Someone Asks “What Show Did You Start And Wind Up Hating So Much You Didn’t Finish It?” And 50 People Share
There are no two ways about it—we absolutely love TV shows and movies. There’s nothing quite like immersing yourself in a fantasy world or someone else’s drama and hardships. A well-crafted storyline and believable characters are worth far more than their weight in gold. Alas! A good pilot episode or even a great first season don’t guarantee quality entertainment in the future…
Redditor u/DadIsMadAtMe started up a really interesting thread on r/AskReddit after asking cinephiles around the globe about the shows that they started watching but hated so much they couldn’t muster the patience to finish them. And, wow, do we relate to a lot of these opinions. Scroll down to see what popular shows went downhill and why.
Bored Panda reached out to entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyle expert Mike Sington to get his opinion on TV shows jumping the shark, why the quality of writing falls off the cliff so often, and what a long-running series can mean for an actor's career. Read on for our full interview with Hollywood's Ultimate Insider!
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Walking Dead.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the first three seasons. Then, they brought new show runners in and they destroyed the show. The storytelling was insulting, there was no creativity, they immediately made our favorite characters so unlikable, events just happened for no real reason, and it just felt like these new writers had no prior knowledge of the show before working on it. I can only think about what this show could have been if these changes didn’t happen.
The end of the line for me was how they were painfully dragging out the whole Negan saga. I don't remember what season it was but I just quit in the middle of it
Agreed, it started out great but the whole Negan saga, as stated, was exhausting to watch. I had to stop after about the 2nd season of Negan.
I stopped about 4 episodes into Negan's first season. I caught an episode here and there channel surfing and would watch a few minutes to see if it was any good. I literally lmao when I saw Tiger King. Never really heard anything good about it, either. The first few seasons were wonderful and I was a huge fan. I can't even rewatch those knowing that it turns into such a shitstorm.
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What got me is they originally smeared zombie on them so they wouldn't be detected... why didn't they just keep doing this if it worked?
It didn't keep working. A kid got chomped on for not being quiet enough while zombie smeared and another guy got really sick. Turns out smearing decomposing blood and gusts on your skin isn't very healthy.
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This is my favorite show DON'T YOU DARE DOWNVOTE ME. I get that not everyone likes it, but it hurts a little to see this in the #1 spot ☹️
I also really enjoyed watching most of The Walking Dead
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Well I really liked it. Agreed that there were a few questionable bits but I've never had anxiety while watching a show like the Negan/Glen episode, it was gripping and heart breaking.
Soap Opera with zombies in the backround, to make a short description
If I watch a show for a long time I will force myself to make it the the series finale because I feel like I wasted so much time if I don't. I watched TWD all the way to the end.
Honestly I genuinely dislike this show. I tried to like it but everything made me cringe and the overwhelming cringe emotion was just too distracting for me lol. My twin loves it though so this is probably the only place I’ll talk s**t about it 😝
I won a season of this show on DVD and watched it, and I hated it mostly because I couldn't STAND any of the characters. They were a bunch of insufferable dumbasses. In fact when I later met Michael Rooker at a convention I told him "you know, you played the only character I liked in The Walking Dead." He said "you can't have liked Merle!" and I said "Dude all the other characters were morons. The guy who goes around killing them is a-okay in my book."
Agreed. Season 1 was good, and each season after was worse than the previous. I think I quit around season 4.
My quitting point was around season 4 as well. And watching at that point was such a chore that I was basically rooting for the walkers to come finish off the people
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I watched it after Glen (knew it was gonna happen from the comics), but my wife didn't... I stopped after they took Rick. You can't kill Carl and have Rick "gone"...
Same. After Rick was gone, that was it for me. I loved it up to that point.
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It was Fear the Walking Dead for me. It became an even worse copy of an already very poor show.
I tried to like it. But in the first episode, I already hated everyone except the dad. Around the third or fourth episode, he did something s****y (don't exactly remember), and I was done. I hated all the characters and wanted them all to get bitten.
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My husband watched it longer than I did, but even he gave up during the Negan thing. For me it was the talk talk talk -Ahhh! Zombies! talk talk talk oh, a bit oh plot talk ta-Ahh! zombies! Plus the concept confused me. I understood the concept that suddenly anyone who died became a zombie. It is the only way there could be a show instead of a movie about zombies since zombies have a shelf life of 6-8 months of moving around decaying before they can't really do much. But why were only humans affected? Where were the zombie cows and squirrels and zoo animals? I want a zombie stampede, people!
Find shelter - find enemies - stalemate - lose maincharacters - ... it became redundant fast
They did focus on Negan for a while, but the show got really good again when Angela Kang took over as show runner in season 9. Give it another try on Netflix.
You can always still watch it! This is just someone's opinion and everyone's preference differs, my parents and brothers loved the show so don't let a bad review hold you back :]
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Same, i stopped at the episode that was a clear copy/paste from "of mice and man".
I think I watched 4 episodes because it's filmed in my hometown. That's all I could manage.
I stopped watching when everyone was trying to figure out who Negan killed after Abraham or whatever
That was my first thought too. They killed one essential character after another. That's just stupid.
The show is called "The Walking Dead", not "The Walking Living". Lol
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Curiously, when I saw the title of this article the first thought that came to mind was: 'Will The Walking Dead be on it.'
The introduction of Negan was the last episode I watched. Reading the other comments, looks like I picked a good time to dip out.
Never even started it. I thought the premise was so f*cking stupid, I didn't even bother.
Same. Seasons I-3 were really good. Season 3 was where the "Big Bad" thing started. First the Governor, then Terminus, Negan/The Saviors, The Whisperers, The Reapers, etc. etc. etc. The repetitive pattern of kill zombies, find a safe place, make a home, bad humans attack, leave safe place, kill zombies, find another safe place, make a home, bad humans attack (rinse and repeat ad nauseum) just got so boring after a while. The Negan thing was just so damn painful, but I powered through. I totally lost interest during season 10.
I enjoyed it when it was a "trying to survive the dead" type of show and not "trying to survive other survivors" type.
Yeah, it was getting bad, and then when they killed Rick, I just couldn't watch it anymore.
I made it through a few seasons before I realized that they were just telling the same story over and over again and Rick and his gang are the villains. Everything they touch goes to s**t. Every community they encounter are doing just fine until they show up. It got old after a few seasons. I have no idea who it's lasted this long.
I quit watching around season 7 or so... recently I've caught up just to finish it out of pure curiosity (and most prolly a big portion of masochism, too, hehe). Good that I fast forwarded some episodes as the formula never really changed over 7 to 8 seasons... asked myself why I did watch that all... dunno, cannot even answer to myself.
I beg to difer: the first season was brilliant and with a perfect end. The rest was repetition.
I stopped in the 7th season. It was just the same thing over and over again.
I 100% agree. I tried to stick it out, but once Rick hopped on the helicopter, I bounced. I can’t bring myself to watch it anymore, even though I love the first few seasons. Guh, what a let down.
I watched it up until Rick left and then I stopped. Honestly it was a relief, I found that I was watching out of a " oh god who's next" fear not enjoyment.
I have difficulty believing than mankind could survive what, ten years of a zombie outbreak. Id think after a while we'd all be dead..
First 4 seasons I love! I will watch them endlessly. But hanging on after the middle of season 5 is challenging. I stopped completely when (spoiler alert) Carl was killed. It was the entire thing. I know they had to deviate from the comic otherwise it's predictable, but that was an insult. The kid was supposed to grow, be better, and be the new leader, I truly believed his mom when she said he'd beat this world, because even him being a young child, I could believe it. And how they treated the actor? That cemented it. I've only seen this episode once.
Loved the 1st 3 seasons too! The Terminus storyline lasting one episode was the beginning of the end in my decision to quit. It was as if the writers were forced to include Terminus and checked that box off as quickly as possible. I quit on the way to Alexandria when another Black man was killed off (this coming from a white Atlanta girl). Whether the criticism was warranted or not, it sure did feel like the show could only have 1 Black man at a time. I can't say if that stat changed in future seasons but it was the last reason I needed to walk away. I also got tired of fans continually trashing Shane. Let's gaslight Shane for no reason and watch him go crazy. And I will die on the hill in support of Shane shooting another man to escape with the meds needed for Carl to live. Why should 3 people die (Shane, the new guy, AND Carl) when Shane can save 2 of the 3 lives in the process?
The most annoying thing about The Walking Dead is that zombies had been done to (un)death long before it hit our screens.
I stopped watching right when that character appeared and the rumour was Glenn was going to get killed needlessly. No thanks - I’m done.
THIS this this this...i stopped caring after they defeated the governer
I begrudgingly watch through all the Negan drama, because I liked Ezkiel but tuned out when the Whisperers came along.
yep. season 1-3 good. then the c**p with the hospital and the terminus barf-ola. At first the Negan stuff was kinda cool, liked the character at first but it got spread out too long and i didn't liek him for more the about half that season. sadly though, i kept watching. no idea why.. but it was painful. i guess i am into self inflicted misery.
I recently finished it after taking a like 3 year hiatus right before the Glenn death. I knew it was coming and how bad it would be and just couldn't bring myself do experience it. Asian pride!!
"One reason why there may be a noticeable drop in writing quality in long-running television series is due to the difficulty in maintaining a fresh and compelling storyline over an extended period. As a series continues, writers may struggle to come up with new ideas or may rely too heavily on previously successful storylines, leading to a sense of stagnation or repetition," entertainment expert Mike, from LA, explained to Bored Panda why there's a noticeable drop in quality in long-running TV shows.
"Another factor that may contribute to a decline in writing quality is changes in the creative team. As writers and showrunners leave or are replaced, the show's tone and direction may shift, resulting in a departure from what made the show initially successful," he said.
"To counteract these challenges, some television series employ a writers' room, a team of writers who collaborate on the series' storyline and character arcs. Additionally, having a clear endgame in mind can help ensure that the series maintains its creative momentum and avoids a drop in quality."
Don’t hate me but Friends. Seen the first 5 episodes and absolutely hated it.
Orange is the New Black. the first few seasons were good. They lost me after a while!
Piper annoyed the f*****g s**t out of me
The entertainment expert shared a few examples of TV series that have remained consistently good, no matter how many seasons have been on the air. According to Mike, these include Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and The Crown. These are all "critically acclaimed shows that sustained their quality throughout their respective runs."
"These shows all had a clear sense of direction and vision from their showrunners and writers, which allowed them to maintain their creative momentum over an extended period."
Handmaid’s Tale. The first season starts so strong but as the seasons go on the story refuses to move forward. It was just an endless cycle of failed escapes. Or when characters finally have the chance to escape they either change their mind or go back inside. It’s like the writers were too afraid to shake up the status quo. After a few seasons I just gave up.
Greys anatomy. I checked out FOREVER ago.
I expect you don’t mind spoilers so I’m going with it lol, but season 18 (I think) had her finally leaving grey Sloan and she was about to leave for Boston and then her house suddenly burned down from a lightning strike and I couldn’t stop laughing, it was so absurdly overdramatic and unnecessary
I stopped watching it when Izzie went nuts and started having imaginary sex with her dead boyfriend, whom she had killed. Didn't miss it.
Glee. The funny thing about this show is it originally started as a satire of the very thing it became.
Yep, descended into utter tripe, where they broke fingernails scraping the bottom of a barrel for plot...
We were also interested to get the entertainment expert's thoughts on how playing a single character on a long-running TV show can impact an actor and their career. Mike told Bored Panda that there are certain advantages and disadvantages to this. Here are some of the pros:
- "Consistent work: One of the most significant benefits of playing a character on a long-running series is the steady and reliable income it can provide. Actors who play a popular or iconic character on a successful show may have job security for many years.
- Increased exposure: Television shows that attract large audiences can raise an actor's profile significantly. The exposure gained from appearing in a popular series can lead to more significant roles and opportunities in the future.
- Character development: Playing a single character for an extended period can allow an actor to explore and develop the character over time. As the character evolves, actors may have more opportunities to showcase their range and acting abilities."
Everybody loves Raymond.
God what a manchild Raymond was. And the unnecessary hate on debra on all the subreddits. It just made me so furious.
If I ever wound up with a husband like Raymond I would just pack my bags and run for my life.
What was wrong enough with the Debra character played by Patricia Heaton in the show that someone would take to Reddit to complain? She was the only somewhat normal one on the show except for perhaps she was married to Raymond and into his family and put up with it as much as she did. I think Patricia did a fine job of playing the part too. It wasn’t really my favorite show but my parents loved it so I ended up seeing a lot of episodes. On a side note. The Ray Romano is a very nice polite and humble guy based on my brief encounter many years ago.
Heroes.
Well, the main villain of the show was the writer's strike. When they fired it up for season 3 it's as if no one knew what had happened in the first 2 seasons. It had potential.
Agree they forgot half the powers Sylar had then made him a good guy. Then wanted him to be the bad guy again. Would have been great but how they made him bad again was so bad I quit watching. They teased stuff but never delivered forgot storylines. Sylar told Claire she had more power than she knew about but all she did was just not die.
Vikings
after Ragnar died it was unwatchably boring
On season 6 - ep 14 - only and 6 episodes to go - hope I make it - wish me luck.
However, there are some cons as well:
- "Typecasting: Actors who play a single character on a long-running series may become typecast, making it challenging to find other roles that are not similar to the character they are known for playing.
- Limited opportunities for other projects: A long-running series can take up a significant amount of an actor's time, leaving little room for other acting projects. This can make it difficult for actors to take on other roles or participate in other productions.
- Lack of creative control: Actors who play a character on a television series do not have control over the writing or direction of the show. If the writing or direction changes in a way that they do not agree with, they may have limited ability to influence the outcome."
In short, playing a single character on a long-running television series "can provide consistent work, increased exposure, and character development," however, it has certain downsides, such as "typecasting, limited opportunities for other projects, and a lack of creative control."
According to Mike, whether an actor should pursue working on a long-lasting series will ultimately depend on their career goals and priorities.
Big Bang Theory.
Hey, Big Bang was a great show! All 3 seasons!
OMFG, there's 12 seasons?
OMFG, somehow Young Sheldon has been renewed for a 7th season?
Young Sheldon is the worst. The totally forgot the stuff that Sheldon mentioned in the BBT and he is the least interesting character on the show. Plus they do Missy wrong I know she’s not as smart but they make dumb jokes about her all the time like they all gave up on her.
The Simpsons. It was my favorite show for years and it just keeps going and it’s not funny anymore. I do like to watch the first episode when they get Santa’s little helper around Christmas and I have a DVD with some early treehouse of horror episodes I watch around Halloween.
Feels like the newer seasons (last 10 years or so) try too hard to make a plot based on current trends.
Star Trek: Picard
I found it to be an absolute betrayal and slap in the face to the spirit of Star Trek and the character of Jean-Luc Picard.
I've been a Trekkie since I was a toddler. Seeing such a positive and enlightened group that was the United Federation of Planets be twisted into a racist and xenophobic organization for the sake of hammering home its themes was awful. Yes, Star Trek was always political and was always "woke" as they say now, but I think taking a society that's progressed beyond all the awful s**t we have today and making them just as awful is saddening. It also doesn't help that the writers engage in pushing stereotypes for this same purpose. Whether intentional on the writers' part or not, I found that taking the black lead of the show, and making her addicted to drugs and living in poverty in a society that's supposed to have no addiction or money - offensive and racist.
They took Picard, a strong willed, respectful, and good man who held true to his ethics and desire to do the right thing and made him completely unrecognizable.
At the risk of sounding dramatic, Star Trek: Picard genuinely upset me. All I saw while watching it was a series that I've held dear to my heart for most of my life being mangled and twisted into a corporate product designed to hit check boxes of what modern day audiences like in sci-fi shows. Which is dark, gritty, depressing, grimdark nonsense apparently.
Old Star Trek looked at our society and said "We can be better than this." Modern Trek seems to blatantly say "No, we can't."
Whether we like to admit it or not, it’s not just good shows that we love watching. Many of us also enjoy the occasional hate-watching binge: putting on a show that we know is bad so we can unleash our inner film critic. Cue grumbling about weak storylines, inconsistent motivations, and one-dimensional characters.
Not only do we get to show the world (or, well, anyone in the same room as us) how we have far better taste than fans of show X, but we can also flex our creative muscles as we proclaim how we’d have done things completely differently—and far, far better. Schadenfreude is a powerful force, and we really do get pleasure from someone else’s misfortune. Say a writer’s script going downhill or watching actors going through the motions with no energy because it’s Season 39 and franchise Y won’t milk itself dry without them.
The fact of the matter is that creating a story is far more difficult than something sitting on the sidelines might think. Everyone who’s ever tried writing a short story, editing a book, or cobbling together a script will know that. It’s way easier to be a semi-decent critic than to be a barely-average writer. Especially for TV where there are so many other factors (from casting and filming to post-processing and marketing) to consider alongside the story.
Once Upon A Time
So effing glad I stopped at season two.
This is a comfort show for me, easy to watch and follow when you are not in the best of places to take on something more tasking.
how i met your mother.
After that final season, this is mine as well. A whole season spent on a wedding that was undone in ten minutes.
Yeah the final season was unnecessary the wedding being the setting for the whole season was constricting. Even though the show does point to her being dead at the end we didn’t need to know.
Arrow.
For five years i was stranded on an island…
No wait, i was stranded on an island, and in hong kong, and then back to the island before i actually was in new york, but then i was rescued on the island again! It became an absolute mess lol
However, the story itself is still incredibly important. The narrative, the events, the characters, the details, they all have to be believable and grounded in the world’s logic—even if it’s a fantasy, sci-fi, or post-apocalyptic scenario. As we’ve written here on Bored Panda recently, the audience is willing to suspend its disbelief to enjoy a story… up to a certain point.
Yes, you can have dragons and magic and intergalactic space-faring aliens. But the story has to be believable within the context of the world you’re inviting the audience into.
Or, as writer and author Christopher Burke put it to us recently, “There can be a dragon. The dragon can swear, smoke cigars, and drink whiskey if it wants to. But if it starts talking about cigars and whiskey and gets basic facts (which are easily found) wrong, someone's going to notice, and that will pull them out of the moment. The audience will willingly accept the big stuff or they wouldn't watch the movie. It's the small stuff that's distracting, and sometimes you wonder if they could've avoided it."
How to get away with murder. Very repetitive
Never got the final season. Gave up after waiting over a year. Anyone would think it's the 80s still.
Riverdale. I think I lost it when it became fantasy/paranormal/cult horror? And I've heard that it ventures into time travel or something. Even typing this out confuses me so much lo
Westworld. Loved the first season. Then it started going downhill. Haven’t seen the latest season and I don’t plan on it.
Characters spouting facts that are just plain wrong. Characters whose motivations flip-flop all over the place and change like the weather. Massive shifts in narrative tone. Storylines that become more and more complex and nonsensical, completely divorced from the show’s roots. Smart characters who become dumb whenever the plot demands it. Dumb characters who are overly dumb because the plot demands it…
…Expository dialogues. Stiff acting. Mary Sue characters that are pushed on the audience as though they’re the second coming of Jesus Christ. A lack of respect for the source material. Nonsensical dramas that don’t actually humanize the characters. Bad costumes and awful CGI. These are just some of the things that ruin our enjoyment of a show! Most of them can be solved with better writing and editing and the courage to stand up for better standards instead of pushing out what’s fast, cheap, and easy.
Supernatural.
Season 1-5: Sam and Dean search for their missing father, unravel the mystery of their mother’s death, and close the gates of hell.
Season 15: Sam and Dean need to kill god.
It feels like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that’s gone on for far too long lol
Game of Thrones.
It's a tough show to watch, even if you like it. Besides killing everyone you love, it's also really ra**y.
Lost. Made it about 9 episodes and it seems JJ's career has done nothing since to show me he's capable of ending anything.
I’ve seen all of it, and yes, it is insane, and I don’t quite understand the last three seasons, and sure, it went on for too long, but I love it.
The Blacklist
Season 1 established a cool story and a great anti-hero. The remainder of the series is about the insufferable protagonist ruining his plans, and how an entire FBI agency bends over backwards to support her, no matter how often or how hard she betrays them.
There's a season without her that I thought was actually good again but she returns and starts immediately making incredibly stupid mistakes again so I couldn't continue.
The problem is that they absolutely refuse any form of reveal about Red to the point where it's absolutely unrealistic and ridiculous. And that's the point where it tips. She's supposed to be this smart and incredibly talented profiler, so she had to find out something tangible after season one, but the writers absolutely didn't want to reveal anything or make any progress. They insisted on the mystery. And that's the tipping point where Liz became insufferable to drive the plot. Without her idiotic decisions there would be no plot beyond the first season because the writers didn't write one. And when I realized that they would milk Red's mystery beyond any reason and it's most likely they'll probably never solve it until maybe a very rushed and silly conclusion when the series get cancelled, if they get that chance at all, I stopped watching.
I’m just glad they ended scrubs at season 8 and didn’t try to make a spin-off
I love Scrubs, one of my favorite shows to this day! The Med school is not to be talked about.🤫
13 reasons why. I’m not gonna lie when this show dropped I binged all of the first season in secrecy because I was so embarrassed that I was hooked lmao. But getting to the end of that season I was satisfied. Was not into whatever school shooter plot they were setting up for the rest so just called it quits after S1. Feel zero need to ever return.
Dexter. Trinity killer season was peak tv…but then Debs finding out about things and somehow allowing it to continue just felt weird. I stopped watching not long after that. Tried rewatching it all more recently and got to the exact same point before giving up for a second time! ha
I agree. The books are SO much better. But I gotta admit: Michael C Hall pulled off the role of Dexter perfectly.
Suits. How they managed to put together 9 seasons of the same s**t over and over I'll never understand becuase I quit in the middle of season 3.
elizabethjacques added:
exactly. it dawned on me that all it really was was people strutting in and out of each others’ offices having brief heated exchanges.
I respectfully disagree. But I lost interest when Mike moved out of New York.
The Umbrella Academy, sort of… first season was fire, second season 2 I started hating Allison, stopped paying attention, gave season 3 a chance, realized how abysmally terrible Allison’s character is, half assed my way through the rest of the season, really only paying attention to “important parts”.
The only saving Grace for season 2&3 are Aiden, who does an overly incredible job at portraying number 5.
Gilmore Girls
Forced myself to get through most of the show because I didn’t realize how insufferable the main characters where going to be until I was already too far in…and even then I couldn’t finish it. Rory and Lorelei single-handedly ruined the show for me.
That 90s Show.
I liked That 70s Show. It was funny and it had its moments. But I watched the first couple episodes of That 90s Show and it just isn't cutting it for me. It seems like the old characters show up just for cheap nostalgia points for the fans and Kitty/Red/the basement are only there to keep reminding the fans its a That 70s Show sequel. Even though Kitty and Red are blatantly the best part of the show. The kids in this show are just...not people I'm interested in at all. First, they look way more like kids than the original cast which I suppose is technically more accurate and should be a good thing, but instead it just feels weird being an adult watching them deal with sex and drugs. Second, the humor feels way more modern with kids who are just unbelievably caricatures. Third, Eric's daughter is supposed to be a socially awkward nerd like he was but when you look at her you know instantly there is no way she would have had problems making friends and getting attention in school. Eric looked like a nerd. The characters in the original all looked their part and were written at least moderately believable. This feels like a lazy cash grab. Not interested.
Oh man, I'm gonna get roasted for this, but Breaking bad.
Just couldn't hold my interest for some reason.
Netflix’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I really liked the first season, barely made it through the second season, and refuse to watch the third
Never liked it from the word "go". Just couldn't warm to any of the characters, unlike the kids series where you genuinely cared about them!
The Flash.
I gave up on the entire Arrowverse about five years ago. It wasn't even like a conscious decision. I was kind of getting behind in all my shows, and I eventually realized I was about a month or so behind on Arrow and Flash and Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, and I just didn't care. So I just never bothered to watch any of them anymore.
OMG Iris is like one of the most annoying character ever (in the rank with Sakura). And it is the last season, so i watched like 2 episodes, efects and writting of the show is still crappy, so i spent my time on the phone "watching" the show
Emily in Paris. I've heard that show described as "French Twilight minus the vampires."
... guys have we finally found something that is not in fact a better love story than twilight
Shameless. Just an over the top soap opera towards the later seasons. Still haven’t finished the last 6 episodes and probably never will.
The Witcher.
Yes the series isn’t over (yet) but as a fan of the world just not interested after season 2
every single season of AHS since Freak Show. always starts out strong and interesting. and then usually halfway through, Ryan Murphy consistently shows that he can’t finish a story and I realize what’s going to happen and just decide to quit. around Roanoke, I stopped even giving him a chance.
I still like 'em all even when they're dumb. Lol. But I will say I don't like them as much without Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters.
True Blood. I can't exactly remember what happened, but sometime around when other faeries start showing up regularly (maybe end of Season 4?) I just suddenly couldn't stand it anymore.
I think some of the central human characters were also gone by then, which might have made it harder to stick with as well.
Watched until the end. The last episode sucked but still glad I finished the whole thing. Not one I can go back and rewatch though.
Sons of Anarchy.
Man, I was so into this show! Then Clay starts beating up on Gemma and someone kidnaps Jax's kid so now we have to go to Ireland?? It felt like when an 80's sitcom would introduce a cute kid when the ratings were slipping and the show should just end.
The last two seasons of Killing Eve.
Season 1 is one of the most perfect seasons of any show I have ever seen. I am still convinced that there's no way the rest of it was the same show.
Late, but Once Apon a Time. God the show was a masterpiece up until it wasn't.
Everything Has A Price
Designated Survivor
First season was incredible, second season was fine, after that it was awful. It became something so different than when it began that the show was unrecognizable so I stopped watching within a few episodes of when it became a generic Washington DC based show.
You
I know it's supposed the be scandalous [criminal] porn for modern basic women but the first season wasn't that bad. Then it all derailed and now it's just the same thing: dude obsesses over woman, he somehow gets the girl, girl turns out to be not what he wanted, he finds a different one to obsess over, repeat. I gave up on season 3 when everyone was so [unalive] happy.
WTF?? Can we literally not use the word "dead" on BP. As in dead basic, dead simple, dead boring, dead dead dead. Is it always now "unalive"?? As in a word that actually doesn't exist?? Oh heaven help us.
Girls, I just hated all the characters. No redeeming qualities.
I have a strange reaction to Lena, like I get physically ill when she is present. It's terrible and I don't know why I react that way. Didn't like the show anyway but she made is ten times worse so that I had to stop watching.
This is us.
This show was like a never-ending drama sledge hammer to my head. It never ended. I only made it though the first two seasons.
Prison break. Watched a few episodes into season 2 but it got boring.
Totally agree, it had such potential after the first series. Should of just kept it as a one series show.
Arrested Development after Netflix took over
I like Arrested Development although it definitely gets worse as it goes along. I will still put it on for background noise sometimes but in small doses.
Bojack, actually. The show was really good… so much so that I found that I was commiserating too much. I have depression and the show would negatively affect my mood so much that I ended up hating it. Can’t stand how it makes me feel, so I never finished it.
Wednesday. I don’t think im the target demographic though. Seemed like a corny CW show.
Peaky blinders.
I got quite annoyed with the fact that every season Tommy needed to have a new girl to f**k.
Especially him the communist suffragette, why did they need to get together? Seemed really forced and annoying. I wish they had just had mutual respect eventually and not gone to romance.
Money Heist. The main character, Tokyo was an insufferable b***h. Had to stop because of her. Literally the worst main character in history.
Note: this post originally had 72 images. It’s been shortened to the top 52 images based on user votes.
Wow. I'm a cave dweller. 72 entries and I'd only heard of 10ish of these shows. Whelp, going to go watch Casablanca again. Fade out to creaky knees and another cup of coffee;)
Same here. Apparently I didn't miss much. On a side note, I dislike any show that's a continuing series. I refuse to schedule my life around what time a TV show is on.
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Law And Order has gone on way too long. I enjoyed the spinoff Law And Order: Criminal Intent, with Vince D'Onofrio, but after that I lost interest.
A lot of tv suffers from being dragged on beyond its natural life. They maybe have one story in them, and then some exec somewhere is like “that made money, so instead of making something new we just need more of that”.
Maybe we also need a list of shows that we were really miffed when they got cancelled.
Sex and the City.....why did they have to drag it out of retirement? I couldn't watch it, and I was a major fan of the original series!
Fun fact, in the most recent SITC, the lead characters are actually older than the lead characters in the first season of The Golden Girls.
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Seems that USA have about 30 episodes a season uk has only 6 maybe 8. Leads to better writing and more polished storytelling rather than dragging it out over 30 episodes. Don’t get me started on the years they rinse a programme for lol
Seasons of TV shows used to be around 20-25 episodes a season. They are currently around 4-10, which actually doesn't lead to better writing or polished story, it leads to stretching a 2 hour film plot over 8 hours and calling it a tv show.
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Some of the people answering this question didn't understand the assignment: that the show got so bad they DIDNT finish it. A lot of people referencing final seasons, series finales, endings, etc. To answer the question myself, Grey's Anatomy. Haven't watched in years and don't care what I'm missing. Occasionally I'll watch a few eps from the "MAGIC" seasons.
Yellowstone! Cant stand the spoiled s**t beth,they make that guy of hets like he some kinda great "man" but he a bully and a murderer and the whole show is based on rotten people.
Thank you! I made it through the first season thinking maybe the cowboy related stuff would make it worth watching and then by the 2nd season, realized how much I disliked Beth. She made it particularly unwatchable because they turned her into a caricature of an angry vengeful woman. Everything else that was good about that show faded into the background.
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Yeah, it was a definite disappointment, but I ended up warming up to Robert Patrick's character. He had a nice story arc.
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For me, it was the first 5 minutes of episode 1, season 1 of "Lucifer". An angel storms into Lucifer's club, and threatens him, and Lucifer just...cowers...I knew it was going to diverge so, so far from the source material that they should never have ever spent the millions buying the rights, or even calling it, "Lucifer".
yeah Lucifer never convinced me that he was remotely the devil. More like his younger brother.
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An old show: Fringe. It had an eventful production history. It peaked in season 3 (I was glued to the screen), then went downhill rapidly. I was so disappointed. (A story arc was designed for 7 seasons, then in season 4 the funding was cancelled, so they crammed the events for season 5-7 into half a season to finish episode 100.)(100+ episodes means higher revenue concerning re-runs and foreign markets.)
Seinfeld. It was torturous to watch. I can't understand the appeal of a show where all the characters are complaining about everything. Their whiny voices are like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Kramer's character never changed and was always annoying.
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If a show runs for too long it simply doesn't fly anymore. With one exception: Breaking Bad never let me down in that regard. I was glued to my seat until the last minute. Also Better call saul, the spin off of breaking bad, was great. But other than that I cannot remember a show that didn't become redundant after a while.
House, who can forget that! However the ending episode was great. Just watch that.
I always hated the arc about the policeman out to get him. There are SO many shows that just became to serialized around terrible plotlines!
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My dad, brother and I just got done watching the owl house and we all loved it. But then we figured out that there is a crossover somewhere between the owl house and another show called amphibia. So we started to watch amphibia, oh my god I couldn't get past the first episode. It's just not as good as the owl house, I hate it so much. Nothing against the creators or anyone who loves this show, it's just not for me.
Mine was iZombie. I loved the premises, zombie girl working with the medical examiner, eats part of someone, gets their memories/personality and solves their murders. It was brilliant and funny. Then they went all into the political stuff and I completely lost interest.
I had to force myself to watch the last few seasons and I really wish I hadn't
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Shadowhunters. What a train wreck. I understand some editorial license, but it is so different from the books as to be unrecognizable. I tried, though, because I loved the characters, but when they killed Clary's mother (she never dies in the books, and is an important character at the end), I was done. Stopped watching it, and deleted it from the in progress list.
In the 90s, I watched shows such as X Files and ER. Then I moved into a students dorm, pre-internet age, they did not even have cable. So I could not watch these shows any more. When I tuned in again, years later, the shows had become unwatchable - for several reasons.
The only show I can't say went downhill (tho' it had bad episodes) was MASH.
Well, as soon as it’s going on for longer than the actual Korean War did…
Load More Replies... "Bones", and "Castle". Bones, with the birth of their child in a manger...and it was done without the slightest hint of irony, or humor. "Castle", the Super-Spy father they kept bringing back, and drawing his son into tales of international espionage, and spying. There is the willing suspension of disbelief, and then there was what ever the writers of those shows were trying to pull.
I hated Bones with a fiery passion after that
Load More Replies... I can only presume that Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans can't bring themselves to discuss it? From campy high-school comedy-horror to soapy high-school comedy-horror to struggling-to-hold-the-premise-together, no-longer-in-high-school, damn-was-this-a-comedy, horror to endless tampon/yogurt-adverisement for pre-teen girls. OK, as an adult male, I always knew I wasn't exactly the target demographic, but DAMN! that was some good writing, and WOW! that show went off the rails. The writer purposely destroyed it in season five, recognizing how unwieldy the premise had become. Season six was a complaint that you fools are making me continue writing this, but had some absolutely brilliant episodes (including one about being forced to perform until you die and a few on how we're all cursed because you wouldn't let me die). But season seven was "shut up and give me my paycheck, you bastards!"
Old woman BTVS fan, and I'll discuss it. Bringing Buffy back from the dead was just wrong. End it there, the end, she saved the world (a lot).... and let's not discuss the dre ck of the spinoff "Angel".
Load More Replies... I kinda feel like Happy Days jumped the shark. (Has JumpTheShark gone down the memory hole? There used to be a HUGE website devoted to people opining when their favorite show "jumped the shark," getting that name from an episode which signified when "Happy Days" became intolerably stupid, when the "bad-boy"-turned-hero motorcycle rider water skis for the first time, and not only makes an incredibly difficult jump, but Holy Cow! He jumped over a shark. In Lake Michigan.
But now that is classic! At the time though, we were like, The Fonz wouldn’t do that!
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Call the Midwife - started out amazingly and then when they lost their main characters, it just fell so flat and redundant.
Another show that used up the source material and rapidly went downhill after that.
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Here's an obscure one for you: Shannara. Loved the novels, had high hopes for the show. Started solid, started to teeter into stupidity by the third episode. I gave up on it around the time the cast of this high fantasy setting found themselves at a modern garden party, though I wanted to give up on it when they somehow ended up in a modern-day high school's ruins and found varsity jackets...
Outlander. I was obsessed with the show when I started it, but there is Waaaay too much rape! I'm still traumatized from the rape at the end of season one. I tried to watch season 2 but it was just too depressing.
I was more annoyed with how Jamie Fraser is just completely incapable of not being an idiot and getting himself and everyone else into trouble with his stupid bad decisions
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I wonder why nobody mentions This Is Us.. started like a nice relaxing story with fantastic storytelling. 4th season - just a bunch of annoyingly "absolutely perfect" people showing their perfectness into everybody´s throats. Insufferable.
Some shows that went downhill but it wasn't their fault: M*A*S*H after Radar left and Klinger went "straight" (BJ and Potter had been brilliant replacements for Trapper and Blake, but the show eventually lost all comedy.).... Cheers after Diane left (again, it survived without Coach, even though Woody was vastly inferior, but losing Diane for Rebecca?)....
An older, less well-known show: Silent Witness. Crime show about a medical examiner. It was free on the Roku channel, so I thought it would be a good binge. Ugh! The medical examiner was super annoying, she would interfere in cases and solve them herself, and she was portrayed as emotionally-driven and totally illogical. I had to stop after 8 episodes or so, and I think the show went on for years.
Every show has a shelf-life, then either stops or gets tired and tries to reinvent itself, losing its original purpose. Some shows should have stopped long before they did.
I suggest watching some India web series which are really good.. Scam 92, Mirzapur, Sacred Games, Patal Lok, Kota Factory, Family Man, Aarya
Andromeda ... had potential but when they killed Tyr Anasazi off it ruined it for me. Might just as well have been called The Kevin Sorbo Show after that. As for the others mentioned here, most of them I've never heard of. Left a few comments re some. Give me a good book any day. :)
I only watched a few episodes. Could not stand it.
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My entry would have been "The Last Ship" - Just turned it on out of pure boredom but it got me hooked. The first 4 seasons are top notch, but season 5 made me quit watching after maybe 3 or 4 episodes (Thankfully it was the last season)
One British show I started watching and gave up on was Bread, a mid 80's comedy/drama about a close knit family in Liverpool. Got sick of the various cast changes and the mother screaming about Lilo Lill etc. A ranting and raving mother just brought back too many unpleasant memories.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I was a L&O addict. I gave up on the show after season 21.
I'm still hooked. Certainly some seasons are better than others. I didn't much care for the seasons with Amaro.
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I've honestly never heard of the majority of these shows, and I never watched most of the ones I have heard of.
I just finished binging all seasons of King of Queens. Carrie just got worse throughout the seasons with her vindictive plots and schemes to screw over people. Annoying neighbours was one thing. But then it became their good friends and then family. She just comes across as a covert, grandiose narcissist. Doug was a little better but had his moments. His parents drove me nuts. Reminds me of my ex's parents. I liked Holly. This show would have never made it on air today. Carrie just abused Doug all the time, pinching, smacking, punching him, pushing him down the stairs, fat shaming him.
WOW - I think there's maybe a total of 6 shows on this list that I've ever even seen.
I'm surprised no one said X-Files. I was so obsessed with the show for so long and I literally had to stop watching around season 9/10 because it was getting so ludicrous. I have yet to watch the reboot because I heard they were broken up which I think is one last slap in the faces of the fans who kept that show afloat simply because of their love for the OG Mulder/Scully ship.
I recently watched Yellowstone and just couldn’t stand to finish season five. It was so boring. I held on so long hoping for growth between carter and beth only to be extremely disappointed. Monica was just an entitled drama queen who refused to ever take accountability for her actions and ugly Peter Parker was always crying in a corner.
Most of these i hadn't watched, but some i was considering. Now i know which ones not to bother with
In the Dark. I was really into the first season, but how many truly horrible decisions can a person make?! I watched until the end of the second season and had to stop to save my sanity.
I finished 4 shows from this list. Rest did not or I did not start at all :) and some I never heard of
Star Trek Discovery: season 3. Season 1 redesigning the klingons for no inverse reason and re-writing Canon (capt Archer had a Vulcan on his bridge who never told him to fire first, and a room full of Vulcan diplomats failed to bring it up too.), a klingon war you think Kirk would have mentioned in TOS. Maybe Season 2 will be better? Season 2: super secret organization no one knows about? Everyone knows about it. Setting up what WOULD have been a good into to The Preservers? Nope, time travel via...time crystals. Maybe Season 3 will be better? The burn caused by a child crying? Characters surviving oxygen deprivation with no I'll effects? Thus show is fir brain dead children. I heard Tilly got a cadet killed in Season 4 and was rewarded for it!!!!!
Battlestar Galactica. Consisted only of misery and that Gaius character being h.rny for the blonde in the red dress. Yuck.
Oldie, but Good Times. I loved the first three seasons, then at the start of the fourth season, they killed off James Evans (The dad). The show started going downhill from there.Then the mom (Florida Evans), left the show. Good Times got boring after awhile. I stopped watching after the third season ends.
I got into "Homeland" because it was free on Amazon Prime. I tired of it after a while, but stayed on until season 5 (I was interested in the Berlin setting). Season 6 was unbearable, though. Moreover, the script writers had anticipated a female president, then Trump ruined this idea (one of many, BTW).
Sorry to disagree. I think all these shows are good, people are underrating them. Look at their IMDB scores for a more accurate appraisal. I agree however that MOST of them jump the shark after 3-4 seasons.
I have watched 0 out of these 72 shows. Haven't even heard of most of them. So I gather that I didn't just miss a bullet. I missed 12 loaded revolvers.
For me it was "Misfits". The first 2 seasons are great, but then one after another of the main characters left & the show went just downhill.
I'm suprised nobody mentioned The Witcher. Writers screwed it so bad that even the main characters are leaving (Geralt and Ciri). They took a great fantasy story and turned it into another woke-b******t. Why??? There originally were strogng female characters, lesbians, diversity in cultures, colors and any forms... They mixed it without any sense or reason and turned it into a boring and completely ridiculous and naive mush far away from the books.
The last season of Brooklyn 99, when they all get so woke and politically correct.....
SUCCESSION---a show about a self-centered, manipulative family and the oldest sons efforts to take his dads company over. The characters do not evolve, the sons efforts always blow up...it just churns the same plot over and over and the characters are still all selfish jerks.
Haven. Watched all the seasons except the last one. Checked out when they did this stupid body swap thing in one of the first episodes of the final season it was so dumb and annoying
"Scandal" My GF at the time and I kind of got into it, but it got utterly absurd.
I'm surprised no one said House. I can't get into the last season. Sheer well got me there thinking it would get better...it did not.
I find I give up on series about the second season in. Simply because the original premise that got my attention disappears. Longest one I quit was The Walking Dead, because they put Rick and Michonne together with absolutely no context. The fact that I'd wanted Rick dead for a fair bit of time also played a part.
They should just mandate that no series lasts longer than four seasons. Force everyone to do their very best work.
Most tv shows thrive on conflict. So script writers are desperate to generate more conflict, ad nauseam. When you like a character, and you are happy for them when they have found some peace and quiet, it's guaranteed not to last. Relationships are meant to fall apart, since happiness means stagnation. The weakest characters (usually children) will bear the brunt. (Or, in comedies, a new pregnancy will generate further story elements.)
Casa de Papel. First two seasons: first heist, all great and good. But they had to do another season, and a new heist... No. Without me, guys. Bye!
I've seen maaaybe 10 of the shows listed here. Only watched Friends in it's entirety. It was clever and funny enough when new. However, haven't even heard of at least half of the shows listed. Serial/episodic TV is rarely engaging enough to watch, but it's even worse nowadays with so many platforms and streaming services. I'm guessing someone could watch TV 24 hours a day and still not see all the entertainment-only shows out there, much less sports, educational, etc on top of it. Screw all that, life's too short.
Most of these I couldn't stand watching more than one episode of in the first place! One I will add, but most people won't know is the Aussie series Rush. I loved it, but they ruined it in the last season, so I just skip that when re-watching.
So glad to see these. Glad I never watched 90% of them in the first place. For me, Person of Interest. Started off great and eventually got so bad I gave up.
For me, it’s evil. I like the show, but it made me so angry that I had to stop watching it. Most of the characters found someway to infuriate me, except for maybe Ben. And nothing ever got resolved or answered or brought up ever again. Maybe that was the point and it just flew over my head. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll give it another chance.
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This list makes me so glad my tv watching days are few and far between, and I've watched almost none of the listed shows!
I haven't owned a television since 2004. I'm obviously not missing anything.
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For me it was Schitt’s Creek. I thought it was an interesting premise, but I found Moira to be absolutely insufferable. I’m a fan of Catherine O’Hara but I despise that character.
I loved the series. Every character except Moira had real growth and development. She stayed exactly the same. It was brilliant. You have to understand that Moira was indulged in her own delusion of grandeur and when her enabling ended, she had to maintain it herself. That was in itself, awesome. Losing so much but holding onto her wardrobe, jewelry and wigs. The trappings of her meaningless existence. She eventually become important to various social circles but that didn't matter because to her, she was always the most important person in the room.
Load More Replies... Wow. I'm a cave dweller. 72 entries and I'd only heard of 10ish of these shows. Whelp, going to go watch Casablanca again. Fade out to creaky knees and another cup of coffee;)
Same here. Apparently I didn't miss much. On a side note, I dislike any show that's a continuing series. I refuse to schedule my life around what time a TV show is on.
Load More Replies... Law And Order has gone on way too long. I enjoyed the spinoff Law And Order: Criminal Intent, with Vince D'Onofrio, but after that I lost interest.
A lot of tv suffers from being dragged on beyond its natural life. They maybe have one story in them, and then some exec somewhere is like “that made money, so instead of making something new we just need more of that”.
Maybe we also need a list of shows that we were really miffed when they got cancelled.
Sex and the City.....why did they have to drag it out of retirement? I couldn't watch it, and I was a major fan of the original series!
Fun fact, in the most recent SITC, the lead characters are actually older than the lead characters in the first season of The Golden Girls.
Load More Replies... Seems that USA have about 30 episodes a season uk has only 6 maybe 8. Leads to better writing and more polished storytelling rather than dragging it out over 30 episodes. Don’t get me started on the years they rinse a programme for lol
Seasons of TV shows used to be around 20-25 episodes a season. They are currently around 4-10, which actually doesn't lead to better writing or polished story, it leads to stretching a 2 hour film plot over 8 hours and calling it a tv show.
Load More Replies... Some of the people answering this question didn't understand the assignment: that the show got so bad they DIDNT finish it. A lot of people referencing final seasons, series finales, endings, etc. To answer the question myself, Grey's Anatomy. Haven't watched in years and don't care what I'm missing. Occasionally I'll watch a few eps from the "MAGIC" seasons.
Yellowstone! Cant stand the spoiled s**t beth,they make that guy of hets like he some kinda great "man" but he a bully and a murderer and the whole show is based on rotten people.
Thank you! I made it through the first season thinking maybe the cowboy related stuff would make it worth watching and then by the 2nd season, realized how much I disliked Beth. She made it particularly unwatchable because they turned her into a caricature of an angry vengeful woman. Everything else that was good about that show faded into the background.
Load More Replies... Yeah, it was a definite disappointment, but I ended up warming up to Robert Patrick's character. He had a nice story arc.
Load More Replies... For me, it was the first 5 minutes of episode 1, season 1 of "Lucifer". An angel storms into Lucifer's club, and threatens him, and Lucifer just...cowers...I knew it was going to diverge so, so far from the source material that they should never have ever spent the millions buying the rights, or even calling it, "Lucifer".
yeah Lucifer never convinced me that he was remotely the devil. More like his younger brother.
Load More Replies... An old show: Fringe. It had an eventful production history. It peaked in season 3 (I was glued to the screen), then went downhill rapidly. I was so disappointed. (A story arc was designed for 7 seasons, then in season 4 the funding was cancelled, so they crammed the events for season 5-7 into half a season to finish episode 100.)(100+ episodes means higher revenue concerning re-runs and foreign markets.)
Seinfeld. It was torturous to watch. I can't understand the appeal of a show where all the characters are complaining about everything. Their whiny voices are like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Kramer's character never changed and was always annoying.
Load More Replies... If a show runs for too long it simply doesn't fly anymore. With one exception: Breaking Bad never let me down in that regard. I was glued to my seat until the last minute. Also Better call saul, the spin off of breaking bad, was great. But other than that I cannot remember a show that didn't become redundant after a while.
House, who can forget that! However the ending episode was great. Just watch that.
I always hated the arc about the policeman out to get him. There are SO many shows that just became to serialized around terrible plotlines!
Load More Replies... My dad, brother and I just got done watching the owl house and we all loved it. But then we figured out that there is a crossover somewhere between the owl house and another show called amphibia. So we started to watch amphibia, oh my god I couldn't get past the first episode. It's just not as good as the owl house, I hate it so much. Nothing against the creators or anyone who loves this show, it's just not for me.
Mine was iZombie. I loved the premises, zombie girl working with the medical examiner, eats part of someone, gets their memories/personality and solves their murders. It was brilliant and funny. Then they went all into the political stuff and I completely lost interest.
I had to force myself to watch the last few seasons and I really wish I hadn't
Load More Replies... Shadowhunters. What a train wreck. I understand some editorial license, but it is so different from the books as to be unrecognizable. I tried, though, because I loved the characters, but when they killed Clary's mother (she never dies in the books, and is an important character at the end), I was done. Stopped watching it, and deleted it from the in progress list.
In the 90s, I watched shows such as X Files and ER. Then I moved into a students dorm, pre-internet age, they did not even have cable. So I could not watch these shows any more. When I tuned in again, years later, the shows had become unwatchable - for several reasons.
The only show I can't say went downhill (tho' it had bad episodes) was MASH.
Well, as soon as it’s going on for longer than the actual Korean War did…
Load More Replies... "Bones", and "Castle". Bones, with the birth of their child in a manger...and it was done without the slightest hint of irony, or humor. "Castle", the Super-Spy father they kept bringing back, and drawing his son into tales of international espionage, and spying. There is the willing suspension of disbelief, and then there was what ever the writers of those shows were trying to pull.
I hated Bones with a fiery passion after that
Load More Replies... I can only presume that Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans can't bring themselves to discuss it? From campy high-school comedy-horror to soapy high-school comedy-horror to struggling-to-hold-the-premise-together, no-longer-in-high-school, damn-was-this-a-comedy, horror to endless tampon/yogurt-adverisement for pre-teen girls. OK, as an adult male, I always knew I wasn't exactly the target demographic, but DAMN! that was some good writing, and WOW! that show went off the rails. The writer purposely destroyed it in season five, recognizing how unwieldy the premise had become. Season six was a complaint that you fools are making me continue writing this, but had some absolutely brilliant episodes (including one about being forced to perform until you die and a few on how we're all cursed because you wouldn't let me die). But season seven was "shut up and give me my paycheck, you bastards!"
Old woman BTVS fan, and I'll discuss it. Bringing Buffy back from the dead was just wrong. End it there, the end, she saved the world (a lot).... and let's not discuss the dre ck of the spinoff "Angel".
Load More Replies... I kinda feel like Happy Days jumped the shark. (Has JumpTheShark gone down the memory hole? There used to be a HUGE website devoted to people opining when their favorite show "jumped the shark," getting that name from an episode which signified when "Happy Days" became intolerably stupid, when the "bad-boy"-turned-hero motorcycle rider water skis for the first time, and not only makes an incredibly difficult jump, but Holy Cow! He jumped over a shark. In Lake Michigan.
But now that is classic! At the time though, we were like, The Fonz wouldn’t do that!
Load More Replies... Call the Midwife - started out amazingly and then when they lost their main characters, it just fell so flat and redundant.
Another show that used up the source material and rapidly went downhill after that.
Load More Replies... Here's an obscure one for you: Shannara. Loved the novels, had high hopes for the show. Started solid, started to teeter into stupidity by the third episode. I gave up on it around the time the cast of this high fantasy setting found themselves at a modern garden party, though I wanted to give up on it when they somehow ended up in a modern-day high school's ruins and found varsity jackets...
Outlander. I was obsessed with the show when I started it, but there is Waaaay too much rape! I'm still traumatized from the rape at the end of season one. I tried to watch season 2 but it was just too depressing.
I was more annoyed with how Jamie Fraser is just completely incapable of not being an idiot and getting himself and everyone else into trouble with his stupid bad decisions
Load More Replies... I wonder why nobody mentions This Is Us.. started like a nice relaxing story with fantastic storytelling. 4th season - just a bunch of annoyingly "absolutely perfect" people showing their perfectness into everybody´s throats. Insufferable.
Some shows that went downhill but it wasn't their fault: M*A*S*H after Radar left and Klinger went "straight" (BJ and Potter had been brilliant replacements for Trapper and Blake, but the show eventually lost all comedy.).... Cheers after Diane left (again, it survived without Coach, even though Woody was vastly inferior, but losing Diane for Rebecca?)....
An older, less well-known show: Silent Witness. Crime show about a medical examiner. It was free on the Roku channel, so I thought it would be a good binge. Ugh! The medical examiner was super annoying, she would interfere in cases and solve them herself, and she was portrayed as emotionally-driven and totally illogical. I had to stop after 8 episodes or so, and I think the show went on for years.
Every show has a shelf-life, then either stops or gets tired and tries to reinvent itself, losing its original purpose. Some shows should have stopped long before they did.
I suggest watching some India web series which are really good.. Scam 92, Mirzapur, Sacred Games, Patal Lok, Kota Factory, Family Man, Aarya
Andromeda ... had potential but when they killed Tyr Anasazi off it ruined it for me. Might just as well have been called The Kevin Sorbo Show after that. As for the others mentioned here, most of them I've never heard of. Left a few comments re some. Give me a good book any day. :)
I only watched a few episodes. Could not stand it.
Load More Replies... My entry would have been "The Last Ship" - Just turned it on out of pure boredom but it got me hooked. The first 4 seasons are top notch, but season 5 made me quit watching after maybe 3 or 4 episodes (Thankfully it was the last season)
One British show I started watching and gave up on was Bread, a mid 80's comedy/drama about a close knit family in Liverpool. Got sick of the various cast changes and the mother screaming about Lilo Lill etc. A ranting and raving mother just brought back too many unpleasant memories.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I was a L&O addict. I gave up on the show after season 21.
I'm still hooked. Certainly some seasons are better than others. I didn't much care for the seasons with Amaro.
Load More Replies... I've honestly never heard of the majority of these shows, and I never watched most of the ones I have heard of.
I just finished binging all seasons of King of Queens. Carrie just got worse throughout the seasons with her vindictive plots and schemes to screw over people. Annoying neighbours was one thing. But then it became their good friends and then family. She just comes across as a covert, grandiose narcissist. Doug was a little better but had his moments. His parents drove me nuts. Reminds me of my ex's parents. I liked Holly. This show would have never made it on air today. Carrie just abused Doug all the time, pinching, smacking, punching him, pushing him down the stairs, fat shaming him.
WOW - I think there's maybe a total of 6 shows on this list that I've ever even seen.
I'm surprised no one said X-Files. I was so obsessed with the show for so long and I literally had to stop watching around season 9/10 because it was getting so ludicrous. I have yet to watch the reboot because I heard they were broken up which I think is one last slap in the faces of the fans who kept that show afloat simply because of their love for the OG Mulder/Scully ship.
I recently watched Yellowstone and just couldn’t stand to finish season five. It was so boring. I held on so long hoping for growth between carter and beth only to be extremely disappointed. Monica was just an entitled drama queen who refused to ever take accountability for her actions and ugly Peter Parker was always crying in a corner.
Most of these i hadn't watched, but some i was considering. Now i know which ones not to bother with
In the Dark. I was really into the first season, but how many truly horrible decisions can a person make?! I watched until the end of the second season and had to stop to save my sanity.
I finished 4 shows from this list. Rest did not or I did not start at all :) and some I never heard of
Star Trek Discovery: season 3. Season 1 redesigning the klingons for no inverse reason and re-writing Canon (capt Archer had a Vulcan on his bridge who never told him to fire first, and a room full of Vulcan diplomats failed to bring it up too.), a klingon war you think Kirk would have mentioned in TOS. Maybe Season 2 will be better? Season 2: super secret organization no one knows about? Everyone knows about it. Setting up what WOULD have been a good into to The Preservers? Nope, time travel via...time crystals. Maybe Season 3 will be better? The burn caused by a child crying? Characters surviving oxygen deprivation with no I'll effects? Thus show is fir brain dead children. I heard Tilly got a cadet killed in Season 4 and was rewarded for it!!!!!
Battlestar Galactica. Consisted only of misery and that Gaius character being h.rny for the blonde in the red dress. Yuck.
Oldie, but Good Times. I loved the first three seasons, then at the start of the fourth season, they killed off James Evans (The dad). The show started going downhill from there.Then the mom (Florida Evans), left the show. Good Times got boring after awhile. I stopped watching after the third season ends.
I got into "Homeland" because it was free on Amazon Prime. I tired of it after a while, but stayed on until season 5 (I was interested in the Berlin setting). Season 6 was unbearable, though. Moreover, the script writers had anticipated a female president, then Trump ruined this idea (one of many, BTW).
Sorry to disagree. I think all these shows are good, people are underrating them. Look at their IMDB scores for a more accurate appraisal. I agree however that MOST of them jump the shark after 3-4 seasons.
I have watched 0 out of these 72 shows. Haven't even heard of most of them. So I gather that I didn't just miss a bullet. I missed 12 loaded revolvers.
For me it was "Misfits". The first 2 seasons are great, but then one after another of the main characters left & the show went just downhill.
I'm suprised nobody mentioned The Witcher. Writers screwed it so bad that even the main characters are leaving (Geralt and Ciri). They took a great fantasy story and turned it into another woke-b******t. Why??? There originally were strogng female characters, lesbians, diversity in cultures, colors and any forms... They mixed it without any sense or reason and turned it into a boring and completely ridiculous and naive mush far away from the books.
The last season of Brooklyn 99, when they all get so woke and politically correct.....
SUCCESSION---a show about a self-centered, manipulative family and the oldest sons efforts to take his dads company over. The characters do not evolve, the sons efforts always blow up...it just churns the same plot over and over and the characters are still all selfish jerks.
Haven. Watched all the seasons except the last one. Checked out when they did this stupid body swap thing in one of the first episodes of the final season it was so dumb and annoying
"Scandal" My GF at the time and I kind of got into it, but it got utterly absurd.
I'm surprised no one said House. I can't get into the last season. Sheer well got me there thinking it would get better...it did not.
I find I give up on series about the second season in. Simply because the original premise that got my attention disappears. Longest one I quit was The Walking Dead, because they put Rick and Michonne together with absolutely no context. The fact that I'd wanted Rick dead for a fair bit of time also played a part.
They should just mandate that no series lasts longer than four seasons. Force everyone to do their very best work.
Most tv shows thrive on conflict. So script writers are desperate to generate more conflict, ad nauseam. When you like a character, and you are happy for them when they have found some peace and quiet, it's guaranteed not to last. Relationships are meant to fall apart, since happiness means stagnation. The weakest characters (usually children) will bear the brunt. (Or, in comedies, a new pregnancy will generate further story elements.)
Casa de Papel. First two seasons: first heist, all great and good. But they had to do another season, and a new heist... No. Without me, guys. Bye!
I've seen maaaybe 10 of the shows listed here. Only watched Friends in it's entirety. It was clever and funny enough when new. However, haven't even heard of at least half of the shows listed. Serial/episodic TV is rarely engaging enough to watch, but it's even worse nowadays with so many platforms and streaming services. I'm guessing someone could watch TV 24 hours a day and still not see all the entertainment-only shows out there, much less sports, educational, etc on top of it. Screw all that, life's too short.
Most of these I couldn't stand watching more than one episode of in the first place! One I will add, but most people won't know is the Aussie series Rush. I loved it, but they ruined it in the last season, so I just skip that when re-watching.
So glad to see these. Glad I never watched 90% of them in the first place. For me, Person of Interest. Started off great and eventually got so bad I gave up.
For me, it’s evil. I like the show, but it made me so angry that I had to stop watching it. Most of the characters found someway to infuriate me, except for maybe Ben. And nothing ever got resolved or answered or brought up ever again. Maybe that was the point and it just flew over my head. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll give it another chance.
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Load More Replies... This list makes me so glad my tv watching days are few and far between, and I've watched almost none of the listed shows!
I haven't owned a television since 2004. I'm obviously not missing anything.
Load More Replies... For me it was Schitt’s Creek. I thought it was an interesting premise, but I found Moira to be absolutely insufferable. I’m a fan of Catherine O’Hara but I despise that character.
I loved the series. Every character except Moira had real growth and development. She stayed exactly the same. It was brilliant. You have to understand that Moira was indulged in her own delusion of grandeur and when her enabling ended, she had to maintain it herself. That was in itself, awesome. Losing so much but holding onto her wardrobe, jewelry and wigs. The trappings of her meaningless existence. She eventually become important to various social circles but that didn't matter because to her, she was always the most important person in the room.
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