On another thread, we’re talking about some shows that were cancelled before their time.
What about shows that should have been cancelled long before they were, and declined in quality severely as they ran on and on?
I can think of a few here. The X-Files stands out to me, though I wouldn’t say that it got really weak until both Mulder and Scully were gone. I know not everyone will agree with me on that one either.
Worst decline of a TV show I can think of in TV history would be Earth Final Conflict. The first season was groundbreaking. By the fifth season, the show literally wasn’t recognizable.
dexter declined heavily after season 4. the ending of that season would have been a great sendoff for the series (of course, they'd have to have tied up some other loose ends in the series like the dex/deb relationship for the ending to be complete)
house of cards began to decline after 2 great seasons. season 3 was decent, and then everything after that was trash
Probably The Office. Although I guess it was still better than almost all the other sitcoms. But seemed like they started for force things after Michael Scott left.
That also brings to mind, Modern Family. Once the kids got older, it just wasn't as good.
Bones-Probably really started to decline around season 6. Still went double that.
King of the Hill- Re-watching it now, first 7 seasons are fantastic, among the best of any animated show- probably a close second to the Simpsons but the last two or three years were pretty bad.
Outlander- Started watching season one, thinking it was another show but made the mistake of sticking with it. It literally has the worst season finale of any show I have ever seen, seriously, what the ?
Revenge- Only lasted 4 seasons; the first two were solid, season 3 was ok but season 4 was a complete jumping of the shark. Pretty clear that ABC just wanted another year so they could sell it into syndication.
Community- Season 1 & 2 were hilarious, season 3 was pretty good, season 4 was ok, season 5 was pretty good and season 6 was unfortunate. The extended episodes didn't help and it felt like the show was rambling-I think I laughed a handful of times over the course of the final 13 episodes.
Season 8 was actually pretty good but season 9 was a trash. tbh.
Serious post...
General Hospital
The Young And The Restless
One Life To Live (it finally did, but way overdue)
Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Storm Stories/all the other weather channel programs that don't involve OCMs televising the weather
LOST after about the 3rd season
Survivor after about the 20th season
The NBA after June 2014
LOST after season 2
GOT and Walking Dead after season 1
Family Guy should never have been uncancelled in hindsight. People were blinded to the massive quality drop-off in the beginning because it was hot during the first years on Adult Swim.
It's Always Sunny needs to wrap up. Dennis is gone. You should call it quits before the cast does.
The Simpsons should have been cancelled each of the last 22 years. It was great the first 8 though. It went from greatest show ever to completely unwatchable with the Armin Tamzarian episode and beyond.
Hard to answer this question, because most of the answers involve identifying the point when a show was still good/great, and why would you cancel a show that was still good?
Wait ten years and tweak that story just a little...
House of Cards - season 1 and the premiere of season 2 were the best parts and it just went downhill from there. Especially now that Spacey was removed, it just made the show useless.
Always sunny has overrun its course, although I still get some enjoyment out of it. The latest season sucked without Dennis.
While arrested development was already cancelled, the Netflix revival series has been god awful and ruined all the momentum that show had in its original run.
Heroes and True Blood.
Talk about ing and diving after what, one season?
dexter fell off a cliff after the trinity killer... the office did too after michael scott left.
Heroes got killed by the writers guild strike iirc, as did Prison Break. I've not bothered with the reboots of either show.
True Blood and Dexter are always brought up in these conversations. I never even tried finishing either.
Yeah youre a dude I think so never should have watched any of those to begin with
Batwoman should be canceled before it starts.
I'd say Supergirl, but that is funny cause of the youtube compilations.
Shows that ended: Lost after first 2 or 3 seasons and Prison Break after season 1.
I thought season 2 of prison break was almost as good as season 1. Season 3 was better in binge watching but pretty meh. Season 4 was absolute trash.
Good point. I might not have phrased the question as well as I could have. I was thinking mostly in terms of when there's an attempt to run a show as long as possible without giving thought to quality declining or having no direction to take it, rather than just planning a show with a proper start, middle and end.
Although, one could argue that some shows would have at least left a better legacy behind if they were cancelled before they fell off.
I disagree with the comments about Lost, but I can see it as a matter of subjective taste. As far as Prison Break goes, I’m with cd021 regarding Season 2. I actually liked Season 4 a bit more than Season 3, though I think both were much lower in quality than 1 and 2. I actually was quite happy with the new season they made a couple years ago though.
You know what, that's probably fair. Still, is Outlander what women are into nowadays? Torture porn.
Supernatural should've ended after 5 seasons, like the original plan. Season 6 has some great episodes but was a mistake. Never really bottomed out. Last season I watched was season 12, surprisingly good actually- but still.
I've been interested in watching this. Did you watch all 12 seasons, or did you skip some after Season 6?
All 12. I am two seasons behind but plan to binge watch them. Overall, highly recommend. Season 5 is far and away the best though.
The show has fantastic writing that frequently finds way to poke fun at the show within the show ( there's an episode where the main characters play fictionalized versions of themselves, playing the characters they play on the show -good stuff) with clever plots and tends to rely on good acting instead of special effects.
Does a good job mixing humor in with dark themes.
That all sounds great, especially what you said about not relying on special effects. I get tired of TV shows and movies leaning heavily on them. I just want a cool story/characters and solid writing. Thanks for your feedback.
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