TV shows that ended up DISAPPOINTING you [SPOILERS]

[Cyke]

Walking Dead -- It suddenly got so slow and plodding. All the fan favorites are leaving/being killed off. Too dreary and dark with no happiness.

For me, it's not that the fan favorites keep leaving, but rather that it's slow and plodding because things are getting more repetitive, with the stakes increased more for shock value than for actual story. Then it makes the teeny tiny bits of happiness seem forced, sappy, and overly sentimental.

[Jim Kelly]

UNDER THE DOME is probably the worst TV show that I've watched all the way through to the bitter end. It did have a pretty good first episode, but it went downhill from there and each of the three seasons was worse than the one before it. Yet, I could not look away. It's like they were going out of their way to see how much more awful the show could get. And there was no central villain--it's like the torch kept getting passed from one actor to another for who was going to be the antagonist now. No one got out from UNDER THE DOME with their dignity intact.

[Knightmare10880]

I remember the first season of WW when they had the alien Andros played with sophistication, subtlety and acting skill by Tim O'Connor. I thought a sad indication of what the modern version was going to be was shown when Andros returned but now he's a boring 20 something action hero and presented as if that's what he had always been.

Actually that's Andros 2 or Andros Jr.; but it's weird how they portray him as they made references to the Andros from Season One's Judgment from Outer Space as the new one's father but at other times especially in the second part of Mind Stealers from Outer Space when he and Diana are talking it makes it seem as though he was the exact same character as from Season One.

[Osiris-Rex]

UNDER THE DOME is probably the worst TV show that I've watched all the way through to the bitter end. It did have a pretty good first episode, but it went downhill from there and each of the three seasons was worse than the one before it. Yet, I could not look away. It's like they were going out of their way to see how much more awful the show could get. And there was no central villain--it's like the torch kept getting passed from one actor to another for who was going to be the antagonist now. No one got out from UNDER THE DOME with their dignity intact.

You are a braver man than me. I gave up around 3 episodes into the final season.
Scorpion was another one that just got too silly for me and I gave up on it a couple seasons back.
And who can forget Heroes, as hard as I might try. Fortunately I had the good sense to skip the revival.

[AJBopp]

Batman.

I suppose if you're going to attempt to do nigh-on 70 episodes a season you're running a huge risk of both audience and creative team burnout. Still, the degree to which the quality fell (no sets? just random furniture in a black space?) and sudden lack of anything even remotely funny was apparent even as a 9 year old boy.

[Tami]

Quantum Leap. I liked the series, but the ending really bugged me. Maybe they were trying too hard to come up with something unexpected. Or maybe it was a cop out.

[Tuck]

Quantum Leap. I liked the series, but the ending really bugged me. Maybe they were trying too hard to come up with something unexpected. Or maybe it was a cop out.

I was done with Quantum Leap when a mummy came to life and killed a guy.

. . . the hell?

[KurtW95]

I should add, a few years ago I may have said Supernatural. Show was very good for the first few seasons, then went downhill around season 7. The main villains were getting dumb and there would be idiotic standalone plots that would randomly appear just to placate the more obnoxious portions of the fanbase. I like monster of the week episodes and occasional funny episodes. But they have to make sense and they can't be cringey. Though it had been slowly climbing back up in quality and the last season was almost on par with the first few seasons.

I think it's probably harder to think of shows that didn't get worse in later seasons than those that maintain quality. Even I Love Lucy significantly dropped in quality when they moved to the house. Right now, the only show I can think of that didn't dip and maintained its quality until the end is Chuck. Maybe some animated shows because the lines between seasons with those are more blurred.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I think it's probably harder to think of shows that didn't get worse in later seasons than those that maintain quality. Even I Love Lucy significantly dropped in quality when they moved to the house. Right now, the only show I can think of that didn't dip and maintained its quality until the end is Chuck. Maybe some animated shows because the lines between seasons with those are more blurred.

For I Love Lucy, even if you didn't like the Connecticut episodes (I personally did and loved the cavernous house set), it didn't turn the show from a great show to a disappointing one. I don't think any drop in quality was to that extreme, but that's just me. The biggest sustained laugh they ever got was the Connecticut one where Lucy has a blouse full of eggs that get crushed when dancing with Ricky.

My initial example of Lost was used because as a whole, the series was disappointing because it really had no intention of fully explaining anything even though they knew fans were all over the Internet debating every millisecond of the show. Even though I watched the entire series in 3 weeks, I felt disappointed when all was said and done. I can only imagine how people felt after they devoted 6 years of their life to it.

I think that, even though it also had its faults, Smallville was better at introducing and building a complex mythology and complex character interrelationships and resolving things with no important unanswered questions. I would guess Smallville was somewhat of an inspiration to the creators of Lost even though they may never have acknowledged it. Smallville had the advantage of being able to do episodes that weren't about the mythology or where it was secondary so that you could just enjoy the superheroics and the relationships between all the characters. People may have been bummed that Welling didn't really wear the costume, but I was ok with it and certainly didn't feel that the entire series was invalidated by not using the costume. Actually, I feel that if all of a sudden he was in full costume, it would have felt out of place and weird given the feel of this particular series.

[comicscollector]

Stranger Things.
This looked like a Tv Show that i would like,being set in the 80´s,having influences from the Stephen King stories,and being a Sci Fi/Horror series.
But i could just manage to watch a few episodes before geting bored by it,and giving up in this Tv Show.

[KurtW95]

For I Love Lucy, even if you didn't like the Connecticut episodes (I personally did and loved the cavernous house set), it didn't turn the show from a great show to a disappointing one. I don't think any drop in quality was to that extreme, but that's just me. The biggest sustained laugh they ever got was the Connecticut one where Lucy has a blouse full of eggs that get crushed when dancing with Ricky.

It didn't make it bad, but it wasn't nearly as good IMO.

[Conch22]

First season of Supergirl was a disappointment, feel it's gotten better each season.

Archer after season 2 I felt suffered a serious dip in quality overall.

Orphan Black. Season 2 had really bad pacing, 3 had a terrible actor and story arc around the male clone, stopped caring and stopped watching after that.

Watched the pilot of The Outpost a few weeks ago and that wasn't good. Cliched, main character was a Mary Sue, cheap effects and fight choreography.

The character of Vi ruined the second season of Orange is the New Black for me. Felt they were trying too hard to make her happen. Felt very forced. I could see what they were going for, it was incredibly obvious, just felt they really didn't actualize her as an interesting character.

[SpiderClops]

Legion season 2. It's super unpopular opinion, but I did not like it at all. I couldn't even bother to watch the last two episodes.

[Immortal Weapon]

Nope, you're right. they would have to turn the ending into a hentai OVA like Green Green: Erolutions OVA.

Green Green is originally an eroge so the OVA becoming what it did didn't phase me.

I think Air Gear deserves a mention. Not only did it stop but it was done in a way that felt that encourage viewers to read the manga if they want to continue the story.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Nope, you're right. they would have to turn the ending into a hentai OVA like Green Green: Erolutions OVA.

I forgot to add a few more shows such as Tactical Roar, Ai Yori Aoshi, Love Hina, Card Captor Sakura, Bakuon!!, Campione!, Princess Lover, Psychic Academy, Zettai karen Children and especially Tsukuyomi~ Moon Phase. I hate it when an anime ending raises questions rather than concluding the story. For instance, the main villain (Hazuki's father) still hasn't even made a single appearance in 26 episodes of the anime Moon Phase which covers only half of the manga material.

Most, if not ALL anime based on manga are bound to have either bad, rushed, confusing or just plain incomplete endings since the manga are still ongoing at the time the show is produced. And since the manga-ka isn't about to cut his or her own throat by providing the studio with an ending (thus rendering the comic null and void), producers are forced into cobble together endings out of whole cloth, and, more often than not, it winds up disappointing.