35 People Share A TV Show That Started Out Promising “But Turned Out To Be Garbage”
It's one thing to set up the main characters and themes at the beginning of a TV show; however, the true test for its creators lies in developing them and keeping the audience invested and entertained.
Reddit user SourceOfAnger decided to live up to their nickname and stir up some drama, so they made a post on the platform, asking everyone, "Which TV show started out promising, but turned out to be garbage?"
It struck a chord with disappointed fans and they immediately started naming series that let them down.
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I think most people will tell you Game of Thrones was great until the last season.
CaptainRedBeardd:
Directors literally saw what people wanted from the ending and said Nah we don't want to be predictable. Ruined the series for me.
Showing my age a bit, but *The X Files.*
At first, it was a cool "Monster of the Week" show, and then it started going more into a "Vast Alien Conspiracy" plot, which was also really interesting. Then, after a few seasons of watching to see how things played out, you started to realize that the writers didn't have any idea where they were going with the plot, and everything just fell apart.
I don't mind it up to season 7 (even though it had already gone downhill). After that it became a completely different show
The Walking Dead. It had the potential to be such a good show, but I finally gave up like season 5 or 6, which was probably a lot more than I should have given it.
ilyazrey56t43ter43:
It started off as a great show and then just became a rinse and repeat of 'Oh, there is another group of human survivors. We'll clash and then kill each other.
Grey’s Anatomy. The first few seasons were interesting and it went downhill after a few seasons. Kept watching in the hopes it would get better… It didn’t.
Heroes. Season 1 was amazing but it went downhill fast after that.
GavinBelsonsAlexa:
The writer's strike ruined a lot of shows at the time. I didn't hate seasons 2 & 3, but I am comfortable never watching them again for the rest of my life.
Nah... Heroes, I felt, was never amazing. The writers kept breaking their own rules regarding powers and abilities and character arcs, even within the first season. And the finale was like it was choregraphed by a drunk, blind squirrel and the director's only instruction to the actors was "look like you're doing something urgently."
The Blacklist. The concept is amazing but it quickly falls into a repetition of the same episode plots over and over, just like every other network cop/crime show.
They should have ended the series instead of killing off Elizabeth Keen.
Lost. It's clear that the fandom guessed what the island was by the first season and instead of leaning into it they kept adding mystery upon mystery to keep the audience guessing. At the end what the hell was it about? Some smoke monster thats acutally a guy or the devil or whatever and island magic. It's the reason why I refuse to watch anything by Abrams or Lindeloff.
How to Get Away with Murder. So much potential initially, but it all dissolved into nonsense and elongating the series for absolutely no reason. Such a shame.
evenge_of_the_Khaki:
It was very clearly a show with a formula that they stuck with WAY too hard. It's one thing to have a similar plot, it's another thing to literally copy/paste every plot point at the same point in each season 5 times in a row.
Well you made it through a few seasons. I did not make it through one episode.
Well, How I Met Your Mother was a fantastic show up until literally the very last episode. Talk about ruining something great.
Bigrobbo:
I actually got angry at this... I mean literally the build up was perfect they meet and we've seen all the love they have shared and then... HA, she died Ted's gonna go hook up with Robin again... WHAT!
Once Upon a Time. I can't get over the fact that characters kept switching sides, as though all the work they'd done to build trust and establish relationships was suddenly meaningless, or suddenly the betrayal that the character made a few episodes before didn't matter, they were redeemed by virtue of the fact that they simply wanted to come back to the good guys again.
That level of relationship fluidity was so unrealistic that it broke the immersion of the show for me... a show about fairy tale characters come to life...
Each season finale had a new curse cast on the town (talk about rinse and repeat...), and the final season was absolutely unnecessary (and boring as hell) since most main characters were gone. I loved that show in the beginning but it went steeply downhill in the later seasons.
Almost every cw superhero show. Flash and Arrow had amazing first seasons. Then they slowly got worse and worse until they were complete garbage.
I stopped watching Arrow maybe in the second season. Flash i finished but it was sooo sooo bad. Iris is one of the most annoying characters ever
The Big Bang Theory.
It actually started out as a show with a lot of nerdy in-jokes.
Over the seasons, it has morphed into literally a mockery of its former self.
A typical joke punchline used to be a callback to some obscure comic fact.
Now the joke punchline is that the character reads comics.
I'm basically somewhat of a nerd myself. I get all the comic and science jokes. What I don't get is that fans of the show don't see the underlying misogynistic and racist undertones that show has. And what I hated was the fact that those for, who always were made fun of by basically bullies, continued the cycle and made fun of each other...for the very same reasons they were bullied in the first place. utter bs
For me, personally, it has to be Stranger Things... I loved the first season, but I could not get into the second season at all... After the first 4 episodes, I just gave up disappointed. I'll get my share of downvotes for this opinion, I'm sure.
headcoatee:
I thought I was alone on this! I totally agree. That first season was pitch-perfect. Once season 1 ended, I remember thinking the Duffer Bros had the cred to do just about anything they wanted to, and couldn't wait to see what new thing they would do...and then they just proceeded to rehash Stranger Things for two more seasons.
True Blood. First two seasons were good but something happened where it just became an absolute dumpster fire.
LizLemonKnope:
The first two seasons stayed pretty close to the books, then as the show went on, strayed from the source material. I think that’s why it went downhill.
The Handmaid's Tale. Season One was possibly the best drama show on TV at the time. Now, it's literally a s**t show.
calibancreed;
I think a lot of that is because the first season (mostly) followed the plot of the book and ended exactly where the book did (minus the epilogue in the book) and that ambiguity is so perfect for the world. Subsequent seasons were definitely far worse off for it.
A person wanted to see what happened to June, but she became such an annoying character that I also hate-watched for the last few seasons. They should have worked out an arc for what happened after the end of the book, but you could tell they were just winging it after the first season.
Misfits... Nathan Leaving started the decline, and when the last of the original 5 went it was dead in the water.
That 70’s show
The earliest seasons were so great but with each new season the show just went downhill. Especially the final season, god i hated the writers and the director for ruining the show
Loved the early ones, after Eric left, it went down the crapper. Marion Ross as Red's mom was great, though.
Westworld
Season 1 was perfect, an amalgamation of mystery, action, drama, twists and turns, exceptional writing, and the perfect amount of existentialism.
Season 2 was good as well but not nearly as good. Much like season 1, they repeated a ton of scenes which makes sense in the story but by that point it was becoming tiring.
Season 3, I didn't even finish cause of how boring it was. Continually rehashed old plot points, leaned WAY too much into the idea of "what is consciousness," and hardly took place in Westworld.
There are leaks of season 4 and they're STILL repeating scenes from SEASON 1!!
Supernatural. The first 2 seasons are great, the 3rd-5th seasons are really good and expand on the first 2 seasons. Then the 6th through 15th seasons are just bland and uninspired and not even campy. The first third of the series is great, but the other two-thirds turned out to be garbage. I didn't even finish watching the final season, I just read the synopsis and wasn't surprised at how dumb it ended.
Vikings.
Awesome stroryline, great characters, touched on old religious and philosophical themes, great battle sequences etc. Great show.
But after season 3 something happened with the writing. Season 4 was split into two parts through the year. That was weird. 4B came out and it was clear the show was slipping. After that it just fell apart with story, character arcs, motives….it just sank.
Once Ragnar was no longer the focal point, the showrunners apparently decided that what the show needed was a dozen different central characters.
Dexter is my absolute favorite show of all time but good god season 8 was s**t. The revival has been so much better.
BAHatesToFly:
Dexter introduced me to the concept of hate-watching. I loved the first two seasons, but Season 3 fell way off, then season 4 was great, then seasons 5 and 6 were dogs**t and I started hate-watching. The old AV Club used to do episode recaps and the comments section was so funny ripping apart the episodes.
Season 7 had some good moments but dropped off, then season 8 was an utter abomination.
When Dexter's sister started having sexual fantasies about him I was done (yes I know he was adopted)
Riverdale. That s**t went absolute bonkers.
LiterallyANun:
I enjoyed it for how utterly absurd it was. A show about teenagers growing up in small town America.
Except there's gang turfwars, Mafiosi, suicide pacts, people faking their death, illegal fight clubs, serial killers, legitimate business ownership, children with way more money and influence than they should realistically have, secret societies, underground bunkers, and Dungeons and Dragons.
Every episode you're surprised with something new that still somehow manages to be even more moronic than what came before.
I stopped watching once all that Gargoyle King c**p started happening.
Orange Is The New Black just kind of… fell off.
PineappleDifferent80:
After Poussey died, they should have just ended it. Depressing ending, but also very fitting since it’s about an American prison.
IBeatUpLiamNeeson:
Once I got to the season where they kind of over run the prison, and they started making the really cheesy jokes, I just stopped watching. Like every single scene was ending on a joke you feel you should here the trombone hitting the wahhh wahhhhhhhhh with.
Sleepy Hollow, first season was fantastic, absolutely made sense that they got renewed only two or three episodes in. The whole premise was highly engaging and enjoyable, Icabod dealing with the 21st century, the monsters, the whole overreaching plot hooked you from the start.
Then… Second season was a little rough, but still enjoyable.
I didn’t even finish the third season, and once I heard that Abbie was killed, fourth season had no interest. The whole point was them being fated to be partners against the coming apocalypse!!! You can’t just kill off one of them and then just hand wave in another partner and act like that’s all fine and dandy when instead you established in the first couple episodes that it can only be them.
I’ve yet to rewatch the first season because I just remember how disappointed I was seeing where it went and how it ultimately ended.
Under the dome, the first few episodes were pretty good but eventually it got less interesting/more stupid.
Altered Carbon. Loved the first season but really didn’t enjoy season 2.
trumpelstiltzkin:
"Our main character is almost TOO good. Let's swap out for a different one!"
American Gods.
It started out amazing and really kept me invested for the first 2 seasons! But it fell way off after Orlando left and then I just kept hearing terrible things about how it was behind the scenes. The show had a lot of potential and they got screwed horribly.
American Gods had no showrunner and no competent writing staff for the majority of its run. Orlando left because no one would compensate him for basically taking over as head writer when no one else would. He is a very talented man.
The Fairly OddParents it was an amazing kids show at one point even beating spongebob in viewers but it dropped the ball after puff was introduced then when they added the dog and the annoying girl and ruined it.
13 Reasons Why.
imthenanny:
I agree should have stopped it at season one. Just do the book adaptation and be done with it.
Honestly Downton Abbey. The first two and a half seasons are fantastic, then it gets really silly really fast. How many times can Mr. Bates possibly get arrested???
Kim's Convenience.
I wouldn't say the last season was total *garbage*, but it was full-on Flandersization of most of the characters, dropped important storylines, and left everyone hanging at the end. They did their cast dirty on that show, and it has started off so, so good.
I'm just happy that a few of the actors are on to amazing things! I was so excited to see Simu Liu in Marvel and now Paul Lee will be Uncle Iroh!!!
Pretty Little Liars. It started as a fun concept and fun show to watch. The writing and plot line went downhill within the first few seasons, it because repetitive and all over the place, I still refuse to watch the last season because the writing became terrible.
And can we all agree that the Aria/Ezra plot line was so gross, unneeded, and inappropriate?!
This started out great but then just started to get confusing. When you think they have it figured out who the killer is, nope, not that person. After about the fourth time of that, I gave up. I kept thinking it was going to be the end of the series but, it just kept going on and on like that.
True Detective. Season 1 was best. Top of the class. But subsequent seasons were average.
NoGoodIDNames:
IIRC the first season was a project the writer had worked on and slowly perfected for years, and then once it came out and was a huge hit they expected him to do the same thing again in a fraction of the time.
So he tried a completely new storyline for 2 which bombed, then went back and recycled a lot of 1’s stuff for 3, which did better but still wasn’t as good as 1.
Note: this post originally had 72 images. It’s been shortened to the top 34 images based on user votes.
Is anyone still raging over the untimely demise of the Stargate franchise due to the cra.p shoot of utter mediocrity of Stargate Universe? I mean besides me.
Bored Panda. Used to have interesting articles now it's the same recycled c**p with ads.
Did anyone here see Chuck (with Zachary Levi)?. It was one of the most entertaining TV shows I've ever seen but like a couple of these, the ending was terrible.
No one mentioned Lucifer? I know it was trite, but it was *fun* and trite. Until it went completely sideways when the transition from CW to Netflix happened. Then it was awful.
So basically most of these shows should have just bowed out on a good high and not keep going. Money ruins everything.
Everything loses it's flair after two or three seasons. Maybe they should have a clear idea of the end and not try to stretch the plot beyond that point.
Mythbusters was never the same after that damned cannonball through a residential neighborhood made the insurers too nervous. Ditching the interns? Really? Their goofiness was half the fun. Sorry, that's as modern as I get.
I don't mean to sound hipster; I'll plainly admit to watching tons of YouTube, etc. But man, I had no idea how long I'd been away from mainstream TV I never heard of just about ANY of these shows. Any old farts wanna talk about MASH, or All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place, or The Cosb--- whoops, nevermind, or Cheers or Family Ties? So how about that ending to Seinfeld, huh?
I'm going to add Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It went downhill after Will got shot.
I'm sorry but Grey's Anatomy is a masterpiece and that is the hill I will die on 😂
Showing my age here...I loved Blake's 7 series 1, 2 and 3. Series 4 ... NO!!! And also Andromeda... that was pretty good until they killed Tyr off and it became the Kevin Sorbo Show in all but name.
Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons may have had a plan, but the writers sure didn't.
No mention of Shameless? Now this show had a good 7 season run before it jumped the shark. The turning point for me was Fiona's wedding. After Frank shat all over it, the other characters collectively decided to throw him off a bridge into Lake Michigan (in other words, attempt to murder him), at the end of season 7. And from the start of the following season, the characters were all doing things that either made no sense or were out of character for them, in order to advance the story. And the worst moment of the show was when Debbie shackled that ex-bf of Fiona's to a billboard and fired paintballs at his naked a*s. I mean yes, the guy was a jerk for lying to Fiona, but that's just not how sane people handle breakups.
i love sailor moon but last season when they reboot the universe was a bit too over the top
A slightly older show that never had a huge audience, but whose decline annoyed me greatly: Earth Final Conflict. The first season was great. The second season was good. The third was okay. The fourth was bad. And the fifth was absolutely horrible. I stopped watching halfway through the fifth season, then tuned back in just for the finale—and wish I hadn't. It's the worst series finale I've ever seen.
Good omens, season one was brilliant and the two main characters were so loveable but season two was c**p and somehow made them not likeable at all
I don't watch TV, just google smth up and watch it online. The scariest thing is that I heard of almost all the shows on the list and watched about 70%, and liked about a half of watched ones (during commuting to work (2-3hrs a day), on my phone, using headphones)
I can think of another thing that had promise but turned into garbage...
I miss "The Last Ship" on the list - The first 4 seasons are great, but the 5th feels like a taped on fan fiction without originallity. If you watch it, stop after season 4 / Or Navy CIS - the show got bad when Pauley Perrete left, went worse after Cote de Pablo was gone, hit bed rock after Michael Weatherly also left and became absolute garbage with Mark Harmon leaving. Nowadays it's a drama series focused on bland new characters and not about solving crimes with some twists and turns like in the beginning
I came here to make sure someone mentioned "Search Party". That show had a great start, then went OFF THE F-ING RAILS. I can't even describe it. I couldn't stand watching it anymore. It's like the creators were on acid, truly.
The fact that The Office isn't on here both makes me happy because it's just a spectacular show, but also it did kinda fall off for sure after Steve left.
"The Expanse" - so amazing the first three seasons. I will watch it again from the beginning just for them, but I stopped watching season 5 because it wasn't as interesting, and I learned season 6 was being released weekly at the time (I like to watch a series straight through and not wait a week).
I've heard of some of these, but I've never seen any, except bits of Walking Dead.
I'm totally missing Supernatural here. It was so good but the last couple of seasons just got worse and worse
Not really a seasons thing, but Leverage is one of my favorite shows ever, and Leverage: Redemption did not live up to the original show. At least one of the original showrunners is coming back for Redemption season 3, which will be fun to see. (And I want more Hardison screen time grr [but it's awesome that the reason he's not there is because Alis Hodge is getting bigger roles])
I hate to say it because the first few seasons were so good, but Kim's Convenience. It started to decline when they sidelined Simu Liu's character to video calls instead of personal appearances and basically abandoned his whole arc with the dad. It didn't get much better from there. It felt predictable and like they were running out of ideas, with no real character development or plot progression. We got tired of watching it.
Is anyone still raging over the untimely demise of the Stargate franchise due to the cra.p shoot of utter mediocrity of Stargate Universe? I mean besides me.
Bored Panda. Used to have interesting articles now it's the same recycled c**p with ads.
Did anyone here see Chuck (with Zachary Levi)?. It was one of the most entertaining TV shows I've ever seen but like a couple of these, the ending was terrible.
No one mentioned Lucifer? I know it was trite, but it was *fun* and trite. Until it went completely sideways when the transition from CW to Netflix happened. Then it was awful.
So basically most of these shows should have just bowed out on a good high and not keep going. Money ruins everything.
Everything loses it's flair after two or three seasons. Maybe they should have a clear idea of the end and not try to stretch the plot beyond that point.
Mythbusters was never the same after that damned cannonball through a residential neighborhood made the insurers too nervous. Ditching the interns? Really? Their goofiness was half the fun. Sorry, that's as modern as I get.
I don't mean to sound hipster; I'll plainly admit to watching tons of YouTube, etc. But man, I had no idea how long I'd been away from mainstream TV I never heard of just about ANY of these shows. Any old farts wanna talk about MASH, or All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place, or The Cosb--- whoops, nevermind, or Cheers or Family Ties? So how about that ending to Seinfeld, huh?
I'm going to add Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It went downhill after Will got shot.
I'm sorry but Grey's Anatomy is a masterpiece and that is the hill I will die on 😂
Showing my age here...I loved Blake's 7 series 1, 2 and 3. Series 4 ... NO!!! And also Andromeda... that was pretty good until they killed Tyr off and it became the Kevin Sorbo Show in all but name.
Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons may have had a plan, but the writers sure didn't.
No mention of Shameless? Now this show had a good 7 season run before it jumped the shark. The turning point for me was Fiona's wedding. After Frank shat all over it, the other characters collectively decided to throw him off a bridge into Lake Michigan (in other words, attempt to murder him), at the end of season 7. And from the start of the following season, the characters were all doing things that either made no sense or were out of character for them, in order to advance the story. And the worst moment of the show was when Debbie shackled that ex-bf of Fiona's to a billboard and fired paintballs at his naked a*s. I mean yes, the guy was a jerk for lying to Fiona, but that's just not how sane people handle breakups.
i love sailor moon but last season when they reboot the universe was a bit too over the top
A slightly older show that never had a huge audience, but whose decline annoyed me greatly: Earth Final Conflict. The first season was great. The second season was good. The third was okay. The fourth was bad. And the fifth was absolutely horrible. I stopped watching halfway through the fifth season, then tuned back in just for the finale—and wish I hadn't. It's the worst series finale I've ever seen.
Good omens, season one was brilliant and the two main characters were so loveable but season two was c**p and somehow made them not likeable at all
I don't watch TV, just google smth up and watch it online. The scariest thing is that I heard of almost all the shows on the list and watched about 70%, and liked about a half of watched ones (during commuting to work (2-3hrs a day), on my phone, using headphones)
I can think of another thing that had promise but turned into garbage...
I miss "The Last Ship" on the list - The first 4 seasons are great, but the 5th feels like a taped on fan fiction without originallity. If you watch it, stop after season 4 / Or Navy CIS - the show got bad when Pauley Perrete left, went worse after Cote de Pablo was gone, hit bed rock after Michael Weatherly also left and became absolute garbage with Mark Harmon leaving. Nowadays it's a drama series focused on bland new characters and not about solving crimes with some twists and turns like in the beginning
I came here to make sure someone mentioned "Search Party". That show had a great start, then went OFF THE F-ING RAILS. I can't even describe it. I couldn't stand watching it anymore. It's like the creators were on acid, truly.
The fact that The Office isn't on here both makes me happy because it's just a spectacular show, but also it did kinda fall off for sure after Steve left.
"The Expanse" - so amazing the first three seasons. I will watch it again from the beginning just for them, but I stopped watching season 5 because it wasn't as interesting, and I learned season 6 was being released weekly at the time (I like to watch a series straight through and not wait a week).
I've heard of some of these, but I've never seen any, except bits of Walking Dead.
I'm totally missing Supernatural here. It was so good but the last couple of seasons just got worse and worse
Not really a seasons thing, but Leverage is one of my favorite shows ever, and Leverage: Redemption did not live up to the original show. At least one of the original showrunners is coming back for Redemption season 3, which will be fun to see. (And I want more Hardison screen time grr [but it's awesome that the reason he's not there is because Alis Hodge is getting bigger roles])
I hate to say it because the first few seasons were so good, but Kim's Convenience. It started to decline when they sidelined Simu Liu's character to video calls instead of personal appearances and basically abandoned his whole arc with the dad. It didn't get much better from there. It felt predictable and like they were running out of ideas, with no real character development or plot progression. We got tired of watching it.
