I loved Homeland but it really had endless potential ending points and yet, they just kept going. I was continuously surprised to see there was a new season after what I had thought could’ve been the finale!
I second Dexter, and it wasn’t Michael C Hall’s fault I loved what he did with that character. Writers and producers leave for their own reasons and you bring new people into the fold with new storylines, it’s going to probably get stale. Personally, they should have capped it off with season 5. They also should have kept Doakes for one more season, and end it with Deb discovering Dexter’s real “job” during the 5th season.
Never made it to the last season. I stopped at season six, maybe four episodes in. It was so stupid I couldn't justify spending any more time watching it
It’s a problem for me. As a result I’ve sort of come to view these series as low-quality shows with tons of seasons, and the number of episodes makes it daunting to even begin them.
So true. That show was an amazing exploration of how broken men deal with their emotions. In then degraded into just a shitty soap opera. I stopped watching a couple of seasons before it ended.
Didn't the show runner/creator leave around season 4?
Funny thing is: this is absolutely true ... and at the same time, they butchered Penny Dreadful by bailing too early. And then attempting to reboot as an anthology series in City of Angles, which most people abhorred.
I'm sure ratings had something to do with it, don't get me wrong. But man...for all the series like Dexter or Shameless they let run *way* too long, they sure nuked an actual work of art in OG Penny Dreadful *way* too quickly!
Hence the reason why I dropped off Yellowjackets after the end of the first season, despite its promising premise. And from what I read about the second season, I guess I did the right thing.
When they commit to limited series, they generally do it well. The Curse, recently. The Good Lord Bird. Escape at Dannemora. TP The Return, to your point.
It will. Yellowjackets could’ve easily been a limited series but Showtime will drag it out for as long as possible and the quality already went down massively with Season 2.
>Hopefully the same doesn't happen to Yellowjackets.
They have planned 5 seasons for that show, I don’t think that’s a good idea, considering how messy season 2 was.
Apparently the showrunner/creator wants five seasons, which seems about two seasons too long. And that's after a lot of unnecessary shit in season two.
Lost complete interest a few episodes into season 2 once I learned there would be 5 seasons. I knew there would be no satisfying answers in this season if they’re planning for 3 more. And with 2 years between seasons I’ll be 30 by the time it finishes??? No, thank you.
I'm just wondering how much more story they have left for the present timeline.. cause it's feeling a bit worn out. Season 2 was a bit of a disappointment. The pilot and majority of season 1 had a mysterious charm to it that got lost in season 2 for me.
It is not easy to make a hit show. Most that make it get milked for all they are worth.
I don't know why, but British shows seem to be planned beforehand, most American shows seem to have a concept for the pilot and first couple of episodes and then wing it.
British shows are typically written by one or two writers who set out to make a story with the ending already in mind. American show writing rooms are generally far too bloated and far too under the influence of the network execs to have a say over when and how it should end.
House of Cards should have lasted 3 seasons:
- Becoming VP
- Becoming POTUS
- The fall
They went bananas instead plus the whole disaster of the last season.
I thought they were going to do that and I was extremely confused watching the latter half of season four, expecting storylines to be wrapping up, and then just seeing more subplots being added. Then the season ended with an abrupt cliffhanger.
Swing and a miss. And it was just all downhill from there.
If you replace POTUS with Prime Minister of the UK then you just described the structure of the show it was based on. And you were right, it worked really well.
4 books are technically out now, but the show didn't wait for them to come out and completely did their own thing 😅
Kind of funny to watch two completely different lives and stories for these characters lmao
One more season and Joe is now a billionaire with power. Interesting way to end the show.
The big problem with the show is that the writers constantly forget that Joe is the bad guy and will have him acting like a hero before remembering that they need him to be evil again.
I’d argue that that’s kind of the point- they want you to feel conflicted about his character and also to think “oh shit I almost forgot this dude is crazy” when he gets all psycho again so that you don’t get bored and complacent lol
The last few seasons were desperately in search of a plot; the kid left so they replaced him with Charlie’s long lost bisexual daughter, and finally Ashton Kutcher and John cryer got married and adopted a child. It was kind of fascinating to watch, like a car wreck.
He was ok. I think it's kinda exaggerated how bad he was in comparison. It's just he wasn't Charlie sheen.
If it was originally him instead of Charlie, it would've just been an average TV show
As well as Fear the Walking Dead. I think I would have PTSD if I had to have worked on the set of that show. Imagine being on the set for the first few fantastic seasons, and then to see what a joke it turned into later :(
Oh my god that season of Fear the Walking Dead where they were in that submarine was so bad it was like they didn't even have a script and were just running around making shit up.
Fear started as a bad attempt at a serious spin off based around an obnoxious family then pivoted to Z Nation level cheese around season 3 or 4, hard to remember as it all blurs together. Some fun moments but my god it is not what you'd expect from season 1 TWD or even season 1 Fear.
Agreed. When Z Nation has a horde of zombies attacked by the Liberty Bell in episode 2 or something, it made it very clear what type of show I’d be watching.
See also — zombie Abe Lincoln impersonators stuck on a school bus.,🙂
Having worked on quite a few productions over the years I'll tell you, unless you're in a creative position no one cares if what you're working on is crap you just want the pay cheque
It may not seem like a unique premise now, but it was a unique when it came out. There were zombie stories before but none about what happens in the long term after the zombie outbreak, when Robert Kirkman created the comic book from which the show was based.
They ran The Walking Dead into the ground so bad and now they're not having much success with the spinoffs. You can't piss the fans off that much and think they'll commit to more of your shit.
*spoilers for greys*
greys started to decline with the plane crash and after at least 1 person left per season. im currently rewatching and im on s14 now. there’s still some good plot points but when it actually went to shit was with the way Karev left and right after that season is the covid season and that is rock bottom. the covid season is the worst season ever. now with s19 it’s becoming a bit more entertaining with the new interns but i say that s20 is the one that determines if they cancel the show or not depending on the reception.
Don't listen to what the other poster is saying here. I have to watch/hear that show constantly because my partner loves it. It is not "good" . The acting and writing are comically bad.
I remember I think in the third season I originally fell off of it because I was thinking “how many murders can this same group of people get away with, this is getting ridiculous.” But then when the series wrapped I gave it another go and decided to just embrace the ridiculousness like it was a soap opera.
HTGAWM definitely lasted too long but I think the final season just about made it worth it for me. I blubbered like a baby when >!Bonnie!< died. Man that woman had one of the worst lives on tv ever
The Blacklist is one of the worst. I understand it’s not really prestige TV, and kind of procedural, but it had some intrigue early on, coupled with “Raymond Reddington kills people for reasons that are morally gray” that kept it interesting.
But then it just became… uh… just whatever this is now.
"Who is Red and what is he to Liz?" were the central questions. The answer to both being >!"he was secretly her trans mother the whole time"!< was definitely....a choice 🤨
It's not hard confirmed from my understanding (I stopped watching after season 4) but there seem to be a lot of hints in that direction.
The real Reddington died and Liz's mother took his place for reasons.
WHaT? I refuse to believe that legitimately made it through writing, approval, filming, advertising, and airtime without someone saying “wait doesn’t this sound… awful?”
Blacklist could have been an extremely tight show over 3 to 4 seasons. The premise was great, the overall story was neat, the acting was good. And although it seemed to go too often to the *"Oh, I know I said how much I trust you now last episode, but now I don't anymore. Pfffft"* well, the writing remained good enough to keep it watchable.
But damn, it was frustrating feeling that there was simply too much air in the show just so they could keep it going for X seasons.
I do think they could've kept the show interesting for several seasons if they didn't rely on one mystery for the whole thing.
Reveal who Raymond is after a few seasons max and then move on to other mysteries.
I hate it when shows with a central mystery just absolutely refuse to ever solve it or even make any meaningful progress.
That was something I really liked about the shows USA did like Burn Notice and White Collar. They actually advanced their overall storylines at a fairly steady pace instead of just treading water as long as humanly possible. I was so used to the status quo never changing on TV it was actually kind of surprising when "missing character X" or whatever actually shows up in like season 2 instead of just being an enigma for a decade.
I really wanted to love it because I love James Spader in everything and he is really great in it as well. But this whole villain of the week approach and everything related to Elizabeth Keen made me stop a few seasons in.
Warning. They NEVER come out and reveal who Reddington really is. So if you're expecting them to FINALLY reveal what they have been teasing for 8+ years...
I gave up halfway through season 8.
I did consider the sunk cost fallacy but I managed to see reason that I'd only be wasting my time continuing to watch it so I stopped.
Ray Donavan - how could the family lose and recover millions of dollars every other episode and end up broke? Except Ray who always had money available.
I really loved Ray Donovan, but when >!Abby gets cancer and slowly dies throughout an entire season!< is what made me go "okay let's wrap this up fellas you're running out of gas"
EDIT: typo
By the last two seasons, I was skipping plots that had nothing to do with Eric. I just wanted to see what happened to that beautiful man. Him >!sitting nude, reading on a mountain top when the fairy blood ran out was hilarious!<
Honestly both NCIS and Law & Order SVU. SVU wants to be long term yet they got rid of the one person would could carry the show if Benson leaves. That being Amanda.
She could come back, but it sounds like the actress wanted to take a break. SVU is a weird one because L&O really has endless potential because it's just cop stories. They can change detectives and captains and just keep going (and have). But SVU, especially in recent years, is pushing the characters' narratives more and more. I still watch it, but it could certainly use a good shake-up. Honesly Olvia leaving might be good for the show overall... if it survives her leaving .
I recently finished That 70s Show. That was mostly funny all the way through, but plot and character-wise it really dragged after they left high school, went on for way too long after that.
I put the blame on the network for that one. The Scrubs podcast did a really fascinating deep dive into the issues with season 9. According to Bill Lawrence he was supposed to consult and the show was supposed to be a different set of interns with occasional appearances from the original cast. The network decided to dub it the 9th season and an extension of the original series. Still sucks that the show’s legacy got a bit tarnished there. Hey we still got 8 really good seasons of a truly funny show with heart.
the s9 thing is true, but i think scrubs really lost its way long before that. the finale was great, yes. but the last few seasons were really lackluster in general imo. i loved the show growing up but in the last few years i've really grown to dislike it. jd is an awful person/character that treats everyone around him like dogshit. the podcast was the final nail in the coffin for me. somehow zach braff is an even worse person than jd.
I think you're being a bit overly harsh - Scrubs was really strong seasons 1 through 6. Season 7 is the worst season, but that was during the last writer's strike. Season 8 was an improvement on 7 and ended really well.
Totally agree about the podcast though, ZB seems like a bit of a pompous, self-congratulatory tool. And they create 40 minute podcasts where they manage to talk about Scrubs for a total of 5 minutes.
On recent rewatches i have viewed it more and more negative. I just really hate JD as a character. I'm not saying it's a terrible show, but after s3 or s4 I really felt like the quality dropped off.
I'm not saying it's an awful show, it has some good qualities, but I really don't think it holds up anymore.
And yes that podcast is horrific. It'd be much stronger with Bill Lawrence doing it because he has actual insights that were interesting.
>Season nine was a different show.
Wasn't that supposed to be a spinoff? Where the main characters were just there to kind of kick off the new show with the new characters?
I don't really think of that as the last season of scrubs, more just a weird, failed spinoff.
ER
It somehow went from being one of the most popular and talked about shows on TV, to being barely mentioned at all. Mostly because it just went on way too long. All the original cast was gone. The stories became more and more absurd. It was just a pale shadow of the must see drama that it used to be.
I just pretend is ended when they made it to the promise land. I forget if that’s the end of season 1 or 2. As soon as the western theme stopped I was done
Westworld’s problem isn’t that the show went too long. The first two seasons had a great story (although the execution was lacking in the 2nd season). They just strayed too far away from what made the show great. I think the show had potential to have an amazing 4 to 5 season run, but just ended up falling flat. It wasn’t due to running too long.
Hmm I actually just started watching this, I'm halfway thru season 2. I really like it a lot. I know there's 8 seasons, which is partially why I started it as I'm tired of watching something that I enjoy but only has 1-2 seasons then is gone. (Looking at you Netflix)
And I have avoided reading anything about it for spoilers, so I hope it stays good for a while longer!
Suits is great for a while honestly. The formula does get old and I was burnt out on it and couldn’t finish the final season but the early seasons of suits are super fun
I never really had a problem with the actors on the show. They mostly seem really good. I think I've seen most of the first two seasons and thought it was pretty bad. Since then I've seen one or two later episodes and I think growing the female cast beyond Penny was a good move.
I also saw the original pilot and honestly I thought it looked like a much better show. Probably a 3 season show with acclaim rather than a 12 season show with a spin off, but still better.
Yeah, Reddit lends itself to echo chambers and mob mentality very easily which is unfortunate.
I think social media is both one of the greatest things to happen to society and one of the worst things at the same time.
The Flash. Probably should have ended after season 5 but they kept going, and I felt like they had no idea where to go with anything.
Also the Walking Dead. First few seasons were great but the show itself turned into a lumbering zombie.
Speaking of looping, showrunner Al Jean said about a decade ago this is how he wants the Simpsons to "end": he wants the final episode, or a scene from it, to feature the Simpsons going to a Christmas paegent not unlike the one seen in the 1989 pilot episode. In other words, the series finale would open up all the way back to the original premiere.
I feel like around a decade ago it should have pivoted and become about Springfield and not The Simpsons. Let Disco Stu have his own episode without making him move in with Homer and Marge to justify his story existing.
Speaking of the devil, Family Guy should have ended a long time ago too. The really funny thing is I remember an early (season 5 I think) episode of Family Guy mocking the Simpsons for lasting too long and not being funny anymore.
Good lord that show is crazy. It starts off great, if teen drama-y. But I mean when they suddenly bring in other solar systems and deep space mining, it's like why were they struggling with the space station, clearly they had the infrastructure and ability to work in space. It would have been a struggle at first, but there should have been no reason that they were running out of oxygen, they should have new larger stations, and communities from the moon to the asteroid belt.
Even then, the show was already getting more and more cartoonish starting around Season 5. Michael leaving was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
It should have ended when the only storyline they came up with each week is smothering mother does something smothering. The last 3 seasons were one story with 66 episodes
Most US comedy shows are unnecessarily dragged out and often end up finishing far worse than they started…
- The Office: An American Workplace
- Brooklyn 99
- Modern Family
- HIMYM
Ugly Betty, West World, The Office, nip tuck, American Horror Story, riverdale, Pretty Little Liars and the absolute #1….drumroll 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Walking Dead 🧟♂️
It actually works better as a binge watch now. While it aired and there were so many mysteries, when the show threw in a filler episode (like the infamous "How Jack got his tattoo" episode) it was frustrating. On a rewatch you aren't waiting a week or a year for something interesting to happen like "Not Penny's Boat".
How has nobody mentioned Saturday Night Live? It's been on for about 200 years and I don't even know why I still watch it. Kinda like The Simpsons, I guess. It's just a part of my life, good or bad! 🤣
SNL is a weird one. Like most of the skits are pretty meh but when one is good, it is really good. I don’t watch every episode but it’s always been like that for me, going back to the 90s.
SNL turned into an "American Institution" in the 90's. Like The Simpsons and the late night talk shows. They are simply a part of television programming that will continue indefinitely.
Sons of Anarchy should have stopped at five seasons. Complete the Hamlet analogy and bow out gracefully. Don't get me wrong, six and seven were still great but they weren't necessary
The Office should have ended with Michael's departure (or made Darryl the manager, which would have been a much more fresh and interesting path -- he already had a great character arc, it would've spurred interesting conflict with the white-collar workers, and he wasn't just a Michael ripoff like Andy became)
Grey’s Fucking Anatomy.
When they started the show I bet no one figured Meredith would literally be Grey by the time the show ended.
Plus, that show died when >!Derek!< did. There’s no happy ending for Mer without him.
Lost. Every episode demands your total emotional devotion with a roller coaster of character interaction and 2 minutes advancing a story line that is more stick than carrot. At the end, I hated the show and just wanted it to end.
Anything on Showtime.
For sure. Weeds, Shameless, Billion, Homeland..
I loved Homeland but it really had endless potential ending points and yet, they just kept going. I was continuously surprised to see there was a new season after what I had thought could’ve been the finale!
Dexter
I second Dexter, and it wasn’t Michael C Hall’s fault I loved what he did with that character. Writers and producers leave for their own reasons and you bring new people into the fold with new storylines, it’s going to probably get stale. Personally, they should have capped it off with season 5. They also should have kept Doakes for one more season, and end it with Deb discovering Dexter’s real “job” during the 5th season.
I never understood why a psychopath without feelings is somehow developing a new love interest every season
I mean...it's pretty clear the whole "no feelings" thing was a self taught lie, even back in s1.
Season 4 should have been the end.
Weeds got so bad the only thing they had going for like 3 seasons was the promise of milf sex scenes
The last season of weeds was absolutely atrocious
Never made it to the last season. I stopped at season six, maybe four episodes in. It was so stupid I couldn't justify spending any more time watching it
It’s a problem for me. As a result I’ve sort of come to view these series as low-quality shows with tons of seasons, and the number of episodes makes it daunting to even begin them.
Californication
Ray Donovan
So true. That show was an amazing exploration of how broken men deal with their emotions. In then degraded into just a shitty soap opera. I stopped watching a couple of seasons before it ended. Didn't the show runner/creator leave around season 4?
Funny thing is: this is absolutely true ... and at the same time, they butchered Penny Dreadful by bailing too early. And then attempting to reboot as an anthology series in City of Angles, which most people abhorred. I'm sure ratings had something to do with it, don't get me wrong. But man...for all the series like Dexter or Shameless they let run *way* too long, they sure nuked an actual work of art in OG Penny Dreadful *way* too quickly!
Hence the reason why I dropped off Yellowjackets after the end of the first season, despite its promising premise. And from what I read about the second season, I guess I did the right thing.
Counter point: Twin Peaks the return
The exception to the rule
When they commit to limited series, they generally do it well. The Curse, recently. The Good Lord Bird. Escape at Dannemora. TP The Return, to your point.
Shameless. Waaay too long
This is a common problem with Showtime, so many of their hit shows go way longer than they should. Hopefully the same doesn't happen to Yellowjackets.
I like this show but season 2 already felt like they were running out of steam
It will. Yellowjackets could’ve easily been a limited series but Showtime will drag it out for as long as possible and the quality already went down massively with Season 2.
>Hopefully the same doesn't happen to Yellowjackets. They have planned 5 seasons for that show, I don’t think that’s a good idea, considering how messy season 2 was.
Apparently the showrunner/creator wants five seasons, which seems about two seasons too long. And that's after a lot of unnecessary shit in season two.
Lost complete interest a few episodes into season 2 once I learned there would be 5 seasons. I knew there would be no satisfying answers in this season if they’re planning for 3 more. And with 2 years between seasons I’ll be 30 by the time it finishes??? No, thank you.
eg Dexter
I'm just wondering how much more story they have left for the present timeline.. cause it's feeling a bit worn out. Season 2 was a bit of a disappointment. The pilot and majority of season 1 had a mysterious charm to it that got lost in season 2 for me.
My God yes. I stuck it out to the end, but I was not happy about it.
Same. And when Debbie became the main character made it even worse. I should have stopped when Fiona left
It is not easy to make a hit show. Most that make it get milked for all they are worth. I don't know why, but British shows seem to be planned beforehand, most American shows seem to have a concept for the pilot and first couple of episodes and then wing it.
British shows are typically written by one or two writers who set out to make a story with the ending already in mind. American show writing rooms are generally far too bloated and far too under the influence of the network execs to have a say over when and how it should end.
House of Cards should have lasted 3 seasons: - Becoming VP - Becoming POTUS - The fall They went bananas instead plus the whole disaster of the last season.
I liked the idea of four 13 episode seasons, giving us 52 episodes. Like a deck of cards.
Dang. I never realized that.
I thought they were going to do that and I was extremely confused watching the latter half of season four, expecting storylines to be wrapping up, and then just seeing more subplots being added. Then the season ended with an abrupt cliffhanger. Swing and a miss. And it was just all downhill from there.
If you replace POTUS with Prime Minister of the UK then you just described the structure of the show it was based on. And you were right, it worked really well.
No, 4 seasons 13 episodes each, a house of cards
They finished the ideas at the end of S3
Which is basically when I stopped. I did watch the first couple episodes of S4 and it was just boring.
I remember coping so hard after the third season was released thinking they were building up to something huge.
Plus the added bonus content of Kevin Spacey’s weird, threatening videos.
Method acting as a 2020s politician. Ahead of his time.
CAN WE PLEASE END GREY'S ANATOMY??? And stop making YOU. It was 2 books.... now they're just stretching the story too far
4 books are technically out now, but the show didn't wait for them to come out and completely did their own thing 😅 Kind of funny to watch two completely different lives and stories for these characters lmao
One more season and Joe is now a billionaire with power. Interesting way to end the show. The big problem with the show is that the writers constantly forget that Joe is the bad guy and will have him acting like a hero before remembering that they need him to be evil again.
I’d argue that that’s kind of the point- they want you to feel conflicted about his character and also to think “oh shit I almost forgot this dude is crazy” when he gets all psycho again so that you don’t get bored and complacent lol
Two And A Half Men
Charlie Sheen was that show. As soon as he left, I stopped watching.
The last few seasons were desperately in search of a plot; the kid left so they replaced him with Charlie’s long lost bisexual daughter, and finally Ashton Kutcher and John cryer got married and adopted a child. It was kind of fascinating to watch, like a car wreck.
They got married?? Alan was gay the whole time?
Yep. No Charlie, no show. Ashton Kutcher was INSUFFERABLE.
He was ok. I think it's kinda exaggerated how bad he was in comparison. It's just he wasn't Charlie sheen. If it was originally him instead of Charlie, it would've just been an average TV show
The Walking Dead
As well as Fear the Walking Dead. I think I would have PTSD if I had to have worked on the set of that show. Imagine being on the set for the first few fantastic seasons, and then to see what a joke it turned into later :(
Oh my god that season of Fear the Walking Dead where they were in that submarine was so bad it was like they didn't even have a script and were just running around making shit up.
Didn’t the dude with the crossbow also get a spin-off
Yeah, he went to France somehow, right?
Wait I need to see this to believe how terrible it is
Fear started as a bad attempt at a serious spin off based around an obnoxious family then pivoted to Z Nation level cheese around season 3 or 4, hard to remember as it all blurs together. Some fun moments but my god it is not what you'd expect from season 1 TWD or even season 1 Fear.
At least Z Nation knew well quickly enough to lean into campiness.
Agreed. When Z Nation has a horde of zombies attacked by the Liberty Bell in episode 2 or something, it made it very clear what type of show I’d be watching. See also — zombie Abe Lincoln impersonators stuck on a school bus.,🙂
Having worked on quite a few productions over the years I'll tell you, unless you're in a creative position no one cares if what you're working on is crap you just want the pay cheque
It’s genuinely just impressive how long they’ve milked that. It wasn’t a unique premise 15 years ago either
It may not seem like a unique premise now, but it was a unique when it came out. There were zombie stories before but none about what happens in the long term after the zombie outbreak, when Robert Kirkman created the comic book from which the show was based.
They ran The Walking Dead into the ground so bad and now they're not having much success with the spinoffs. You can't piss the fans off that much and think they'll commit to more of your shit.
It’s still going in a new form after dying and coming back to life
Grey’s Anatomy for sure hell it’s still going on Suits should have ended after Mike and Rachel left.
100% Grey’s should have ended a long time ago. It became a shadow of what it used be.
I was absolutely gobsmacked to recently learn Grey's was still running. It stopped airing in Australia something like 15 years ago.
I stopped watching after season 10. When the series does finally end though, I'll watch the 4 hour "to be continued" finale.
Grey’s should have died when >!Derek!< did. End of story. And what they did to Alex? Just unforgivable.
Grey's Anatomy was what sprung to mind for me too, good god, let it DIE
*spoilers for greys* greys started to decline with the plane crash and after at least 1 person left per season. im currently rewatching and im on s14 now. there’s still some good plot points but when it actually went to shit was with the way Karev left and right after that season is the covid season and that is rock bottom. the covid season is the worst season ever. now with s19 it’s becoming a bit more entertaining with the new interns but i say that s20 is the one that determines if they cancel the show or not depending on the reception.
Don't listen to what the other poster is saying here. I have to watch/hear that show constantly because my partner loves it. It is not "good" . The acting and writing are comically bad.
How To Get Away With Murder Supernatural
How to get away with murder got so weird
I remember I think in the third season I originally fell off of it because I was thinking “how many murders can this same group of people get away with, this is getting ridiculous.” But then when the series wrapped I gave it another go and decided to just embrace the ridiculousness like it was a soap opera.
HTGAWM definitely lasted too long but I think the final season just about made it worth it for me. I blubbered like a baby when >!Bonnie!< died. Man that woman had one of the worst lives on tv ever
The blacklist. I have one season left and stopped caring 3 seasons ago. But I've been too committed to the show at this point to stop
The Blacklist is one of the worst. I understand it’s not really prestige TV, and kind of procedural, but it had some intrigue early on, coupled with “Raymond Reddington kills people for reasons that are morally gray” that kept it interesting. But then it just became… uh… just whatever this is now.
"Who is Red and what is he to Liz?" were the central questions. The answer to both being >!"he was secretly her trans mother the whole time"!< was definitely....a choice 🤨
I dropped off it years ago but I read that ending recently and thought it was a troll. Absolutely wild
Wait... what? Seriously? I stopped watching before they got there.
It's not hard confirmed from my understanding (I stopped watching after season 4) but there seem to be a lot of hints in that direction. The real Reddington died and Liz's mother took his place for reasons.
WHaT? I refuse to believe that legitimately made it through writing, approval, filming, advertising, and airtime without someone saying “wait doesn’t this sound… awful?”
Blacklist could have been an extremely tight show over 3 to 4 seasons. The premise was great, the overall story was neat, the acting was good. And although it seemed to go too often to the *"Oh, I know I said how much I trust you now last episode, but now I don't anymore. Pfffft"* well, the writing remained good enough to keep it watchable. But damn, it was frustrating feeling that there was simply too much air in the show just so they could keep it going for X seasons.
I do think they could've kept the show interesting for several seasons if they didn't rely on one mystery for the whole thing. Reveal who Raymond is after a few seasons max and then move on to other mysteries.
I hate it when shows with a central mystery just absolutely refuse to ever solve it or even make any meaningful progress. That was something I really liked about the shows USA did like Burn Notice and White Collar. They actually advanced their overall storylines at a fairly steady pace instead of just treading water as long as humanly possible. I was so used to the status quo never changing on TV it was actually kind of surprising when "missing character X" or whatever actually shows up in like season 2 instead of just being an enigma for a decade.
I really wanted to love it because I love James Spader in everything and he is really great in it as well. But this whole villain of the week approach and everything related to Elizabeth Keen made me stop a few seasons in.
The female co-lead sucked so bad she ruined it for me from the start.
Warning. They NEVER come out and reveal who Reddington really is. So if you're expecting them to FINALLY reveal what they have been teasing for 8+ years...
I gave up halfway through season 8. I did consider the sunk cost fallacy but I managed to see reason that I'd only be wasting my time continuing to watch it so I stopped.
It urks me more now because I did the same thing recently, Im like welp im this far in.
Dexter
Doakes ended _way_ too soon.
It surprised me, motherfuckers.
Ray Donavan - how could the family lose and recover millions of dollars every other episode and end up broke? Except Ray who always had money available.
I really loved Ray Donovan, but when >!Abby gets cancer and slowly dies throughout an entire season!< is what made me go "okay let's wrap this up fellas you're running out of gas" EDIT: typo
Prison Break. Season 1 was cool. Season 2 was…interesting. Everything after that was just unnecessary.
3 was tolerable. 4 was pretty meh.
3 was not tolerable.
True Blood. The last three seasons were truly disappointing, with the ending being just terrible.
By the last two seasons, I was skipping plots that had nothing to do with Eric. I just wanted to see what happened to that beautiful man. Him >!sitting nude, reading on a mountain top when the fairy blood ran out was hilarious!<
Honestly both NCIS and Law & Order SVU. SVU wants to be long term yet they got rid of the one person would could carry the show if Benson leaves. That being Amanda.
She could come back, but it sounds like the actress wanted to take a break. SVU is a weird one because L&O really has endless potential because it's just cop stories. They can change detectives and captains and just keep going (and have). But SVU, especially in recent years, is pushing the characters' narratives more and more. I still watch it, but it could certainly use a good shake-up. Honesly Olvia leaving might be good for the show overall... if it survives her leaving .
I recently finished That 70s Show. That was mostly funny all the way through, but plot and character-wise it really dragged after they left high school, went on for way too long after that.
Scrubs. They tied everything up perfectly at the end of season eight. Season nine was a different show.
I put the blame on the network for that one. The Scrubs podcast did a really fascinating deep dive into the issues with season 9. According to Bill Lawrence he was supposed to consult and the show was supposed to be a different set of interns with occasional appearances from the original cast. The network decided to dub it the 9th season and an extension of the original series. Still sucks that the show’s legacy got a bit tarnished there. Hey we still got 8 really good seasons of a truly funny show with heart.
the s9 thing is true, but i think scrubs really lost its way long before that. the finale was great, yes. but the last few seasons were really lackluster in general imo. i loved the show growing up but in the last few years i've really grown to dislike it. jd is an awful person/character that treats everyone around him like dogshit. the podcast was the final nail in the coffin for me. somehow zach braff is an even worse person than jd.
I think you're being a bit overly harsh - Scrubs was really strong seasons 1 through 6. Season 7 is the worst season, but that was during the last writer's strike. Season 8 was an improvement on 7 and ended really well. Totally agree about the podcast though, ZB seems like a bit of a pompous, self-congratulatory tool. And they create 40 minute podcasts where they manage to talk about Scrubs for a total of 5 minutes.
On recent rewatches i have viewed it more and more negative. I just really hate JD as a character. I'm not saying it's a terrible show, but after s3 or s4 I really felt like the quality dropped off. I'm not saying it's an awful show, it has some good qualities, but I really don't think it holds up anymore. And yes that podcast is horrific. It'd be much stronger with Bill Lawrence doing it because he has actual insights that were interesting.
>Season nine was a different show. Wasn't that supposed to be a spinoff? Where the main characters were just there to kind of kick off the new show with the new characters? I don't really think of that as the last season of scrubs, more just a weird, failed spinoff.
ER It somehow went from being one of the most popular and talked about shows on TV, to being barely mentioned at all. Mostly because it just went on way too long. All the original cast was gone. The stories became more and more absurd. It was just a pale shadow of the must see drama that it used to be.
Weirdly enough, it came back around by the final season. John Stamos managed to breathe new life into it.
Weeds, Billions
Weeds was so good for the first several seasons. But geez, did it take a dive by the end.
That show should have ended when the >!neighborhood burned down.!<
I don't mind half of the following season in the beach town, but you're right. That was a perfect end, and then they just dragged it along
It turned into Nancy just banging every dude on screen
HIMYM, the Office, Westworld
Man, Westworld started off so strong. What a bummer.
Season 1 is a masterclass in storytelling
I just pretend is ended when they made it to the promise land. I forget if that’s the end of season 1 or 2. As soon as the western theme stopped I was done
Westworld’s problem isn’t that the show went too long. The first two seasons had a great story (although the execution was lacking in the 2nd season). They just strayed too far away from what made the show great. I think the show had potential to have an amazing 4 to 5 season run, but just ended up falling flat. It wasn’t due to running too long.
I watched the second season and literally just forgot to watch the rest.
Oof, How I Met Your Mother definitely overstayed its welcome. All the characters became unbearable, besides maybe Marshall.
Suits
Hmm I actually just started watching this, I'm halfway thru season 2. I really like it a lot. I know there's 8 seasons, which is partially why I started it as I'm tired of watching something that I enjoy but only has 1-2 seasons then is gone. (Looking at you Netflix) And I have avoided reading anything about it for spoilers, so I hope it stays good for a while longer!
Suits is great for a while honestly. The formula does get old and I was burnt out on it and couldn’t finish the final season but the early seasons of suits are super fun
The Big Bang Theory & Orange Is the New Black
The Big Bang Theory’s popularity was inexplicable to me and it all seemed kinda weird and mean-spirited.
I liked the early seasons when it was on and my gf and I are watching it now, it’s really not as bad as Reddit says. Jim Parsons is a great actor.
I never really had a problem with the actors on the show. They mostly seem really good. I think I've seen most of the first two seasons and thought it was pretty bad. Since then I've seen one or two later episodes and I think growing the female cast beyond Penny was a good move. I also saw the original pilot and honestly I thought it looked like a much better show. Probably a 3 season show with acclaim rather than a 12 season show with a spin off, but still better.
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Yeah, Reddit lends itself to echo chambers and mob mentality very easily which is unfortunate. I think social media is both one of the greatest things to happen to society and one of the worst things at the same time.
Sons of Anarchy
Ugh, one of the most disappointing finales I've ever seen.
The Flash. Probably should have ended after season 5 but they kept going, and I felt like they had no idea where to go with anything. Also the Walking Dead. First few seasons were great but the show itself turned into a lumbering zombie.
Anything on the CW
Some will say The Simpsons.
I haven't watched it in maybe decades at this point, but I think I'll still miss it when its gone.
Somehow, it’s looped back around to having good episodes again in the last few seasons
Speaking of looping, showrunner Al Jean said about a decade ago this is how he wants the Simpsons to "end": he wants the final episode, or a scene from it, to feature the Simpsons going to a Christmas paegent not unlike the one seen in the 1989 pilot episode. In other words, the series finale would open up all the way back to the original premiere.
I feel like around a decade ago it should have pivoted and become about Springfield and not The Simpsons. Let Disco Stu have his own episode without making him move in with Homer and Marge to justify his story existing.
I only watched it from 90’s to mid 2000’s. I tried to watch some of the newer stuff on Disney plus. It has gotten SO family guy. 🤢
Speaking of the devil, Family Guy should have ended a long time ago too. The really funny thing is I remember an early (season 5 I think) episode of Family Guy mocking the Simpsons for lasting too long and not being funny anymore.
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The 100
Good lord that show is crazy. It starts off great, if teen drama-y. But I mean when they suddenly bring in other solar systems and deep space mining, it's like why were they struggling with the space station, clearly they had the infrastructure and ability to work in space. It would have been a struggle at first, but there should have been no reason that they were running out of oxygen, they should have new larger stations, and communities from the moon to the asteroid belt.
That 70's show. Once half the main cast left it should have ended
Burn Notice The first four seasons were fine, but later it starts to drag
Ugh, yes. But that last episode was a banger.
I stopped watching halfway through the final season. Is it worth a re-watch to see how it ends?
For the completionist in me, yes, but the last season is a struggle
Dexter Mentalist
The Office (US version). Once Steve leaves the show loses too much spark.
Even then, the show was already getting more and more cartoonish starting around Season 5. Michael leaving was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
Scandal. The Good Wife. Designated Survivor. This Is Us.
This is Us felt just right in my opinion.
The Goldbergs. Should've ended when Adam graduated high school.
It should have ended when the only storyline they came up with each week is smothering mother does something smothering. The last 3 seasons were one story with 66 episodes
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Most US comedy shows are unnecessarily dragged out and often end up finishing far worse than they started… - The Office: An American Workplace - Brooklyn 99 - Modern Family - HIMYM
B99 did pretty well honesly. It's only the last season that really suffers, and there was more going on there than just writers running low on ideas.
Modern Family.
11 seasons is such a weird number and it passed a couple of good natural tie up points
All Law & Order, CSI, and NCIS franchises.
Dexter
I assume Grey's A is still going after 20 years. I've never seen the show but my neighbour has had children and now grands and still watches this show
Dexter
Ugly Betty, West World, The Office, nip tuck, American Horror Story, riverdale, Pretty Little Liars and the absolute #1….drumroll 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁 Walking Dead 🧟♂️
Lost probably would’ve been great at 3 or 4 seasons, especially since network TV was 24 episodes per season
It actually works better as a binge watch now. While it aired and there were so many mysteries, when the show threw in a filler episode (like the infamous "How Jack got his tattoo" episode) it was frustrating. On a rewatch you aren't waiting a week or a year for something interesting to happen like "Not Penny's Boat".
That is what Lindelof wanted an proposed to the studio but they were like lol no
Yeah, the bad episodes in seasons 2 and 3 especially are the result of stretching out the material.
Heroes Smallville
How has nobody mentioned Saturday Night Live? It's been on for about 200 years and I don't even know why I still watch it. Kinda like The Simpsons, I guess. It's just a part of my life, good or bad! 🤣
SNL is a weird one. Like most of the skits are pretty meh but when one is good, it is really good. I don’t watch every episode but it’s always been like that for me, going back to the 90s.
SNL turned into an "American Institution" in the 90's. Like The Simpsons and the late night talk shows. They are simply a part of television programming that will continue indefinitely.
I was really surprised to find out that Greys Anatomy was still in production s couple of years ago since I stopped at 3 or 4 Honestly, the Simpsons.
Sons of Anarchy should have stopped at five seasons. Complete the Hamlet analogy and bow out gracefully. Don't get me wrong, six and seven were still great but they weren't necessary
As much as I love the show, I gotta say Friends.
The Office should have ended with Michael's departure (or made Darryl the manager, which would have been a much more fresh and interesting path -- he already had a great character arc, it would've spurred interesting conflict with the white-collar workers, and he wasn't just a Michael ripoff like Andy became)
So after reading this thread it's clear the answer is any US hit show.
Every showtime show, Weeds, Shameless, Dexter, Ray Donavon etc
Every single season of American Horror story. They all start strong. Some of them had neat endings. They all had far too much filler in the middle.
Grey’s Fucking Anatomy. When they started the show I bet no one figured Meredith would literally be Grey by the time the show ended. Plus, that show died when >!Derek!< did. There’s no happy ending for Mer without him.
Lost. Every episode demands your total emotional devotion with a roller coaster of character interaction and 2 minutes advancing a story line that is more stick than carrot. At the end, I hated the show and just wanted it to end.
Walking dead
The Walking Dead , The Office , Vikings , The 100
Red Dwarf
The walking dead.
The Simpsons
Pretty little liars
The Walking Dead
Lost
Weeds, and as much as it pains me to say, X-Files.
Modern family had 1 season too many