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

[Chaos Theory]

I  am not sure “rage spiral” is a word I would use but Veronica Mars was also a good show that got less good when it tried to grab a larger audience in the third season.  All it did was lose what made it special in the first place.  

 

And yeah my ultimate answer would be Dexter after season 4.  From season 5 on the show lost its focus and what made it fundamentally human: Dexters need to belong.

Edited January 9, 2018 by Chaos Theory

[OtterMommy]

4 hours ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

As for Grimm, I bailed out in early season 3 and never looked back. To this day I don't understand why the powers that be decided to make Adalind an important character with a redemption storyline. Not only was she boring but the actress was mediocre at best. Plus, the character was entangled in that incredibly stupid Royals plotline.

If you thought Adalind was boring in season 3, it's a good thing you didn't stick around for seasons 5 and 6.  I never thought Adalind was an especially interesting villain (I co-sign everything you wrote), but she was the only villain the show had going for it...and then they tried to make her SO MUCH BETTER by making her mind numbingly boring, but--you know--sleeping with the guy she raped, who (along with everyone else), conveniently forgot all the hell she caused them in previous seasons.  Because...reasons.

[CooperTV]

Doctor Who. I stopped watching Moffat's Who after first Eleven's season. First I was surprised that my favorite show stopped making me feel... anything, pretty much. And then after overexposure to Moffat's "feminism", River Song and the horrible Christmas Carol episode, I became a Moffat hater.

Vampire Diaries. I stopped watching the show around the Sure Bond debacle and the show attempting to white-wash Damon being a creepy rapist by shaming Caroline, his victim, into forgiving him or something. That show was just bad with all female characters being thrown under the bus for Sain Damon's plotlines.

Suits. Mike Ross was an unbearable smug hypocrite with no redeeming qualities from the very beginning but in the first season everyone else was awesome. After that? I quit. I still cannot believe the show is still going.

Covert Affairs. Annie was the worst, the end, so season 2 was my last.

I quit Blue Bloods this year, after they

Spoiler

killed Danny's wife off-screen between seasons.

I didn't expect that my comfort food show would do such a thing, and yet!

I was done with Major Crimes once it became apparent the showrunner just wanted to write a fanfiction about Rusty as a his own self-insert. It retrospect and considering the recent spoilers, it was wise decision on my part.

[kassygreene]

I quit Blue Bloods at the end of the fifth season, when I realized that the only character worth watching was Baker.  Otherwise every character with Reagan DNA and most of the actors who played them made me rage.

All that eye candy on Magnum PI on Thursday nights was what got me through the work week - I would never have believed that a Sellick performance could lose me (even though I haven't liked the actor that much since he shilled for the National Review.

[OtterMommy]

11 hours ago, ABay said:

I quit OUAT when it became so blatantly an advertisement for Disney that I couldn't ignore it anymore.

So did I, but that was after the first or second episode...

[tennisgurl]

Oh how I used to love Once Upon a Time. Sure it was a clear cash grab for the Disney company, but it was so much fun, and the characters were so likable, and it was such an enjoyable mash up of fairy tales and stories and magic and mayhem, that I had to love it. It had the entirety of Disney to play in, and they enjoyed it. And then...things went down hill. 

Suddenly, the writers grew bored of the heroes, and started obsessing over the villains and started white washing their evil deeds with sob stories (My mom was mean! That makes my countless acts of torture, rape, and mass murder alright!) and rewriting all of the characters to prop up their beloved pet characters. The huge universe they set up (all of fiction!( shrunk down to be about the drama between, like, 8 people who were all secretly related or connected in some stupid way. The once epic story was now riddled with retcons, shoddy characterization, a disturbing amount of magic rape, and some of the worst world building you'll ever see. I could go on and on about why this show has turned to crap on more specific terms (and I have elsewhere) but I am still watching (I've committed this far, I feel the need to see this through till the end) but the show is now a shadow of its former self, filled with dull, lifeless characters to replace old favorites, boring settings, and an utterly nonsensical plot. While it was always a Disney cash grab, at least it used to actually TRY to be actual entertainment. Now its just sad to witness, and see all that potential go down the drain. Or anger inducing. I go back and forth. 

[andromeda331]

8 hours ago, kassygreene said:

I quit Blue Bloods at the end of the fifth season, when I realized that the only character worth watching was Baker.  Otherwise every character with Reagan DNA and most of the actors who played them made me rage.

All that eye candy on Magnum PI on Thursday nights was what got me through the work week - I would never have believed that a Sellick performance could lose me (even though I haven't liked the actor that much since he shilled for the National Review.

I made it through season six before quitting that show for the same reason. I loved Baker, I liked Garrett a lot but that family. I ended up hating all of them except Danny's wife and his sons. Its five way tie on who I hate on that show Frank-Danny-Nicky-Henry-Eddie. I know Eddie's not family but I hate her as much as the other four. With Erin and Jamie both coming in second.            

[kathyk24]

I gave up on Haven when it stopped being about a quirky town and they gave Audrey all these different names and personalities. I gave up on the X-Files after the reveal that Samantha Mulder was dead all along and Chris Carter was determined to put Mulder and Scully through Hell.

[roamyn]

Chicago Fire, despite love for Jesse Spencer, the sainting of Gabrielle, the first of her name, has even the Vatican rolling their eyes.

[Lady Calypso]

11 hours ago, roamyn said:

Chicago Fire, despite love for Jesse Spencer, the sainting of Gabrielle, the first of her name, has even the Vatican rolling their eyes.

I stopped watching Chicago Fire at the end of season 3 precisely because of Saint Gabby. There is such a thing as too much of a main character in an ensemble. She got every storyline imaginable (once she started training to be a firefighter, I realized I was out) and I realized that even my love for Jesse Spencer and some of the other characters couldn't salvage it for me.

Plus, they killed off Shay and replaced her with her straight carbon copy. 

[ChromaKelly]

On 1/8/2018 at 7:50 PM, OtterMommy said:

I think that there are 2 ways great shows can die.  They can just...live on past their expiration date, in which case they sort of go out with a pathetic whimper.  Or, in the case of Grimm and I bet most of the shows mentioned here, the showrunners can betray the audience by "breaking the contract" of what the show is about.  I'll use Grimm as an example but, as I said, I'm sure it can be applied to any show that is mentioned here.  They did a great job in the pilot and the maybe 2 or so following episode of saying "this is what this show is about."  As you mentioned, it was about creatures from fairy and folk tales being real.  Great!  Then, somewhere around the end of 3rd season through the 4th season, the show runners decided to change course (they claimed it was because they ran out of fairy tales....translated: they ran out of ideas.  In the case of Grimm it was so drastic, the show runners put out a letter to the viewers after the 4th season basically saying, "Forget everything we said this show was about, it's a new show now!"  Um, no...).  Anyway, once they decided to break the agreement with the audience (if you watch this show, we will deliver this...), the viewers started to tune out--as they should.  If one side isn't going to keep up their agreement (we'll deliver this show), why would the other (we'll watch your show).  It's this sort of death that inspires the nuclear level rage spirals that lead to people ranting about it online long after the show is done.

As I said, I didn't watch Sleepy Hollow, Once Upon a Time, or the other shows mentioned here--but it sounds like the same thing happened.  It's really pretty simple--if a show does this, it dies.  Which begs the question--why do networks, producers, whoever let this happen?

Yes! I hate when shows try to change what they are. I didn't know TPTB said they ran out of fairytales and that's why they got away from the roots of Grimm. WTF? There are tons of fairytales. I liked how they were starting to venture into non-Western folktales too.  They also didn't need to introduce a MOTW every week, they could revisit some of the previously established creatures and tales, like wolves vs pigs. Ugh, still bothers me what they did to that show.

[OtterMommy]

55 minutes ago, ChromaKelly said:

Yes! I hate when shows try to change what they are. I didn't know TPTB said they ran out of fairytales and that's why they got away from the roots of Grimm. WTF? There are tons of fairytales. I liked how they were starting to venture into non-Western folktales too.  They also didn't need to introduce a MOTW every week, they could revisit some of the previously established creatures and tales, like wolves vs pigs. Ugh, still bothers me what they did to that show.

TPTB show said a lot of stuff that left me scratching my head and thinking, "Why would you even admit that?"  The Fairy Tales was the first one.  Their claim was that, yeah, there were hundreds of fairy tales, but a lot of them just didn't make sense or were about a donkey and a sausage (yes, they actually said that), to which I just wanted to scream LOOK BELOW THE SURFACE, YOU DUMBASSES!  But, added to that was:

1 - And Nick and Juliette could never be happy, because that would be bad TV.  No one wants to watch two people be happy.

2 - Adalind couldn't have raped Nick, because Nick enjoyed it (when he thought he was having sex with someone else and had not, nor would he ever, consent to having sex to the person who had deceived him into having sex with him...)

3- The admission that they never knew what the keys were supposed to be for.  Their cunning plan was to reveal it in the 100th episode--but the cunning part was that they didn't plan to have this show be around for 100 episodes! (Yes, THEY ACTUALLY ADMITTED THIS! AT A PRESS EVENT FOR THE 100TH EPISODE!)

[festivus]

Why do people like that even get shows? It's aggravating.

[xaxat]

The 100. I have a friend who worked all of season 2 trying to get me to watch. "No, it's legit good now! It's not just teenagers in space!"

I'm a sucker for almost anything sci fi, so I broke down and binged heading into the premier of season three. My friend was right, it was good! Really good!

Then season three happened with Pike/Bellamy (and a bunch of other problems) and I was done.

[andromeda331]

2 hours ago, ChromaKelly said:

Yes! I hate when shows try to change what they are. I didn't know TPTB said they ran out of fairytales and that's why they got away from the roots of Grimm. WTF? There are tons of fairytales. I liked how they were starting to venture into non-Western folktales too.  They also didn't need to introduce a MOTW every week, they could revisit some of the previously established creatures and tales, like wolves vs pigs. Ugh, still bothers me what they did to that show.

That's what's crazy. They have all fairytales to chose from. How do you run out of ideas when you have all of them?

[Raja]

A blast from the past since I am remembering the character because of another discussion. Hunter went from silly to a pretty good procedural by the third season. Then came the last season and the refocus for half a season followed by an attempt to make the original show in the second half of the last season.

[blueray]

7 hours ago, xaxat said:

The 100. I have a friend who worked all of season 2 trying to get me to watch. "No, it's legit good now! It's not just teenagers in space!"

I'm a sucker for almost anything sci fi, so I broke down and binged heading into the premier of season three. My friend was right, it was good! Really good!

Then season three happened with Pike/Bellamy (and a bunch of other problems) and I was done.

I also hated Pike, seriously the worst character ever. I was glad to see him go, but it took way to long. Season 4 is pretty good. But the ending really makes me unsure about how season 5 will be. I guess I'll when I get around to watching it (or when it comes out).

[Lady Calypso]

The 100 is a weird show for me. I've heard the praises of it for about a year and then finally decided to tune in a few months ago. I actually adored the first season (and still consider it the best). Season 2 wasn't better than season 1, but I expected that. But it was around then when I noticed that they handled death really weird. Some of the characters they killed off were major, and then they just....didn't really acknowledge them again, despite the fact that the entire series has happened in under a year (season 1 was barely a month). 

But yeah, season 3 was....not good at all. The only arc I enjoyed was Clarke's (and then I loathed her in season 4). This show is really good at making me hate a character one minute, and then redeeming them, only to get me to hate another character right after, especially with the body count that builds up. Also, season 3 was the season where they killed all the good characters for some reason and then also separated all of the main cast for most of the season. 

I found season 4 not that good either. Actually, the show has spiraled down to make me go "what" many times. Season 4 just had some very odd and stupid choices (hi, Riley the Great!) 

36 minutes ago, blueray said:

I also hated Pike, seriously the worst character ever. I was glad to see him go, but it took way to long. Season 4 is pretty good. But the ending really makes me unsure about how season 5 will be. I guess I'll when I get around to watching it (or when it comes out).

I gotta admit, as despicable as Pike was, I think he died at the right time before they found a way to redeem him. But I don't consider him the worst character, especially in a show full of pretty despicable characters (and Pike did some terrible things!). For me, the person at the highest point of my Hate List is Jaha. Man, he was downright awful the entire series, and I guess it doesn't help that the actor has bugged me since his Grey's Anatomy days. Jaha ruined seasons 3 and 4 for me. So much so that I'm not quite sure I'm going to tune into season 5 live. 

And yeah, after watching the show, as much as they made it clear that not one character is just morally good (except for maybe Raven) but they're all morally grey, at best, I just don't find it as good as people made it out to be. I can't even name many characters I liked throughout their time on the show. Maybe Raven? Maybe Lexa? But that's where the list stops short. 

[kathyk24]

11 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

TPTB show said a lot of stuff that left me scratching my head and thinking, "Why would you even admit that?"  The Fairy Tales was the first one.  Their claim was that, yeah, there were hundreds of fairy tales, but a lot of them just didn't make sense or were about a donkey and a sausage (yes, they actually said that), to which I just wanted to scream LOOK BELOW THE SURFACE, YOU DUMBASSES!  But, added to that was:

1 - And Nick and Juliette could never be happy, because that would be bad TV.  No one wants to watch two people be happy.

2 - Adalind couldn't have raped Nick, because Nick enjoyed it (when he thought he was having sex with someone else and had not, nor would he ever, consent to having sex to the person who had deceived him into having sex with him...)

3- The admission that they never knew what the keys were supposed to be for.  Their cunning plan was to reveal it in the 100th episode--but the cunning part was that they didn't plan to have this show be around for 100 episodes! (Yes, THEY ACTUALLY ADMITTED THIS! AT A PRESS EVENT FOR THE 100TH EPISODE!)

The writers didn't know what do with Nick when he wasn't a Grimm. He had no backstory and the writers didn't let him grieve his mother's death. He was always faithful to Juliette and would never have cheated on her with anyone.

[pivot]

On 1/4/2018 at 9:49 PM, Raja said:

Major Crimes, the last season

Yeah, what the hell happened there? That last season was terrible all-around. 

[Raja]

8 minutes ago, pivot said:

Yeah, what the hell happened there? That last season was terrible all-around. 

I think beyond the network demanding arcs which the show did by stretching the single crime into four episodes instead of one, I bet they lost their Lieutenant Mike. The ex LAPD officer who served as a story and technical advisory. They even got the verbal order to drop the hand salute to honor Lieutenant Sanchez's promotion backwards in practically the last scene of the franchise.

[Spartan Girl]

The Simpsons.  I can't stand Marge's grating whines or the constant marriage in crisis episodes any more.

[aradia22]

Quote

I didn't watch the final few episodes, but from what I understood, the writers went so far as to kill off Toby's wife just to make sure that he'd be available to get back with his high school girlfriend Spencer. That's just...stupid. Of all the characters, Spencer and Toby would have never made sense being together post-high school. And the Emily/Ali surrogacy plot was just creepy. (Which kind of surprised me they went that way, because I thought Emily's most popular pairing was with Paige.) I could buy Hannah/Caleb and I could buy that Aria would never let go of her Ezra fantasy, but the other two ships just didn't make that much sense to me.

I stopped watching pretty early. Somewhere between seasons 1 and 4 and a lot more sporadically towards the latter end of that. I think the last episode I watched had some kind of costume party or was on a train? Anyway, does anyone mind quickly summarizing what happened with all the couples? It feels crazy to think that anyone on that show was old enough to get married by the end of it. 

Quote

That's one reason why I generally despise redemption arcs.  It's not that I don't want to see people redeemed, I just think it is very rare that shows do it well.  For one thing, I don't think it works with villains.  I may be black and white about this, but I really feel that a villain is a villain is a villain (which is not a bad thing--frequently, the villains are the most entertaining characters in a show!) and redeeming them does nothing really but neuter them.  The only way I can see a redemption arc working is if you have a character who isn't "bad," but might have made a mistake or have some personality trait that is negative and then, through the story, they grow and change...and that is not something you will generally find in a show that just crashes and burns.

I agree with everyone who is here for a well-written redemption arc but thinks they rarely happen. I think a major problem is that it's just not planned and it usually comes from a character being popular/wanting to keep an actor around past a villain's expiration date or launching a ship. I think redemption arcs are difficult with villains who are cartoons or in it for the evilz. But I don't think they need to be good people to be redeemed. They just have to want it and earn it. Two examples of villain redemptive arcs from shows I actually stuck with are Cole on Charmed and Blaine on iZombie. I think Cole was OK. It's hard to remember it all now. I think there was certainly more struggle from him than other characters and a lot of back and forth on his redemption. Blaine got hit with magic amnesia (which is helpful on a magic/fantasy/sci-fi show but you can basically pull it out on anything soapy if you're willing to go there) but then continued to play good once it wore off which complicates his redemption. That show is in a funky place so his redemption arc is the least of their problems right now. Criminal redemption arcs are somewhat easier than villain redemption arcs. Because again, villains to be antagonistic for dumb reasons. But someone like Dr. Gregory House or any number of (mostly) non-violent criminals (thieves, con artists, etc.) don't have to go as far to win back the audience's affection and atone for their crimes. Or if you're the "villain" because you're a ruthless businessman or a type A stick in the mud, it's not that hard to turn that around. 

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, aradia22 said:

I stopped watching pretty early. Somewhere between seasons 1 and 4 and a lot more sporadically towards the latter end of that. I think the last episode I watched had some kind of costume party or was on a train? Anyway, does anyone mind quickly summarizing what happened with all the couples? It feels crazy to think that anyone on that show was old enough to get married by the end of it. 

Well, PLL did do a five year time jump halfway through season 6, and then another year or two time jump in the series finale, so they were in their twenties, at least. In case someone actually is still getting around to the finale, I'll put this in spoilers:

Spoiler

 

Caleb/Hanna got married in season 7 after Caleb had a quick relationship with Spencer, and Hanna ended up pregnant by the finale, despite her and Caleb already having multiple problems as a newly married couple, Emily/Alison ended up engaged and with kids implanted by Alison's now dead husband from Wren but also with Emily's eggs (because Uber A stole Emily's eggs when she donated them for money), Aria/Ezra ended up married but with fertility problems, so no biological Ezria kids for them, and Spencer/Toby were hinted at getting together by the end after killing off Toby's wife, even though Toby ended up boning Spencer's relative who was introduced in the last episode. 

 

 

You know the show went off the rails when Ezria's happy ending is the most normal. I was already pissed off at the show at this point, but the series finale really dug it in on how bad the show had become at that point.

[aradia22]

I've been reading some of the PLL wiki pages but they're incomplete. God, it's so bonkers. It almost makes me want to watch except I remember how tedious and frustrating it was to actually watch in real time. I need someone to just recap it for me. I did actually like Hannah/Caleb and Toby/Spencer when I was watching the show so I'm genuinely curious about how their stories played out. But I know I would probably be annoyed... 

Spoiler

...about Toby's wife and Spencer's twin tricking him into sex and all kinds of shenanigans. I want to know all the twists and turns and yet it would make me crazy watching it from start to finish.

I am slightly into how insane Alex Drake sounds. That is some prime real deal soap opera shit. The kind of shit that only makes sense to people who have completely gone off the rails from writing a show every day for years and years. But it's got to be high camp. Part of my issue with PLL as it went off the rails was that it was so self-serious in the way earnest teen soaps are.

I know they hinted at Alison manipulating Emily by using her crush on her (Alison) from beginning but still, I can't imagine the hoops they had to jump through to make that relationship work. And what's with all the babies? Every story doesn't have to end in babies. Especially with an ensemble cast.

That's generally the problem with shows that aren't well planned from the beginning. If you venture too far away from the OTP, it becomes harder to sell the OTP when you decide you want to come back around. I don't know if I brought it up already in this thread but that reminds me of Bones. It was less of an issue because Booth had a wife or some girlfriends or something but no one was a major threat. But then they kept hemming and hawing and having a baby but not getting married and in the meantime the characters were becoming garish stereotypes and in the end I quit because I stopped caring. 

[Chaos Theory]

Final seasons of shows are tough.  Some are are great while others completely ruin a show for me like How I Met Your Mother did And that was because it basically changed the story and tried to be clever. Yeah the story was never about your mom kids.  I was telling you about how I always was in love with was someone else.  Sorry kids.  I always felt that if Robin showed up any time during Teds marriage he would have dumped his wife and family to run off with her even when his wife was sick and dying.  

Then there is Dexter which didn’t just have a bad last episode or season; it had a bad last half a series.  After season 4 it went on a steady downward spiral when it started to change its focus after the death of Rita.  I actually liked the Luma storyline so if it stuck with that I would liked the idea of Dexter moving on with a partner/lover who truly understood him but the show didn’t do that.  It just got more and more boggled down with Dexters dark passenger which actually was the least interesting thing about him.  His need to belong was where the drama was.  I am not sure why the writers and show runners never saw that.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Chaos Theory

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

Final seasons of shows are tough.  Some are are great while others completely ruin a show for me like How I Met Your Mother did And that was because it basically changed the story and tried to be clever. Yeah the story was never about your mom kids.  I was telling you about how I always was in love with was someone else.  Sorry kids.  I always felt that if Robin showed up any time during Teds marriage he would have dumped his wife and family to run off with her even when his wife was sick and dying.  

The last season in general wasn't bad, but the series finale completely undermined the entire show and ruined much of the whole premise of the show in the first place, all because the showrunners wanted to stick to their original plan that just didn't work nine years later. And the worst part of it was casting Cristin Milioti as The Mother, having her as the perfect fit for Ted, building them up as one of my favourite couples of that series, and then crushing it within the entire hour of the finale. 

Because really, the show had outgrown Ted and Robin finally by season 8, when he had actually let her go. The entire series seemed to be more about Ted getting over his fantasy relationship with Robin to find Tracy and to be happy. He went through some real duds of a relationship to get to the final perfect one. And then....they completely scratched that for an ending that they filmed eight years prior, in which the actors of the kids didn't even remember how the show ended at that point. 

It's probably why their multiple attempts to recreate the series isn't working very well. The majority of the fans who liked the show have probably left and there's only a minority who want a reboot. That's one of the few examples of really driving your show into the ground. I mean, they had to create an alternate ending that the fans had already created shortly after the finale because so many were furious with how the series ended. 

[Miss Dee]

Yeah, HIMYM basically killed itself in the last episode.

That said, I think the show could have gotten away with Ted/Robin at the end if 1) the scene with his daughter had come across as less jokey and more bittersweet and poignant, and 2) if the writing had made it clearer that this was a new chapter in Ted's life. They stepped wrong by assuming Ted/Robin was the series endgame. They should have had the foresight to see the fans needed the endgame to be the same as the premise: the story of how Ted met (and lost) the mother. Then they could have ended with a coda tbat suggested Ted could have a new chapter that involved Robin. I wouldn't have minded that. But the way they wrote and shot the scenes, it was clear that Ted/Robin was the series' endgame rather than Ted/Mother, and the bait and switch was too much for fans to swallow.

[bosawks]

What I found so frustrating with HIMYM was that they got the impossible right and still fucked it up.

There was no way they were ever going to get the casting of the mother right, and by some miracle (named Cristin Milioti), they did and still managed to screw it up.

The sheer magnitude of it just makes me apoplectic with rage, granted rage out of proportion to the slight, but RAGE nevertheless.....

[festivus]

41 minutes ago, bosawks said:

What I found so frustrating with HIMYM was that they got the impossible right and still fucked it up.

There was no way they were ever going to get the casting of the mother right, and by some miracle (named Cristin Milioti), they did and still managed to screw it up.

The sheer magnitude of it just makes me apoplectic with rage, granted rage out of proportion to the slight, but RAGE nevertheless.....

I only watched HIMYM occasionally but I liked your post anyway because when I did watch it, I did not give two shits about Ted and Robin and I love Cristin Milioti in other things. I did not see any of HIMYM that she was in though. So I can imagine how people that stuck with the show all those years feel.  

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, bosawks said:

What I found so frustrating with HIMYM was that they got the impossible right and still fucked it up.

There was no way they were ever going to get the casting of the mother right, and by some miracle (named Cristin Milioti), they did and still managed to screw it up.

The sheer magnitude of it just makes me apoplectic with rage, granted rage out of proportion to the slight, but RAGE nevertheless.....

Seriously all because they had a clip of the kids from years previously, it fills me with a rage that I find shocking since I wasn't that invested for the last few seasons and loathed most of the characters!

Edited January 15, 2018 by biakbiak

[DearEvette]

I have to agree with everyone who name checked Sleepy Hollow.  I can't think of any show on tv whose downward spiral has pissed me off more.  I can't even articulate how mad it made me when first they disappeared Orlando Jones, recreated Jenny in the form of Hawley, and elevated the Crane family drama but then they had to go and kill off Abbie.  I think the term "incoherent with rage" comes to mind.  It is so bad that I avert my eyes or flinch when the show tile comes up when I am scrolling through Hulu.

On a lesser scale, shows that I find hard to even watch the early good seasons because they've become tainted by later bad seasons include Revenge, Heroes (man I loved the first season!!), True Blood,  & Scandal (I will tune in for the final episode though).

And on an even lesser scale, shows that I will still watch but stop at the bad place: Misfits (I tend to only watch the first two seasons with the original cast and only one or two S3 episodes), Fringe (I really didn't like the final season all that much, so I tend to stop at S4), Merlin (the final season is abysmal, I stop at Season 4).

Edited January 16, 2018 by DearEvette

[Chaos Theory]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

 Fringe (I really didn't like the final season all that much, so I tend to stop at S4),

And I would put Fringe in one of my "best" series finales categories.  Which is why i say Finales and final seasons are tough.  You are never going to make everyone happy.  I thought the show Fringe did a good job keeping with the basic premise of the show which is why I thought the ending was fantastic. 

[andromeda331]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I have to agree with everyone who name checked Sleepy Hollow.  I can't think of any show on tv whose downward spiral has pissed me off more.  I can't even articulate how mad it made me when first they disappeared Orlando Jones, recreated Jenny in the form of Hawley, and elevated the Crane family drama but then they had to go and kill off Abbie.  I think the term "incoherent with rage" comes to mind.  It is so bad that I avert my eyes or flinch when the show tile comes up when I am scrolling through Hulu.

On a lesser scale, shows that I find hard to even watch the early good seasons because they've become tainted by later bad seasons include Revenge, Heroes (man I loved the first season!!), True Blood,  & Scandal (I will tune in for the final episode though).

And on an even lesser scale, shows that I will still watch but stop at the bad place: Misfits (I tend to only watch the first two seasons with the original cast and only one or two S3 episodes), Fringe (I really didn't like the final season all that much, so I tend to stop at S4), Merlin (the final season is abysmal, I stop at Season 4).

BBC's Merlin from 2008? That one pissed me off too! It started off really good.  

[aradia22]

Quote

And on an even lesser scale, shows that I will still watch but stop at the bad place: Misfits (I tend to only watch the first two seasons with the original cast and only one or two S3 episodes)

Oh, Misfits. So much promise. It didn't send me into a rage spiral but it was so original and exciting and full of potential in the beginning. And they did some great things. But they never fully cashed it out. I mean... Curtis? Come on. I was somewhat fond of the final cast but compared to what the show originally was, the final season was lame. Even if they did have a ridiculous battle sequence at the end. 

[AntiBeeSpray]

CSI. Once they did an episode that kept on hitting viewers over the head with the Gil/Sara divorce. Screw that. I walked away from the show at that point and never looked back (at least until I hate watched the finale). I don't like shows that condescend/talk down to viewers. That really pisses me off.

Same with House. The House/Cuddy break up was messy as hell. Walked away from that mess. Only returned for the finale.

Edited January 16, 2018 by AntiBeeSpray

[Miss Dee]

I dropped Greys Anatomy like a hot potato when George and Izzie made out. I felt if the differences between my view of the characters and that of the shows were so different, this wasn't for me.

[roamyn]

3 hours ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

Same with House. The House/Cuddy break up was messy as hell. Walked away from that mess. Only returned for the finale.

I stopped watching when they started dating.  I like Luke.  Then I watched the final season.

Edited January 16, 2018 by roamyn

[Lugal]

On 1/9/2018 at 11:09 AM, CooperTV said:

Doctor Who. I stopped watching Moffat's Who after first Eleven's season. First I was surprised that my favorite show stopped making me feel... anything, pretty much. And then after overexposure to Moffat's "feminism", River Song and the horrible Christmas Carol episode, I became a Moffat hater.

Moffat made the show unwatchable.  I watched sporadically after that and tried to watch again with Peter Capaldi (who I think was an awesome Doctor), but the writing was just so bad, I gave up.  Tried again when Clara was gone and Bill came on and I thought Bill was the best companion in recent years, but the terrible writing drove me away again.

21 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Heroes (man I loved the first season!!)

That was one of my favorite shows and I loved the first season, the problem was they completely misjudged where the story should go for the second season (by introducing a bunch of new characters that retold season 1) and the Writer's strike stopped them from course corrected.  I don't know what happened after that because I gave up by then.

19 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

Merlin (the final season is abysmal, I stop at Season 4)

I can't say Merlin sent me into a rage spiral.  I liked the show at the beginning and then I gave it up because it got terrible, but I honestly don't remember much of what happened in the later seasons or when I actually gave it up.

[ParadoxLost]

40 minutes ago, Lugal said:

That was one of my favorite shows and I loved the first season, the problem was they completely misjudged where the story should go for the second season (by introducing a bunch of new characters that retold season 1) and the Writer's strike stopped them from course corrected.  I don't know what happened after that because I gave up by then.

Heroes lost me at season 2.  My problem wasn't really that they introduced new characters (obviously because I can't remember any of them).  I was irked that they spent all of season 1 slowly moving all the Heroes to the same place in the last minutes of the s1 finale to "save the cheerleader, save the world" and then nothing. I wasn't exactly expecting the show to become X Men in season 2; but I sure wasn't expecting that they'd , for t he most part, immediately separate and ignore that they knew other people with super powers when dealing with bad situations in season 2.

Its one of the better examples of a show looking at the thing that kept eyeballs glued to the screen in one season and then denying the audience the payoff because they think denial will only build more anticipation and that giving the audience what they want will be boring or make the audience lose interest.

Basically the platonic version of the "Will they or won't they" trope for romantic couples.

Edited January 17, 2018 by ParadoxLost

[Lugal]

1 minute ago, ParadoxLost said:

I was irked that they spent all of season 1 slowly moving all the Heroes to the same place in the last minutes of the s1 finale to "save the cheerleader, save the world."  I wasn't exactly expecting the show to become X Men in season 2; but I sure wasn't expecting that they'd , for t he most part, immediately separate and ignore that they knew other people with super powers when dealing with bad situations in season 2.

Its one of the better examples of a show looking at the thing that kept eyeballs glued to the screen in one season and then denying the audience the payoff because they think denial will only build more anticipation and that giving the audience what they want will be boring or make the audience lose interest.

Pretty much how I feel.  I think the showrunners saw how much we liked seeing them all come together to the big climax at the end of the season 1, and then thought.  They liked that, let's do it again in season two, hence the separation and new characters.  By the time they realized they were wrong, the writers' strike hit and they couldn't course-correct and they lost us (and most of the other viewers), but somehow managed to limp on for a few more seasons.

[ParadoxLost]

On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 0:02 PM, Miss Dee said:

Yeah, HIMYM basically killed itself in the last episode.

That said, I think the show could have gotten away with Ted/Robin at the end if 1) the scene with his daughter had come across as less jokey and more bittersweet and poignant, and 2) if the writing had made it clearer that this was a new chapter in Ted's life. They stepped wrong by assuming Ted/Robin was the series endgame. They should have had the foresight to see the fans needed the endgame to be the same as the premise: the story of how Ted met (and lost) the mother. Then they could have ended with a coda tbat suggested Ted could have a new chapter that involved Robin. I wouldn't have minded that. But the way they wrote and shot the scenes, it was clear that Ted/Robin was the series' endgame rather than Ted/Mother, and the bait and switch was too much for fans to swallow.

There is one thing I like about the HIMYM finale.  It was a pretty good example of instant karma.  The only example I can think of actually.  They killed their own spinoff with a single episode.

I think their problem was that they didn't adapt their premise/ending to their success.  I think there was a time in the series where the fans didn't need the premise to be the end game.  The fans would have been mostly fine with Ted and Robin as end game.  That time was around the time when Ted was ready for a family and Robin was focused on a career.  They could have (still with better writing) pulled off Robin/Ted endgame with the timing not being right until his kids were grown and his wife, who he also loved, died.  Supposedly, the back up plan in this scenario (where the show didn't go more than a couple seasons) was that Victoria was the mother (I read that the showrunners said that, but can't prove it).

The problem is that the show had to fill up about five or six extra years vs what the premise allowed for.  In that time, they did too good a job convincing half the audience to ship Robin and Barney and most of the Ted/Robin shippers that Robin was bad for Ted and vice versa.  The horrible way they handled the last season didn't help, but a lot of that was because of the BTS stuff with Jason Segal.  They basically worked out how to have a Marshall -less season and then Segal decided to be in the final season after all.

[roamyn]

I’ll give you a recent one:  X-Files.  The beginning of this season was so rage-inducing, it almost broke the fandom.  The second episode wasn’t much better, with a few exceptions.

come to think of it, X-Files final season wasn’t much better.

[galaxygirl76]

Many years later just thinking about HIMYM will send me in a rage spiral. Seeing it's name in the tv guide send me in a rage spiral. They ruined this show so much that I can't stomach watching reruns and in my long time of tv viewing that has never happened. That last season, oh man don't get me started. They spend the whole freaking season on Barney and Robin's wedding weekend just to end it in less than five minutes in the 'what happened after' with what basically came down to 'oh yeah we realized we didn't work together'. As noted the Mother was perfect, she really was, so Ted finally meet her and do they get their happily ever after? Oh hell no, they fucking kill her off. And then they put their end game of Ted/Robin, which I hated since she got rid of her dogs for him, in motion and RAGE so much RAGE.

I used to have a co-worker who hated it as much as I did and we egged each other on with our mutual hatred for the ending. Whenever someone made the mistake of either mentioning the show or bad series finales we would break out our greatest hits of HIMYM rage.

[Silverglitter]

Co-signing (mostly) on the HIMYM rage. It wasn't even the whole final season for me. It was like, the last 10 minutes of the series finale that pisses me off.

I freakin loved Tracey. In the space of what, 1 and a half seasons or so, they created this amazing, likeable character and she was perfect for Ted. Usually, late seasons add-ons of characters just make me grumpy and that tends to come with irrational instant hate, but damn, TPTB pulled off the impossible with her.

Don't get me started on what they did to Barney & Robin. I take my pairings way too seriously, lol.

I have to resort to head-canoning that last episode out of existence. Just like I have to pretend that That 70s Show only has 7 seasons. Hell, let's make it 6. 7 wasn't a fave either. :P

Edited January 20, 2018 by Silverglitter

[AntiBeeSpray]

On 1/18/2018 at 8:42 AM, roamyn said:

I’ll give you a recent one:  X-Files.  The beginning of this season was so rage-inducing, it almost broke the fandom.  The second episode wasn’t much better, with a few exceptions.

come to think of it, X-Files final season wasn’t much better.

I'd say the same, only in regards to the third episode. Good acting and chemistry aside... ugh.

[Fable]

YES to so many of the shows listed.  I’m of the opinion that shows that hit it out of the park are only good for a season or two unless the show runners have a clear idea or road map drawn out well in advance.  Shows like Once Upon a Time, Grimm and Sleepy Hollow are good examples of this…all novel ideas that should have quit while ahead, but the cash cow has to be milked. 

The best stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.  I’ve seen Merlin mentioned here, and while I did find the ending to be extremely disappointing, at least I never felt like I had been sold a Bill of Goods.  The writers knew where they wanted to go with the story and followed it through.  Another good show was Bates Motel.  We were told to expect 5 seasons, and we were given 5 seasons in which the writers told their story from start to finish and stopped once the tale was told. 

[Laina]

The Family. It started out as a good show, but tried to be mysterious and ended up not making sense and catching itself in constant lies. The first 5 episodes were great and then it fell into the garbage pile after that. It pissed me off so much because the show had so much potential in the beginning, and then they ruined it.

Sleepy Hollow. Started out good, became a mess in season 2.  Pissed off Nicole Beharie and Orlando Jones with racist behavior, and cutting their character's screentime when, HELLO! Abbie was supposed to be the leading lady and main character along with Crane! Ugh!

Glee. All I will say, is that it's a hot mess. Klaine, Quinn, and Santana were the only reasons I even finished the show. I wanted to know what happened with them. I watched it until the end, and after I made my Klaine video, was just done with it. I couldn't even watch my DVD's anymore, after Lea's gross display over Cory, and all the crap that Mark did. It made me literally sick to my stomach, so I threw the DVD's in the trash.

Queer as Folk (US) In 2007 I started watching QAF. By 2009, my DVD's were in the trash. By the time I got to season 2 of the show, I was in a rage spiral. There was so much wrong with the show, I don't know here to begin.  Michael and Lindsay wouldn't let Brian grow up. They always called him an asshole, and talked down to him. Debbie and Justin, too. Lindsay and Michael were selfish assholes who didn't want to share Brian with anyone else even though they were both in committed relationships with other people.

The episode that sends my blood pressure sky high is the episode where Michael and Brian are at some stupid party and Michael's bitching about Justin and the Fiddler, and he says that he wished Justin had died at the prom.  Then, Brian thankfully punches that little asshole and everyone bitches at him, fusses at him, when Michael's the one who should have gotten his head ripped off. 

 Another thing I hated, was that Justin never got back the 'best night of his life'.

Melanie was a c*** the entire time she was on the show. I can understand that she was jealous of how close Brian and Lindsay were, but being a flat out bitch to Brian every day was not helpful. She claimed to love Lindsay, but yet couldn't show her partner enough respect to keep her fucking mouth shut when around Brian.

Then there's where Justin wanted Brian to change, and after several seasons of claiming he won't change, he does change, for himself, and for Justin. He asks Justin to marry him and they NEVER fucking get married! After all the bullshit they went through, and everyone else gets to get married and be happy but them. They can't even live in the same state! The show fucking ends with Justin going to New York! What a rip off!  I can't watch the show without raging like lunatic, so I don't. Every other year or so, I look up Brian/Justin videos on YT and just enjoy how good they looked together.

Tru Calling: I loved season 1 and really wanted to see how Tru and Jack were going to face off against each other knowing they were the opposite to each other's powers. But then I watched the first episode of season 2, and had to force myself to finish the rest of the season. I just don't get how a show could go from being so good in season 1, to being utter crap for season 2. (Special shout out to Sleep Hollow. )

Edited January 21, 2018 by Laina

[biakbiak]

10 minutes ago, Laina said:

The Family. It started out as a good show, but tried to be mysterious and ended up not making sense and catching itself in constant lies. The first 5 episodes were great and then it fell into the garbage pile after that. It pissed me off so much because the show had so much potential in the beginning, and then they ruined it.

I seriously thought you meant Family from the 1970s starring James Broderick, Sada Thompson, and Kristy McNichol and even though I watched it in the 80s in syndication I know feel old!

[Laina]

This is the show I meant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(2016_TV_series)