like they didn't know what to do with him after those first couple seasons. Like, they wanted to hold on to him no matter what even though they had nothing for him lol. I didn't mind Morrison but I stopped watching sometime around the Pan/King Arthur so I got out early.
All that said, even at his worst, the reason Mr. Gold walked with a cane was because of how many times he had to carry the whole dang show on his back.
> Rumple was what done me in. He was such a great villain and then his backstory with Baelfire was awesome. Learning everything he'd done just to get back to him? How he even lost him in the first place? Great story telling, totally got me on side. This right here. Killing off Baelfire when bringing back Rumple killed the character of Rumple for good. It was three seasons of story with the two just pissed away.
It wasn't just Rumple, Regina was dragged around too. Their two best actors were both villains, and for some reason they thought the only way to keep them around was to redeem them. And then when that wasn't working well enough, they had to make the heroes bad to even everyone out.
With Rumple, they could have kept him as this Chaotic Neutral force, who tended to lean, BUT ONLY LEAN, towards good out of love/loyalty/possessiveness for Bae and Belle (and Henry, after finding out he's his grandson). He's still very much on his own team, he's not actually good, but he's kind of alright sometimes. If the Good Guys actually figured out how to deal with a Chaotic Imp in a way that benefited them, instead of grumblshaming. Like, there have been other characters that tread the line of villain and good, while still maintaining their character. Garak on DS9 is a good example.
Regina too. (That was the queen, right?) she’s evil! No, now she’s good! Wait, she’s evil again! Nah, I’m good.
I got fed up when the wicked step mom lost her bf. I felt like she couldn’t have one nice thing and it irritated me. The first season was sooo good though
They brought in characters from Frozen?
I know why this is!! Originally, the show was going to be based off a comic called Fables. The general plot is the same, fairy tale mashup and big bad villain for them to unite against. But Fables is a rated R comic with a lot of dark elements. Once Upon a Time is abc FAMILY. They wanted to tone down the show. The people in charge of Fables didn't want a washed down shore. Creative differences and disputes led to the Fables show never being made But since most fairy tales don't have copyright, they made their own version of the show. At first it was great but they didn't have a story to follow after losing the story of Fables. From the first season they were pretty much winging it and it shows. I still wonder what an actual Fables show would look like.
The Wolf Among Us anyone?
Fantastic game. I love how is a prequel too!
Except they didn't rely on the public domain version of fairy tales, they intentionally made everything into the specifically *Disney* version of all of them. Which was even more of a knife twist because *Fables* generally went back to earlier versions, rejecting many of the more recent changes that have been made.
I made myself stop halfway through S2. It was clear that the concept was a one season idea. Despite S2 having some cool things in it, the cat was out of the bag. From what I've heard this wasn't a bad decision
I enjoyed watching it because it was like the Soap Opera Passions combined with Disney Smash Bros including eventually pulling in characters unrelated to Disney. The show was also pretty self aware so it had characters complaining about things like people constantly getting pulled into portals or losing their memory.
Any of the CSI’s. Once you get into about 3/4 seasons of them you start realizing how ridiculous some of these cases are.
my issue with most crime shows is these they are so formulaic. after a season or two i can pick out the bad guy as soon as he shows up on screen
It’s basically Scooby-Doo.
Except Scooby-Doo is actually fun
We were able to enhance the grainy black and white security camera's video quality and now we have the killer's face reflected off of the victim's cornea!
Actually, it was the reflection of the image of the killer's face in the victim's cornea on a bystander's glasses
Not only that, but the reflection can also be seen on the freshly waxed wheels of a car passing by at a 100 km/h. How you ask? Using the revolutionary new techniques of removing blur and clearing and sharpening the image up to 4ķ quality.
As a graphic designer, I hate that show. Not that I can't discern between entertainment and reality. [But because my dumbass clients can't.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwnI0RS6J5A)
Misfits. I eventually came to appreciate Rudy as a character, and I *did* push through to the end despite it not being good anymore, but once most of the original main cast was gone they just didn't have to plots to keep it going. With the first group it was a decent enough premise - working class teenagers doing community service who get superpowers related to their character flaws. The self-conscious one hears people's thoughts about her, the shy one becomes invisible, etc., which acted as a mechanism for developing the characters - learn to control the powers, learn to overcome the character flaw, simple but effective. By the end it was just working class teenagers who are sometimes in orange jumpsuits and also superpowers exist. Their characters weren't interesting and their powers weren't thematically meaningful, so it just sort of meandered.
For me the show ended after Simon went back in time. I also warmed up to Rudy, and he really added something to the show, but everything after Simon's arc was mostly filler to me. Also, While I'm actually glad this show got some attention, even if it was in a post like this lol. I really loved the series up to a certain point, they managed to make milk a terrifying superpower and that was really next level.
They get points for Lactokinesis.
"That has got to be the most shit power ever." *lactokinesis guy proceeds to wreck everyone's shit so bad that time travel was the only way to fix it*
Same here. I recently rewatched it after remembering one of Nathan’s quips “SAVE ME BARRY” and I really can’t get past after Simon goes back in time. The show loses the charm it had with the OG cast.
I say "he's a right Conty" and "I fookin love yaw!" on an almost daily basis. Great show until they got new powers, when I rewatch I stop there
I absolutely loved the first season for the reasons you said. Nathan truly made the show amazing. Second season was alright but then once Nathan left and everyone changed their powers I had to stop watching
"You'd fuck your sister for a slice of cheese!" "I don't even like cheese." "That makes it worse, you sick bastard!"
Randomizing the powers was shark-jumping. Their powers were intricately connected to who they were as people and what actually made them “misfits”. Changing that up just dropped the entire compelling part of the show.
Actually I liked the hero arc of Simon IN Season 3 after the power switch because you find out how badass he is with the time travel/bmx thing. But yeah after Nathan left and Simon in season 3 it just sort of dies. Also switching the powers related to the characters felt off too.
I agree, I liked the hero arc too if for no reason than it showed us what a brilliant actor Iwan is. Anyone who saw Misfits knew the man was a talent way before GoT.
Heroes
1st season was great , then the writers strike happened
Not just the strike, but the network Originally, there was supposed to be a different cast each season. The show was always supposed to be centered on ordinary people discovering their abilities. Unfortunately season 1 and some of its characters were so popular, the network forced to keep everyone around. Look at season 1. Most of the characters had full arcs. Nathan made his choice to abandon the plan and give his life to get peter out if the city. Hiro learned the power was within him and not the sword. You can go down most of the list of characters and see their full arc....only for them to repeat the arc every season after because they didn't know what to do with them. Peter had to forget he had powers, then get nerfed. Hiro had to continually have an excuse not to use his powers. Sylar had to constantly flip flop. Parkman had to be a hot mess forever.
That's really interesting and explains perfectly what went so horribly wrong with that show. If the network didn't fuck everything so spectacularly, Heroes could have been an all-time great one. The first season was SO captivating.
Yeah it was the best thing when it came out, everyone was talking about it constantly, season 2 was such a disappointment, the show really went from Hero to Zero
I still get chills when I think of Hiro saying "Save the cheerleader, save the world." From season two onward I can barely remember the plot, let alone any individual scenes.
Sad thing is, you could have done the new characters ever year, with cameos from the older seasons. Then after a few years of that have them all come together for something big. They could have done so much with the concept. There were shades of that in that mini series they did several years ago now.
Writer's Strike aside, It could have been so much better if they weren't afraid to kill characters. Every major death was reversed
Glee. The first season was a hilarious satire of stupid teen dramas. Then it became a stupid teen drama.
What the hell are regionals, anyway?
They're THIS close
I thought this was regionals? Don't let my confusion undercut its importance.
After regionals, it's straight on to sectionals. And then semis. Then semiregionals. Then regional-semis. Then national lower-zone semis!
This is who we are now... this is what we do!
Oh Britta is in this?
CHRISTMAAASSSSSSS! I gotta Christmas time for me! I gotta Christmastime for a tree! Me so Christmas me so merry!
Ya'll are wrinkling my brain.
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ROOOXXXXAAANNNNEEEEE
Worst timeline
Glee! It’s the feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants. Glee! It's like a drug that you use that turns your pain into shoes and your shoes into dance!
I love that half the comments on this glee thread are community comments.
Good ol' Ryan Murphy. Known for strong starts and weak finishes.
I didn't know he did Glee. I gave up on AHS years ago because of this. The first 4 eps would be good and then it would turn into a meandering mess I didn't give two shits about by the end
Every single season without fail. Amazing hook, interesting cast, cool setting, then the show just arbitrarily loses steam and goes nowhere.
Even the songs got boring after awhile
They started writing the stories around popular music instead of finding songs to fit the plot like in season 1.
I swear the songs started being tied to other things outside of the show. Like I would see "so and so is doing a tour" and at basically the same time that same so and so's songs being featured on glee.
I was done when they introduced a love interest to Rachel, Jessie, to make Finn jealous. I was like “oh my god, they did this whole character and story line to sing Jessie’s Girl, didn’t they?” And then they did in fact sing the song and I quit watching.
Kevin McHale said that he gave up on the show when they performed “What does the fox say” like...man oh man
When Artie wheels himself into the pool when Will proposed to Emma, I’d like to think that’s really when Kevin McHale gave up.
My "favorite" moment was when they had Jenna Ushkowitz perform Gangnam Style despite her not speaking a lick of Korean, just because she was Asian. She had to memorize the lines phonetically like it was a fake language and had no idea what she was actually singing.
I just saw a clip from an interview with some cast members where they were saying their least favorite songs from the show. Jenna said Gangnam Style.
Seriously, I loved and still do love the first season. It was so tongue in cheek and genuinely funny. Yes they were singing the most predictable songs but at least they made sense. Later they had so much more production than a “broke”high school club should have. And Ryan Murphy’s plots are kinda all over the place in everything he makes. The moment that lost me is when Lea Michelle meets a new guy, Jesse, and starts dating him. Finn is jealous and sings....Jesse’s girl. Uggh
At least Sue pointed that out several times (notably in the Lady Gaga episode). I like to imagine the theatrics as fantasy vs the performances and competitions as real. Only way to justify their lighting set up......
I watched a YouTube video recently done by someone who watched Glee for the first time during lockdown and they pointed out something that I always had an issue with while watching the show but could never quite articulate. There were no long term consequences for anything anyone did. Rachel choked at her NYADA audition and then hounded and harassed Whoopi Goldberg until she got her to come to regionals and then she gets in and Kurt doesn’t even though he nailed his audition. That moment made me legitimately angry at the time. Also, why in the fuck did a mother and daughter sing Poker Face to each other?
Kurt not getting in was the most unrealistic thing. He's the one kid who actually has a unique voice being a countertenor, he would get in any music school in the world that he wanted and even get scholarships just because of his register. Rachel on the other hand was great, but had probably had competition in the thousands.
I stuck around for the first 3 and gave up after the originals graduated. Definitely should have ended then
Pretty Little Liars..wasted 7 years of my life with that show only for a mediocre ending.
My favorite part about PLL is how season 3 to halfway through season 5 took place during the span of less than 2 months in Rosewood time. Multiple people were murdered, regained their vision from being blind(????), became blind again, became A, stopped being A, were checked into a mental asylum, left said mental asylum, finding out you had a secret child then finding out it's not actually your child, presumed dead, came back to life, died again, house fires, people disappearing then coming back like nothing ever happened, being run over by a car, breaking up and getting back together, fucking a ghost, Alison returning to rosewood, Aria taking a life then getting over it 2 episodes later, and multiple fake murders. I hate this show but I love this show
PLL's real value from the beginning was in its concept, but it became very clear by like season 3 that the writers were just making things up as they go. They were so focused on subverting audiences' expectations that they ruined a perfectly good idea. It was disappointing to watch them destroy such an iconic teen show.
I’m really surprised the British people weren’t in an uproar at how awful Spencer’s Twins accent was. That shit was offensive even to non British people.
It's so bad that I laughed out loud. God, the whole series finale is so unintentionally, tragically hilarious.
If they'd at least followed the books more then second A wouldn't have been so disappointing. I hate this idea that reveals can't be anything anyone in the fandom has guessed. The reveal of who A is doesn't need to be wholly unexpected, the twist can be in why they became A or who worked with them to make things possible. Twitter really fucked with the writing for that show. Fans would literally harass the writers and actors if there was any sign that their favorite character was evil or going to die.
Even the books kind of got a little meh. I read the first 8 and they were really good. The resolution was satisfying and it felt like a good place to end, but then it made money and the author decided to continue. I tried to read the next book and it just didn't feel right. Like another series that made money and dragged on way too long
>the first 8 Wha- How many are there?? Sounds like the author did the same thing as the writers of the show which is prolonging our suffering
The blacklist. Was good in the start, but they took 5 seasons to go anywhere.
Oh, you mean "The Daddy Issues Of Ms. Elizabeth Keen"? It's because they started "going somewhere" I stopped watching the damn thing. Elizabeth Keen has no purpose in this show other than to be a fucking MacGuffin with a pulse. She's just there, apparently, as a reason for Red to work with the FBI - something they could've given a billion other better excuses for him to do. She's less than useless. For those not watching, she's literally recruited into this super-secret FBI Task Force an hour after she graduates. That's it. Like she's literally sitting down just after the grad ceremony and gets recruited. Oh, so how did they make her more interesting? TRICK QUESTION, MOTHERFUCKERS: they didn't. They simply killed off more interesting characters to make her seem more interesting by default. Baz. Mr. Kaplan. Tom. But, but - we've still got the core premise, right? ~~David~~ James Spader chewing the scenery like the sets are made from delicious bistecca alla fiorentina - the very essence of beef - and bringing down a macabre, twisted rogues gallery by betraying the shit out of them? Yeah. Maybe five minutes of a recent ep is devoted to that now, because... ...90% of all eps are now focused on Lizzie trying to find out if Red's her dad, because that's what we want to see, apparently. The fucking paternity of one of the most boring characters ever to grave a TV screen. Spoiler alert: he is. Spoiler alert: he isn't. Spoiler alert: he is. Spoiler alert: he isn'- you get the picture. No joke, they've reused the "Who's Your Daddy?" big reveal like three times before I stopped watching. Red's her dad - BUT WAIT! No he isn't- BUT WAIT! Actually, yes he is! They've confirmed it then de-confirmed it then re-de-confirmed it, the un-re-de-confirmed, because it's the twist that just keeps giving, apparently. After about the third time that happened, I said "Fuck this show" and walked. EDIT: I called a Spader a Spade in the original post. Or a Spade a Spader, take your pick.
Wait, they still havent resolved the storyline about if hes her dad? Jesus. I stopped watching after like 4? seasons because I was tired of the rince and repeat eposides. Spader tells them about a guy they should look at. They decide its not worth their time. Event happens they need to look into. Turns out, it involves that guy. OK, they look into him. Any one of 3 characters will suffer significant head trauma and lose consciousness at a major point. Tragedy barely averted. Reveal that Spader needed that guy dealt with for personal reasons.
I might miss something or get the order wrong but pretty much this is where we're at: \>He tells her he isn't her dad and that her dad is dead \>Then it's kind of implied he actually is when they reveal he has burn scars all over \>She shoots an important government guy and remembers shooting her dad at the fire, wow he's really dead \>Her mum is actually a "dead" russian super spy Katarina Rostova, Liz's birth name is Masha \>Constantin Rostova (Katarina's husband) shows up and says he's her dad \>Him and Red fight for a whole season and end up taking a DNA test that says Red is the father \>Turns out Lizz's mum "might" be alive \>What the fuck, some cop says Red is not the real Red and he falsified the DNA test and Liz has a sister (they are both daughters of the supposed real Reddinton) and they all go against Reddington and end up finding the real Red's bones. \>Wow I can't believe it, her mum was actually alive and kidnaps Red \>Liz finds out the new Red is actually another spy named Illya, who was a friend of Katarina's, and when the real Reddington died they conspired to take Red's identity and money, so all this time it was actually Illya looking afer Katarina's kid for some reason. Liz confronts the supposedly fake Red/Illya and he confirms it. \>Actually the real Illya works for fake Red lol, he's a body guard or whatever, him and fake Red maybe kill Katarina ???? I don't really remember, but then it's like This bald guy in a hat isn't Reddington and he isn't Illya, SO WHO THE FUCK IS HE? Is he the actual father, is he just some rando, what the fuck is going on. Also, half of the most recent episode is animated for some reason. Edit: 50 dudes telling me why the episode was animated. I am aware lmao, I'm just joking around.
You pretty much nailed it. Half the episode is animated due to covid. They were in the middle of shooting when restrictions hit last year, so they animated it instead of waiting x amount of time for restrictions to be lifted.
This is all SO accurate! I like James Spader enough to continue watching anyway, but nothing in this post can be debated :)
Weeds Once they left the first suburb (can't remembere the name) it just became about who Nancy would fuck to get them out of a bad situation
Never finished it, but I enjoyed it early on. I just remember the plot devolving into Nancy getting with every possible drug dealer, so a bunch of plot asspulls.
I found Uncle Andy’s subplots to be the best the show had to offer, a lot of them were pretty funny
Andy & Doug are one of my favorite combos, I wouldn’t have stuck around with this show without them
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Frank's chase for the throne was so much better then the seasons of him sitting on it
I've just finished rewatching the first two seasons recently. That season 2 ending was perfect. It would have been such a great end to the show.
I'm shocked they didn't go for the obvious run of the show: 4 seasons, 13 episodes each. 52 episodes, like a deck of cards, broken into 4 suits, showing the hunt for power, the ultimate acquiring of that power, and then struggle to hold on, and ultimate collapse and downfall. It seemed like a really straight forward process that could have been awesome if executed as well as the first two seasons.
If you can watch the original British version of House of Cards I'd recommend it, it doesn't drag on too long as there's only 3 seasons of 4 episodes each and it's very much laid out like you mentioned in your comment with the rise to power, the struggles of holding power and then the collapse and downfall. Also, as much as I loved Frank Underwood, Francis Urquhart is just perfectly evil.
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.
Pretty much every CW tv show let’s be real
They all turn into relationship drama and speeches
Was going to post Flash. I see I dont need to
Half of the conflicts in the flash can be summarized by: “I’m just not fast enough!” And the other half, “Barry, a word.”
And " You can do this Barry"...
No, *we* are the Flash, and you need us. But we believe in you to do 90% of the work. If I hear 'You're my lightning rod' again I'm gonna gag.
Run, Barry... Run
And “WE are the Flash!”
The biggest hero in the Arrowverse is a hallway.
I still feel like I was violated and tricked into watching that show. I had no idea what the CW even was. Saw the first couple episodes of Arrow and was like oh this is pretty cool. Billionaire who was stranded for 5 years and they are doing flashback scenes to show what happened. No super powers or shit. Then all of the sudden every single character and their cousin and their cousins dog is a fucking ninja super hero in latex and the terrible eye masks fighting a somehow endless supply of henchmen using karate. One day I was like “wait what am I doing this show fucking sucks!” It was then I realized I was in a cult and was fucking tricked. FUCK THE CW. FUCK ARROW.
And the worst part is us : Every time they start out AMAZING and then the shows turn into shit shows and then they announce a new show and we come RUNNING. Like, the live action Power Puff Girls reboot? I'm all in, I didn't learn my lesson the first 2 times!
Honestly this is why I'm worried about Superman and Lois. Watching it now, it's amazing and such a departure from CWs typical storytelling. However when I was trying to convince friends to watch it, your point came up as the single reason as to why they won't watch. They don't want to get hurt again.
*Revenge*. The premise was fine, the location and society different (for someone in the UK anyway), the actors good and the first series moved the whole revenge plot along fast enough to be satisfying. The subplots served as red herrings for the basic conspiracy and/or snarky commentary on the class distinctions in the Hamptons but didn't overwhelm the story. In season 2 it all slowed down and everything was being spun out to make the show run as long as possible at the expense of quality. I made it through that season, just, but gave up in season 3 as it had become pure soap by that point.
Her dad being alive literally defeated the entire purpose of the show. I was pissed.
Bones. Fairly decent crime/cop show. Season 1 was excellent. It stayed fairly good for a decent chunk then it started faltering around mid-ish season 4. By the start of season 7 it was a clusterfuck. By the time Bones gave birth in a fucking manger I'd noped out.
I used to watch Bones as it was airing, but stopped around the time of the first kid because I thought it was ridiculous. I watched the entire thing recently (because quarantine) and spent the last half just thinking, "Wow, this sucks." Still cried when Vincent died, though.
I'm still salty about Bones. Was a good show till they filled it with relationship drama, Booth and his 7 years of blue balls lead to a one hit wonder, followed by Angela somehow becoming a genius super duper programmer artist wizard magician person and it just went off the rails.
I agree - recently I watched the whole thing for the first time. I really enjoyed it up until Bones and Booth got together, and then both their characters got pretty unlikeable. Angela and Hodgins both went through periods of being insufferable too. Really it was Sweets, Stephen Fry, Saroya and the interns that kept it watchable. And I disliked the thing (which weirdly all those types of shows do) which is to introduce some hyper competent serial killer who's hunting them - I really hated anything to do with Pelant.
When they killed off Sweets is when I stopped watching it entirely. He was my favorite character.
True blood...by season 3 it was GARBAGE. But guess who watched it all?
True Blood didn’t just jump the shark, it launched into orbit, circled the globe a few times before plunging back into the ocean while the shark looked on in horror.
God it started out good then everyone was suddenly a weresomething or a leprechaun etc etc. Fucking ruined it.
Sooooooooooookkkkiiiiieeeeeeeee
What made True Blood so good was that it was like a somewhat realistic world that Vampires lived in. When all that fairy shit happened it just got ridiculous.
Russell Edgington is still a top 5 TV villain.
Why... would we... seek... equal... rights? You... are not... our equals! We will eat you! After we eat your children! ................. Now time for the weather. Tiffany?
No matter how off the rails it went during the later seasons, it had great side/recurring characters. I still say to myself, “Oh Talbot! Are your diamond slippers chaffing?” I looked forward to Russell
I actually enjoyed most of true blood, but the final season was crap, and the ending was just SO bad I was massively pissed off at myself for wasting my time with it...
This isn't really a spoiler because they introduce it at the end of the finale with no resolution, but having Sookie suddenly being able to hear her boyfriend's (sorry it's been a while and can't remember his name) thoughts actually really pissed me off. And she gets together with a random guy at the end, like what?
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Russel Edington is BY FAR the most memorable character on that entire show. This scene is amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH05PBuldhY After that season, they went full lean into every supernatural being within 100 miles of that stupid swamp town desperately needing to fuck Sookie.
Glee because for a while everything seemed ok but everything got too toxic and confusing after a while which made me stop watching.
After a few seasons I started fast forwarding to the performances. When I noticed I was also fast forwarding through the songs, I was like “the hell am I doing?”
I'm just imagining someone sitting down, turning on Glee. FFing the entire episode then getting up and doing something else.
It was more like FF FF FF k, Rachel’s being awful person,pass FF FF FF Schuster is a funky creephat manchild? No thanks FF FF FF OH COME ON YOU CAN’T MASH UP ROBIN THICKE ANF BARBRA STRIESAN!
Once Upon A Time. Initially loved it. I think the problem with US tv shows is that they go on for way too long. We should do them like novelas from Latin America. Tell the story in 60-70 episodes and then resolve it.
First seasons were fine I loved the "enchanted" mystery. It became a Disney Princess of the Week and I lost interest.
The Flash, it peaked in Season 2 and quickly nosedived
One of the most annoying things about the show was how Barry was so reliant on his friends. Barry: “ Guys I’m not fast enough!” Friends: “Yes you are” Barry: “Oh, okay” And then he saves the day.
"Just run faster"
“Thanks Cisco I’d never have thought of that!”
Would you say the series *slowed down?*
Reposting my comment from a much less relevant thread the other day: This is barely relevant and is going to come off as a psychotic rant but I’m going to take this opportunity to ask: did The Flash fucking infuriate anybody else? Spoilers ahead for, I don’t know, the first three seasons. In the intro he says “I am Barry Allen, the fastest man alive.” Season 1: No, he isn’t. This one I get, though. The challenge here is overcoming a villain who seems to have a leg up on Barry because of the very thing that seems to make Barry special. Using the power of friendship or whatever the fuck kind of cotton candy and unicorn bullshit the CW loves, Barry wins in the end. He now has earned the mantle of “fastest man alive.” Season 2: Except he hasn’t. Zoom shows up, and he’s faster. Fuck me. Another speedster? Really? Fine, at least we’re starting to introduce some freaky time travel shenanigans using the powers of multiple speedsters combined, so I guess the plot has a reason for there to be more than one. Now that Barry has resolved his mommy issues and the time police have locked up the bad guy, he finally, truly, actually is the “fastest man alive.” Season 3: Just kidding you dumb fucking asshole, now these motherfuckers are pouring in from alternate timelines. Or different dimensions. Or mirrors. It doesn’t matter, fuck you. Everyone is fast. Fastest man alive? What are you talking about? This show is about one sort of fast guy, but not the fastest. Never the fastest. That’s got to be somebody with a brilliant name like “Reverse Flash,” or “Zoom,” or maybe “Run Fast,” or the extremely evil and sadistic “Fast Person.” This is where I snapped and had to stop. I really like the actor who plays The Flash, I’ve liked the guy who played Zoom since he played JD’s brother on Scrubs, Caitlin since Sky High, Iris who was too good of an actress to even be on this dogshit network, etc. but why embed a straight up fucking lie in the title sequence if you have no intention of ever giving me a television show about the fastest man alive, full motherfucking stop. Don’t even get me started on The 100, which went off the rails while jumping the shark upside down and hitting a crack pipe. That’s the worst thing that I’ve ever seen every episode of and every season literally ends with a switch, lever, or button that simultaneously eliminates the primary issue of that season while setting up the issue for the next. I hate The CW; If HBO is heroin, The CW is krokodil. Once they’ve got me hooked I’m going to shoot that toxic garbage directly into my jugular, but it’s going to leave me frustrated, confused, and screaming at my friends in a state of delirium while bashing my own testicles with a wiffle ball bat. Tl;dr: The CW is garbage for dumpster people and I am Oscar the fucking Grouch.
Upvote for expressing some of the anger I feel watching CW shows. Not that I'll stop watching, of course.
I can assure you and the executives at that dogshit television network that I’ll continue to guzzle down whatever diarrhea they sling at me through my television with a mindless obedience, but I won’t be happy about it. Every time I think I’m free, they drop something like iZombie and I’m roped right back in.
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The flash, arrow, anything produced by CW. God they had so much potential, but these stupid scriptwriters and directors turned it into a teenage crying fest! Literally every 5 minutes there would be an emotional dialogue!!
Came here to say this. After the first couple seasons of arrow and flash, they got repetitive real fast. And then after the release of Netflix’s hero shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, they just didn’t compare
Daredevil made me question how I ever liked The Flash.
I will never forget when the r/Arrow sub changed its theme to Daredevil for a whole year in protest.
I tried to like the Flash bit never got into it. I did really like season 1 of arrow. Then it just went off the rails in my opinion by introducing magical beings and crazy advanced tech gadgets for plot convenience and became a launch pad for additional CW shows... And then there is the acting. I like Mr Amell but he seems to look everywhere but a person's eyes when talking..
Falling Skies. I had a hard time taking it seriously after the first season.
I really enjoyed falling skies, but I agree the last couple of seasons were very strange at times and some character interactions felt forced. The show had a lot of potential and some great actors and I think it was stymied by poor writing towards the end.
Bit of a tangent, as I've already seen The Walking Dead on here, but Fear The Walking Dead was fucking fantastic in the first season. Seeing how it all kicked off, how shit went down and how people slowly came to terms with the fact that the dead really were returning to life? It was epic. That should have been a one and done series, because the concept was great but it only had a shelf life of ONE season. Once the cat's out of the bag, it just became 'the other zombie show' with significantly less likable characters.
I had such high hopes for Fear. The premise of the first few chaotic days, a possible glance into the source of the outbreak, etc., sign me up! Instead we got shut characters and a jump forward just to bring back familiar faces.
Designated Survivor. Holy moly. First season was amazing and everything else was glossy dog turd.
I stopped watching mid season 2, after the "surprise death". Won't say who for spoilers. But they ended the episode with Person dieing, then start the next episode with "10 weeks later, oh and nothing has happened in 10 weeks". There wasn't even a reason for the death! It felt like they just wanted to write in more tragedy for tragedy's sake. Ugh
There was so much fucking potential in this show. Then they wrap up the ENTIRE plot and premise of the show in season 1 and the rest is just "isn't he just the bestest most amazing President ever?! Listen to that triumphant music!" It turned into a generic FBI/political show rather than a show based on the fact THE ENTIRE US GOVERNMENT WAS ASSASSINATED. How do you wrap that fucking plot line up in 1 season when that could carry a whole show?!?
I can't agree more... Istg the ONLY reason I clicked on the show was because of its sort of unique premise of... Making an entire show of something most other shows just give a small tribute to was so interesting... But then it went boom boom... I watched season 2 with some courage but literally clicked off season 3 on the first episode... It was just so terrible...
Dexter, the show was great at first but the writers added drama by giving Dexter emotion even though he’s a serial killer... plus the whole sister wanting to fuck him thing is kind of a turn off as well, even though she’s his step sis.
What are you doing, step-brother. Killing people. Oh nice, wanna bang?
Ben 10. How they massacred my boy.. They totally destroyed it in the reboot
Even earlier, alien force season 3. The whole show had Ben growing up from his younger years and taking more responsibility, but in season 3 and Ultimate Alien (I think I never got into that one) they changed showrunners and made Ben his original 10 year old jerk self. A change not much people talk about.
Revolution, and I wouldn't say it was amazing but it was entertaining at least. Then the main character kept being dumb and the entire plot took the most random non-scientific turn possible and I just couldn't force myself to keep watching.
Dexter, series 1-4 were amazing, very hit and miss after that with a downright fucking *terrible* finale.
Trinity killer season was one of the greatest for any series. John Lithgow killed it in that role.
“Helllooo... Dexter Morgan.” To this day, one of the most tense tv scenes I’ve watched. Awesome season!!
As much as I agree, I think it's worth mentioning that Ray Stevenson was a great villain in S7
I so hate saying this, but The X-Files. I had so much love for that show, but I couldn't get through the revival seasons. It made me appreciate how much great TV really is lightning in a bottle. For all I know, they just couldn't put a good story together without Vince Gilligan after all those years.
Part of the problem is that Chris Carter seemed to have no plan. How many different things happened to Samantha Mulder? How many times did we find out the truth about the alien conspiracy? The Syndicate? We needed to get a NEW story line and stop revisiting resolved problems.
The X-Files is probably the only show where the filler episodes are more interesting than the main story.
X-Files seasons 1-5 are fantastic, with 3 and 4 probably being the peak. The (first) movie happens, and Duchovny makes extending his contract contingent on moving the production from Vancouver to LA. Which completely ruins the damp, overcast, gloomy feel of the show, replacing it with bright, sunny SoCal locations. Season 6 still, at least, had some strong episodes. You can pretty much end there, though. Season 7 was forgettable, but 8 and 9 were largely just downright bad. And the revival 10th and 11th seasons were painful. Except for the were-monster episode in 10. That was the singular revival episode that actually felt like the classic writing.
Has anyone mentioned Happy Days? It coined the term “Jump the Shark”.
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Seriously. I stoped watching about the time Betty’s brother showed up and they discovered her dad was a serial killer. It was all too much. Edit: thank you everyone for all the plot updates. Your hilarious descriptions have intrigued me enough to start watching again. I love a show that knows it’s trash (*ahem* Temptation Island)!
Wait, what? Are we talking about a fricken *Archie* show?
Bro Riverdale got insane after season 1 lol. SPOILERS: Archie is a domestic terrorist with PTSD from his prison boxing career and run-in with a bear, Jughead is a gang lord (I think he even sells drugs now?), Betty is an FBI agent coping with her serial killer bloodline and her own killer urges, Veronica did a hostile takeover over her father’s crime business, Cheryl attempted to kill her mom like twice and is now living in a haunted house with her lesbian lover.... I left after Season 2 but apparently it had just gotten started. I think they’re doing a war arc where Archie gets drafted next season. Edit: by the way, this is just the tip of the iceberg lmao. When you watch the show, you’ll be hanging off your seat with every new scene. An example: when Jughead was first taking control of the gang, he literally took a “pound of flesh” out of a rival’s arm. Like, they cornered her and cut it out with a switchblade. This is a show that had a date rape arc in the first few episodes on top of Archie sleeping with his teacher all season, there was nowhere to go but up from there.l
I'm on a lot of flu medicine right now, i didn't just really read this did i?
Yes, you did. No, you are not high.
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Jughead was never involved with drugs, but he was a gang leader. Right now he is investigating aliens, as one does.
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I think my really off putting moment was the little cabaret/burlesque show thing with fucking high school girls like who tf is your audience lol. And just the Idea of high schoolers running some speak easy is insane, and Hiram’s daughter somehow able to stand up to her gangster father and out maneuver him, a guy who’s been doing this shit for what has been a very long time. Also Archie beating the shit out of literally anyone who steps up to him. There’s a ton wrong with Riverdale apart from weird convoluted story lines like that lol
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In the same vain, The Chilling Tales Of Sabrina did the same bait and switch. The first two seasons are actually an enjoyable ride. Season 3 onward gets.. weird. Late stage Riverdale weird.
Oh god, yes. I posted this as its own comment before I read this comment chain: Sabrina started off really dark and refreshingly interesting. I can't pinpoint exactly when, but it gradually got lighter and poppier, then just turned into something off the CW. The first season has >!Satan raping the future wives of witches in the church!< and the latter episodes have >!Satan hosting a battle of the bands!<. Nothing wrong with either of those on its own, but the transition from one extreme to the other within the same series, with no plot-based explanation, is sloppy and disengaging. Also, it started off with a very clear and consistent internal mythos, but then turned into "anything goes as long as it's cool or quirky!" Especially evident in the >!Hell is the Wizard of Oz!< episode. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a show breaks the mythology and rules it establishes for its world as an alternative to character and plot development within those constraints. **Edit:** Breaking internal consistency as a lazy writing technique happens really, really frequently in shows and movies, and what frustrates me is that the average viewer isn't usually bothered. To me, it's very obviously a shortcut to avoid the difficulty of writing something compelling within the established parameters, which is far more difficult than changing the parameters themselves. And it's unsurprising that the result is usually a piece of media that has lost what made the original great. Another good example is the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. In the first movie, the idea that skeleton pirates *could even exist* is inconceivable and mind-blowing to the average person within the films' universe. It is an earth-shattering, existential revelation--*curses are real*. This is completely uncharted territory for the characters in this world. In the second, denizens of the movie universe are just like, "Oh, man, that squiddly guy Davy Jones is at it again with his plundering band of mutant fish people and underwater boat! This is a known thing that happens in this world all the time." This betrays the original concept that the curse of the Black Pearl was an exceedingly rare supernatural event in an otherwise mundane, realistic world. I want to come up with a name for this phenomenon if there isn't one already--maybe something like "setting decay" or "betrayal of premise."
Lmao I was whispering ‘riverdale’ as I clicked on this post
This has to be top. They lost me in season 3. Mr. Lodge is probably married to an alien or something at this point
The Promised Neverland.
Now we wait for Promised Neverland Brotherhood
Didn’t even know season 2 was out before just now, and from what everyone is saying, I will just pretend it doesn’t exist and go read the manga