Wasted Talent: Shows That Never Lived Up To Their Potential

[galax-arena]

Terra Nova takes the cake on this one, I think. It was a show featuring dinosaurs and time travel! It should've been impossible to make the show as boring as it ended up being, but somehow TPTB managed. I want to know who the hell thought it was a good idea to revolve an entire episode around a girl's search for new batteries for her tablet. In a show about dinosaurs. And time travel. And conspiracies. 

 

The Secret Circle could have been great cheesy CW fare, but it was a total miss. I think the problem there was that TPTB tried too hard to ape The Vampire Diaries (except with witches!). Sure, they were both based on LJ Smith series, but the show should have tried to find its own identity. And the cast was a bit of a misfire as well. Britt Robertson can't carry a show IMO, and the male cast members were total flops with zero charisma. 

[Haleth]

Terra Nova is a good example.  I'll add Flash Forward.  Fascinating concept, great cast.  I can't remember what caused it to crash and burn (too many boring storylines perhaps?) but when it came back after an extended winter break the audience had decided it didn't care anymore.

[blueray]

I'd add Primeval: new world . This show had a lot of pretental since its parent was a great show (one of my favorites). But instead of making a good spinoff they made the characters dumb and the storylines not great. I'll give it some slack in that I stopped watching after a few episodes and it could have gotten better.

Edited June 15, 2014 by blueray

[Enigma X]

The 4400

Heroes

FlashForward

Intelligence

Torchwood

 

and no matter how popular this show has become, Downton Abbey.

[yourpointis]

I want to say The Following. I was having too much trouble trying to keep tabs on who were the good guys and who were the bad ones. For the serial killer (Joe Carroll) and his following to constantly escape the law, the cops had to be utter idiots because the show never gave me the impression that some of the followers were the brightest bulbs in the pack.  

 

But to be fair, I only gave it three to four episodes. I guess I was the only one to give up on it seeing its been renewed for a third season. Maybe in my mind I wanted the show to pattern itself more after The Silence of the Lambs. 

[potatoradio]

 

Today. 12:25 pm

    I want to say The Following. I was having too much trouble trying to keep tabs on who were the good guys and who were the bad ones. For the serial killer (Joe Carroll) and his following to constantly escape the law, the cops had to be utter idiots because the show never gave me the impression that some of the followers were the brightest bulbs in the pack.

    But to be fair, I only gave it three to four episodes. I guess I was the only one to give up on it seeing its been renewed for a third season. Maybe in my mind I wanted the show to pattern itself more after The Silence of the Lambs.

I gave up after the first episode, which I'm not sure gives me enough perspective to put this show under this category, but I was seriously disappointed. I love Kevin Bacon, the previews looked really good (part criminal procederual, eerie other worldly aspect, cults...I'm in!) and then I watched the first ep. and was instantly confused and bored. Some shrill female lead playing the bitter ball busting shrew was completely off putting and I couldn't begin to tell you WTF was happening anyway, even if I'd overlooked that character's obnoxiousness. Boo.

 

I'd have to watch an ep again, but I'm finding myself wondering if "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" might have been ahead of its time and couldn't live up to its full potential of a quirky, offbeat show just because those types of shows about single women in their thirties were not going to fly in the eighties. If the show had come along in the mid-nineties, I wonder if it would have lived up to its promise. Or maybe it just sucked.

[andromeda331]

V, I still think this show could have been good both versions. The first one started out good only for them to turn it into a magic show. 

The second one also started out good I really liked that Anna and Erica's children ended up liking the other one best, and bring back Diana from the original? Then they made so many stupid decisions like making the Resistance members so stupid and Diana is nice? Both had so much potential only for both to end so badly. 

[spaceytraci1208]

I want to say The Following. I was having too much trouble trying to keep tabs on who were the good guys and who were the bad ones. For the serial killer (Joe Carroll) and his following to constantly escape the law, the cops had to be utter idiots because the show never gave me the impression that some of the followers were the brightest bulbs in the pack.

But to be fair, I only gave it three to four episodes. I guess I was the only one to give up on it seeing its been renewed for a third season. Maybe in my mind I wanted the show to pattern itself more after The Silence of the Lambs.

I'll cosign that! I was excited for this show but officially quit after the third time the Feds' safe house was broken into. The cops/feds were just TOO dumb for me to continue Edited June 15, 2014 by spaceytraci1208

[yourpointis]

Some shrill female lead playing the bitter ball busting shrew was completely off putting and I couldn't begin to tell you WTF was happening anyway, even if I'd overlooked that character's obnoxiousness. Boo.

 

 

OMG yes! I have no problem with women in charge, but there was just something so unsettling or off putting about that character that I kept finding myself grinding my teeth whenever she was on screen. To my limited knowledge, I believe she was replaced in season 2, but don't hold me to that lol. 

Edited June 15, 2014 by yourpointis

[Irlandesa]

The pilot had one cast of characters.  The rather annoying woman in the pilot was replaced by episode 2 with an actress I liked.  But then she was killed in the first season finale and I was done with the show even though I love Kevin Bacon.  I used to think he could get me to watch anything, and maybe he did since I stuck with the whole first season, but I couldn't stomache the idea of watching a sixteenth episode of that show.

 

I'd like to throw Smash in here.  The pilot was pretty good.  It had its issues but I thought they could be resolved.  And honestly, they could have been but the show, for the most part, chose not to.  It had some really good stuff and way too much dreck.

 

Perhaps Boardwalk Empire could be here too.  I really enjoy BE but one of the criticisms of the show is that never achieved the greatness that its actors and "look" were capable of achieving.  I can kind of agree with that, although I do think it has had enough great moments that I'd say it was better than good but probably not as agreat as it could have been.

[GaT]

I'll add Almost Human to the list, it could have been a great scifi show, instead they showed the episodes out of order, didn't give enough background, & had some lame characters. Cancelled now.

 

I'm also going to list Revenge. Fantastic first season, pure suckage since then. I'm assuming season 4 (still don't understand how this show got a season 4) is going to be the same.

[Anna Yolei]

Funny Terra Nova ended up on this list here.....producer Brannon Braga also co produced my pick for this list, Star Trek:Voyager. Here is a crew stuck on the opposite end of the galaxy away from Starfleet and sharing a home with folks that gave the Federation the middle finger and....we get Deep Space TNG instead, only instead of a Picard, we got Insaneway. Tim Ross as Tuvok was one of the show's few saving graces for me.

[ParadoxLost]

Terra Nova takes the cake on this one, I think. It was a show featuring dinosaurs and time travel! It should've been impossible to make the show as boring as it ended up being, but somehow TPTB managed. I want to know who the hell thought it was a good idea to revolve an entire episode around a girl's search for new batteries for her tablet. In a show about dinosaurs. And time travel. And conspiracies. 

 

As I've said before, TPTB leaving New Zealand without realizing they hadn't filmed enough for the pilot was a pretty good indicator that it was doomed to fail.  Frankly, Terra Nova suffered from being a piece of paper that was really no one's vision and being passed around as the various PTB got their own projects picked up.  I think I counted once and there were something like sixteen named producers.  Fox had the mentality, how can you screw up dinosaurs and time travel?  They learned.

[ebk57]

I'd like to throw Smash in here.  The pilot was pretty good.  It had its issues but I thought they could be resolved.  And honestly, they could have been but the show, for the most part, chose not to.  It had some really good stuff and way too much dreck.

 

Perhaps Boardwalk Empire could be here too.  I really enjoy BE but one of the criticisms of the show is that never achieved the greatness that its actors and "look" were capable of achieving.  I can kind of agree with that, although I do think it has had enough great moments that I'd say it was better than good but probably not as agreat as it could have been.

 

I was reading through to see if anyone mentioned Smash.  I was so looking forward to the show, being a theatre fanatic, but the blindness to the lack of any talent in Ms McPhee sent the whole thing into a tailspin.  Terribly disappointing.

 

And I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it, but I feel the same way about Boardwalk Empire.  Loved the first couple of seasons, but then the whole thing went off the rails.  Too bad.  

[Irlandesa]

I was reading through to see if anyone mentioned Smash.  I was so looking forward to the show, being a theatre fanatic, but the blindness to the lack of any talent in Ms McPhee sent the whole thing into a tailspin.  Terribly disappointing.

 

And I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it, but I feel the same way about Boardwalk Empire.  Loved the first couple of seasons, but then the whole thing went off the rails.  Too bad.  

 

Yep.  McPhee was the big reason but I would throw in Julia's weirdly dropped adoption story and affair in there as well.  Ellis was bad but getting rid of him was only the tip of the iceberg of what they needed to do.

 

I don't personally agree that Boardwalk Empire went off the rails.  In fact, I'd argue that the third season finale was a brilliant episode and did a great job tying what came before it together and the four season had some very good storytelling as well.  But I feel like a viewer needs to have too much patience with that show sometimes. 

[tribbles]

I agree about V.

 

I will add 666 Park Avenue to the list - this could have been an evilly delicious and weirdly fun show.  It started out promising, but went downhill fast.  

[dalek]

THis is going back more than a decade, but does anyone else remember Martial Law starring Sammo Hung?  It never caught on the way Walker Texas Ranger did and I could never understand how they could build a successful show around Chuck Norris but not Sammo Hung.  Maybe because they were trying to somewhat clone Walker Texas Ranger but set in California with an Asian lead? The fight scenes were generally well choreographed and the show SHOULD have worked, but it never quite seemed to get there.  Maybe if they'd played it more for laughs?  Not that Sammo Hung can't do drama, but I've generally liked his comedy movies better.

[merylinkid]

They tried to do a "fish out of water" show instead of a beat up the bad guys show.   Remember the episode where he had a cold and he wanted his mom to send him her home remedy from China?   It turned out be collard greens which his black partner was pushing on him.   Too many jokes like that and about his accent not being understood, not enough beat up the bad guys.

[Athena]

THis is going back more than a decade, but does anyone else remember Martial Law starring Sammo Hung?  It never caught on the way Walker Texas Ranger did and I could never understand how they could build a successful show around Chuck Norris but not Sammo Hung.  Maybe because they were trying to somewhat clone Walker Texas Ranger but set in California with an Asian lead? The fight scenes were generally well choreographed and the show SHOULD have worked, but it never quite seemed to get there.  Maybe if they'd played it more for laughs?  Not that Sammo Hung can't do drama, but I've generally liked his comedy movies better.

 

 

They tried to do a "fish out of water" show instead of a beat up the bad guys show.   Remember the episode where he had a cold and he wanted his mom to send him her home remedy from China?   It turned out be collard greens which his black partner was pushing on him.   Too many jokes like that and about his accent not being understood, not enough beat up the bad guys.

 

As an Asian, I really appreciated a prime time American show with a minority lead and supporting characters. I kinda admired Kelly Hu when I saw her on this show. I was a kid, but this show is memorable for me since I identified with it as a POC.

 

It's been a long time since I saw this show, but as much as I wanted it to succeed, I kinda knew it had issues. It managed longer than most people thought. I think it did boil down to Sammo's language skills. His accent was thick. He had limited English skills which probably also affected his chemistry with his costars. I also think the plots were a bit repetitive? The action stuff wasn't the issue. Sammo Hung is one of the most famous choregraphers out of HK. Apparently, he chose not to continue show because from S2 onward, his character had too many fight scenes.

[dalek]

@Athena, I hadn't realized the show was cancelled because Sammo Hung didn't want to keep doing so many fight scenes.  I was primarily watching for the well choreographed fight scenes, having been a big fan of his Hong Kong movies, especially the ones he made with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao such as Winners and Sinners, Project A, Wheels on Meals, and Dragons Forever.

[Tabbyclaw]

Smash was much like the musical its characters were trying to create: Some really good songs, but nothing stringing them together.

 

Anyone remember New Amsterdam? 300-year-old man blessed/cursed to live without ageing or dying until he finds his soulmate becomes a police detective, convinces everyone that he's some kind of supergenius because he's spent several lifetimes just learning everything he possibly can. And one of his hobbies is making furniture that convinces even the best appraisers that it's antique because it bears all the hallmarks of this one really impressive old-world craftsman who was, you know, him. Interesting premise, really beautiful show, and the three main characters (John Amsterdam, his lady cop partner who suspects Shenanigans, and his best friend who is a very old man who is actually his son) were just ridiculously, unexpectedly likeable. And then they brought in the love interest, and the B-plot of the entire season -- they only got the one -- was John trying to find and connect with this unappealing, inconsistently-written woman he was briefly convinced was his soulmate. The show withered and died because it was expending all its effort trying to make us care about the one plot thread that absolutely nobody cared about and ignoring all the interesting bits.

[Haleth]

I remember New Amsterdam with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.  He went on to bigger things.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Haleth

[blueray]

I remember New Amsterdam, I think I only saw the first few episodes though.

[ganesh]

I'll add Flash Forward.

This show suffered because networks were scrambling to find the next Lost and since the show wasn't gangbusters out of the gate, they canned it. TPTBs kind of fucked up the concept. The protagonist in the book was the scientist, but they had to go and make the show fundamentally a crime drama *again*. I think the different pov would have been refreshing but by shoving it in the same box as every other network show, they shot themselves in the foot. This could have been due to network interference. I think this show would have done better not on a broadcast network.

 

I'd add Primeval: new world . This show had a lot of pretental since its parent was a great show (one of my favorites). But instead of making a good spinoff they made the characters dumb and the storylines not great. I'll give it some slack in that I stopped watching after a few episodes and it could have gotten better.

It did. I'd recommend giving it another shot. The show only had the one season, but it was a close-formed story. It was actually pretty fun. If anyone likes those B adventure shows from the 90s: Xena, Sentinel, Highlander etc., this was in the same vein. Which isn't surprising since it involved some of the same TPTBs.

 

Anyone remember New Amsterdam?

This was a good show, but yeah, there was no chemistry with the woman that was supposed to be his true lurve and they spent way too much time on that and not the 'world building'. 

 

It seems that for all these kinds of shows, TPTBs need to get the hell out of their own way. 

[Anna Yolei]

Flash Forward aired on Fox, right? If so, it never had a chance anyway.

[Athena]

Journeyman (2007) with Kevin McKidd, cancelled due to low ratings by NBC before the writers' strike. This show taught me to go into all new shows with low expectations so don't get attached, etc. I thought McKidd was great and it had an interesting concept; I wasn't crazy about the epic love story between him and Gretchen Egolf's character though

[ganesh]

I think Journeyman did live up to its potential, but that no one watched it. I don't think this is a show that should have ran more than 4 seasons, if that.

 

It was probably too serialized for a broadcast network, but the plot was coherent, and they did smart things. For example, he convinced the wife that he had traveled through time by like the second or third episode, rather than dragging it out unnecessarily. The $20 in the first episode payed off later in the season. 

 

TPTBs ended up making it a self contained season because of the cancellation, so it's enjoyable on a rewatch. 

 

I think this is a show that probably could have benefited from the current tv landscape. You don't want long seasons because it's serialized, so this could have been a good fit for netflix. I can't imagine it would be more expensive than House of Cards.

[Wax Lion]

I think Journeyman lived up to its potential in the end but was one of those shows that started out with a promising pilot but had a bad handful of follow-up episodes. It's that "repeat the pilot for the second and third episode" rule, but it gets tiresome to see the protagonist explain the premise of the show, getting shriller every time, while everyone he knows thinks he's crazy. I never finished the Nowhere Man pilot because of that and the only reasons I worked through those early episodes is because I heard enough promises that it gets better.

 

I wanted Torchwood to be good so badly. But in the end it didn't want to be the show it could have been, a more adult Doctor Who centered around a ridiculously fun character. The whimsy of Doctor Who was replace with grim dourness and the happy-go-lucky Captain Jack became a generic brooding scifi hero.

[MarkHB]

FlashForward was on ABC.  I still need to go back and watch the one episode I missed, the one that explained it all: "Garden of Winding Paths."

 

Thanks to whoever mentioned New Amsterdam; I really enjoyed that as well, and I need to go add the original opening titles to the Great Opening Titles thread.  (ISTR they changed them partway through, and while the second set can be found online -- including for their Emmy nomination -- I can't find the first, which basically show John standing in a field that evolves into Times Square around him, at all.

[ABay]

There are just too many to name! Every season--fall, midseason, summer--I try out every new show that sounds remotely interesting and end up giving up on all but one or two. Most recently, I guess, Turn and Halt & Catch Fire have both sounded interesting. They aren't. Unless H&CF has Lee Pace shtupping a guy every episode from here to the finale.

[magdalene]

Heroes. Revenge. Though usually what happens to me is that shows get cancelled before they ever have a chance to live up to any promise I think they may have. I don't have a lot of luck finding American network TV dramas that I a) stick with long term and  b) if I want to stick with them manage to stay on the air long enough for me to get tired of them. If it wasn't for cable and foreign TV I would spend all of my TV time reading books.

[ganesh]

There's only been 3 episodes of Halt though. It's a little premature to render a verdict. There's bits here and there that I think are promising.

[Bill C.]

I'm debating whether Kings falls into this category or not; as brilliant as it was in places, it was still almost literally abandoned by NBC within weeks of its premiere and never got the chance to build on what momentum it had.  Considering how expensive it was and when it came around, though, maybe it was simply three or so years ahead of its time...

[DittyDotDot]

I loved Kings and was really disappointed it got cancelled....but I don't know that it didn't live up to it's potential as much as getting cancelled prematurely. I think what we saw of it lived up to the potential quite nicely.

 

I think Revolution owns this thread. They had a great premise that they quickly threw out the window in order to meander around doing nonsense. They were given a fair shake--two seasons--to figure it out, but just never found their way.

[yourpointis]

NBC gave Kings more of a shot than Fox gave Drive.  

[ganesh]

DRIVE. No shit. With Captain Mal, Invisigoth, and the H!ITG of the 2010s, Kevin Alejandro. This show should have been on FX. It's rogue element fits in with the Shield and Sons of Anarchy. 

[Bill C.]

NBC gave Kings more of a shot than Fox gave Drive.  

 

Yeah, I have to grant that point.  NBC at least aired all 13 episodes of Kings (though according to Michael Green himself the decision to let it die came somewhere around the airing of the fifth episode, when they exiled it to Saturday nights--which is still better than Drive's four-eps-and-out).

[ByTor]

I was so excited when Cult began on CW.  I don't understand how such an interesting concept could have gone to hell as fast as it did.

[DittyDotDot]

I had totally forgotten about Cult...yeah, that one may have been even more disappointing than Revolution.

[yourpointis]

NBC gave Kings more of a shot than Fox gave Drive.

DRIVE. No shit. With Captain Mal, Invisigoth, and the H!ITG of the 2010s, Kevin Alejandro. This show should have been on FX. It's rogue element fits in with the Shield and Sons of Anarchy.

 

 

Yeah, I have to grant that point.  NBC at least aired all 13 episodes of Kings (though according to Michael Green himself the decision to let it die came somewhere around the airing of the fifth episode, when they exiled it to Saturday nights--which is still better than Drive's four-eps-and-out).

 

 

I was pissed with Fox for a long time after cancelling Drive. I was hoping in vain that if a show like Family Guy could be resurrected, then this show should have. Just think, if this show had been picked up by FX, we could be complaining how a show with so much promise could have been butchered by unimaginative or lazy writing instead of wondering what if.... and look how Family Guy turned out. 

Edited June 20, 2014 by yourpointis

[Enero]

Roswell - With the recent cast reunion it made me feel a deep sense of nostalgia. I went back to relive the magic and was quickly reminded of how much potential this show had and how it lost its way very quickly. The concept was interesting enough, but I don't think the writers knew how to make it work on a TV show. Season One was descent. It had some really great character/relationship moments and intriguing discoveries around the alien mythology, but for the most part it was boring. It did need more edge if the writers ever wanted it to be what it should've been. They tried to step it up in Season Two, but the potential of the show further deteriorated with alien doppelgängers, a silly end of the world scenario and a hour long alien orgasm that led to an unwanted pregnancy. By the time the show got to Season Three, it was unrecognizable. The alien mythology was pretty much non existent and the relationships had turned into the cookie cutter, sleep inducing teen angst that was seen on every other teen show at that time. When the show spent most of an episode with Maria trying to launch her singing career it became painfully obvious that the show was never going to be what it could've and should've been.

It was a shame because they had a strong idea, and a good cast who had wonderful chemistry, it really could've even a great show in the right hands.

[Tonypitt]

Men of a Certain Age had such promise, but the network kept programming the show in a way that made it impossible for the show to develop a following.  Great cast, solid writing, horrible TV scheduling.

[bosawks]

What drives me crazy about Smash is that for the most part they got the most difficult part right, the music.

And then just fucked up on the narrative.

It's just so frustrating.....

[Kromm]

I see it's been mentioned several times, but I have to add my voice to the chorus that Almost Human has to be the King of this topic. At least in shows on in recent years.

I see Journeyman was mentioned, and I sort of agree, but for me it's less "didn't meet it's potential" and more "wasn't given a proper chance".  13 episodes wasn't enough for it to dig into it's potential (which was as big as Quantum Leap or Sliders or any comparable show at minimum, and maybe larger since it had the potential to deal with pretty twisty paradox and conspiracy stuff).

[ganesh]

TPTB really dropped the ball with the world building on Almost Human imo. And it doesn't help that Fox aired the show out of order. But there was a lot of interesting stuff there. 

[Kromm]

A few more occur to me.  

 

Reality Dept:  I quite liked the idea behind Whodunnit?  it could have been SO great.  The problem is that the execution didn't live up to the idea.  At all.  

 

Ditto for The Taste.  In theory the idea was pretty good.  It's just the actual show that was Weak Sauce.

 

I know this will be controversial, because some people love it and haven't given up on it, but Elementary could have been SO much better than it's been.

 

Oh, remember from a few years ago Alcatraz?  It seemed so strong at first but I remember getting bored so quick.  

 

And here's a HUGE one. The Cape. I was so primed for this to be good based on the concept. Did it deserve that hope?  No.  But the key to this topic and a show fitting is a sense that if they'd only done it better it might have worked.  And they didn't do it better.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Not many comedies mentioned so far, so I'll stick in my gut response ... I was so disappointed with Up All Night.  Christina Applegate and Will Arnett sounded like a match made in heaven, even if there was a dreaded baby in the mix.  I loved that the Christina character was going to try to be a working woman.  Work-life balance wacky hijinks?  I was up for that.

The actual show was a miss from the beginning.  I love those two stars a lot: Christina made me laugh at the same joke on Married with Children countless times, just because of her delivery (viola!) and Will Arnett was my absolute favorite part of 30 Rock (besides the doctor). I wanted to support them, I did, but I just couldn't stick it out.

 

As for dramas, the elephant in the room for me is Lost.  I am still pissed I invested in that show to the end, given all its promises and crap payoffs.  And I probably will never get over being pissed about that.  Ever.

[ganesh]

Didn't Fox also air Alcatraz out of order as well?

[ABay]

Reality Dept:  I quite liked the idea behind Whodunnit?  it could have been SO great.  The problem is that the execution didn't live up to the idea.  At all.

@Kromm, you are so right. I'd managed to forget that travesty, a complete ruination of the premise of the show, and the feigned surprise that viewers expected to be able to figure out the murders themselves with such outlandish things as logic and how things actually work in the real world.

[Kel Varnsen]

I'm debating whether Kings falls into this category or not; as brilliant as it was in places, it was still almost literally abandoned by NBC within weeks of its premiere and never got the chance to build on what momentum it had.  Considering how expensive it was and when it came around, though, maybe it was simply three or so years ahead of its time...

Kings is a tough one for me. I mean I loved the show the show when it was one, and Ian McShane is awesome. But at the same time I remember watching it and just being able to pretty much see on the screen the crap load of money they must have been spending to produce the show. At the same time the show was getting terrible ratings (like record setting bad) so it is hard to really fault NBC in their decision to cancel the show.