Television Shows That Over Stayed Their Welcome

[Draevyn]

I was just thinking about this tonight while watching one show that I thought fit this category to a tee. What are some shows that you enjoyed a season or two of but feel like they should have ended on a hot streak instead of what they actually became?

One thing you're going to learn about me in this topic is that I watch teen angsty dramas, which may be my issue to begin with but here goes:

Vampire Diaries: I love just about anything to do with Vampires. I'll watch it. I'll read it. I admit to reading the Twilight books and watching the movies. I hated the second book though I felt they at least got better as they went as Meyer's writing at least improved. I figured I'd enjoy this show and I really did for the first couple of seasons. But man, I made it to episode 8 of Season 5 tonight and I just turned it off and decided I'll probably never finish it because even for a show about supernatural stuff, it just seems a bit overboard with everything. Plus, there is only so many times i can watch the love triangle and Stephan going mad stories. I'm just completely over it.

One Tree Hill: I was a massive fan of this show. I was pissed when they said that the fourth season would be the final one. Then I was quite hyped when it was revealed they were just going to fast forward it into the future. Hell, I even admit to enjoying the fifth season but I just could not for the life of me get into the sixth season at all. I was a huge Nathan/Haley fan in that show and when they started rehashing the cheating storyline again, just with Nathan this time I knew it was time to tune out. One day I might actually go back and finish this show, but I really just can't see it.

Those are the two that I can think of off the top of my head. I know I've probably stopped in the middle of other shows as well but those were more due to lack of time rather than consciously tuning out.

[Alex.]

24 - I was over this show by season 4 or 5 personally. 

Weeds - this show became horse shit and I gave up in season 4. first 3 seasons were enjoyable and fun.

[Benji]

Dexter. Oh God, Dexter. Season four, with maybe five, before the shit show that was 6 thru 8.

[Colly]

The last 3 seasons of the original X-Files (anything after they killed off the Syndicate basically), and Red Dwarf post Rob Grant.

[Benji]

Oh. True Detective.

Should have been a stand alone mini-series. The second season didn't seem to retain anything thematically at all of the first season beyond detectives and name actors anyway.

[Bobfoc]

The Simpsons would be my obvious choice, even if viewing and merchandising figures may suggest otherwise.

[Lineker]

Raw  

[C-MIL]

1 hour ago, Benji said:

Oh. True Detective.

Should have been a stand alone mini-series. The second season didn't seem to retain anything thematically at all of the first season beyond detectives and name actors anyway.

Season 2 is next up on my watch list. Should I not bother?

[Benji]

It's not awful, or even bad, but it's not even close to season one for me. However it was a very polarising season, so maybe you'll like it. I'd say watch an episode, maybe two, if you're not feeling it then don't continue because it doesn't really change in any major way from there.

I don't think it would have been something I'd have seen out the season of if I didn't have left over loyalty from how good season one was. That's partly down to how much good TV is out these last few years, mind.

[C-MIL]

Yeah, I have put it off to catch up with more hyped stuff, but the more I hear about the more apt I am to bump it down again. I think I will go for Silicon Valley instead...

Anyway, regarding the topic... not sure I'm ready to write it off, but I did not like season 2 of Review anywhere close to as much as I liked season 1. I think it needed to come back because there was more story to tell, but I went from really wanting the main character to have a happy ending to neither caring nor expecting that to ever happen. I will probably stick with season 3 still, but it's gone from one of my absolute favorites to just a show that I mostly sort of like.

The Office had some fun moments post-Steve Carell, but it all felt like stuff I could have lived without too.

ER probably fits the bill a few times over. I remember when I started watching people telling me that I'd missed its peak and then I tuned out long, long, long before it finally wrapped up.

[Hellraiser]

ER: Should've ended after Dr. Green passed away. Not that the Seasons following it are downright terrible but they are just nowhere near as good as the original run. It was just like any other medical drama. Which is a shame given how unique ER was when it first started.

Scrubs: I don't think the final season of Scrubs was particularly terrible. I think if they were given just a little more time to smooth out the concept and develop the new characters a bit futher it could've been something entertaining. The problem was that it aired hot on the heels of what I consider to be one of the best show finales ever in Season 8. I think it would've been well received if it was marketed as a spin-off show rather than simply another Season of Scrubs.

True Detective: I'm in the camp of people who didn't find Season 2 as terrible as everyone else seems to. I think it was an entertaining watch. But the first Season was so perfect that it doesn't need a successor. They just should've ended it after that.

American Crime Story: I know it is stupid to preemptively criticize a TV show before it has even aired. But I just have a hard time believing that they will be able to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Dexter: Another obvious one. The last Season was just terrible.

Two And A Half Men: I'm one of those weird people who enjoyed the show when Charlie Sheen was still part of it. Should've ended after he was fired.

 

[Benji]

1 hour ago, Hellraiser said:

Scrubs: I don't think the final season of Scrubs was particularly terrible. I think if they were given just a little more time to smooth out the concept and develop the new characters a bit futher it could've been something entertaining. The problem was that it aired hot on the heels of what I consider to be one of the best show finales ever in Season 8. I think it would've been well received if it was marketed as a spin-off show rather than simply another Season of Scrubs.

Season six of Scrubs was when it started going downhill. Kim and the baby story was just awful. Season seven was just abysmal (complete with a finale that ignore events earlier in the series because apparently the writers strike affects what order you air stuff?), eight recovered a bit but never felt the same, but yeah - that finale was tremendous, and I was so glad they sorted the Elliot/JD story before the finale too.

I still consider season nine a separate show in its own right. It was as close to a spin off as you could get.

[Jimmy]

20 minutes ago, C-MIL said:

Yeah, I have put it off to catch up with more hyped stuff, but the more I hear about the more apt I am to bump it down again. I think I will go for Silicon Valley instead...

Anyway, regarding the topic... not sure I'm ready to write it off, but I did not like season 2 of Review anywhere close to as much as I liked season 1. I think it needed to come back because there was more story to tell, but I went from really wanting the main character to have a happy ending to neither caring nor expecting that to ever happen. I will probably stick with season 3 still, but it's gone from one of my absolute favorites to just a show that I mostly sort of like.

The Office had some fun moments post-Steve Carell, but it all felt like stuff I could have lived without too.

ER probably fits the bill a few times over. I remember when I started watching people telling me that I'd missed its peak and then I tuned out long, long, long before it finally wrapped up.

Great choice. I need to catch up on Season 3, but Silicon Valley is excellent. 

[C-MIL]

5 minutes ago, Hellraiser said:

ER: Should've ended after Dr. Green passed away. Not that the Seasons following it are downright terrible but they are just nowhere near as good as the original run. It was just like any other medical drama. Which is a shame given how unique ER was when it first started.

Admittedly, I don't watch many medical dramas so maybe I'm missing out on a bunch of cool helicopter stunts, but IIRC that was all post-Green's death and I wouldn't want to remember ER without it. It was my favorite ER memory.  Green dying was a big-time watershed moment though. It definitely didn't need seven years after that to wrap up the rest of the character arcs. Looking at wikipedia... John Stamos was on it for four years? That seems crazy to me.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Sometimes I like the idea of a programme being much shorter and contained. Of course success and monies mean that they won't be.

 

For example, Heroes as a single series is magnificent. Burn Notice as a 3 series arc is brilliant. Prison Break running 2 series would have been great.

 

I didn't enjoy series 3 of Mighty Boosh as their characters became far more polarised and I hated the whole crimping thing.

[DFF]

Echo the sentiment on Dexter, though I'd specifically focus that on the final season - I thought everything up to that point was fine (though it peaked with the brilliant season 4).

True Blood would be my choice. Never the most amazing of shows, but the final season was the absolute dirt worst.

As for 24, I found the London special to be pretty good. I enjoyed the final season in the 'original' run too - though I do remember that being after a couple of years of very average TV.

[Hellraiser]

1 hour ago, C-MIL said:

Admittedly, I don't watch many medical dramas so maybe I'm missing out on a bunch of cool helicopter stunts, but IIRC that was all post-Green's death and I wouldn't want to remember ER without it. It was my favorite ER memory.  Green dying was a big-time watershed moment though. It definitely didn't need seven years after that to wrap up the rest of the character arcs. Looking at wikipedia... John Stamos was on it for four years? That seems crazy to me.

Are you talking about the death of Dr. Romano? That was bullshit. To me that is the moment where the series jumped the shark. It was interesting to see him implode after loosing his arm in that accident on the helipad. After all one of the only reasons they kept him around despite being such an incredible cunt was that he was a great surgeon. But they they really have to drop a goddamn helicopter on his head? Wasn't there another way to write him out? Something that isn't so ridiculous?  Or at least film it in a way where there isn't ample time for him to jump out of the way. He probably still would've been hurt but at least the damn thing wouldn't have crushed him. The only good things about that situation was Dr. Morris bad joke about Romero insulting a helicopter in a previous life and that joke when Dr. Weaver opens the "Robert Romano Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgendered Health Care" in his memory (Romano was homophobic) and the joke someone makes that Romero's prosthetic arm would come alive and strangle her for it.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Hellraiser

[C-MIL]

Burn Notice is an excellent call for this. I lost the overall plot of it way early and it just became "caper of the week" for me after a while. I think a lot of USA shows end up following this track for some reason. Season 1 of Mr. Robot was a lot of fun and a key part of it was because they actively played with the idea that you would "figure it out" before they spelled everything out. Season 2 though, they seem to be taking all that back and not really giving enough information for you to be able to figure a lot of stuff out. Still have to let it all play out and I have hopes it'll buck that trend, should it actually exist.

Just now, Hellraiser said:

But they they really have to drop a goddamn helicopter on his head?

Yes. It was absolutely perfect. The helicopter came back to finish the job. I loved it.

[Hellraiser]

6 minutes ago, C-MIL said:

Yes. It was absolutely perfect. The helicopter came back to finish the job. I loved it.

If ER would've turned into some bizarro world black comedy parody of tiself after that episode I would've been able to swallow that scene. But as is it was just too over the top for the show. It would not have felt out of place in a random episode of Grey's Anatomy.

[Moses Julep]

Most of the ones I can think of have been named, so I'm going to throw Sons of Anarchy in there as well. If I'm honest though, like 80% of shows tend to overstay their welcome, especially the procedural or semi-procedural ones.