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

[janie jones]

On 8/5/2020 at 10:29 PM, biakbiak said:

This tweet reminded me of this thread, another reason to hate HIMYM

 

But why would he, if the entire story takes place before 2020? Am I overthinking the joke? (I've probably only seen about 10 minutes of this show.)

[biakbiak]

28 minutes ago, janie jones said:

But why would he, if the entire story takes place before 2020? Am I overthinking the joke? (I've probably only seen about 10 minutes of this show.)

Yes you are overthinking the joke but In the timeline of the show he married their mother in 2020 which was part of the story he was telling them.

Edited December 3, 2020 by biakbiak

[janie jones]

46 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Yes you are overthinking the joke but In the timeline of the show he married their mother in 2020.

Oh, that makes sense then.

[MaggieG]

This might be an unpopular opinion because it's still a popular show, but Killing Eve. I enjoyed the first season, wasn't crazy about season 2 but started season 3 hoping it would be good. I only watched 2 or 3 episodes of season 3 and gave up. It just became too ridiculous, especially Villanelle's shenanigans. She gets married in the first episode (clearly a sham) gets whisked away and that and her wife is never followed up on? Then she starts training a would be assassin, does a terrible job, kills him all while wearing a clown suit? Then kidnaps a baby (after killing her mother and the maid of course) thinking it would be fun and then when the baby starts crying (like babies do) leaves it in a garbage can? I just couldn't anymore. I'm also not sure why everyone loves her character 🤷‍♀️

[BookWitch]

Ray Donovan and Scandal- Both shows were about cleaning up behind the scenes to keep someone out of trouble. Turned into soap operas about family crap.

Sleepy Hollow-They should have kept the sheriff alive and not brought in the other sister. I stopped watching after Season 2.

The Blacklist-More behind the scenes cleaning that turned into "whose your daddy and lets blame the Russians" crap.

[Robert Lynch]

One says The Blacklist, but I will give two mentions to shows that should have quit, but kept going to the bitter end:

Bones.

Became garbage after several seasons and the show should have ended before season 10 began! Argh!

Another one: Castle

That finale was garbage. Hated the way Stana Katic was treated by Nathan Fillion and would have not preferred her character killed, anyway. Even if he demanded to be the headliner of the show without Stana's presence, that show would not have last at all. Should have called it quits a couple of seasons ago! 

[Irlandesa]

On 12/4/2020 at 10:19 AM, MaggieG said:

This might be an unpopular opinion because it's still a popular show, but Killing Eve. I enjoyed the first season, wasn't crazy about season 2 but started season 3 hoping it would be good.

There was a death in the middle of the first season that basically was my line in the sand with that show. I enjoyed it before this death.  Started to like it less after the death but still felt it was pretty good.  I was bored in the second season and didn't even bother with the third.

So you're not alone. 

[Stats Queen]

On 12/4/2020 at 11:19 AM, MaggieG said:

This might be an unpopular opinion because it's still a popular show, but Killing Eve. I enjoyed the first season, wasn't crazy about season 2 but started season 3 hoping it would be good. I only watched 2 or 3 episodes of season 3 and gave up. It just became too ridiculous, especially Villanelle's shenanigans. She gets married in the first episode (clearly a sham) gets whisked away and that and her wife is never followed up on? Then she starts training a would be assassin, does a terrible job, kills him all while wearing a clown suit? Then kidnaps a baby (after killing her mother and the maid of course) thinking it would be fun and then when the baby starts crying (like babies do) leaves it in a garbage can? I just couldn't anymore. I'm also not sure why everyone loves her character 🤷‍♀️

For me, the first season was awesome. 
Season 2 was okay,

Season 3 lost me

[cleo]

The Good Wife. Gilmore Girls. So far those are the only two shows where I've joked that I would black out with rage. Blame lies with Julianna Margulies for one and Amy Sherman Palladino with the other. Both raging egos, that will torch anything if it interferes with their precious ego. Huh what a coincidence.  

Edited December 7, 2020 by cleo

[Zella]

1 hour ago, cleo said:

The Good Wife. Gilmore Girls. So far those are the only two shows where I've joked that I would black out with rage. Blame lies with Julianna Margulies for one and Amy Sherman Palladino with the other. Both raging egos, that will torch anything if it interferes with their precious ego. Huh what a coincidence.  

The Good Wife, seasons 1-5 are some of the absolute best network TV I've ever watched. Season 6 was creaky, but 7 was so bad that I gave up midway through, and I have never had the slightest interest in trying to finish it. A GW blogger I used to follow was so pissed about the direction of the show that she never did watch the final episode, or at least never wrote about it, despite watching and writing about the entire show run, which confirmed for me not to venture down that road, I did a rewatch of the show a couple of years ago and capped it at the end of 5. 

[cleo]

Yeah now that I think about it, I'm not sure I made it all the way through TGW, though I can't remember exactly when I bailed. I did read about the last ep and the infamous split screen or green screen or whatever it was with JM and AP. I was team Archie all the way lol. I also just ended up hating the character of Alicia.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 12/5/2020 at 9:57 PM, Robert Lynch said:

Bones.

Became garbage after several seasons and the show should have ended before season 10 began! Argh!

Bones was a weird one. I started watching shortly after it started and bailed out a season or 2 before the end. At first it was a decent show, but after awhile the only way I could watch it was by telling myself it was an Airplane! style parody of a decent police procedural and the writers were in on the joke. Since everything that bugged me about those shows in general Bones did in the most over the top way possible. Things like solving a serious crime in a shift, all the stupid workplace romances, the ridiculous tech, and the bad guys who would go after the main characters like they were Batman villains. They were worse about that than any other show. But after a point it got too bad to even watch it that way.

On 12/7/2020 at 9:47 PM, cleo said:

Yeah now that I think about it, I'm not sure I made it all the way through TGW, though I can't remember exactly when I bailed. I did read about the last ep and the infamous split screen or green screen or whatever it was with JM and AP. I was team Archie all the way lol. I also just ended up hating the character of Alicia.

Those last couple of Good Wife seasons were super frustrating. It was the same election, scandal, new firm fighting old firm stories rehashed over and over again. Plus the fact that The Good Fight is a decent show with the same creators and a lot of the same cast makes me think a big problem was Margulies.

[Zella]

2 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

 

Those last couple of Good Wife seasons were super frustrating. It was the same election, scandal, new firm fighting old firm stories rehashed over and over again. Plus the fact that The Good Fight is a decent show with the same creators and a lot of the same cast makes me think a big problem was Margulies.

Also the sheer number of times the firm ended up being bought, sold, or restructured in the last 2 seasons got old fast. 

[vibeology]

23 hours ago, Zella said:

Also the sheer number of times the firm ended up being bought, sold, or restructured in the last 2 seasons got old fast. 

And to the point the writers couldn't even keep track of it. During the email hacking, they were talking about emails that could have only existed at a different firm that hadn't been hacked.

It was a mess and all to achieve two things to please Juliana. She didn't want to film courtroom scenes because they were long days. It's almost as though if that was a concern, she shouldn't have signed on to a show about a lawyer. That's why the show focused so much more on politics and the in-fighting between the different firms. Less coverage to shoot that way. And the second was to keep Juliana away from Archie. We don't really know why that was but it made a mess of things. You had Alicia in one silo with her family and Eli and whatever supporting cast, Kalinda in a different silo with Carey, but never at work, her supporting cast and then Alicia and Kalinda would dip into firm drama, but never about the same thing or at the same time. You ended up with so many ongoing stories that couldn't really touch and because it was a law show, also court scenes, but rarely with Alicia who was the main character. It was a fucking mess at the end.

[Kel Varnsen]

11 minutes ago, vibeology said:

And to the point the writers couldn't even keep track of it. During the email hacking, they were talking about emails that could have only existed at a different firm that hadn't been hacked.

I remember it being fun at the end trying to watch and see how good the prop and set design people were at keeping track of things. Thinks like watching for the wrong letterhead, or how long it took them to change the logos on the glass of the conference room was funny.

It is honestly amazing there hasn't been a massive tell all book, or at least some kind of feature magazine article/oral history kind of thing about what happened on the show. With the number of people involved the fact that secrets have been kept and it is all just speculation is pretty crazy when you consider the number of people who worked on the show. Governments have trouble with that level of secrecy.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Kel Varnsen

[methodwriter85]

On 12/6/2020 at 10:26 PM, Zella said:

The Good Wife, seasons 1-5 are some of the absolute best network TV I've ever watched. Season 6 was creaky, but 7 was so bad that I gave up midway through, and I have never had the slightest interest in trying to finish it.

I essentially feel the same way about Buffy the Vampire the Slayer. I didn't finish the last season of the show and I don't have any intention to. I'm just going with the 5th season being the series finale, and the last two seasons were just a weird alternative universe called "UPN." In that case, the blame lies with Marti Noxon for trying to use the show as a means of working through the trauma of her 20's.

[juno]

The 2 shows that come to mind are Suits and Chicago Fire.

On 12/10/2020 at 9:21 AM, vibeology said:

That's why the show focused so much more on politics and the in-fighting between the different firms.

This was a quote describing The Good Wife but it could describe Suits, along with firm members constantly yelling at each other and solving most cases by threats, extortion and blackmail. Mike going to jail was the end that flushed this great show down the toilet.

Chicago Fire turned its characters into Superheros that could be EMS, police and fire investigators. The Gabbie character was one of the last straws along with the needless romantic drama and the death of Shea one of my favorite characters. The most painful to watch is the strange procedures used in fighting fires and the fact that this show about firefighting doesn't seem to know how to properly fight fires.

[Vermicious Knid]

I'll throw out one that hasn't been mentioned yet. Rescue Me, the series starring Denis Leary as a NYC firefighter dealing with post-9/11 PTSD. The first season was so great, even if it sagged in the middle. I was so excited for the second season, and it was absolutely terrible. I've never watched anything plunge off a cliff in quality like that before or since in just a single season. And I believe it was the same showrunner and writers so I have no idea what happened. I was reading the episode descriptions and following the discussion afterwards just out of morbid curiosity. Nothing I saw made me regret giving it up. If you can get to the TWoP threads on the Wayback Machine, it's uh, something.

[Robert Lynch]

Another show that was like that was HBO's Rome. First season was good, but 2nd season was terrible. I did not care about any of the characters moving forward and the show lost direction after that.

[Madding crowd]

On 12/4/2020 at 10:19 AM, MaggieG said:

This might be an unpopular opinion because it's still a popular show, but Killing Eve. I enjoyed the first season, wasn't crazy about season 2 but started season 3 hoping it would be good. I only watched 2 or 3 episodes of season 3 and gave up. It just became too ridiculous, especially Villanelle's shenanigans. She gets married in the first episode (clearly a sham) gets whisked away and that and her wife is never followed up on? Then she starts training a would be assassin, does a terrible job, kills him all while wearing a clown suit? Then kidnaps a baby (after killing her mother and the maid of course) thinking it would be fun and then when the baby starts crying (like babies do) leaves it in a garbage can? I just couldn't anymore. I'm also not sure why everyone loves her character 🤷‍♀️

I like Jody Cormer as an actress, but the show turned into a fashion show featuring Villanelle’s outfits and Sandra Oh was pushed into the background. I still will never believe that any organization would hire and keep someone who is completely psychotic and thinks nothing of killing her handlers and other agents. I get that assassins are psychotic in their own way, but spy organizations are looking for people who can be controlled.

[supposebly]

8 hours ago, Robert Lynch said:

the show lost direction after that.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but there was no third season. I actually loved the second season 2, although Mark Antony's downfall was hard to watch. 

[Llywela]

On 12/13/2020 at 4:16 PM, Robert Lynch said:

Another show that was like that was HBO's Rome. First season was good, but 2nd season was terrible. I did not care about any of the characters moving forward and the show lost direction after that.

Season one was really tightly written with a clear and coherent plan that was executed beautifully. What went wrong with season two was cancellation - they'd planned out a multi-season story and then found out they were being cancelled, so rather than just stick to the plan for S2 and let it end there, the writers tried to compress all those storylines into a single season, in order to end up in the same place they'd originally intended to end. It's a shame because S1 was so good!

[Shannon L.]

On 12/5/2020 at 6:57 PM, Robert Lynch said:

One says The Blacklist, but I will give two mentions to shows that should have quit, but kept going to the bitter end:

Bones.

 

I don't know how you did it.  I had to quit a few episodes into Season 10 and even getting to 10 seasons in was a chore.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Shannon L.

[Vermicious Knid]

I read the book series. I only saw bits and pieces of the show and the only full episode I've ever watched was the crossover with Sleepy Hollow. Before that completely imploded. It made author Kathy Reichs lots of money, but the only thing the show has in common with the books is a main character named Temperance Brennan, and her profession is forensic anthropologist. If you liked the idea but not the execution, try the books.

It's not a rage spiral but I'm done with The Flash after the first three episodes of what should have been the end of season six. It was an alright show that dropped in quality every year after the first couple of seasons. And they totally fucked up Crisis. I had let all the episodes pile up on the DVR and finally got around to watching it during quarantine. I couldn't even binge it because watching one on top of the other really emphasized how poor the writing, storylines and acting had become. Could barely make it through three in a row and then stopped for days. I don't bother with the other CW shows, but maybe will follow season two of Stargirl. I've got a pretty minuscule tolerance for teenage angst though, and their budget will be cut in the move off streaming. 

[Zella]

I give Rome a pass because I know season 2 wasn't what they'd planned. I thought the first few episodes of the second season were much worse than the latter half when I first watched it, though when I rewatched it earlier this year, that entire season bothered me less than it originally did. I personally never gave a shit about the personal lives of Vorenus and Pullo compared to the political stuff, so the whole soap opera about Vorenus's family and Pullo's love triangle I could do without, and my biggest gripe is still trying to shoehorn that in even after they knew they had limited space and time. 

[magicdog]

16 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

maybe will follow season two of Stargirl. I've got a pretty minuscule tolerance for teenage angst though, and their budget will be cut in the move off streaming. 

For the most part, Stargirl was pretty well done (although with the low bar of recent TV productions it may not be saying much) and I found it fairly likeable.  I hope they keep the wokeness out of it for future seasons.  

[Robert Lynch]

I am going a little old school here, but here goes:

Mad TV (1995-2009)

I actually prefer the era when you had Alex Borstein, Nicole Sullivan, Debra Wilson, and others from that 1995-2001 era. I think it was when freaking Bobby Lee came to join and I just hated the characters he played. He was just so annoying and I didn't care for his Connie Chung impersonation. It was just an excuse for him to be in drag or wear what little is left. I think by 2009, the show was tired already and the set change didn't make it better at all. In fact, it was much worse in the last season. Around this time period, I switched from either from SNL to Mad TV, but when Bobby Lee joined, I entirely watched SNL only then and I have no regrets doing that.

All That(1994-2019)

But it is only the ones with the original actors like Keenan, Kel, and others from the earlier seasons. When Amanda Byrnes came on the show, I lost interest.

There are more, but I will give you more later.

 

 

[JustHereForFood]

All my picks have already been mentioned here:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I loved seasons 1-4 and think that the transition from high school setting in season 4 was really well done, but then by season 5 it started to go downhill for me. The beginning of the season with Dawn as a new mystery was interesting, but Joyce's illness and death turned the show so deppresing for me and it has not recovered after that. There are few enjoyable episodes in seasons 5 and 6, but season 7 was just like a one long nightmare. 

Downton Abbey - I never found it great, but I liked seasons 1-3 and thought it had potential for several more seasons, but then it just became too boring and repetitive. I think that there was less story in seasons 4-6 combined then in any one season before that. Plus it became too obvious that some characters (particularly Tom and Thomas) were still there only because they were characters in the show, while there was no good enough reason in story why they haven't left the Abbey.

The Mentalist - as was mentioned, the last season was dragged down by the romantic subplot. Before that, the case-of-the-week episodes were still usually good, but the Red John storyline went on too long. If it was up to me, it would have ended with the excellent season 3 finale and then introduce new season-long storyarcs. 

[Stats Queen]

On 12/15/2020 at 4:42 PM, Robert Lynch said:

Mad TV (1995-2009)

I actually prefer the era when you had Alex Borstein, Nicole Sullivan, Debra Wilson, and others from that 1995-2001 era. I think it was when freaking Bobby Lee came to join and I just hated the characters he played. He was just so annoying and I didn't care for his Connie Chung impersonation. It was just an excuse for him to be in drag or wear what little is left. I think by 2009, the show was tired already and the set change didn't make it better at all. In fact, it was much worse in the last season. Around

Same here. It was brilliance in its first few years. Unlike you, I didn’t go back to watching SNL, at least on a regular basis.

[Kromm]

I liked most of what Will Sasso did on MadTV. I think he was on for most of the same stretch as Alex Borstein. I was never a big Nicole Sullivan fan though. 

Later on, I sort of liked some of what Frank Caliendo did. Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele were late in show cast members too, don't forget. 

[Stats Queen]

49 minutes ago, Kromm said:

I liked most of what Will Sasso did on MadTV. I think he was on for most of the same stretch as Alex Borstein. I was never a big Nicole Sullivan fan though. 

Later on, I sort of liked some of what Frank Caliendo did. Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele were late in show cast members too, don't forget. 

Good points. Loved Frank Caliendo - especially his John Madden sketches (I am laughing now thinking of them) Key and Peele were also great. 

[Lya167]

On 4/22/2014 at 4:18 AM, Kromm said:

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?

Smallville. Instead of telling the story of Clark Kent becoming Superman, turned into a soap opera about Clark and his depressing love life. I remember losing sleep due to my level of frustration. The final straw was Lana Lang arc in mid-season 8, I just felt sorry for all characters and actors with that disaster. And the show managed to keep on going up till season 10, quite a feat. 

On 12/11/2020 at 10:08 PM, juno said:

Chicago Fire turned its characters into Superheros that could be EMS, police and fire investigators. The Gabbie character was one of the last straws along with the needless romantic drama and the death of Shea one of my favorite characters. The most painful to watch is the strange procedures used in fighting fires and the fact that this show about firefighting doesn't seem to know how to properly fight fires.

Might be unpopular opinion, but that Gabby/Casey ship was stomach turning for me, zero chemistry. And when I thought it couldn't get worse, there he is, going for cute as a button Sylvie. Out of the Chicago franchise, PD is the only one I really follow, and that season 8 is testing my tolerance, big time.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Lya167

[Bort]

20 hours ago, Lya167 said:

Smallville. Instead of telling the story of Clark Kent becoming Superman, turned into a soap opera about Clark and his depressing love life. I remember losing sleep due to my level of frustration. The final straw was Lana Lang arc in mid-season 8, I just felt sorry for all characters and actors with that disaster. And the show managed to keep on going up till season 10, quite a feat. 

I rewatched the last few seasons of Smallville recently and it’s weird how differently I see it now that the frustration is gone. I really enjoyed seasons 8-10 on the rewatch (the season 8 Lana arc notwithstanding, I had to skip that mess) and I especially liked seasons 9 and 10. At the time they aired I was just So Very Tired of it all but I ended up liking it on the rewatch, I was pleasantly surprised.

[Macbeth]

On 3/20/2018 at 6:08 PM, Tanichka said:

Seinfeld, after Larry David.  

I agree.  Seinfeld was a fantastic show - but it should have ended when Larry left.  The drop in quality was noticeable.

[greyflannel]

Person of Interest

Loved this show. Then, towards the end of season 3, they brought in the Samaritan plot which took up all of the oxygen and killed the show. It was a slow, painful death. 

I had been looking for the show on various channels to re-watch the first couple of seasons but, after learning the beliefs of Jim Caviezel, I don't think I would enjoy the show in quite the same way. Pity.

[Haleth]

15 hours ago, greyflannel said:

Person of Interest

Loved this show. Then, towards the end of season 3, they brought in the Samaritan plot which took up all of the oxygen and killed the show. It was a slow, painful death. 

Taraji got the last laugh there.

[letter8358]

On 5/12/2021 at 11:16 PM, Stats Queen said:

Good points. Loved Frank Caliendo - especially his John Madden sketches (I am laughing now thinking of them) Key and Peele were also great. 

Frank Caliendo did an awesome Madden. Got his personality to a T! I am not saying there were not talented people on that show. They are talented! Alex Borstein, Debra Wilson, and a bunch of others went to other shows after Mad TV or decided to do voice overs in video games or cartoons. I mean, it worked for E.G. Daily for Rugrats! And she was known for being a petite hot 80s chick in movies and did have some sort of a singing career around that time! So there are pluses!

Edited August 18, 2021 by letter8358

[jah1986]

23 hours ago, greyflannel said:

Person of Interest

Loved this show. Then, towards the end of season 3, they brought in the Samaritan plot which took up all of the oxygen and killed the show. It was a slow, painful death. 

I had been looking for the show on various channels to re-watch the first couple of seasons but, after learning the beliefs of Jim Caviezel, I don't think I would enjoy the show in quite the same way. Pity.

The entire series is on HBOMax. It is a little difficult watching knowing JC went a bit crazy, but it's still a pretty good show.

[andromeda331]

On 8/17/2021 at 3:31 PM, greyflannel said:

Person of Interest

Loved this show. Then, towards the end of season 3, they brought in the Samaritan plot which took up all of the oxygen and killed the show. It was a slow, painful death. 

I had been looking for the show on various channels to re-watch the first couple of seasons but, after learning the beliefs of Jim Caviezel, I don't think I would enjoy the show in quite the same way. Pity.

For me the beginning of the end was the start of season three with Root being shoehorned more into the show. She was a psycho and I hated her. I didn't like Shaw either but could have put up for her. Then they killed of Carter and I was done.

[ABay]

Carter's death didn't bother me and toward the end I didn't mind Root. The Samaritan story line I could've done without, though. Crime of the week stories with Finch, Bear, and Reese would've been fine with me.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 5/15/2021 at 2:08 AM, Macbeth said:

I agree.  Seinfeld was a fantastic show - but it should have ended when Larry left.  The drop in quality was noticeable.

I actually love that last season. There are so many great Puddy episodes. Plus without that never season we would have never been to Kruger Industrial Smoothing.

[kathyk24]

Legends of Tomorrow belongs here. The first few seasons the show was like Sliders traveling to different time periods. The team became a family. Now the show is about aliens and clones and the plots are dumb.

[Leeds]

 

 

On 1/9/2018 at 3:06 PM, 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've said it before but I want of spin-off featuring only Baker and Garrett.

It's impossible for me to tell if Tom Selleck is acting because his moustache always steals the scene.  And not in a good way.

On 3/18/2018 at 5:18 AM, Enero said:

I completely agree on both points. Also, I think once a show airs the writers (sometimes due to the networks interference) will change the focus of the show to characters/actors who they believe have become more popular to the audience than expected. This can oftentimes be to the detriment of the show. 

 Homeland and Heroes seemed to follow this path. I thought the first season of both were excellent, but with Homeland they made the mistake of keeping Brody for two additional seasons past his expiration date. My understanding was he was supposed to die at the end of Season One, but the writers loved him so much (as did the audience) they kept him on for two more seasons. I’ll admit I enjoyed the character too, but he should’ve died as originally plan. The show went off the rails during his extended stay and never fully recovered IMO. 

 

My theory is that Homeland only continued to get viewers because people were hoping for a repeat of Damian Lewis' erection.

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by Leeds
Grammar

[Stats Queen]

1 hour ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I actually love that last season. There are so many great Puddy episodes. Plus without that never season we would have never been to Kruger Industrial Smoothing.

Seinfeld will always be my favorite show!

K-ugher and Puddy were awesome

 

[Bort]

4 hours ago, ABay said:

Carter's death didn't bother me and toward the end I didn't mind Root. The Samaritan story line I could've done without, though. Crime of the week stories with Finch, Bear, and Reese would've been fine with me.

Yeah, I felt like Carter’s story was played out so I was fine with them killing her off. And I liked Root because I found the irony of a machine teaching the remorseless psychopath to value life to be pretty interesting.

[DearEvette]

16 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

Legends of Tomorrow belongs here. The first few seasons the show was like Sliders traveling to different time periods. The team became a family. Now the show is about aliens and clones and the plots are dumb.

Yeah.  I freaking loved Legends of Tomorrow seasons 2 and 3.   But Season 4 was so disappointing.  Jax and Stein were gone.  Amaya was gone but even her 'Charlie persona disappeared for multiple episodes.  Mona was a terriby written character and seemed everywhere.  They started the truly chemistry-free Zari/Nate romance.  It was a mess.  I stopped watching and never started back up. 

Even worse, the contrast between the strong, wonderful bonkers season 3 and the meandering, try-hard season 4 was painful to sit through.

13 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Yeah, I felt like Carter’s story was played out so I was fine with them killing her off. And I liked Root because I found the irony of a machine teaching the remorseless psychopath to value life to be pretty interesting.

I think there was a lot more they could have done with Carter.  They had left her out of the secret-circle for so long and when they finally cracked the door a bit for her, she proved invaluable in helping shield John.  They could have written her in many different ways.  If anyone's story was done it was Fusco's .. and yet he stayed.  Meanwhile I maintain that Carter was basically fridged so John could have a a bigger manpain-y story than he'd already had (his wife was fridged pre-show to get us to see his original manpain).

[methodwriter85]

On 12/15/2020 at 4:42 PM, Robert Lynch said:

I am going a little old school here, but here goes:

Mad TV (1995-2009)

I actually prefer the era when you had Alex Borstein, Nicole Sullivan, Debra Wilson, and others from that 1995-2001 era. I think it was when freaking Bobby Lee came to join and I just hated the characters he played. He was just so annoying and I didn't care for his Connie Chung impersonation. It was just an excuse for him to be in drag or wear what little is left. I think by 2009, the show was tired already and the set change didn't make it better at all. In fact, it was much worse in the last season. Around this time period, I switched from either from SNL to Mad TV, but when Bobby Lee joined, I entirely watched SNL only then and I have no regrets doing that.

There are some bright spots from the mid/late 00's era (like the absolutely hysterical Nice White Lady) but in general I feel like they started just aping whatever was popular at the moment without actually studying what they were parodying. The strength on the show was on the fact that they really knew what they were making fun of, and had it dead on, like the Sarah Jessica Parker Gap sketch or the amazing Survivor Season 2 sketch where they make fun of how Tina Wesson played her game. You started seeing less of that, and more of stuff like the Heroes sketch or the High School Musical sketch where it was clear they hadn't actually watched the show.

At the same time, YouTube comedy was on the rise, and Mad TV even tried recruiting a YouTube star to get the "young perspective" with LisaNova, but it didn't work out. She was not a fit at all. LOL.

[Peace 47]

Probably my #1 show for this thread is Sherlock (BBC), which doesn’t seem to have been mentioned yet.  I just fell so in love with the the characters of Sherlock and John that I think I overlooked some of the underlying structural issues with the writing that were always there, but really started to become apparent in season 3.

It was season 4 that absolutely enraged me, though, and I can’t watch even a clip of the show from any season anymore after that travesty of a season (probably series) finale. It’s kind of confusing that the show tipped so far off the cliff in season 4, given that the same writers, same production team and same actors were involved.  Normally you can attribute complete disintegration of the quality of a show to the showrunner moving on to another project (like JJ Abrams and Alias), major cast turnover (also Alias, haha) or a show just going on way too long (like The Simpsons).

I think maybe Moffat and Gatiss resented how seriously the show’s fanbase took the show.  Like in season 3, they tried to make jokes about how wound up everyone was about Sherlock’s “suicide” instead of take it seriously in-show.  I gather that they also didn’t care for the constant media and fan focus on the nature of Sherlock and John’s relationship, so maybe that is why Moffat and Gatiss consciously or unconsciously did not write them in scenes together in season 4 (or if they did, Sherlock and John were nearly always fighting or sniping).  Or maybe Moffat and Gatiss felt that they continuously needed to top themselves, hence the absolutely ridiculous writing of Sherlock’s sister having mind control superpowers in season 4, or turning Mary into a super spy assassin.  Who knows.  Still makes me mad, though.

[Spartan Girl]

I thought no show could let me down worse than GOT, and then The Falcon and the Winter Soldier happened.

It started out so well, only to wind up making more or less the EXACT SAME mistakes that the GOT finale made. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Spartan Girl

[Zella]

7 hours ago, Peace 47 said:

Probably my #1 show for this thread is Sherlock (BBC), which doesn’t seem to have been mentioned yet.  I just fell so in love with the the characters of Sherlock and John that I think I overlooked some of the underlying structural issues with the writing that were always there, but really started to become apparent in season 3.

It was season 4 that absolutely enraged me, though, and I can’t watch even a clip of the show from any season anymore after that travesty of a season (probably series) finale. It’s kind of confusing that the show tipped so far off the cliff in season 4, given that the same writers, same production team and same actors were involved.  Normally you can attribute complete disintegration of the quality of a show to the showrunner moving on to another project (like JJ Abrams and Alias), major cast turnover (also Alias, haha) or a show just going on way too long (like The Simpsons).

I think maybe Moffat and Gatiss resented how seriously the show’s fanbase took the show.  Like in season 3, they tried to make jokes about how wound up everyone was about Sherlock’s “suicide” instead of take it seriously in-show.  I gather that they also didn’t care for the constant media and fan focus on the nature of Sherlock and John’s relationship, so maybe that is why Moffat and Gatiss consciously or unconsciously did not write them in scenes together in season 4 (or if they did, Sherlock and John were nearly always fighting or sniping).  Or maybe Moffat and Gatiss felt that they continuously needed to top themselves, hence the absolutely ridiculous writing of Sherlock’s sister having mind control superpowers in season 4, or turning Mary into a super spy assassin.  Who knows.  Still makes me mad, though.

I also once loved Sherlock only to find it enraging. I watched a little bit of season 4 before giving up. But I feel like the writers were some of the absolute worst for baiting fans. And I think the break they took between 3 and 4 due to people's filming schedules made it worse because fan expectation was in overdrive. I mean, even my 70-something grandparents were asking when the next season was coming out. But what little I watched of season 4 almost had this taunting vibe to it that really put me off. It was like they stopped telling the story and just basically existed to troll fans and fuck with their heads. No thanks.  

Edit: I just realized I mistook season 2 for 3 and season 3 for 4. I never watched any of 4. I bailed early in season 3. Sorry for any confusion!

Edited August 20, 2021 by Zella