I Just Can't Quit You: Shows You Want To Stop Watching But Can't

[ybrik]

Are there shows that you started off watching and liked it but now you don't? However, you just keep watching either hoping that it will get better or for some other reasons.

 

In primetime TV, I watched all the episodes of Dawson's Creek from the beginning even though I really stopped liking it at the end of season 4 and loathed the last two seasons.

 

At the moment I really haven't liked the last two seasons of Community. I was relieved when it was cancelled. I don't like Yahoo picking it up yet I will be watching it.

 

In daytime, I watched All My Children and One Life to Live through to the end despite going through some really long periods of time of being really bad. It was the same with General Hospital but I have pretty much quit even though I still check in once and a while.

[Rilla-my-Rilla]

I'll say Once Upon a Time. I was all set to be done with it and not watch next season, but they've cast Scott Michael Foster in a role. Now I'm conflicted. I'm guessing he'll have a small role so I shouldn't bother, but I guess that's what DVRs are for.... I can fast forward something fierce.

 

Looking back, I wish I would have given up on How I Met Your Mother. I really enjoyed the 1st few seasons, but I just can't with how they ended it and the last few seasons were not good.

[Aquarius]

I watched As The World Turns from circa 1980 until the final episode.  There were times it was so bad near the end that I wanted to poke out my own eyes so I would stop watching; it apparently would take that drastic a step.  I am having the same problem currently with The Young and The Restless.  I find my soaps to be a matter of nostalgia and I guess once I am hooked by nostalgia, I'm dead meat.

[Kel Varnsen]

Even though I have dropped a bunch of shows over the last few years (with having kids I have had to choose sleep or TV and in many cases sleep wins) for me a big one has been Sons of Anarchy. It seems to get dumber and dumber and more and more like a soap crossed with a video game each season, yet I will probably stick it out for the final season just to see how it turned out.

[DoughGirl]

Dancing With the Stars. I feel manipulated by it, and it's gotten so damn predictable that it's a bore.

[ganesh]

Royal Pains and Covert Affairs. It's laughable how bad these shows are. I figured they would be at least decent since USA has a good track record. If it wasn't for the online discussions I would have quit long ago. But it breaks up the day. 

[DittyDotDot]

I've never had a problem quitting a show until I started watching Supernatural and then that travesty that was Revolution came along. I keep thinking "well, it can't get any worse than that, the next one has to be better."  How is it I can be so completely duped time and time again?

[Mulva]

I'm the same way with Supernatural. It's a complete suckfest that bears no resemblance to the show that originally aired, the characters are unlikeable, and the mythology contradicts itself every other episode. Why can't I stop watching?

[DittyDotDot]

If you figure it out @Mulva, would you clue me in as well?

[bmoore4026]

Under the Dome has become this for me, God help me.

[Mulva]

Well, Ditty, I suspect someone made a deal with a crossroads demon to keep us watching - there's no rational explanation.

[VillaVillekulla]

True Blood. Sigh. It's finally in its last season so I'll be free of it soon, but I feel like I probably should've quit it a long time ago. It has always been campy and over-the-top, but it's just gotten so far afield of what it originally was, to say nothing of the books that inspired it.

[Jeebus Cripes]

I'm the same way with Supernatural. It's a complete suckfest that bears no resemblance to the show that originally aired, the characters are unlikeable, and the mythology contradicts itself every other episode. Why can't I stop watching?

 

Same. I wanted to stop years ago... I've lost count of how many. Will it ever end?! 

 

True Blood. Sigh. It's finally in its last season so I'll be free of it soon, but I feel like I probably should've quit it a long time ago. It has always been campy and over-the-top, but it's just gotten so far afield of what it originally was, to say nothing of the books that inspired it.

 

I'm so glad it's the last season. Each episode is almost painfully bad to watch. 

 

I watched all ten seasons of Smallville, and I stopped liking that show around season 3. I am my own worst enemy.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Jeebus Cripes

[Raja]

Royal Pains and Covert Affairs. It's laughable how bad these shows are. I figured they would be at least decent since USA has a good track record. If it wasn't for the online discussions I would have quit long ago. But it breaks up the day. 

I haven't given Covert Affairs a second chance even though some were saying it got better like Nikita fans were doing. As for Royal Pains I know why I go back, Divya. One of those weird things I can look at Reshma Shetty and say she looks okay but she is not all that. I can see her body and say she is not fat but it is one of those intangibles I am just drawn towards her.

[ganesh]

Covert Affairs didn't get better. Annie is talking like Batman now, and was off the grid for 4 months and just waltzed back in and got her job back. So that should give you the gist of how things are.

[MaryMitch]

Sister Wives. I hate the adults - grifters all. Amazingly, most of the kids seem normal.

[ybrik]

Jeebus Cripes I feel your pain about Smallville. I was lucky enough to stop watching weekly/live during season 7 but would still read spoilers and watch the occasional ep. I actually bought the complete series and tell myself I will watch the whole series on day but I can't do it. 'For my own sanity I have to stop before I really start hating Superman. I had watch Lois and Clark over again to remind myself why I liked Lois Lane. I also read that Gough and Miles are doing a Martial Arts show for AMC and my first thought was how they were going to talk KK to be on the show.

 

I find that I keep watching Family Guy despite finding it getting more offensive and not as funny.

[Guest]

I seem to recall my reaction to the end of Gossip Girl being:

 

I'm free of the shackles the bind me.  It's over.  It's finally over and boy did it suck.

 

I gave up Gossip Girl when Serena let the Paris Hilton part of her personality take over very early in the series.  But I came back.  I always came back.  And then there were a handful of episodes where Dan and Blair became secret friends; and I was hooked so deep that I watched the crap that followed until the end.

 

We used to joke that the writers sucked so hard that they didn't see the potential of Dan and Blair combined with a real desire for Blair to be a powerful women and let an intern out of the closet to write their C plot.  Then when it revitalized the show and brought back the media attention, the full time writers took back control; hence the crash and burn.

 

I hated Blair by the end for wanting nothing more out of life than to lick Chuck's boots.

 

In general I find that the shows I can't give up are the ones that have really solid moments or storylines that are juxtaposed against storylines that are terrible to the point of not making sense.  When I can't reconcile what I'm seeing against what came before I just can't stop watching because I just keep thinking that it could get better, the crazy might stop.

 

I think that's why I can't give up Once Upon a Time.  There is potential for the show to be great again. That they haven't actually seen or taken advantage of any of that potential for two years doesn't seem to deter my viewing.  Ah well.  At least its not so bad that I'm hate-watching it.

Edited July 12, 2014 by ParadoxLost

[Athena]

@ParadoxLost I feel you! I gave up on the show around S3 as well then got sucked back in with Dan and Blair, but I learned my lesson, I didn't watch the last season for a reason. Like you, I hated what the writing had done to Blair.

 

For me it's True Blood and Boardwalk Empire and I wasn't going to watch after their previous seasons, but the last ones are going on now or will be soon. It will be over! yay!

 

I just give up on shows now if I don't like them and read recaps to see how they end.

[walnutqueen]

Grey's Anatomy & Scandal.   No explanation needed.

 

Mountain Men - I only watch for Tom & Nancy; hate everyone else (although I'm on the fence about the horse guy).

 

The Amazing Race - I really dislike the personalities and stupid challenges, so I should just switch to a pretty travel show with lots of nice scenery and interesting information.

 

Dual Survival - I don't like Joe, but am strangely loving the way he's - ahem - responding to Matt the new guy.  :-)

[Guest]

Grey's Anatomy & Scandal.   No explanation needed.

 

Grey's used to be on this list for me.  Happily, Meredith and Cristina reinstating they guy that killed Alex's father ended the show for me.  Plus the dumbassery of the doctors suing the hospital for chartering a plane which led them to owning the hospital while Alex didn't, you know, sue them for killing his Dad.

[ToxicUnicorn]

The US version of The Office, towards the end.

[Snow Apple]

Glee. And yet I can't decide if I'm happy/relieved or sad the end is now in sight.

[cynicat]

Glee. And yet I can't decide if I'm happy/relieved or sad the end is now in sight.

 

That crapfest is still on?

[Anna Yolei]

I watched As The World Turns from circa 1980 until the final episode. There were times it was so bad near the end that I wanted to poke out my own eyes so I would stop watching; it apparently would take that drastic a step. I am having the same problem currently with The Young and The Restless. I find my soaps to be a matter of nostalgia and I guess once I am hooked by nostalgia, I'm dead meat.

Lol. Had I not been stationed overseas my first tour, I would've been the same way still. As it was, there was one YT channel that posted full episodes of B&B that I followed for about five months before CBS got 'em. Then I tuned in two years later after Stephanie died of cancer and waychef till the online CBS stream added more commercial than live airing. Just wasn't worth it, lol.

I think Scandal will be that show. I just marathoned that show a month ago, and season three is just one huge nosedive of WTF and fail. But I loves me Mellie and Cyrus and I wish he could switch teams so they'd make one helluva power couple.

Also, Fitzgerald Grant is the most entitled, whiny, petulant manchild ever in command of anything on TV. They may as well give him a beagle and have him spend a night with it in the First Hospital.

That crapfest is still on?

Amazingly, yes. The season five finale was beaten out by the goddamn CW with a 0.6. The season saw half it's viewership tune out, a drop thst would no doubt have been steeper without the Cory/ Finn tribute episode.

[Shannon L.]

 

I watched As The World Turns from circa 1980 until the final episode. There were times it was so bad near the end that I wanted to poke out my own eyes so I would stop watching; it apparently would take that drastic a step.

I'd have done the same had it not been for having kids. Once our son was born, by the time I finished work and did mommy stuff, I was too damn tired to watch my recording, so I let it go.  The last thing I remember is that it was early on in the "Luke comes out" story.  I dropped Guiding Light for the same reason or else I'd have held onto the bitter end with that one, too.

 

Count me in as one who can't stop DWTS and TAR, either.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Shannon L.

[Anna Yolei]

Shannon L., you couldn't have picked a better time to quit ATWT. After Luke came out, the show went into a tailspin that it never recovered from.

[zxy556575]

House Hunters. I don't like the hunters or the realtors and after 20,000 episodes, I've seen all possible combinations of cities and house types. The international version is no better, yet I watch. House Hunters Renovation? I watch. House Hunters: Where Are they Now? Sigh.

[blueray]

True Blood. Sigh. It's finally in its last season so I'll be free of it soon, but I feel like I probably should've quit it a long time ago. It has always been campy and over-the-top, but it's just gotten so far afield of what it originally was, to say nothing of the books that inspired it.

I liked the first few season of it but I did actually stopped watching when I realize there was so many characters that I couldn't keep them straight and the story wasn't moving forward.

 

House hunters and house hunter's international. I feel these shows have got really fake and its on all the time. But yet when there is nothing on it's great to have on in the background. I do love seeing different countries in the international one, but the reason the person is going has gone stupid.

[zxy556575]

House hunters and house hunter's international. I feel these shows have got really fake and it's on all the time.

 

That, too! The shows are completely phoney. Dialog, houses, realtors, the whole shebang.

[LilWharveyGal]

I hate almost everything about Downton Abbey with a fiery passion.  Not even in a fun hate-watch kind of way, but a truly high blood pressure inducing way.  And yet I can't. stop. watching.

[potatoradio]

Food Network Star, MasterChef, Hell's Kitchen...pretty much any "cooking" competition show. They've all more or less derailed into Jerry Springer level of caricature and stupidity and yet, I watch.

 

Oh, man, soaps. I really wanted to quit soaps when I moved away for school, but they were kind of my connection to a "former life" so I endured the horrible metamorphosis of Jason on General Hospital and the flat out bore that was As the World Turns in the mid-nineties. I only stopped watching because my combo TV/VCR broke and I had to quit cold turkey until I got another one and by then, like any addiction, the attraction had waned.

 

But I just want to say that, the other day, I crawled around the interwebs and found some posted videos of old As The World Turns eps. O.M.G. So embarrassed for Ming Na, whose character did nothing but stumble around saying, "But, Paul, I am confused. Why is Andy angry with me?" "But Andy, I am confused. Why does Duke make you drink?" "But, writers, I am confused. Why do you think a character from Vietnam should be nothing but a nice, confused girl? I am confused."

 

And, scary, it was really hard to stop watching all over again. Crack, those things are...

 

 

 

 

[Ujio]

I tend NOT to give up on shows, even if I spend the entire hour yelling and screaming at the screen.

 

Case in point -- I stuck to the bitter end of each of the following TV shows: House (okay, that was painful), Without a Trace (again, pretty painful), and Nip/Tuck (most painful of them all -- at one point, I just HAD to make sure that the show REALLY died so that it'd never come back).

 

There were shows that started to suck but redeemed themselves towards the end.  In those cases, I was glad I'd stuck with them. The West Wing and NYPD Blue would be two examples.

 

However, no matter how hard I tried, I could no longer allow myself to waste an hour each week watching the cr@pfest that is Glee.  So what does that say about the show???

[jah1986]

For me it would have to be Burn Notice. I kept waiting for it to be fun and good again but it just wasn't.  I couldn't figure out why these people continued to sacrifice so much for the eternally ungrateful Michael. I just couldn't walk away, even though I wanted to smack everyone.

 

Also, I just want Downton Abbey to end. I don't care about Lady Mary at all. Just make it stop because I can't seem to stop watching.

[Babalu]

Mine was Desperate Housewives, which started out well but was horrifically bad by the last few seasons. I had to see it to the end, though, and was so relieved when it finally did end.

I've been wanting to quit Revenge for at least a year-and-a-half, and I think the return of David Clarke and another character (won't name because it's spoilery) has finally strengthened my resolve to tune out for Season 4. Wish me luck.

[TaraS1]

Even though I have dropped a bunch of shows over the last few years (with having kids I have had to choose sleep or TV and in many cases sleep wins) for me a big one has been Sons of Anarchy. It seems to get dumber and dumber and more and more like a soap crossed with a video game each season, yet I will probably stick it out for the final season just to see how it turned out.

 

Sons of Anarchy is the first show that came to mind for me too.  It is a schlocky mess, with Sutter killing more and more people in more and more gruesome ways practically every episode.  It is an embarrassing shell of the great show that existed in S1 & S2.  I desperately wanted to quit last season, but figured I might as well hang in there til the bloody end since S7 is the last.

 

I would also love to quit Elementary, because I hated S2 so, so much, but as long as Lucy Liu is there, I'm there.

 

And Project Runway kind of fits this category for me because it has been so bad for so many seasons now and yet - I don't even want to stop watching LOL.  I love it, I love Tim & Heidi and I'm staying til the bitter end.  It's like TV comfort food.

[mattie0808]

I'm fast approaching that point with Falling Skies...if it didn't have an identifiable end point (next season is its last), I would have to at least take a break this year, I think.

 

I hope I stick to my guns and don't watch a minute of Homeland this upcoming season (or maybe just Carey Stoll's parts on YouTube or something, lol).

 

For a recent one that's finished, in addition to anger, I felt a whole lot of relief watching the last episode of Burn Notice. I think I probably didn't do myself any favors by watching all the way to the bitter end. Bah!

 

As for soaps, with One Life to Live and All My Children, I never really stopped watching them, but there were certainly periods where I wasn't watching religiously and didn't go to any particular effort to watch every episode. But with OLTL, my last "quiet" period was well before cancellation. AMC I had a harder time with more often. (I watched every episode of both online reboots, and would be there with bells on should either show ever come back again.)

Edited July 23, 2014 by mattie0808

[ganesh]

 

I'm fast approaching that point with Falling Skies...if it didn't have an identifiable end point (next season is its last), I would have to at least take a break this year, I think.

Oh yeah. FS sucks now. It wasn't that strong to begin with, but it's like "let's do the worst tropes this year."

[ScaryFairy1]

To me, Psych owns this thread. Owns it, I tell you.

 

Right up until Season 5, I liked it. It was my fluffy TV. Even Shawn and his antics were perfectly okay with me, even if he sometimes got on my nerves.

 

Theeeen...season six, which was hit or miss. It had some great episodes, but some real dogs. ("In for a Penny..." still makes me grind my teeth. They completely retconned Juliet's character, made her eventual acceptance of Shawn's lies completely unbelievable, and made me want to claw my eyes out.)

 

I should have quit with "In for a Penny..." Right there. I should've been out of it.

 

Season seven was a lackluster at best. Then thre was the awful, terrible, no good season eight. It's like they no longer gave a crap and went for being wacky for the sake of being wacky. The only redeeming thing in the entire season eight was Lassie getting to be chief and his new right-hand woman. Other than that, the season was terrible. It didn't go out with a bang, but with a "Thank God it's over!"

 

I kept hoping Psych would get better those last two seasons, but it did not. Ugh!

[Actionmage]

Under the Dome has become this for me, God help me.

 

bmoore 4026,  I only watched a couple of episodes last season, but  I kept up with it here on the site. Unless a stronger show  can get to me before it premieres, I will probably tune in for the first episode.  I will also probably be all in for Extant as well.

[QueerGirrl]

Oh God!  Where to start?!?!

Ally McBeal

ER

Revenge

The Following

 

Watched these to the very end.  I have no idea why!

 

Edit to add: Nurse Jackie.

Edited June 12, 2015 by QueerGirrl

[ChromaKelly]

The Walking Dead. Why can't I stop? Every season I'm all "I'm done with this show@" but then it ends on a cliffhanger and I have to see what happens. I'm so over it in some ways. Tired of Rick's angst, tired of the gang being too stupid to live, tired of Daryl being in manpain, and tired of deaths for the sake of let's have a shocking death.

[ShortyMac]

Oh yeah. FS sucks now. It wasn't that strong to begin with, but it's like "let's do the worst tropes this year."

 

I only watched the first two seasons of FS. It got really boring to me and couldn't hold my interest.

Edited June 12, 2015 by ShortyMac

[supposebly]

Supernatural. Since season 8, at every season's end, I want to stop. Throughout the summer I keep wondering if I will stop watching this time. It starting to feel like a weird experiment I'm conducting on myself.

 

I've never done this with any show. I just stop watching when I'm bored, annoyed, or not entertained enough. I'm not a completist or hate-watcher.

 

There is enough good TV these days that I don't normally find I need to watch something when I mostly don't enjoy it. I barely keep up with the shows I have on my Netflix list and I only have Canadian Netflix. Except with this show. I keep hoping they won't get renewed but at the rate it is getting new viewers, I'm not terribly optimistic. It's a sickness.

[proserpina65]

Grey's used to be on this list for me.  Happily, Meredith and Cristina reinstating they guy that killed Alex's father ended the show for me.  Plus the dumbassery of the doctors suing the hospital for chartering a plane which led them to owning the hospital while Alex didn't, you know, sue them for killing his Dad.

I wish this had been enough for me to quit, 'cause it sure did piss me off.  But no, I stayed.  And then Cristina left, and I thought 'finally' because she and Alex were the only characters left whom I still liked.  Then season 11 rolled around, Alex was still there and so was I.  This season was so bad, though, that I'm hoping to stay away for good, no matter how much I like Justin Chambers.

House Hunters. I don't like the hunters or the realtors and after 20,000 episodes, I've seen all possible combinations of cities and house types. The international version is no better, yet I watch. House Hunters Renovation? I watch. House Hunters: Where Are they Now? Sigh.

I have managed to resist the Renovation variation and usually the Where Are They Now version.  But the International version is like a drug I can't resist, even though I have a tendecy to tell the hunters what idiots they are for always wanting American style homes in countries where rooms (and fridges) are tiny.

[Raja]

We will see with the second season of The Last Ship. How much more miltech porn does it have left?

Defiance has just enough for me to come back and try again.

[Demented Daisy]

I finally gave up on Bones this season -- and after reading the recaps of the last few episodes, sounds like I made the right choice.  Still haven't given up on Supernatural or Criminal Minds yet.

 

I highly recommend watching The Amazing Race on mute, except for Phil.  Otherwise, I would have given up a long time ago.

 

Gave up on Project Runway after Tim Gunn's awful behavior (IMO) a couple of seasons ago.  I can't remember her name, but he treated one of the contestants terribly. Maybe it was the editing, I don't know, but when asked about it, his response was, essentially, "You really think I would do something like that?"  Yes, Tim, you're human.  You make mistakes.

[Sharpie66]

I had the last nine episodes of the past season of Criminal Minds, Elementary, and Doctor Who on my dvr, just waiting for me to care enough to get around to watching them. Then, my cable box with the dvr in it died this past Monday, and Comcast replaced it yesterday. The only show of those three that I am going to bother searching for is Doctor Who, because I realize that I just don't care anymore about Elementary or Criminal Minds.

 

Elementary never really had me in its grip completely so that I just had to watch it live or even just slightly time-delayed, so that's no big loss.

 

However, Criminal Minds was something that I thought was truly a fantastic series in its first four seasons, with several great episodes in S5 that dwindled down to maybe one good episode a season in S6 and 7 and then one mediocre episode in each of the past few seasons. That's no reason to continue watching a show, just hoping that there might be a somewhat decent episode that doesn't feel like a slog in the marsh to get through. If I'm in the mood for Criminal Minds, I'll just pull out my boxed sets of the first four seasons.

[Hanahope]

I had to give up a few shows this year that I had planned on watching to the end, but I just don't have time anymore.  That included Revenge and Grey's Anatomy.  I still have the last 3 episodes from Hawaii 5-0 on my DVR, which I'll probably get around to seeing, but I may give up next year.

 

I did stick with CSI to the end, and CSI:NY, but I never cared for Miami and don't like Cyber.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Hanahope

[Chaos Theory]

Criminal Minds but that is mostly because.i can't find anything to watch instead in that time slot.