Stories that should've ended much sooner

[WitchOfDarkness]

Doctor Who (2005 revival)
So I'm gonna be honest, while it wasn't as good as the classic series, the 2005 Doctor Who was fun, and if it had ended with the David Tennant two-parter "The End of Time" it would have gone out on a high note... that episode really does feel like a series finale, and its a pretty good one, capping off a string of actually pretty decent specials I like to revisit time and again.

I disagree hard only because of one thing: Peter Capaldi. Woke shit started to get unbearable during his run. But he ended up making some of the best material on the entire franchise period. After Capaldi's run tough? I agree. Burn it all. its been all unwachable trash since then.

I don't trust journos opinions of quality as they are the same ones that praised Jodie's god awful run.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The primary reason none of the DBZ follow-ups ever worked, IMO, is because... there's nowhere to go.

I disagree, GT was actually pretty good, especially on paper. Uub should've got the spotlight, along with the rest of the younger cast.

Imagine the next DB series focuses on Uub, Bulla, Pan, Marron, Trunks, Goten, and Panzy. It's perfect because DB always needed a few more girls in it. It could be a "next generation" thing, which was what Z and even GT seemed to be hinting at building up to but Toriyama never bit the bullet.

There's a lot to work with. Technically Frieza even has a son, Kuriza, but I don't think he's canon. Also, a reformed Cell Jr. survived according to something Toyotaro illustrated, he could be included. Tien & Launch, Broly & Cheelai and Yamcha & Vidro, (introduce her as canon) could have kids too to introduce as new characters. It may be too much if literally everyone has a kid, so I guess you could leave out Roshi, Chiaotzu, Yajirobe, etc, but even they'd be fun to include imo, but they don't have any existing love interests so it may feel forced.

So basically there's lots of character potential, you could see the previous generation get old and take on more of a mentor role. There's infinite potential just thanks to the Dragon Balls existing, someone will always want them so there's a source of conflict right there.

 

[Travoltron]

Toriyama couldn't even make the switch to Gohan as the protagonist work. The man was never going to do a show without Goku as the lead.

 

[skykiii]

Why are we blaming Toriyama for what GT and Super did/didn't do? Last I checked he had little control over those shows.

 

[Michael Wade]

The six Resident evil Paul Anderson movies.
To be fair they lasted a lot longer in "quality" then I thought they would. They are almost all pretty entertainingly stupid but the train fell apart at the end.

Number 1 probably should have been a standalone side story. It was well constructed to fit with the games, And a solid standalone for most game and horror fans.

Number 2 was total Bollywood fanfic insanity, with Alice hijacking the story of Re2-3 to save the day superhero style. I love it and the police vs zombie fights are pretty entertaining.

Movie 3 was a masterpiece of madness. Imagine a big budget, post apocalypse, serious zombie movie where the lead has Jedi force powers. I'm not even remotely exaggerating. Its this franchises peak of "quality"

4 was where it should have ended. It was starting to really fall off in the middle act when Alice lost her superpowers and had to hang out with a bunch of dumbass survivors for budget reasons. In addition to an absurd focus on cheap 3D gimmicks. Still, the beginning and end were enjoyable and it had a perfect finish up until they had to sequel bait with the helicopters.

5 was shockingly good. Like they actually tried to tie it in with the games proper and make a fun story. The problem was it was so good they had to end on an epic cliffhanger for 6 that was not followed up on at all.

See this franchise has always had problems with continuity, cliffhangers that are never followed up on and various other elements. (Alice has a new disposable sidekick and love interest in almost every movie) But 6 takes it to a whole new level. The continuity is completely disregarded from all the prior movies and even mangled within the context of the script. The story is beyond retarded. The big franchise and game villain has been reduced to being a complete jobber who gets his ass kicked by a sliding door. The editing and camera work is shit. The acting is poor from everyone. There's no soul in it whatsoever, everybody just wanted to pump it out and be done. I had some fun analyzing it but objectively the franchise should have stopped at 4.

 

[Not A Bunny]

The guys at the forefront of all the 'Doctor Who is shit now' stuff eventually admitted that it's because Moffat (showrunner, wrote the starts and finishes on each series) didn't emphasize 'elevating queer identities' as much as RTD did. The reason they hated it literally was just because he made the series less gay. Series 5, 6, and 7 were all better than 1, 2 and 3, and I am not budging on this. At least series 5 and 6 actually felt like the kind of whimsical magic children's show that it SHOULD be.

The last real Doctor is Capaldi. Not because the next one was Whitaker, but because it was the last time The Doctor felt like he was connected to being The Doctor.

Hand someone the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver and tell them to act quirky, it doesn't make them The Doctor. The Doctor is a being that has existed for longer than everyone, seen more than all of us, suffered more pain than all of us, and still somehow loves humanity despite everything.

The best examples are the "Go to Hell" speech Capaldi gives Clara and the Zygon Inversion speech on war. It really felt like the show still had something to say from a character that was uniquely poised to voice it.

Whitaker and Gatwa don't feel like that. They feel like that no matter what they do, there's a glowing, pulsing neon sign above them that screams out "WOMAN" or "BLACK AND GAY" and nobody can really see or hear anything else. I realize that's par for the course with modern-day reboots, but that doesn't mean nobody gets to point it out.

They did ok with the whole arc where he built a new team and then for a season or two after that, but once that whole bit where he hallucinated a relationship with Cuddy finished and it wrapped up there, the show should've just ended with him going into the asylum.
Don't get me wrong, Hugh Laurie acted his ass off for that bit, but to then go and try to actually answer the "will they/won't they" between the two was a bad idea.

Do they honestly hate women? Seriously, Cuddy is this established and frankly, tough woman to have put up with him for so many years, and she...hooks up with him? That's fucking fanfiction versions of what real life is like for middle-aged adults.

Everything should've started going downhill after he knocked on the Resolute Desk at the end of season 2. That should've been the midpoint, instead of dragging things out as long as possible and trying to make Robin Wright the main star.

The show's called House of Cards. 4 seasons, 13 episodes each. 52 total. A full deck detailing Frank's meteoric rise and similarly swift downfall. They had one job.

Exactly this. Somewhere in Season 3, I was repeatedly wondering what the fuck they were doing. Season 2 was the apex. It was where things should have started falling apart for the Underwoods. Any further successes they had was the writers saying they didn't know what else to do beyond clowning everyone who wasn't Frank or Claire.

 

[Crybaby Xianghua]

Buffy the Vampire slayer went downhill when Buffy got revived from the dead. Why? Because of toxic fangirls threatening Joss Wheldon. Funny, because it is now discovered that Wheldon is just as toxic of a person alongside his horde of fangirls.

James Bond should have ended a long time ago in the 1990s. Man, watching a near elderly and lanky Madonna pretending to be a sexy 20 something, is just miserable to watch. Same can be said with any kind of elderly celebrity trying too hard to relive their youth, but fail at it in every way possible.

Dragon Age should have been a stand alone WRPG, because all the sequels are rotten and un-fun.

The book series, "A Series of Unfortunate Events", should have been a trilogy instead of being dragged out into the mud. The dark parody gimmick was clever at first, but got super old and repetitive fast.

Sometimes, companies and content creators should not be slaves to toxic fandoms. That is why media sucks if it goes on too long.

BTW, were there ever any shows/movies/games/books/etc. that got cancelled, due to the toxic fandoms getting way outta hand?

 

[BigBadBastich]

Toriyama couldn't even make the switch to Gohan as the protagonist work. The man was never going to do a show without Goku as the lead.

Thats mainly editorial and personal choice. One thing to remember is Gohan is a fighter by choice, hes not looking to endlessly improve his own skills to face the next strongest opponent. As cliche as it sounds it aligns more with traditional heroes like Superman. So Toriyama could've crafted a narrative and villains around this but he probably just wanted to stick to what worked.

Imagine the next DB series focuses on Uub, Bulla, Pan, Marron, Trunks, Goten, and Panzy. It's perfect because DB always needed a few more girls in it. It could be a "next generation" thing, which was what Z and even GT seemed to be hinting at building up to but Toriyama never bit the bullet.

There's a lot to work with. Technically Frieza even has a son, Kuriza, but I don't think he's canon. Also, a reformed Cell Jr. survived according to something Toyotaro illustrated, he could be included. Tien & Launch, Broly & Cheelai and Yamcha & Vidro, (introduce her as canon) could have kids too to introduce as new characters. It may be too much if literally everyone has a kid, so I guess you could leave out Roshi, Chiaotzu, Yajirobe, etc, but even they'd be fun to include imo, but they don't have any existing love interests so it may feel forced.

I wish they'd do this but its also like asking them to make the series give more spotlight to the humans. Everyones collectively decided its the Goku/Vegeta show with supporting roles from whatever random new character pops up or Piccolo. Sure it would be nice if they had gone with the idea of the humans closing the gap with God ki/forms or new techniques but it hasn't happened.

 

[Absolutego]

Do they honestly hate women? Seriously, Cuddy is this established and frankly, tough woman to have put up with him for so many years, and she...hooks up with him? That's fucking fanfiction versions of what real life is like for middle-aged adults.
Exactly this. Somewhere in Season 3, I was repeatedly wondering what the fuck they were doing. Season 2 was the apex. It was where things should have started falling apart for the Underwoods. Any further successes they had was the writers saying they didn't know what else to do beyond clowning everyone who wasn't Frank or Claire.F

Pet theory for House is that, well, not fanfiction writers specifically, but shippers being a hugely reliable and vocal part of the audience led to the showrunners spending the latter seasons essentially bringing Cuddy down to his level where them hooking up was even remotely plausible. I guess credit to them that they didn't actually try to make it work and IIRC it ends with her all but getting a restraining order against him, but...
With House of Cards, I think it's less that the writers didn't know what to do and more that it was, by far, Netflix's breakout 'serious drama' original production (I think Orange is the New Black was their first one to get big ratings/critical acclaim, but that's a dramedy at the best of times), and the original plan for exactly what I outlined got thrown out per orders from management to keep the series going as long as possible.
Then Kevin Spacey got #MeToo'd right alongside Hillary losing the 2016 election and the show disappeared up its own self-indulgent ass before dying in obscurity.

 

[AnotherPleb]

Toriyama couldn't even make the switch to Gohan as the protagonist work. The man was never going to do a show without Goku as the lead.

As much as I like SS3 Gohan would have been better off with having his big Cell W.

Or at least let him do more in the Buu arc.

DBZA had the right idea ending after the Cell Arc.

 

[McMitch]

Thread tax: The Black Company should've been one book. For those who didn't read it, in the book (it's grimdark fantasy), the protagonists of the titular company get recruited for a war between two "evil" factions and involved in a civil war within the faction that recruited them. Meanwhile, one of the soldiers rescues and adopts a teenage gang rape victim who's eckshually humanity's prophesied savior; she's a background character for the duration of the book, and at the end, the two successfully escape to presumably save the world. Apparently, this is where the writer initially intended to stop, but then he wrote a shitton of sequels where Ultimate Good most definitely exists, compromising the initial grimdark setup.

This is such a dogshit opinion, especially since the best book in the series, The Silver Spike, is the one that concludes the story of said girl (i.e. Darling) and soldier (Raven) (mostly because it's the closest Cook ever comes to writing a story that is actually structured like a story, with character arcs that conclude and themes). The idea there's a greater good, when the only outright good character is Darling, and the next most good person is Case who only got involved because he was tricked by Raven, but is still more sympathetic to the empire over Darling's rebellion. At best you'll find individuals and organizations are solely out for personal gain with no sense of altruism.

Also, the second book is way better than the first solely for having Marron Shed. Whenever Shed isn't on-screen, other characters should be asking "Where's Marron Shed?"

The later books are weird, but that's because they ended up more in line with Cook's non-Black Company writing style.

DBZA had the right idea ending after the Cell Arc.

DBZA ended when it did because TFS are incompetent cowards.

 

[Lokenstien]

The Blacklist (2013-2023)
James Spader being allowed to freely play a sassy near-omnipotent criminal mastermind was almost enough to keep this show interesting past the first 2 or 3 seasons. But it became extremely clear that there was an original intent to end the show quickly but which kept getting pushed back because it became super popular. I stopped watching around season five which at the point they had done yet another big fake out for the penultimate secret that Reddington is keeping from Liz about their connection. And if you read the wiki synopsis for the last couple seasons they failed/forgot to even reveal what the secret was, which was the foundation of the entire show. Really this is just another example of what happens when a good plot is stretched to death on the rack in order to serilize a few extra seasons.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I don't want to see sad, old, tired versions of the characters I grew up with

yeah, color Beverly Hillbillies can get rough

 

[Niggernerd]

Toriyama couldn't even make the switch to Gohan as the protagonist work. The man was never going to do a show without Goku as the lead.

Blame Mexicans for that

 

[skykiii]

Blame Mexicans for that

Why? I highly doubt Toriyama was informed about foreign reactions (Japan in the 1990s basically treated the rest of the world as an afterthought).

Also repeating an earlier question, I saw people blaming Toriyama for stuff in GT and Super and asked, why are we blaming him for what were more likely the decisions of Toei staff?

 

[Pedophobe]

The decision to turn 40k into an evolving story has now set the writers on a course of having to maintain a constant state of high scale tension at the expense of the setting's depth

It's entirely the fault of all those fags who whined "why don't they ADVANCE THE STOOOOOORY?" and GW for listening to them.

Star Trek should have ended after Enterprise.

But Enterprise should have had at least six seasons.

 

[Anime=Tranime]

Resident Evil should have started and ended in Racoon City.
3 games and that's it, keep some of the side stuff like Outbreak.
You want to make a game about fetish vampires?
Cool, don't call it Resident Evil.

No, ending it at 3 wouldn't have made any sense considering 2's cliffhanger ending. Capcom also just left RE stuck in place post 2. RE 3 didn't move the overall plot of taking down Umbrella forward and CV was a skipable spinoff side story that ended on the same note as 2 (were gone take down Umbrella next). If anything they should have call RE 3 Nemesis just RE Nemesis and made the third game about taking down Umbrella. Then they could have ended it at 3.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

Chris Chan documentary.

 

[skykiii]

No, ending it at 3 wouldn't have made any sense considering 2's cliffhanger ending. Capcom also just left RE stuck in place post 2. RE 3 didn't move the overall plot of taking down Umbrella forward and CV was a skipable spinoff side story that ended on the same note as 2 (were gone take down Umbrella next). If anything they should have call RE 3 Nemesis just RE Nemesis and made the third game about taking down Umbrella. Then they could have ended it at 3.

What makes this whole situation worse is that originally, Nemesis was planned to be just a spinoff with Code Veronica originally planned to be RE3. Depending on who you ask, Nemesis was made to be RE3 either because Sony pressured Capcom, or else Capcom just worried that fans would react badly to needing to buy a non-Sony console (remember CV was originally a Dreamcast exclusive) in order to continue the story.

What really bothers me here is the long-term impact. Of the two games, Code Veronica is honestly more important, since it has major revelations about Umbrella (including getting to kill the founders!) and also is the game that reintroduces Wesker, and just overall is the game that actually matters to the series storyline. Meanwhile Nemesis feels like an expansion pack turned numbered sequel and is completely skippable. And yet because its the numbered entry, its the one that got remade and ported while CV is forgotten.

It would be like if The Ewok Adventure was labeled Star Wars Episode VI while Return of the Jedi was considered a spinoff.

 

[Anime=Tranime]

What makes this whole situation worse is that originally, Nemesis was planned to be just a spinoff with Code Veronica originally planned to be RE3.

RE 3's overall vibe is at least alike to the grounded atmosphere of RE 1* and 2.
RE CV was undoubtedly the point were RE started to get way to over-the-top with Wesker being a Super Saiyan, Alfred the crossdressing Freak and the fights between Wesker/Alexia and Wesker/Chris.

*yes the voice acting and live action cutscenes are pure chess but that wasn't the original intention and is only so because of Shinji Mikami's incompetence

What really bothers me here is the long-term impact. Of the two games, Code Veronica is honestly more important, since it has major revelations about Umbrella (including getting to kill the founders!) and also is the game that reintroduces Wesker, and just overall is the game that actually matters to the series storyline.

Nah, RE CV plot feels like a Anime filler Movie:
- Big Bad secret ally gets introduced just to be wiped out and never show up again (Ashford Family)
- Big new side character introduced that also never shows up again (Steve Burnside, thou they go for the dramatic route and kill him off)
- New lore overall irrelevant (Founding of Umbrella/T-Veronica virus)
- Big Bad shows up and fights the main character(s) but without that advancing the overall plot or concluding an ongoing arc (Wesker/Chris fight)
- Story ends without the overall plot being advanced and the main characters are instead back to were they started (next we destroy Umbrella!)