Television Shows That Over Stayed Their Welcome

[Benji]

Yeah, that was almost exactly how I assumed it was going to go after the ending.

[Hellraiser]

I don't know. I don't see House committing suicide given how hard he was on his patients who gave up on life.

[Draevyn]

3 minutes ago, Hellraiser said:

I don't know. I don't see House committing suicide given how hard he was on his patients who gave up on life.

Because if they gave up, he couldn't solve the problem. He was a problem solver. He didn't care that they were giving up. He cared that he wouldn't get to solve the puzzle.

[Hellraiser]

10 minutes ago, The WAR Fork said:

Because if they gave up, he couldn't solve the problem. He was a problem solver. He didn't care that they were giving up. He cared that he wouldn't get to solve the puzzle.

I don't think it was just that. It was a huge part of it. But I also remember the very first episode in which he gave that sermon to the Kindergarten teacher about how you can't die with dignity and this sentence that he said to Cuddy after Kutner killed himself: " : If he'd thought like me then he'd of known that living in misery sucks marginally less than dying in it. "

[Josh]

15 hours ago, ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster said:

House produced some brilliant TV and some truly amazing episodes (particularly the double-header where House is trying to trigger his memories to work out what happened with the bus crash. That was some of my favourite telly).

 

The start of series 6 in the psych hospital were very good episodes too and I'd agree that I think after that it never quite reached those same heights again. However it would have been a shame to not see those episodes. They could have worked as a finale though, as a Christmas special or something.

There were some good episodes along the way, but the overall arc just got more and more sloppy, leading to what I found to be an unsatisfying finale. However, if they hadn't let Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) walk, things could have gone much better all the way to the end.

[CobraKaiEnTai]

16 hours ago, GhostMachine said:

Comedy-wise, Friends definitely went on two seasons too long. Though you could probably argue three, and I wouldn't fight over it. 

Cheers and Frazier both went on a season longer than they should have. I've had some people say Cheers should have ended when Shelly Long left, and I call bullcrap.

When Shelley Long left is when the show got good imo. I just hated her pretentious character so much I've never gone back and watched any episodes from the seasons she was in. Conversely I could watch any episodes from 6-11 over and over again, though I did like that she came back for the series finale to give closure. And I don't even dislike Shelley Long, I've enjoyed her in plenty of other stuff, but as Diane Chambers she just irritated me.

Friends definitely after season 8 (arguably after season 7). The Monica-Chandler stuff revitalized the show that had become a bit too much about Ross & Rachel. But once they got married, it lost a bit of its luster, especially when they tried to force a Joey-Rachel romance repeatedly in the last couple of years,  just didn't work for me. I was always rooting for Joey & Phoebe to get together, or Phoebe to end up back with the scientist David played by Hank Azaria. Not that I had a problem with Paul Rudd or anything, just would've preferred one of the other two. Then maybe Joey would've had a reason to stay in New York and we wouldn't have gotten that ill-fated spinoff.

[Benjamin]

I loved that spin-off!

Modern Family is definitely top of my list here. From the first 3 seasons that were amazing (okay, the first 2 were and the third was okay), it's been utter crap from then on. There'll be a ray of sunshine in a really good episode, then almost instantly the next episode they shit the bed with it. I still torture myself to watch it though, it's good background TV.

[Benji]

I basically marathoned the whole thing a couple of months back and never really noticed a huge drop barring that awful ranch episode. I think that must be one of those things that is more noticeable week on week when you are comparing them all.

[DFF]

If this thread had been created a year or so ago, Supernatural would have been a shoe-in. The first five seasons were great, then the quality dropped a fair bit. However, it has steadily found it's feet again and - as someone who is most of the way through season 11 now - I think it's now back to on a par with at least the middle quality seasons in that initial run.

[Adam]

On 22/08/2016 at 08:48, Benji said:

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

The ultimate example of what this thread wants, isn't it? Season 4 was incredible, and I am actually a big fan of the Julia Stiles storyline too (apart from the rather poor "we must tie up all loose ends" abrupt ending to her arc) but yes, that show descended into a truly awful mess. The final two seasons had one thing going for it, and that was the presence of Yvonne Strahovski on my screen throughout.

 

On 22/08/2016 at 10:54, 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.

 

On 22/08/2016 at 10:57, Benji said:

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.

On Scrubs, in defence of the show and Bill Lawrence, Season 9 was supposed to be an actual spin off show called Scrubs: Med School or something similar. Lawrence wrapped up Scrubs itself so brilliantly in my opinion, but the network wanted to piggyback on the success of the main show and try to hold its audience instead of letting it be a proper spin off, and that was the killer blow for it in my opinion as there are some very good actors in that extra season, but I don't even class it as part of the overall Scrubs series because it wasn't supposed to be.

In fact, the decisions of networks is probably the prime reason for every show in this category. I believe Supernatural is another that was supposed to end after Season 5, when Eric Kripke tied up a superb overarching story, but the ratings were good so on it went despite never hitting those heights again. Thankfully I am a fan of a lot of the stuff since then, especially anything involving Crowley and and the Men of Letters / Kevin Tran stuff. Oh and Felicia Day. Always Felicia Day.

[Benji]

Yeah, Supernatural gets a lot of hate, but only the Leviathans season has really been actively bad (and seriously, I said it before, but that season was so bad). Everything else has been watchable at the very least, but I entirely get why people would drop it.

I still think Supernatural's dumbest mistake was killing a bunch of other Gods in season six in a nothing episode. They could have had so much fun exploring non-Christian mythologies in more depth and presenting some of their fables as villains. A season of Loki as an antagonist and Thor as a deuteragonist? Yuss please.

[Katsuya]

Glee.

First season is really good, then it all starts to slide downhill until you're at about Season 3 and everything is just awful. They had a chance to pull it out with the New York switch, but then the ridiculousness of "KURT AND RACHEL CANNOT HAVE BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO THEM" became way too much.

[Benji]

Oh God, yes, Glee. That became such a hate watch by season four. I gave up before season five, but then tuned in up until the Finn death episode because he was my favourite character. Kind of felt like that was an appropriate time to end the show for me, so I'll probably never watch those last two seasons.

[GhostMachine]

Bones should have ended several seasons ago.

[JasonM]

4 hours ago, DFF said:

If this thread had been created a year or so ago, Supernatural would have been a shoe-in. The first five seasons were great, then the quality dropped a fair bit. However, it has steadily found it's feet again and - as someone who is most of the way through season 11 now - I think it's now back to on a par with at least the middle quality seasons in that initial run.

Supernatural has never been cutting edge television, and even their best seasons were still spoopy-horror at their best and childish sniggering topped off with some angsty emotion. Honestly, they've settled into fan-service mode for a good few years now, and that's their niche. It's not my thing, and I for the life of me have given up after season 9.

Nice that it's one of those series that simply can't die because they are on a mid-tier network and have a rabid fanbase that keep them on air until they themselves want to end it.

For me the series became a lot less enjoyable when Bobby got killed off for shock factor, Garth replaced that void quite well himself, until they decided to write him off too. Same goes for Kevin.

I tried to get into Season 10 because the finale of S9 hooked me good. But the Demon-Dean stuff got wrapped up in such a record pace that the only thing that intrigued me has vanished. So I really have no motivation to continue and 'get back to the good times'.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The first two series of Lie to Me were brilliant but in the third series Tim Roth became too larey, argumentative and looked drunk all the time. Also the stories got silly.

[Kaney]

Yeah, Lie To Me was a great show but it fell into its own clichés a bit too much in season 3. Still perfectly watchable/background TV. Tim Roth is brilliant in everything he does.

[Alex.]

Saturday Night Live - when was the last time this show wasnt unwatchable 

[Josh]

SNL's more of a show that goes in fits and starts, due to its format.

That said, I was pretty upset with the decision to have Trump host this last season. And (like much of TV) they need to find a way to put a greater focus on digital/streaming content.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I think worse than Trump hosting was that all the segments were soft bullshit. They've gone in on Trump before and they've certainly gone at guest host before, but with the Trump episode it was a lot of garbage.