TV shows that ended up DISAPPOINTING you [SPOILERS]

[Osiris-Rex]

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.

I don't really remember much about the final season of Batman. I think maybe it had gotten too silly for me and I stopped watching. I was 14 at the time so maybe not the target audience.
But lack of sets? The whole mythology of why NBC didn't pick up the series was all the sets were destroyed after ABC cancelled Batman. So if there were no sets anyway, why would it have
mattered to NBC?

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I don't really remember much about the final season of Batman. I think maybe it had gotten too silly for me and I stopped watching. I was 14 at the time so maybe not the target audience.
But lack of sets? The whole mythology of why NBC didn't pick up the series was all the sets were destroyed after ABC cancelled Batman. So if there were no sets anyway, why would it have
mattered to NBC?

There were the standing sets of Wayne Manor, The Batcave, Commissioner Gordon's office, and Barbara Gordon's apartment that were full sets and were seen even in Season 3, but sets-of-the-week like for villains' headquarters were often just a big room with some props and furniture, but no walls. Even windows were just placed in the middle of the room with nothing or a wall behind them rather than a cityscape backdrop.

Further, to accommodate Barbara Gordon's apartment for Season 3, one can notice that the main drawing room set of Wayne Manor was taken down. Only the Wayne Manor study with the entrance to the Batcave behind the bookcase was seen by that point.

It was the standing sets that were destroyed after production wrapped for Season 3, so no Batcave, no Season 4. It would have cost too much to rebuild and NBC didn't want to do that.

[DennisTheMenace]

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.

Qantum Leap was unexpectedly cancelled. The 'finale' wasn't meant to be a finale at all but they had to do something because they weren't coming back.

[Kirby101]

Qantum Leap was unexpectedly cancelled. The 'finale' wasn't meant to be a finale at all but they had to do something because they weren't coming back.

They should not have sent Sam away again. Just trying for a twist resulted in dissappointment.

[Kal-El Summers]

Since I just saw a promo for the Mayans series, I'll put Sons of Anarchy out there. Started off with two damn good seasons(Henry Rollins was such a great antagonist) and then the arc of them going to Belfast in season three just killed the momentum of the show and it never recovered.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

Iron Fist and The Defenders for what they did to "The Hand" (◔_◔)

The final season retool of New York Undercover...i mean wtf was THAT??!!!

LOST.....OMFG!!! LOST

the last 2 seasons of the TMNT 2003 cartoon. I just ignore them and and pretend the show ended after the "lost" season 5.

[ChrisIII]

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.

To be fair, that's kind of how the comic has gone. In some ways the TV series is actually a bit less depressing at times (Judith, for instance, dies at the prison, whereas she's been alive a long time in the TV show).

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

To be fair, that's kind of how the comic has gone. In some ways the TV series is actually a bit less depressing at times (Judith, for instance, dies at the prison, whereas she's been alive a long time in the TV show).

See, i kinda disagree with this. IMO the comic has the same pacing but it's A LOT less soapy then the tv show. The show leans on mellow drama with some survival horror sprinkled in, while the comic leans on survival horror with mellow drama sprinkled in. Either way, given the subject matter you would think that people would know what to expect from the show and the books. Having said that i feel that the TellTale games balanced the drama and horror a lot better than either.

[trooper_thorn]

The X-Files: It was good up until the first film, afterwards it became apparent that they didn't have any overarching story line planned out. It eventually just collapsed under the weight of all the conspiracies they kept creating.

Supernatural: They should have ended it after season five, Swan Song tied up the major plot lines in a fairly satisfying manner. Every major story since has either been disappointing (Leviathans and Metatron) or a poorly disguised rehash of the earlier seasons (Darkness).

The Simpsons: I don't think this requires any explanation.

[Carabas]

The X-Files: It was good up until the first film, afterwards it became apparent that they didn't have any overarching story line planned out.

I think they had one planned, and that it was a rather good one, but it was supposed to end in season 4, and the show lasts over twice that long.

[AnakinFlair]

I like Buffy very much but after season 3? Meh.

Which wasn't only a disappointment for me at that time but also pretty sad cause as i said, i loved the damn thing. (and still do, in a more nostalgic way)

Now, it never became unwatchable for me, even at its worst, but it's like eating a cheap steak when you're used to eat veal.

Another weird thing, a detail but funny, was Gellar's stunt double who was way heavier than her. And you so can't tell during action sequences lol.

Really? Season 3? I've always felt that Season 5 was the high point, and it started going downhill after that. And Gellar looked emaciated in Season 7. I honestly thought she was sick or something, she was so thin.

Battlestar Galactica, the more recent series: This is a series that I point to as an example of why show runners should actually plot out their whole series in advance. Maybe not individual story beats, but a general outline at least. After they found the first 'Earth', which was a wasteland, it felt like they didn't know how they were going to end the show. And they sure as hell didn't know they were going to make Chief Tyrol a Cylon, which resulted in a horrible storyline for Cally and their kid.

Arrow and Flash have been disappointing me for a while now. Arrow since Season 4 with their needlessly killing off Laurel. Flash started in season 3 with the Savitar reveal getting dragged out for too long and Tom Feltons' character being reduced to a nothing part, and Season 4 became unwatchable for me. The Thinker was terrible and the fact that his wife just got to walk away after all of this when she was compliant in the murder of a dozen people was a joke. Arrow- I watched clips after the midseason break, but I haven't watched the full episodes. And the fact that Oliver had to beg the FBI to help stop a criminal who had taken over a major American city, and that the FBI wouldn't do anything until he confessed to being the Green Arrow, was the most ri-goddamn-diculous things I've ever seen. And the whole break-up over the team because Oliver put the newbies under surveillance was beyond stupid.

[Nate Grey]

Earth: Final Conflict. Season 1-4 = Taelons, Season 5...Atavus aka energy vampires. :/

[Nate Grey]

Battlestar Galactica, the more recent series: This is a series that I point to as an example of why show runners should actually plot out their whole series in advance. Maybe not individual story beats, but a general outline at least. After they found the first 'Earth', which was a wasteland, it felt like they didn't know how they were going to end the show. And they sure as hell didn't know they were going to make Chief Tyrol a Cylon, which resulted in a horrible storyline for Cally and their kid.

This. 1000x this. I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Though I wonder if half of these decisions were based on having little to no budget, but for all I know they had a large budget and chose to make them anyway. And you mention Tyrol, heck what good came out of making any of the final five Cylons? They didn't go anywhere with it, other than giving Cavil more reasons to chew scenery (screwing his "mom" and torturing his "dad").

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Really? Season 3? I've always felt that Season 5 was the high point, and it started going downhill after that. And Gellar looked emaciated in Season 7. I honestly thought she was sick or something, she was so thin.

Battlestar Galactica, the more recent series: This is a series that I point to as an example of why show runners should actually plot out their whole series in advance. Maybe not individual story beats, but a general outline at least. After they found the first 'Earth', which was a wasteland, it felt like they didn't know how they were going to end the show. And they sure as hell didn't know they were going to make Chief Tyrol a Cylon, which resulted in a horrible storyline for Cally and their kid.

Arrow and Flash have been disappointing me for a while now. Arrow since Season 4 with their needlessly killing off Laurel. Flash started in season 3 with the Savitar reveal getting dragged out for too long and Tom Feltons' character being reduced to a nothing part, and Season 4 became unwatchable for me. The Thinker was terrible and the fact that his wife just got to walk away after all of this when she was compliant in the murder of a dozen people was a joke. Arrow- I watched clips after the midseason break, but I haven't watched the full episodes. And the fact that Oliver had to beg the FBI to help stop a criminal who had taken over a major American city, and that the FBI wouldn't do anything until he confessed to being the Green Arrow, was the most ri-goddamn-diculous things I've ever seen. And the whole break-up over the team because Oliver put the newbies under surveillance was beyond stupid.

The problem with season 5 is that it’s bookended by season 4 and 6 which among fandom are universally considered the worst seasons. And season 7 is at best comparable to season 1. So there’s only real one real quality season of high caliber after season 3.

[David Walton]

They should not have sent Sam away again. Just trying for a twist resulted in dissappointment.

You know, with all the 90s shows getting second chances these days, QUANTUM LEAP deserves a sequel series.