The GoT Effect: Once Great Shows That Got So Bad They Sent You Into A Rage Spiral

[Kromm]

What shows were originally great (or at least good) that continued on for years after that quality left them and by the end totally enraged you?

Obviously there's no exact science to this, but I'd say that as a general guideline we can't just be talking about a handful of bad episodes at the very end, but rather an inherent change that persisted over years.

Explain exactly when you think the decline started as well (and why).

[Cranberry]

I'll list the shows I actually gave up on.

Grey's Anatomy: I left right after they killed George. I didn't leave because they killed George, but after I suffered through that whole Izzie/Ghost Denny thing, my bullshit tolerance was low. I found the "John Doe is George" twist manipulative and unbelievable, and I was out. As far as I know, the show just got worse from there, one-upping itself constantly with bigger and badder disasters. I used to read the writers' blog, and they always seemed like a pretentious bunch who thought they were making high art, too.

LOST: I just checked Wikipedia for the season summaries, and I guess I didn't actually give up on this one. I feel like I did! I only remember bits and pieces from seasons four through six. I can't pinpoint exactly when I stopped enjoying it, but I think it was sometime during the "Oceanic Six" story line, when they were trying to get the body back to the island. It all started being a bit too out there for me at that point. I felt like a lot of LOST was filler in general, just stretching the days out over too many episodes. I bet it could have been a fantastic show with 13-episode seasons.

Desperate Housewives: I stopped watching after season two, I think, although I can't actually remember why. Maybe Susan's whining and physical "comedy" finally got to me (did she fall down a lot? I feel like she fell down a lot). I didn't like Gabrielle at all by that point, either, I remember.

Gossip Girl: I lost interest after the writers dragged the inevitable Chuck and Blair reunion out too long. I found that entire story line where Blair married a prince boring, and I'd long since stopped caring about Serena and Dan. I skipped half of season five and all of six, although I came back for the finale (which I enjoyed partly because it was ridiculous as hell).

[Kromm]

I'll list the shows I actually gave up on.

Grey's Anatomy: I left right after they killed George. I didn't leave because they killed George, but after I suffered through that whole Izzie/Ghost Denny thing, my bullshit tolerance was low. I found the "John Doe is George" twist manipulative and unbelievable, and I was out. As far as I know, the show just got worse from there, one-upping itself constantly with bigger and badder disasters. I used to read the writers' blog, and they always seemed like a pretentious bunch who thought they were making high art, too. 

LOST: I just checked Wikipedia for the season summaries, and I guess I didn't actually give up on this one. I feel like I did! I only remember bits and pieces from seasons four through six. I can't pinpoint exactly when I stopped enjoying it, but I think it was sometime during the "Oceanic Six" story line, when they were trying to get the body back to the island. It all started being a bit too out there for me at that point. I felt like a lot of LOST was filler in general, just stretching the days out over too many episodes. I bet it could have been a fantastic show with 13-episode seasons.

Agreed muchly with LOST, although I know people defended the last few seasons.  But the middle ones were SO bad...

Grey's Anatomy drilled into my skull with loathing maybe even a little before Ghost Denny.  Live Denny was bad enough.

 

Another one I was thinking of was Sliders.  Such a fun accessible show early on.  Such a total piece of shit later on.

The ultimate example has to be Glee.  A neat, sweet show in Season 1.  A tolerable show for about half of Season 2.  A nightmare ever since.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Kromm

[RapBert]

Another one I was thinking of was Sliders.  Such a fun accessible show early on.  Such a total piece of shit later on.

Oh god, Sliders. This is how you turn a fun little show into complete garbage. There were a few episodes throughout the last three seasons that are quite good, but the rest was just utterly dreadful.

Another one for me would be Stargate Atlantis. That final episode still makes me incredibly angry, as well as all the wasted potential. So many plots ripped off from SG1 it's not even funny. You just knew they were running out of ideas in season 5. The constant cast changes didn't help either.

[Hybridcookie]

Dirty Sexy Money - I loved the first season and thought it was very well written. The second season came and it turned into a soapy mess

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The ultimate example has to be Glee. A neat, sweet show in Season 1. A tolerable show for about half of Season 2. A nightmare ever since.

This is the most accurate and succinct summary of Glee. I sometimes find myself watching a new episode and asking, "What the hell happened?" It's like finding out that a nice friend from elementary school became a drug dealer and is now in jail for murder charges. How did you get from here to there? And then there's the sadness of knowing that something good and sweet with so much potential has turned into this unholy mess that you barely recognize.

[Kromm]

Then there's Heroes.  There's always Heroes.

[Kromm]

Another one for me would be Stargate Atlantis. That final episode still makes me incredibly angry, as well as all the wasted potential. So many plots ripped off from SG1 it's not even funny. You just knew they were running out of ideas in season 5. The constant cast changes didn't help either.

The Mothership Stargate show eventually wound up being kind of frustrating too.  It maybe didn't get bad to the extent of inducing rages, but it kind of just got... boring and repetitive.

[LGGirl]

Add me to the Grey's Anatomy hate feat. I suffered the through it all until Sandra's Oh character (can't remember the name) got the abortion. That was it for me. What a really stupid show.

[Cranberry]

Then there's Heroes.  There's always Heroes.

Wow, that'll teach me to write a post at 6am after being up all night -- I totally forgot about Heroes! I was done after season two, or maybe after "volume one" of season three. I can't even remember. I remember thinking that Sylar was overpowered, which ruined a lot of the fun.

Glee is terrible (I agree 100% with your succinct assessment), but I still watch. The end is in sight.

[ShellSeeker]

How I Met Your Mother -- the Barney/Robin storyline completely ruined the show. And the finale....OMG. Thank God I'd given up on it earlier and was not that invested in how it ended.

NCIS: Used to be a good, fun, procedural, but then it just became the same thing every episode. 

Homeland: The first 2 seasons were so, so, so good, and then S3 was awful. I couldn't even watch the whole thing.

[pootlus]

I'll see your Glee and raise you...Dexter.

Watching the final season was one of the hardest TV-land things I've ever done. Fucking Hannah and her supposed saintliness. Dexter turns into a complete fucking idiot. The stupid, it burns. Argh.

[Cranberry]

Homeland: The first 2 seasons were so, so, so good, and then S3 was awful. I couldn't even watch the whole thing.

I almost gave up on season three, too! The first third was boring, and I felt that they were assassinating Carrie's character. However, just as I was about to quit, the end of episode four happened and it hooked me again. I don't love the show like I did back in season one, but I was happy enough with episodes 5-12 of season three.

[decembar13]

Glee... 1. episode was good, and it went down the drain from that moment on. Never could understand all the hoopla afterwards and trust me I've tried waching that sad thing of a show. Every single episode I've seen got me in a fits of rage... The biggest reason? Rachel who sings all the songs although she isn't the best vocalist (debatable, I know, but she's just too much into belting out for no apparent reason), her annoying "me, me, ME" scenes, and something about her outfits just screamed "pedophil wet dream" - mostly fault of costume designers, but attributed to my overall dislike of her.

Moonlighting... It was good 'til Maddie got pregnant and went off to her parents. Downhill after that. I love the show, it still "warms my heart", Maddie and David are great together, but most episodes after her return were just... awful.

Also, Dawson's Creek! Too much weaknesses from the begining, but that show died for me with assassination of Andie character.

Edited April 22, 2014 by decembar13

[merylinkid]

Oh dear God Dirty Sexy Money.   A funny funny show about the very rich and famous for being famous.   Then they replaced the showrunner between seasons and totally changed the direction.    The only thing good to come out of the writer's strike was that it killed this show deader than dead.

Grey's Anatomy, I gave up when they brought in Lexie.   And I realized that the first FOUR seasons took place over a one year period.   Someone once totalled up all the things that happened to Meredith during that 12 months and it was amazing the girl was still sane.  Won't watch a Shonda Rhimes show anymore because of it.

Castle is heading this way.   Started off as a cute, funny, quirky procedural.   Then the Mombatross landed.   Then the showrunner got into "subtext" which meant don't show a fucking thing onscreen let it all happen offscreen because the characters deserve "privacy."   

[Kromm]

I'll see your Glee and raise you...Dexter.

Watching the final season was one of the hardest TV-land things I've ever done. Fucking Hannah and her supposed saintliness. Dexter turns into a complete fucking idiot. The stupid, it burns. Argh.

Yeah, but was it just the finale you hated or a decent portion of the series after some breaking point?  That's the distinguisher here between this and a mere "bad finale" (or even just a bad final season isn't always a total deal breaker).

[pootlus]

Yeah, but was it just the finale you hated or a decent portion of the series after some breaking point?  That's the distinguisher here between this and a mere "bad finale" (or even just a bad final season isn't always a total deal breaker).

It was the whole of the final season. By the end it felt like a death march.

The show stopped being good after Trinity (S4). After that it became increasingly difficult to watch but it didn't actually fill me with rage until the final season, which was so chock full of WTFery I could hardly stand it.

In fact I can identify the point at which it did finally break me, and it was the moment Hannah returned. But it was more of a 'straw that broke the camel's back' thing after the whole "Deb falls in love with Dex" plotline.

[janie jones]

The ultimate example has to be Glee. A neat, sweet show in Season 1. A tolerable show for about half of Season 2. A nightmare ever since.

I loved Glee so much when it was first on. Now I can't think of anything on TV that annoys me more.  Not to mention the fact that I'm tired of hearing their covers of other songs.

[kathyk2]

The X-Files! The show put Mulder and Scully through hell to find out what happened to Samantha. Then we learn she was dead the entire time? I have never felt more let down by a tv show. I won't watch anything else by Chris Carter.

[Kromm]

The X-Files! The show put Mulder and Scully through hell to find out what happened to Samantha. Then we learn she was dead the entire time? I have never felt more let down by a tv show. I won't watch anything else by Chris Carter.

Seemingly nobody else will either (since when's the last time you heard of his name attached to a project ANYWAY?)

[giovannif7]

Didn't Chris Carter just do the Amazon pilot "The After" that got picked up for series last month? IIRC, the pilot had in the cast Adrian Pasdar, Sharon Lawrence, Aldis Hodge, Jamie Kennedy and several others in a post-apocalyptic scenario. I haven't seen the pilot yet, but I am curious.

[Kromm]

Didn't Chris Carter just do the Amazon pilot "The After" that got picked up for series last month? IIRC, the pilot had in the cast Adrian Pasdar, Sharon Lawrence, Aldis Hodge, Jamie Kennedy and several others in a post-apocalyptic scenario. I haven't seen the pilot yet, but I am curious.

Just looked it up and apparently he did.

 

However it's also worth noting what's further down that IMDB page.  Almost nothing--at least AFTER the X-Files went off the air (2002)--other than briefly showing up to consult on the X-Files movie (2008).  It's like he disappeared onto an Alien ship for all of those years, but had a day pass for the movie.

[April Bloodgate]

The show stopped being good after Trinity (S4). After that it became increasingly difficult to watch but it didn't actually fill me with rage until the final season, which was so chock full of WTFery I could hardly stand it.

In fact I can identify the point at which it did finally break me, and it was the moment Hannah returned. But it was more of a 'straw that broke the camel's back' thing after the whole "Deb falls in love with Dex" plotline.

I agree that "Dexter" mostly stopped being good after Trinity. I hated the Lumen story line (S5), but I did like some parts of S6 with Colin Hanks and Edward James Olmos. I gave up halfway through S7. Deb being in love with Dexter was ridiculous and annoying, and I couldn't stand Hannah. 

[Rinaldo]

My choices aren't going to be original.

 

Heroes, yes. The first season hit my viewing bullseye again and again. Then the second season started and I found myself less absorbed and vaguely irritated (the Lady with the Magic Bleeding Eyes didn't help), and gave up by the end of that year.

 

Lost had me through most of the first season too. I got bored almost as soon as season 2 started, stopped watching for 2 years, then heard they had an end date and that season 4 had picked up, and I returned to enjoy that and season 5 very much. Then they threw away my goodwill as the end approached, despite all the warning they'd had to prepare it. Left me with a bad taste in the end.

 

How I Met Your Mother. Season 2 was as brilliant as any sitcom season I've seen. It kept me watching through still-good S3 and 4, and then I was aware of a dip but I attributed it to having to stretch out a saga that would ideally have been wrapped up in 3 or 4 years. So I stuck it out to the end, despite ever-fewer rewards, and as we neared the end I figured that the brilliant writing would return now that they knew exactly how far we were from the finish line. Especially as the mother had been perfectly cast, I figured that we'd get one great script after another in the final season. But it remained a chore that I did only to see it through to the end. Which they fucked up as royally as I've ever seen. And so it is likely to head my list permanently.

[Haleth]

Revenge owns this thread. Edited May 1, 2014 by Haleth

[BellaLugosi]

Chris Carter is involved with Area 51 that's been announced for AMC.

 

For this topic, the first thing that came to mind was Dexter. I quit before the end of the last season, but I know what happened. I still can't believe what they did to that show.

 

Roseanne and the stupid lottery stuff. I didn't mind what she did with the finale, I just wish she hadn't taken all those episodes to get there.

 

I'd add Law and Order: SVU. These days, I am annoyed with it more than I enjoy it. This season has been the worst so far for me. I like the character of Olivia and I don't enjoy seeing her tortured and unhappy over and over. 

[MaryMitch]

I don't know if it was a "great" show, but I loved it - and that was "Xena: Warrior Princess". After Xena and Gabrielle "died", it just sucked.

[Rick Kitchen]

When Sliders became "Let's run away from the Cro-Mags" in every episode, I left.  I'm a sucker for alternate history, but even some of the early stuff was silly.  The heir to the English Empire just happening to be in San Francisco when they popped in, for one.

 

It was pretty much the same thing that happened with "Time Tunnel"  They just happened to run into aliens in every past time they popped into

[jellysalmon]

I used to ride hard for BSG. I remember the moment I gave up on it was the episode where they hear Bob Dylan. I don't hate Dylan, but I was surrounded by people who were freaking out about it and what it could mean. I just said "i'm out." and it went from my "must watch" pile to my "show i never finished" pile.

[ElleryAnne]

X-Files, definitely.  I know there are folks who love the left-turn into Scully's Miracle Baby territory, but I hated it and the change in the tone of the Mulder/Scully relationship after that.  

 

Heroes.  Loved the first season, hated nearly everything about the second, and didn't stick around for the third.  I feel like a great concept from S1 was pushed into the background in order to turn the show into a soap opera.

 

Suits.  Almost the same comment as Heroes.  And it really does send me into a rage, because S1 had some brilliant writing and I love the characters.

 

Reaching back a ways, the original Beauty and The Beast.  No Catherine, no me.

[supposebly]

Burn Notice. The last season. It started out perplexing and stupid and became one of the worst character assassinating show endings I can remember.

[theshelledpea]

I'll list the shows I actually gave up on.

Grey's Anatomy

LOST

Desperate Housewives

Gossip Girl

Are we the same person? I gave up on all of these shows around the same time for the same reasons. Although I went back to Lost for the last two seasons, there's a big chunk in there I'm missing. I don't even remember which season(s). It doesn't matter.

Also, Glee (I think the last one I saw was prom? Or the one before prom.) HIMYM. Heroes. Revenge. OuaT.

Edited May 10, 2014 by theshelledpea

[Raja]

I think a lot of the 'competition' reality shows like Project Runway, The Celebrity Apprentice, Dancing with the Stars, etc., were really great in the beginning but then they increasingly sucked due to either the quality of contestants (the alleged "celebrities" on Celebrity Apprentice and DWTS. Nothing really but has-beens, wannabes, and will-never-make-its); or the producers got stuck like flies on glue paper to the formula that worked the first time but soon got sickening, like all the flaming gay designers (not that there's anything wrong with that)that make up most of the cast of Project Runway.

I only know the one show. I saw was DWTS and it was the same quality of contestants in the first season, a reoccurring character actor from Sienfeld, an ex Playboy Playmate who was about to be written out of her soap and the same collection of a football player or fighter, reality star on her second "reality show", former child star, to which they have added a political/news type a senior and an overweight contestant and now other a dancer with physical disability... What was different was that it was not yet a hit so the network didn't give them more and more time needing filler material which the D list celebs can not fill on their own. And now it so bloated about a third of the dances don't even pretend to be ballroom anymore.

[callie lee 29]

 

Revenge owns this thread.

I've never seen Revenge, but I will humbly submit the most infamous last season of Roseanne. The show was slowly going down the drain and then picked up more steam but that final season... Roseanne just jumped off the cliff and took everyone with her.

 

That 70's Show, last season. I just completely ignore that it happened. And damn, sometimes I wonder who Mila Kunis pissed off, but they really just beat up on her character.

 

Homicide: Life on the Street. Truly my favorite show ever, or at least the first 1-4/5 seasons. Then it all went to hell.

Edited May 12, 2014 by callie lee 29

[Bastet]

Moonlighting.  As Bruce Willis has said, I'll stack the first two seasons up against anything on television to this day.  Innovative, sharp, witty, beautifully shot.  The third season is almost as brilliant.  And then ... wow.  Seasons four and five feel as if they belong to a completely different show, a show that never would have been picked up.  It's not healthy to still be so disgruntled by it, but I'd like to punch Glenn Gordon Caron in the face.

[Joystickenvy]

I don't have much original to add, but here's mine anyway:

I'll qualify this by saying shows I enjoyed, rather than "great" shows:

1). Dexter - I didn't have Showtime until the final season, so I binge watched the whole series from On Demand. Loved the first three seasons and it was all downhill from there. Kept waiting for it to get better. It never did. Hate what they did with Debra.

2) Heroes- probably my biggest tv disappointment. I loved the first season so much, but I gave up about midway through season 2. Too much everybody has powers syndrome and too much Sylar.

3) Roseanne - I grew up in a middle class, Midwestern family and I really loved this show, but I think they just ran out of ideas about the time original flavor Becky left the show. Last season was horrid, but the decline started before that.

4) The Cosby Show - My all time favorite sitcom up until about when Lisa Bonet was fired. The plots just kept getting sillier & the characters they tried to bring in to replace the aging kids were all terrible.

5) That 70's Show- I love this show to an unreasonable degree up until the emergence of blonde Donna. Another show that tried too hard to keep it's aging cast in the same place and then brought in annoying new characters to replace departing stars.

6) Glee - this show has been bad so long, I'm no longer sure it was ever actually good, but I did like the first couple seasons. They pretty much ruined all the characters in one way or another and seem to actually hate their audience.

7) the Facts of Life - loved it until they tried to follow the girls to college. Cloris Leachman has been funny in a lot of things, but she was no Mrs. garret and the show had just run it's course.

8) Grey's Anatomy - I stopped watching when McDreamy & Meredith had sex at the "prom." I'm not sure why this was the breaking point, but I think I was just tired of those two breaking up & getting back together. I never liked that couple much to begin with.

[HighQueenEB]

I can't believe, in the midst of some really great examples provided already (Heroes, Glee, Roseanne), that no one's mentioned Alias.  Just about the most brilliant show on TV for its first two seasons and then Lena Olin didn't come back for season 3 and it went downhill from there.  I watched until the bitter end and obsessed over that show like none before or since but I still haven't brought myself to re-watch the finale, or most of season 5 really, since it went off the air.

[pootlus]

Oh God, Alias.  I stopped watching that at the end of S3, otherwise known as the year with the blonde chick with the terrible accent.  Was it ever determined what nationality she was?

 

I looked in from time to time to check what happened, and was so glad I'd stopped watching.  It's a real shame as it started off as absolutely brilliant - brilliant cast, never a dull moment, etc.

 

And of course shows headed by strong, capable women are really common...

[Kromm]

I think a lot of the 'competition' reality shows like Project Runway, The Celebrity Apprentice, Dancing with the Stars, etc., were really great in the beginning but then they increasingly sucked due to either the quality of contestants (the alleged "celebrities" on Celebrity Apprentice and DWTS. Nothing really but has-beens, wannabes, and will-never-make-its); or the producers got stuck like flies on glue paper to the formula that worked the first time but soon got sickening, like all the flaming gay designers (not that there's anything wrong with that)that make up most of the cast of Project Runway.

Although it's among the greatest, I'd argue even The Amazing Race has kind of gone that way to an extent.   Although the base idea is still strong, the continuous bringing back of the same contestants, many for now THIRD appearances, is frustrating.  And we know this happened with Survivor too.  Still great shows, so they don't really fulfill the premise of this topic, but you can see the cracks showing with age, and a fear from producers to do anything even slightly bold on them.

 

Top Chef is a big one in the "sucked the talent pool dry" sweepstakes, although it shares the sin and the consequences with just about every other cooking reality competition.  It's just most noticeable on Top Chef because we have the highest expectations of both the show and the quality of the contestants.  Chopped qualifies for a related but slightly different reason--we certainly don't have very serious expectations of the contestants--but in their case they've stretched the (admittedly slightly lower quality at best) talent pool SO thin that like half the episodes seem to have to feature some gimmick to take us outside of chefs, like "Grandmas" or "Lunch Ladies" or "Firemen" or "Celebrities" or crap like that.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Kromm

[Jack Shaftoe]

I am surprised no one has mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer yet. To me this is the clearest example of a show that became so different in its final seasons, that one could really wonder if the same people were still making the show. Obviously, almost any show that is not canceled early on eventually runs out of steam but to me Buffy is the only show that gave me the impression that its creators actively disliked everything the show stood for in its early seasons and worked hard to make it about completely different things, often the exact opposite of the earlier messages and themes.

For instance, in the first seasons friendships were the most important relationships in the show, later it became all about either the Dawn-Buffy bond (I liked Dawn but this bond was based on a great big lie and nobody in show bothered to acknowledge that) or Buffy-Spike (ugh). Early on, killing people was a big deal, later Joss became all about "redemption" and the Scooby Gang ended up consisting of murderers and/or people who found nothing odd about dating serial killers.

The clever plans backed by plenty of research (it was no accident that school library was the Scooby base of operations) were replaced with Buffy winging it and relying on writer fiat or Willow overpowering the enemy with brute force. The enemies became increasingly dumber as the seasons progressed (not least because the Bug Bads were becoming ridiculously stronger than Buffy so some excuse had to be concocted to give her a chance to survive).

The show was famous for its witty dialogue and yet I can barely think of any quotable line in S6 and 7. Well, unless by quotable one means "so bad, you have to hear it to believe it".

 

Honorable mentions for Burn Notice season 7, Pretty Little Liars which fell off a cliff after season 3A and Gilmore Girls seasons 6-7.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Jack Shaftoe

[Kromm]

Honorable mentions for Burn Notice season 7, Pretty Little Liars which fell off a cliff after season 3A and Gilmore Girls seasons 6-7.

I think Gilmore Girls was a hair less blameworthy because the main damage there was the ousting of the person who made sure the dialogue was snappy and witty. While that certainly led to a decline in the show, at least for me it feels wrong to display it in the same bad light as shows that totally melted down into total messes and/or seemed to betray their original purposes/viewers/vibes.  At least IMO, I guess.  It was less than it was, but not so bad that it made me ashamed to have liked it in the first place, like with many of the shows mentioned in this topic.  Or with some of them just to wish the show had ended in a certain year (whereas with GG I don't wish that those later years didn't exist, I just wish they'd been slightly better).

 

Use Glee as a countering example.  For anything with Glee after the halfway point of Season 2 to even be worth existing, SO much would have to be different. Entire character arcs.  Entire show philosophies, showrunner attitudes, casting and major plot decisions, etc.  Whereas for GG's last two seasons to be okay, they just needed to be slightly better written.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Castle is heading this way.   Started off as a cute, funny, quirky procedural.   Then the Mombatross landed.   Then the showrunner got into "subtext" which meant don't show a fucking thing onscreen let it all happen offscreen because the characters deserve "privacy."

I haven't watched an episode of Castle in a few years, because it started to get pretty boring to me, but I just skimmed the topic on the most recent episode and there seems to be a real consensus stated there that the show's totally driven fans down the "rage spiral" path since I stopped watching.  I can believe it, because at the very least I saw the transition from "entertaining" to "boring" in the stuff I HAVE seen, so "ridiculous" as a followup certainly seems possible.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Kromm

[The Crazed Spruce]

Between working graveyard shifts and my DVD recorder crapping out on my, I've seen a grant total of three episodes of Castle this season (the premiere, the finale, and another episode in the middle the plot of which escapes me at the moment), and while the finale was incredibly awkward and out of place, and didn't mesh at all with the tone of the show I loved, I just fall to my knees and thank the good lord above that it hasn't gotten nearly as bad as Bones.  (I just hope I feel the same when I get a chance to catch up.)

[VillaVillekulla]

Supernatural, for sure. I loved that show in the beginning, I even own the first two seasons on DVD. I stuck with it through season 7 and I think I even watched a few episodes of season 8, but it just got so bad. Its premise was always teetering right on the edge of ridiculous (saving people, hunting things!) but once they got killed and came back so many times, they had a ghost of their former friend haunting them, the angel/demon-heaven/hell stuff started, I was straight up done. I've read that it was only originally planned to have a 5-season arc, and since it was renewed earlier this year for its tenth season, they're definitely out of ideas.

 

I heard there was supposed to be a spinoff (and early buzz I heard about it said it looked awful), but it wasn't picked up, fortunately. I loved this show so much once, but it has definitely sent me into a rage spiral.

[BellaLugosi]

They are supposed to be trying for another spinoff next season. We aren't safe yet! This season's backdoor pilot was just awful. In fact, I'd go as far to say that it was insulting. They think they can just throw anything at the fanbase and they will lap it up. 

 

I'm a bit disappointed in Supernatural but it hasn't sent me into a rage just yet. I'm still watching, but I've quit a bunch of shows this season. There's just so much great stuff on TV, I don't want to waste my time with stuff I don't enjoy so much anymore. I quit Criminal Minds, Bones, Castle, SVU and Blue Bloods. So while that isn't a rage spiral, I think they all have hit their limits with me.  I just don't care about them anymore, which I think is actually worse. 

[pootlus]

I don't know about anyone else, but I find there are just so many other things to do these days - I love watching various stuff on Youtube, and playing games, reading, gardening, etc. I'm just not prepared to stick around when a show goes off the rails, even to hate-watch. I don't watch much stuff as it is, and my bar for 'nope, not watching any more' is pretty high these days.

[Irina Palm]

Two and a Half Men

 

Such a good show that went bad faster than anyone could have expected.

[BellaLugosi]

The phrases "hate-watch" and "watching ironically" annoy me more than any show could LOL.  (That's not an attack on you pootlus.)

[Kromm]

The phrases "hate-watch" and "watching ironically" annoy me more than any show could LOL.  (That's not an attack on you pootlus.)

The actual choice of terminology, or the practice described by them?

 

If it's the later, that's fine, but I'm curious which you mean.

[BellaLugosi]

Probably both. I think if you like something, then you shouldn't feel like you have to hide behind things like hate-watching or watching ironically. Just say you know it's ridiculous but you love it anyway. It's the same when someone calls a show a guilty pleasure. Why not just say it's a pleasure. 

 

I feel like these phrases are just being used because people are ashamed of enjoying something and I think it's silly, because everyone watches something like that. Even if you're watching so you can later make fun of it with others, you're still enjoying it.  People care far too much what other people think about them.

 

Watching ironically especially bugs because of the people I see using it a lot. Hipster doofuses, as Kramer would say.