Shows you've had a falling out with - IE, they just suck now

[Calandrino]

AMC unquestionably did Darabont and the show dirty, but I think people are being a bit when they insist that the first season was perfect and the rot only started to set in when Darabont got ousted.

I'd go one more step and suggest the comic didn't leave them a lot to work with in the first place. They ran through the whole Night/Dawn/Day of the Dead arc instantly and firmly established that civilization was 100% gone with little hope of returning (which makes very little sense in that time frame). I can't blame the writers for not knowing what to do with that premise, other than having the supervillain of the season kidnap and torture people. I checked out halfway through the governor arc... not surprised they're still doing the same dance, just that it still hasn't ended.

I was really into it for the first four seasons, but then it started getting really preachy and obnoxious. I'm not one to constantly complain about "muh SJW themes" every time a black person farts onscreen, but it felt like they were trying way too hard, and episodes would be brought to a screeching halt so a character could rant about sexism or the issues trans people face in prison.

So they upgraded the subtext to the text? They followed woke casting rules to a T:

1) Blacks/latinas are the elite: jokes revolve around how competent/intelligent they are
2) Latin males and Jews are in the middle: they have negative/quirky traits but are decent, sympathetic
3) The two stupid cops that everyone hates and all the bad guys are white

Most network programming I get second-hand exposure to has shades of this, but I thought Brooklyn 99 was one of the less-subtle examples.

 

[AnOminous]

This is especially noticeable with a lot of the characters, who don't have character 'arcs' but fucking loops, alternating between battle-scarred psycho to moralising penitant whenever the plot demands it.

This really applies to both Lennie James and Melissa McBride, the only two genuinely great actors ever in the series. After his first two appearances, probably the best performances in the show, they turned James into some fucked up combo of Yoda and Bruce Lee.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Young Justice. This one hurt. Season one was fantastic. Season two was a little hit and miss but mostly great. Then we wait a number of years for season 3, we get it, and it starts out well. But I hate the new characters. I don't like a single one of the new characters except Forager. I don't like the "woke" muslim character who -oddly enough- dies in extremely graphic ways. I'm sick to death of Cyborg and don't care about his bullshit. I don't care about the Russian dude with rock powers. I don't even care about Tara because her story has been done too many times now.

Season 3 started out well but completely shit the bed mid-way through. If there's a season 4 please god no more fucking Cyborg. DC/Warner/AT&T needs to take the fucking hint already and stop shoving Cyborg into everything.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

I've pretty much entirely stopped watching cable because there isn't really anything of interest airing that I can't just torrent, but some stand out shows I remember for taking a nose dive:

• Chuck: Great show all around for the first several seasons with the 3rd probably being my favorite (I'm a really big fan of Scott Bakula). Season 4 I don't remember much but was okay, problem is with season 5 where at the beginning Morgan gets the intersect and while he's an okay side comic relief character he is too annoying when taking up large amounts of screen time. Stopped watching after that, no idea if the season got better.
• The Mentalist: Would watch this on and off, I liked the Red John element of the show with them trying to track down this illusive character. It was always this major point around who he was and in one of the later seasons they started building hype to a reveal, it had been building it since the beginning but looked to be finally showing who he was. Then the guy they picked just made me go "what the fuck" because it was so underwhelming compared to all the red john herrings they kept baiting with. Dropped the series on the reveal episode. They kind of put themselves into a corner by dragging out the reveal for so long, the real red john could never live up to audience expectations but jesus, they still had better picks.
• Community: Really liked seasons 1-3 but season 4 shit the bed, never finished it or watched season 5+.

Reading all the stuff about Westword's later seasons I'm glad I stopped after finishing the first season. I found it satisfying enough, just wished they gave Teddy more screen time since he was one of my favorites.

 

[Nut-Roaster the 2nd]

I liked Steven Universe. I was fascinated with all the gem lore and the hints of a history that they'd briefly touch upon, as well as the designs of the corrupted gems. Hell, I sat through the townie eps, looking for lore hints throughout. So, come Steven Universe Future, I thought there'd be some expansion on what wasn't covered in the original series (Diamond lore, other gem classes, where they came from, why WD made the caste system in the first place, ect).

It did dick-all with the lore, made me hate Steven, and I hope Sucrose goes broke.

 

[Dang Woodchucks!]

I'm about to drop the Blacklist. I've been binge watching it through quarantine but now it's getting kind of goofy. I'm at the beginning of season 4 and it feels like it's just pulling shit out to try and be shocking. I don't know, does it get any better?

I honestly can't remember anything about season 4. I used to love The Blacklist, and it was obvious to me early on that the only characters that I would undoubtedly care about were going to be Red and Dembe. There's a lot of entertainment to be had, but I have to warn you the writers for this show have an unhealthy Chris Carter-esque management of it's mysteries.

Lo and behold, I somehow survived to the "end" of the current season (7) due to the birdemic and... they manage to pique my curiosity to just enough to stick around, but I am a sucker for punishment and the only thing that can make me drop it at this point is that the next season isn't the final one, contrary to what passes as foreshadowing by this point.

 

[MoffAlbert]

I was a big fan of the Castlevania cartoon on Netflix. Sure season 2 had it's tedious moments, but I loved how the season ended. I was so pumped when season 3 came out earlier this year. I was curious whether or not they were gonna take it in the direction of Curse of Darkness or something wholly original. One little event turned me off of it entirely, however.

Spoiler

Alucard butt sex.

I should know by now that being a fan of Castlevania is suffering by now, and that Netflix is not to be trusted with any sort of adaption.

 

[frozenrunner]

I was a big fan of the Castlevania cartoon on Netflix. Sure season 2 had it's tedious moments, but I loved how the season ended. I was so pumped when season 3 came out earlier this year. I was curious whether or not they were gonna take it in the direction of Curse of Darkness or something wholly original. One little event turned me off of it entirely, however.

Spoiler

Alucard butt sex.

I should know by now that being a fan of Castlevania is suffering by now, and that Netflix is not to be trusted with any sort of adaption.

My problem with that plotline was that it felt half-baked. It was pointlessly edgy (as were other parts of the season... what was with the mayor's plotline?), sure, but that as the least of its problems. It also felt like Ellis had no idea what to do with Alucard.

I'm still into the show, but the next season is going to have to feel more focused. Season 3 felt like very little happened.

 

[-4ZURE-]

Most of Cartoon Network’s shows were falling outs.

I liked Regular Show, but it got kinda boring and thrown in the background after the episode where all the villains return.

Steven Universe had potential, and the invasion arc was well done. The show didn’t necessarily lose me, it was the fandom that made me walk away. The Zamii incident happened less than a year after the invasion arc and took place in the middle of the cluster. After that disgrace of an incident I stopped watching, and good riddance too as it seems the show dropped the ball afterwards.

Adventure Time was a favorite, but seasons 5 and 6 were painful. Gunter is now an alien, what? The show tried to be Steven, which only heightened AT’s already apparent flaw of being unable to stick to plot lines. While the show had a nice return to form in season 7, I just lost interest afterwards. The only things I remember seeing were the Stakes miniseries prior to the end, which I only saw clips of.

Gumball was great, but just like Regular Show, it became a background series that was easily forgotten.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

I stopped caring about Agents of Shield after season 4.

Season 1 was mostly cheesy schlock but the trashy government conspiracy coverup vibe of Season 2 appealed directly to all of my sensibilities so I kept watching. Season 3 sort of continued on that route of utterly insane bullshit (seriously, I love the idea that an ancient secret society sold to the government this idea that they can use this ancient alien artifact that teleports people to a distant planet as a cheaper alternative to conventional space exploration, all so they could feed astronauts to their space god) and then Season 4 was legitimately pretty good in its own right.

.... then Season 5 pulled a half-assed time travel plot that really didn’t resolve in a satisfying way at all, and I haven’t even bothered finishing the latest season.

Ive kept watching Agents of Shield just to see how autistic it gets with the concepts.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

Dexter after they decided to have Dexter and Deb fuck. I don't care if it's technically not incest.

Well, in the end it didn't happen, but good on you for making right decision. Show's ending was atrocious.

South Park. Stopped following the show long ago, but could watch couple of episodes from time to time, even though I've outgrown it's sense of humor. But one minor event, also known as Literally Hitler is a president of United states now, killed it for me completely, because they've pulled that episode from air to change it's ending, meaning they aren't mocking the situation itself anymore. Should've canceled it after that.

House of Cards. First season was ok, but when it went into international politics, I started to notice a trend. If some country tells US to fuck off, in the show it will be forced into cooperation be Frank or his wife. Also, I realized, that Underwood is basically the smartest, trickiest and luckiest person in the whole fucking Capitol, but he couldn't run for president, oh no, he had to be fucked over by other candidate to go for it, before that his ambitions were way lower. Also, it quickly devolved into "who fucks who", so I dropped it after season 3.

Supernatural. No, I disagree, show should've ended on season 2, maybe 3, but 2 is better. It worked perfectly when it was just a story of two brothers and their vendetta against yellow eyed demon. The irony is that the more supernatural shit it got, the dumber it went. Yes, if Apocalypse arc was necessary, then it should've ended after season five, but only in that case. Everything that came after was getting progressively worse and really, if your show's seasons went to double digits, you really should stop. Hell, I can't even tell the season when I've dropped it. All I remember is that in the very first episode this asian guy told them that there is a ritual that can divide Hell and Earth (because God couldn't do it himself, of course) and I just thought "oh, not an entire season of this shit again" and quit. From what I've heard, it just got worse from there. Unsurprisingly.

Stranger things. Second season made wrong all these things, that first made right, and added more bullshit. All the suspense with the disappearance of 11? Nah, she just crawled back right after that and then survived in the woods alone through winter with only a dress on, even though all her life she's been in the lab and doesn't know shit about life outside. "Old lion vs new lion" arc is fucked in favor of some "girl power" shit. Old romance is fucked for no reason at all. Monster from the first season has turned into regular mob. New monster was shown in the first fucking episode, because who needs suspense, right? Government agents are smart enough to track down calls, but too stupid to check if people have recording devices with them. And how show is trying to put all the blame on the sheriff in that fucking "I'm like a black hole" scene... It was so disappointing, that I can't force myself to care about season 3.

 

[tantric_depressive]

Stranger things. Second season made wrong all these things, that first made right, and added more bullshit. All the suspense with the disappearance of 11? Nah, she just crawled back right after that and then survived in the woods alone through winter with only a dress on, even though all her life she's been in the lab and doesn't know shit about life outside. "Old lion vs new lion" arc is fucked in favor of some "girl power" shit. Old romance is fucked for no reason at all. Monster from the first season has turned into regular mob. New monster was shown in the first fucking episode, because who needs suspense, right? Government agents are smart enough to track down calls, but too stupid to check if people have recording devices with them. And how show is trying to put all the blame on the sheriff in that fucking "I'm like a black hole" scene... It was so disappointing, that I can't force myself to care about season 3.

That sounds terrible, I'm glad I only watched the first season.

The latest show that went bad for me was a Netflix one too. Lol, I can't remember the name of it, but it was about the FBI agents who started their profiling unit, and interviewed famous serial killers to help. The first season was great - it had interesting subject matter and characters, good acting, and awesome pacing n' plotting, with hardly any annoying b-plot padding that I can remember.
The second season, though, I remember the hack b-plot padding of it more than anything else about it. It turned the older, gruff, dgaf FBI partner from my favorite character I loved when he started to pop up in his earliest scenes, to one I started hating, cuz they saddled him with that toatal shit b-plot of "sociapath son/satanic panic daycare/nagging wife". Ugh, it even made me almost forget the other garbage, ongoing b-plot of "FBI secretary becomes closeted lipstick lez".
It felt like all the good shit that built up to the serial killer interrogations/interviews, and made them have such short and long term plot and character significance in the first season, was exchanged for at home family melodrama and boring romance conflicts in the second.

 

[Polyboros2]

I was a big fan of the Castlevania cartoon on Netflix. Sure season 2 had it's tedious moments, but I loved how the season ended. I was so pumped when season 3 came out earlier this year. I was curious whether or not they were gonna take it in the direction of Curse of Darkness or something wholly original. One little event turned me off of it entirely, however.

Spoiler

Alucard butt sex.

I should know by now that being a fan of Castlevania is suffering by now, and that Netflix is not to be trusted with any sort of adaption.

It's like they ran out of money half way through the season and hand to make the last two episodes as dark as possible to deceive you into thinking it was an ending. It was an abomination.

Fringe was one for me. Fucking mystery box. I sniffed it out Lost with the first episode, but I got into Fringe, probably thanks to John Noble's performance. When the FBI side-kick gets replaced by a Mercury blooded doppleganger, after they know about them, and the FBI doesn't test everyone involved with it or debrief anyone, or anything, the show lost me.

 

[frozenrunner]

Well, in the end it didn't happen, but good on you for making right decision. Show's ending was atrocious.

The funny thing about Dexter's ending is it would have been perfectly fine (not perfect, just fine) if the show had ended when he piloted his boat into the storm with Deb's body. With that final act he seemed to be accepting his limitations while also transcending them: apparently accepting that his quest to become "a real boy" would never be achieved... but being motivated to do so by grief for a loved one, which is is not very much like a psychopath.

Instead, they tacked on that short, baffling epilogue. I don't have any way to explain the it except to say that either 1) the writers didn't understand their main character's arc at all, 2) the network forced them not to kill off their most popular character, or 3) both. And amusingly, Michael C. Hall doesn't seem interested in doing any more.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

The funny thing about Dexter's ending is it would have been perfectly fine (not perfect, just fine) if the show had ended when he piloted his boat into the storm with Deb's body. With that final act he seemed to be accepting his limitations while also transcending them: apparently accepting that his quest to become "a real boy" would never be achieved... but being motivated to do so by grief for a loved one, which is is not very much like a psychopath.

Instead, they tacked on that short, baffling epilogue. I don't have any way to explain the it except to say that either 1) the writers didn't understand their main character's arc at all, 2) the network forced them not to kill off their most popular character, or 3) both. And amusingly, Michael C. Hall doesn't seem interested in doing any more.

I think, it's rather number two. Network could always go back and shit out another straight to TV movie or even another season (cough cough Prison break cough). To be fair, show had become very misguided and if in first seasons Dexter was a psychopath, who tried his best to look normal to not get caught, then he turned into almost normal human who can love and care, but has to kill people.

I remember reading an article about failed show endings and then the topic of Dexter came up. If I recall correctly, showrunner didn't know how to end the series, but at one point he had an idea that could've worked - in final episode it would be revealed that all episodes were just the memories of Dexter, who is waiting on a death row for his lethal injection Maybe it's just shitty original ending, but I think it would've worked better, also Harry would've been right.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Hm. It almost sounds like shows lure people in to watch by having excellent first seasons and decent second seasons, then cram wokeness into the show like a French farmer crams food into the throat of a foie gras goose. I could understand later seasons being weaker just because show writers run out of ideas or are forced to extend stories that had perfectly good endings, but this happens so often.

Writer 1: Oh no! We've run out of stuff to happen to the heroes!
Writer 2: Enh, just put some social justice stuff into the plot! Even if it fails, reddit will give us asspats and we'll look good to all of the other Hollywood producers!

 

[dirtydeanna96]

Controversial opinion. No show should ever, for any reason, go on for more than 6 seasons.
Six seasons should be a hard limit, it would give networks reason to experiment instead of resting on their laurels.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

Hm. It almost sounds like shows lure people in to watch by having excellent first seasons and decent second seasons, then cram wokeness into the show like a French farmer crams food into the throat of a foie gras goose. I could understand later seasons being weaker just because show writers run out of ideas or are forced to extend stories that had perfectly good endings, but this happens so often.

Writer 1: Oh no! We've run out of stuff to happen to the heroes!
Writer 2: Enh, just put some social justice stuff into the plot! Even if it fails, reddit will give us asspats and we'll look good to all of the other Hollywood producers!

I think it's not that simple. If the original creator isn't woke from the start, first he works with his vision, but then network forces him to do this, because now he has a show to lose. Or they can just fire him and put some woman or nigga. Or they try to cut costs and hire some fresh graduates, who haven't outgrown their social justice phase. This reminds of what happened with Daredevil's season three. Plot is there, but for some fucking reason there are multiple references to Orange man, hell, one of the agents even says "fake news". If you think about it, Defenders were a disaster and destroyed ratings of all 4 shows, so to pitch season 3 there had to be some concessions to be made. Sad thing, it didn't help and third season was final, but garbage like Jessica Jones was renewed for another season.

Controversial opinion. No show should ever, for any reason, go on for more than 6 seasons.
Six seasons should be a hard limit, it would give networks reason to experiment instead of resting on their laurels.

I don't see anything controversial here. If it's not something without cross-cutting plot, then the longer show goes, the harder it's going to be to come up with something to keep it interesting. The only debatable thing is the number of seasons, but it doesn't work for every TV show. The Wire and Breaking Bad had 5 seasons and had perfect conclusions, when something like Banshee should have ended after 2, but had 4 and still left many plot lines up in the air with the goofiest gratuitous last season possible.

 

[Immortal Technique]

Mindhunter is my new one. Not because it turned bad, but we aren't ever going to see anything past season 2 because Fincher wants to work on his other projects. One of those projects is a movie his dad wrote thats about a screenplay writer arguing with Orson Welles for credit for Citizen Kane--boy, that sure does seem riveting and completely more interesting than tracking down serial killer BTK. Thanks faggot dad Fincher.

 

[Overcast]

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

I was honestly surprised the show stayed so relatively consistent in quality for so long, then season 13 came along and it was just so... bad. I mean they had all these interesting developments happen at the end of season 12 and 13 capitalized on none of it.

It didn't help that the episodes were released out of order and a lot of which were made without Dennis in mind. Hence why despite coming back at the end of the very first episode of the season, he is nowhere to be found in a lot of them. Like the season finale where Dennis doesn't appear at all, and is only mentioned in throw-away dialogue by Frank to be throwing a hissy fit over driving a truck off-screen.

It didn't help that this was when the show started throwing in internet meme language such as "beta-cuck" which made me cringe. Like I get the show has generally been topical, but I don't know, before it was just usually stuff you'd see on the News or whatever and to me it felt like they were really reaching for material to use in order to stay relevant.

The Wade Boggs remake episode is the first episode in the entire series where I didn't even so much as smile. Like, I get the joke, but it just wasn't funny at all. That was pretty much the point in the series where I started to mentally check out from the show.

From what I've read, things have only gotten worse from there and that honestly makes me a little sad. To see a show that was made with such passion and creativity to just sort of peter out. But I guess all good things have to end somehow.