Thursday, January 14, 2016

What shows do you no longer watch?

Here in the colonies, DOWNTON ABBEY is back for its final season. Across the pond it has already aired. I used to be a huge DOWNTON ABBEY fan. Absolutely adored the first year. Year two was not as good. The World War I stuff was interesting but only to a point. Year three contained some turns I really hated (notably the death of several characters --- in one case ridiculously so). And the storytelling bothered me. The family loses all its money but miraculously a character discovers he has a long-long relative who dies and leaves him a fortune. Come on!!!  For writers, this is a cardinal sin – characters need to work through their problems not conveniently get bailed out.

I began watching season four but after two episodes I was done. So I won’t be watching this final year. I don’t care what happens to Lady Mary or Anna or Mr. Carson or whether the estate is sold to Ringo Starr or whatever.

This is not the first series I once loved and eventually abandoned. Season one of TRUE DETECTIVE was fantastic. Twelve minutes of season two was all I could stand. ORPHAN BLACK went from my favorite show to utterly insane in two-and-a-half years. And I know they have their fans (and if you’re one of them, God bless you) but goodbye to RAY DONOVAN and THE AFFAIR. I loved THE AMERICANS when it first came on, but it became Boris & Natasha in suburbia. Friends have said that it’s gotten better but with serialized shows it’s hard to jump back in. I’ll live without THE AMERICANS.

Sometimes a show goes off the rails storytelling-wise and other times a sameness just creeps in that after awhile gets to be too much. MODERN FAMILY and BIG BANG THEORY are two very well-crafted shows, but they’ve lost that freshness their early seasons contained. At least for me.

Meanwhile, some series like JUSTIFIED, THE SOPRANOS, BREAKING BAD, HOUSE OF CARDS, THE GOOD WIFE, and MAD MEN (although I had to slog through the last few seasons – figure it out already, Don) still held (or hold) my interest.

But I pose the question to you – what shows are you now no longer watching? And why’d you hop off that train? I’m sure for every show someone lists there will be three who say that’s their favorite. And that’s the fun of today.  So lemme hear from you (and I continue to moderate the comments to civility will reign), which show are to you what DOWNTON ABBEY is to me? Thanks.

102 comments :

Jeremiah Avery said...

I've found that "Modern Family" has become that with me. Just found it less and less funny as time progressed. A sign my interest was waning was when I'd see several episodes on my DVR still not watched and I wasn't particularly in any rush to do so. I eventually caught up but didn't really find myself laughing or even being amused.

Likewise, I don't watch "Castle" anymore. I used to really enjoy it but for whatever reason I just couldn't get back into it and don't miss it. The same with "New Girl".

With "Downton Abbey", I guess I'm still watching it to see how it all ends but some characters I could not care any less about.

404 said...

To be fair, it wasn't a long-lost relative. It was the ex-fiance he jilted who left him that money. Damn, I can't believe I know that.

anyway, I can't think of a current show that fits the bill, but GLEE was one that I really liked in the beginning that went downhill fast. There was a point halfway through one of the seasons where I just realized I hated each and every character in that show and had no interest in their lives anymore.

I am, however, hoping this is the last season of CASTLE, because it's starting to get old.

croquemore said...

I left Scandal after last year. It was always a "trainwreck" show for me. A guilty pleasure that became not so much a pleasure. I left Girls after season two. Bye Bye American Horror Story and I left Shameless last season midway through but came back over the holidays and absolutely loved the season and am energized for this season. There is a lot of really good television out there right now and for me, time is limited. So the writing A-game has to be there or my attention is drawn elsewhere.

DonR said...

I liked the first few episodes of "Last Man on Earth" with Will Forte. Then he began to meet other survivors and it became repetitive -- the new people were jerks, and Will's character turned out to be an even bigger jerk. I hung in, figuring it would be one-and-done, and I think the season actually finished on a neat note, with Kristen Schaal's character coming back for him. Then they announced season two, and the first couple of episodes with just will and Kristen were pretty good, focusing on how the two adapted to one another. Then the rest of the cast came back and it became more of the same. By episode 4 I was gone and won't be coming back.

Anonymous said...

Everyone went apeshit over MADMEN. It was the greatest cultural achievement of Our Time, spawned ripoff series and people put Megan Draper's ye-ye song on their Ipods. It's gone now ("Mad who??). Maybe that's how we'll consume shows in the future: eat and move on.

emily said...

At my house, GRINDER rests, CSI Cyber has been deleted, and the Good Wife is on life support.

Richard Y said...

Started watching House of Cards that everyone was raving about. Interesting, clever, and enjoyed the program. Up until episode 10 or 11 of the first season then it became boring to me. watched a few more and I fell off the wagon.

Like you, there have been others of course over time that (for me at least) come on strong and then just fade away. Perhaps it is me as I know that this series is well liked but I got tired of it

Anthony Host said...

While it isn't on the air anymore, I was hooked on Desperate Housewives. I remember in Season 2, it had the typical "sophomore slump" but I stuck by the show especially due to some interesting moments, particularly all of Marcia Cross' storylines for which she was robbed of an Emmy win, let alone a nomination.

I do feel the show really rebounded in Season 3 and also the condensed Season 4 was fairly well done. I think what helped Season 3 was the mystery was a drastic improvement over Season 2's debacle and with Marcia Cross' pregnancy, they ended the mystery midway through the Season. It was a refreshing change....and during Season 4, the writers strike cut the episodes down by 6 or 7 which kept the season a little more on its toes without dragging.

Then....
Season 5 happened. The five year jump...at first it seemed to be a nice change but it just didn't work out and then that season's mystery was basically resolved by most people after 1-3 episodes. I still stuck through it despite the fact it was getting weaker and weaker.

Season 6 lost me. Part of the problem is the show became too involved with its gimmicks of season long mysteries and then found another with the "November Sweeps Disaster" episodes. First there was the AMAZING supermarket hostage episode that involved Laurie Metcalf. After that, we got a tornado in Season 4, a fire in Season 5 and then a random bickering couple crashing an airplane on Wisteria Lane during a party...this was the last episode I actually watched before I lost interest.

Carol said...

Fun question!

I watched Downton Abbey the first year and liked it. Got annoyed about 1/3 of the way through the second series, and quit.

I also stopped watching House after he and Cuddy got together. That's a show that should have ended after 5 years. They just ran out of plot. Hugh Laurie was consistently excellent, it should be added.

Lost and Heroes are both shows I loved in the beginning, but drifted away from.

I watched How I Met Your Mother to the bitter end and still regret it.

I have to admit I didn't watch much Cheers in later years. It frankly annoyed me how stupid they made Rebecca in later episodes. Sorry. I did watch the finale though.

Jim S said...

A lot of Showtime shows. I really liked Homeland in season 1, despite its plot holes. Had problems with season 2 because of the plot holes. Quit midway through season 3. Producers, sometimes you have to kill your babies.

Dexter. Don't get me started. I stuck with Dexter for a long time. I basically only watched the last season to see its ending. Then the last show of Dexter coincided with the last or second to last show of Breaking Bad. Watched BB, have no intention of ever watching Dexter's last episode.

The Sopranos killed X-Files for me. They were both on at 9 p.m. on Sundays back in 1999. I really liked the Sopranos and figured I would catch up with X-Files. Never bothered. Don't even care that it's coming back.

ER lost me when Clooney left. Replacing popular characters can be tricky.

Alan Iverson said...

The Golden Age of Television... they call it. Perhaps, short-term.

DOWNTON ABBEY and ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK had terrific first seasons, but declined rapidly thereafter. (OITNB did tap their source material dry, though.)

BOARDWALK EMPIRE had three quality seasons before falling off a cliff and THE WALKING DEAD had 6 wonderful EPISODES. (At least Frank Darabont got his season right.) GAME OF THRONES is a shadow of its former self and even melodramas like REVENGE and ONCE UPON A TIME couldn't sustain their quality past the first 22 eps.

Are writers being hurried through the scripting process, or are the shows being stretched beyond their natural life?





MellaBlue said...

American Horror Story. I loved the first two seasons, thought the third season was a hot mess, skipped season four altogether, and watched one episode of the current season before deciding that Lady Gaga was a poor substitute for Jessica Lange and that I had better ways to spend my time.

J. Allison said...

Family Guy comes to mind. I'm not sure if it's even still on, but we gave up a few years ago. It had plenty of funny moments early on, but then it seemed the idea was to see how far they could push things. I've heard it said that you know something is in bad taste when the audience doesn't laugh. We stopped laughing and just quit watching.

We're on the edge with Modern Family. It still has the occasional chuckle but has become pretty bland.

Eduardo Jencarelli said...

Agreed on True Detective and Modern Family. I only still watch Levitan's show because I started it and don't like to quit halfway through. And the longer Pizzolatto takes to produce season 3 of True Detective, the better.

In other news, this week has reminded me how much I hate internet journalism. Somehow, the upcoming NBC tribute to Jim Burrows is being advertised as a FRIENDS reunion. We don't even know if the six actors will even appear together, let alone what the actual content of the tribute will be.

Eduardo Jencarelli said...

Also, back on topic, I nearly quit HOUSE OF CARDS back in season 1. That option remains open depending on season 4's outcome.

The last show I honestly quit was ALCATRAZ (2011), one of the many shows J.J. Abrams was making at the time.

Covarr said...

I completely ran out of patience with THE WALKING DEAD. The first season was, in my opinion, okay. Not terrible, not amazing, but there was potential for growth. But then season two came along, and it seemed like everything was artificial, contrived drama. Characters (especially Lori) would invent reasons to be mad at each other out of thin air. When you don't have any real or consistent character motivation behind your drama and people are arguing just because the plot requires them to, that's what I stop watching.

It's not a currently-running show, but HOUSE lost me for the same reason. Season 6 got off to such an amazing start with its two-parter "The Broken", but just a few episodes later it was falling into the same sort of nonsense with episodes like "The Dictator", in which Cameron gets mad at chase for doing what she said. Near the end of the season, the episode "Knight Fall" introduced a major plot twist to the episode right before the commercial break and then proceeded to never bring it up again.

Drama really shouldn't be its own catalyst. For it to actually mean anything and engage the viewer, it needs to be sparked by something we already have a vested interest in, tie into the story in a meaningful way, and eventually resolve. When I see writing like this, where the drama is the alpha and the omega, and not actually supporting character development in any meaningful or consistent way, it just makes me wanna punch my TV.

Anonymous said...

After a few seasons of The Sopranos, I just said Why am I watching this?

normadesmond said...

american horror story. season 2 with the nazi in the attic pushed me over the edge.
homeland. i was merely finished.

as for downton, i agree that some story lines are eye-rolling,
but it's not the story that i come back for, it's the characters.
if i can hear mrs. patmore's voice everyday, life is a titch better.

Terry said...

For me it is The Walking Dead. I am not a huge fan of zombie shows and movies to begin with, but everyone told me this one was different. And it was. At least for the first season. I was hooked right away. But then by season 2 it became kind of repetitive (my God, will they ever leave this farm???) and by season 3 I was done. The show had just become so grim and depressing. It became impossible to get invested in any characters because you never knew who was going to die. I realize that's kind of a selling point these days but I think it's been done (excuse me for saying this) to death at this point.

My main problem was that the show was so relentless in its grimness. It never let up. If I want grim and depressing I'll turn on the news. There's more than enough of that in the real world. I don't need it from my entertainment too.

Carol said...

@ Alan Iverson - oh, yeah, Once Upon a Time! That's a show that would have benefited from being a British show - shorter series and less beholden to the advertisers, so no need to drain the well dry.

RobEB said...

I agree with you Ken on ORPHAN BLACK. Too much crazy shit for me to keep watching. ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK has slipped, but I continue to watch anyway. I'm on the fence about picking up THE X FILES when it reboots on Fox. I enjoyed it in the past, but in the middle of it's run years ago it went WAY off the rails for my taste...

Jake said...

I quit THE WALKING DEAD after the prison-flu episode and never looked back. I watched one season of NASHVILLE and PRISON BREAK, two of HOUSE and LAST MAN STANDING. Right now I'm wavering on FRESH OFF THE BOAT, which is very uneven this season; the two-month stretch between new episodes doesn't even faze me. I don't know if I'll even pick it up again.

1955david said...

jessica jones,
The Knick
Badlands
Homeland
Mr Robot
It seems to me, that these long series nowadays have no relief from grief. Every episode is anxiety filled and the following shows are laden with more upheaval. Sometimes it's nice to relax and breath. For me at least.

Tom said...

I still like BBT, but Modern Family has definitely lost it. I think they slumped badly 2 years ago and had a pretty good rebound season last year, but I think they've really slid again. I know it's hard to keep fresh, and as Ken has said flawed characters are funnier than perfect ones, but it seems like now that with the exception of Haley (who has actually grown in a way consistent with her character) they're just exaggerating the worst aspects of each for broad gags. It just appears to me that they're coming at it backwards, with the gags defining the characters rather than having the characters set up the scenes.

tavm said...

Easy, "2 Broke Girls" which became the same old concerning pointless dirty humor...

Roger Owen Green said...

The first episode of the second season of 24 was so horrific, morally, that I all but quit it then. And, BTW, SCOTUS member Scalia cited 24/Jack Bauer as a justification for as to why use of torture is necessary "in times of great crisis".

Jason said...

It WOULD be Walking Dead, but my wife won't stop. Tell me again why the world is pretty much made up only of woods filled with immortal zombies? Was the whole country camping when the plague hit?

Barry Rivadue said...

I stopped watching THE SIMPSONS about ten years ago.

I know this goes back to the Stone Age, but unlike DOWNTON ABBEY, its spiritual ancestor, UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS, lasted five seasons and was always terrific, with a final season that did everything right. A shame its shortlived sequel in 2010 was totally steamrolled by DOWNTON, but then it wasn't all that promising either.

BobinVT said...

Don't watch much in the way of series TV, but everyone raved about Downton Abbey so much that I tried it. Started the year Sybil died. Found myself liking it less and less with each season. Finishing last year was like eating broccoli, I forced myself. Could only stomach half of this year's first episode, I'm done. I found over time that some of the characters grated on me more and more until they became insufferable. Particularly Carson..."how dare you insinuate that my lord's feces are odiferous?" And of course Bates. Every time he appears on screen, I want to follow Elvis's lead and shoot the TV. And Bates has succeeded in dragging Anna down with him. Has there ever been a more contrivance driven subplot than their romance, her rape and both of their murder charges. Talk about silly and annoying. Can't stand Robert and Lady Grantham either. Robert is a stumblebum throughout the series, then suddenly, as Mary says, he's Macchiavellian. Elizabeth McGovern's Lady Grantham always looks like she's been sucking lemons. Speaking of Mary, has there ever been a bigger bitch? I liked Edith until the Marigold thing got replayed endlessly. They should have never killed off her boyfriend. Is he even dead? The only likable characters are/were downstairs. Mrs. Hughes (until she fell for Carson). Tom, and the lovable loser Molesley. But overall, what do people see in these characters? I admire Julian Fellowes for creating and writing the show, but it's gone on at least two seasons too long.

kent said...

Person of Interest lost me when it went from cop show to The Matrix.

CRL said...

After about a dozen years of automatic viewing, I recently realized that there were probably more episodes of The Simpsons that I haven't watched than of episodes that I have.

Pizzagod said...

The biggest letdown for me is that I can't make myself watch any of the current season of House of Cards. I know it's there-but I can't get into it.

I am all about shows going out on a high, or even too soon. I watched all of Deadwood recently, and even though there are things I'd like to have seen, I think it's better to go out on top. Ditto Justified-and honestly, get ready to toss brickbats at me....Chuck. I really did like that quirky show, and thought that their series finale was one of the best wrap ups of all time (I WANT to say that about Burn Notice-but really, EVERYBODY gets to work in their catch phrase? Shoulda ended two years sooner).

If Person of Interest ever comes back, this should be the last year for them, and ya know, Family Guy just ain't what it used to be.

Other than that....Agents of Shield. Really, drop it and let's get on with Agent Carter.

Unknown said...

After season 48 I felt the Simpson jumped the shark

The Bumble Bee Pendant said...

I've given up on all 1 hour shows as being require watching.
too little time.

I think sitcoms are easier to stick with, even if they aren't as good. Generally, they are only 30 minutes, and I'll usually laugh at least once.
I will get rid of sitcoms once they become annoying where i'm angry if i watch it (2 Broke girls).

If i have to yell at the TV, "That character would never do that", or "shut the fuck up already" then it's time to shut it off.


Unknown said...

I still watch Modern Family, but in re-runs. When I catch a "new" episode, I'm amazed at how much the kids have grown. I wonder if part of the loss of appeal is with the kids being bigger and goofier looking. When they are cute kids, and get older and lose their cuteness, it detracts. We still laugh at the show.
Heroes and X-files is an example of shows moving around time slots that I lost track of, and when I did find them, weren't interesting enough to track.
Still keep track of Dr. Who.

p.s. Speaking of the irrelevance of Golden Globes, Stars Wars didn't receive an oscar best picture nomination, but Steve Jobs did? I think that shows it is irrelevant of a process. Every year it is like this.

Anonymous said...

Broadchurch. Season 1 was fantastic and I couldn't wait for each episode. Season 2 was the most disappointed I've ever been in a second season of any show. Instead of crafting a unique storyline for the season season, the show lazily dragged forward the season 1 storyline even that it had already been well wrapped up. A terrific show and its story were completely ruined.

Unknown said...

OK, mis-read the news about best picture nomination going to Steve Jobs. I'm wrong. But there is room for Star Wars. I'm not a geek, but it was a good movie.

Brian Fies said...

My wife and I are just about done with "Once Upon a Time." It's always been dumb, but it used to be "fun dumb" and now it just seems "stupid dumb" to us.

My argument with people who complain that "Downton Abbey" isn't as good as it used to be is that it was ALWAYS a fluffy soap opera. It's Edwardian "Dynasty." I'm with them til the end.

We gave up on original-flavor CSI after the seventh or eighth (I lost track) uncatchable genius serial killer.

Agreed that "House" went a couple of seasons too long. It should have ended when the original team split up, if not before.

Liked the first few seasons of "The Mentalist." They lost us when they ended a season with the death of Patrick Jane's psycho nemesis Red John, wonderfully played by Bradley Whitford, then came back in the fall and told us they were just kidding, it wasn't really him. The show chickened out and we realized it wasn't playing fair, so we left.

Diving into ancient history, I left "Northern Exposure" soon after Rob Morrow did. I admired what they tried to do afterward, hanging a lantern on the difficulty of replacing his character, but the magic was gone.

Nick Alexander said...

When it was on, we gave up "How I Met Your Mother" around season 6, briefly tried to jump back during the season premiere of its last, and gave up after ten minutes. The brilliant screenwriters of the original episodes went on to do THE LEGO MOVIE.

Barry Rivadue said...

Me again. I'll admit I have way less an attention span than I used to, so committing to a hour series is a huge thing. That's why Seinfeld's Comedians/Coffee is just right. Few episodes exceed 20 minutes. No complicated storylines. Just nicely edited conversations between comedic people and g'bye!

cd1515 said...

Scandal.
it was great in year 1 when Olivia and the crew were fixing things and actually did work.
now it's all about either a) her & the President, or b) her parents.
both are tired.

Girls I enjoyed for a year, then slowly realized I didn't care about or even like any of the characters, and I had my "why am I watching this?" moment.

but hey, all shows get worse the longer they're on.
sorry Ken, even Cheers.
the last few years Rebecca went from smart foil to sniveling idiot, and no it didn't make her funnier.

Steve said...

Ken, I'm with you on Orphan Black and the Americans but recommend you give The Knick and Manhattan a try.

David Das said...

I loved HOUSE MD for most of its run -- even with the replacement team and then the return of the originals -- it was consistently clever even though the overall plot was always the same. But in its final season, with the new new team, it took a bizarre turn, with forced phoned-in writing. Hugh Laurie was consistent, but the plots were just laughably fake, and the character friction was unacceptably forced, and if you've ever watched House, that show is entirely based around the character friction. I found season 8 unwatchable. But the rest of it is very good.

By contrast, I enjoyed SEINFELD all the way through its run, even after Larry David's departure. In fact, I think the increasing absurdity made it more and more wonderful, and some of the latter episodes are some of the most-beloved classics.

Unknown said...

American Horror Story. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ain't no Jessica Lange.

Milton the Momzer said...

My wife still watches it but I gave up on Criminal Minds several years ago. I got tired of watching "Sick Fuck of the Week".

Hank Gillette said...

Bones. I liked the first few seasons, even though in the Kathy Reichs books Temperance Brennan was a much more rounded and realistic character.

TV writers seem to have a problem writing very intelligent characters, so they tend to make them stupid in other ways. They made Brennan socially ignorant and clueless about popular culture. She was so detached from ordinary people that she was unable to make her testimony understandable to the average juror. This, despite the fact that she was able to write best-selling mystery novels. WTF?

Then, they started with the super-villains who did things that were clearly impossible. Even worse, they made Brennan’s intern Zack a super-villain’s protégé without explaining his motivation or reasons, which I think is the worst thing done to a TV character since the Mission Impossible movie made Jim Phelps a traitor.

The problem with television dramas having continuing story lines is that they feel they have to raise the ante every year, eventually creating ridiculous levels of peril for the characters. Person of Interest, Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, The Mentalist, and Burn Notice all deteriorated in quality due to this.

I also dropped Two Broke Girls after writing a review about it for TV.com. Reading my review made me ask myself, “Why am I watching this crap?”. I find writing a review of a show a useful exercise to crystallize my thoughts about a show that I watch out of habit.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ken,

I'm totally with you Orphan Black- it went from great to flat out -makes NO sense! I disagree with you on The Americans- still love it. Ray Donovan? I can see your point but I still like it. The Affair is one of those "cheese" shows but it's always been "cheese" so it doesn't bother me. --LL

Hank Gillette said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RyderDA said...

GLEE. Loved Season 1. Bought a lot of the music. Season 2: The Dalton Academy Warblers were fantastic. Bought the music. Somewhere around Season 3 I realized that Sue would have not just been fired but jailed for her antics. "Incredibly repetitive" was the watchword. Didn't buy any music. In 3 and later seasons, they added new characters but couldn't move off the old ones. Then some left, but they didn't actually. Bought no music in the last few years. Still (slowly) plodding my way through the final seasons on DVD because I just quit watching them on TV when Sue was still not in jail. Watching is almost painful. I'm hoping for something will change to improve it, but don't know what it is. And it's cancelled now so no matter.

Frank Beans said...

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but THE WIRE: Seasons 1-4 are phenomenal--gripping, incredible story arcs and character development, with a real heart and brain and profound social conscience. Truly lives up to the "best television ever" accolades it gets from so many.

Season 5 (the last) just sucks. And worse, it sh*ts the bed, as it tramples the legacies of some key characters. Without giving any spoilers for anyone wants to subject themselves to it, the plots are just pointless and dull. Should never have been made, as season 4 leaves the series on a perfect poignant note.

Jerry said...

Shit, Ken... where do I even begin? I'm with you on MODERN FAMILY and THE AMERICANS. Not so much on JUSTIFIED. People mentioned MAD MEN, WALKING DEAD, ONCE UPON A TIME, FAMILY GUY and THE SIMPSONS. Hell, throw FUTURAMA in there while we're at it. CASTLE I'll give a special mention, as that was, at one point, my FAVORITE show on television (and I generally don't watch procedurals), but after he and Beckett got together, they lost it fast (though the rear window episode was good...). COMMUNITY was another favorite, but I couldn't get through that last season they put out on Yahoo!. One show I WISH I had stopped watching was CHUCK, as that got flat-out insulting. THAT 70'S SHOW got bad. SCRUBS--my God, that got atrocious ("look audience, this is exactly why each one of our characters is FUNNY!"). Anyway, the list goes on and on and on...

A previous commenter touched upon something that I found to be profoundly true: it doesn't really matter how "good" the show is, but how much it EXCITES you. If you find a "good" show of yours slipping lower and lower on your DVR's to-watch list, chances are you're not very excited to watch it. In which case, they're doing something wrong. That's how I measure a show's quality these days. By asking myself how excited am I to see the next episode. And the only show currently on the air whose next episode I can honestly say I'm excited to see is, funnily enough, STEVEN UNIVERSE.

DwWashburn said...

Well, I only watch three scripted shows (Modern Family, Big Bang, Muppets) so I don't have a huge library to choose from.

The only currently running show that I have abandoned is the Simpsons, but I did that in Season 8 or 9. They episode where the whole town laughed at a character's funeral nailed their coffin shut for me. I've watched probably a half dozen episodes since then and have not laughed once. How it's still on the air is beyond me.

Mike Barer said...

I stopped watching the TBS version of Dallas, when the plot got too absurd (as if it wasn't already), it was cancelled after the season. I have a feeling that The Veep will not be as good in this year's season.

Gwendolyn said...

I gave up on Downton after season one. Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother lasted a little longer. The Big Bang Theory was great the first three or four seasons…. til they turned it into Friends. (The actress is just fine but Amy Farrah Fowler 's lines make me cringe.)

James Prichard said...

I was all in during the first two seasons of Orphan, mostly because of the incredible performance(s) by Tatiana Maslany, but I quit watching when it went off the rails in season 3. I also lost interest in a couple of Netflix originals, Sense8 (too high concept) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (not very funny). What amazes me are the current shows that continue to improve with each season, like Bob's Burgers, Veep, The Americans (sorry, Ken), and Fargo.

Anonymous said...

From Jan:

I stopped watching "Modern Family" a couple of years ago. I just didn't care about most of the characters, and I found Clare to be so unpleasant that I didn't even want to see her. Also, it was the same old gags all the time, and the characters became more like caricatures. It just stopped being funny.

"Once Upon a Time": watched the first season and then got bored when they started adding more and more characters. Don’t miss it at all.

“The Walking Dead”: Watched the first season, and possibly the second, but it got to be such a trial because NOTHING happened for the longest time. So SLOW! It always seemed like way more than an hour in length. I’ve heard the last season was better, but I don’t care anymore.

As Kent said, “Person of Interest lost me when it went from cop show to The Matrix.” Yup.

And I couldn’t have put it any better than Milton the Momzer: “I gave up on Criminal Minds several years ago. I got tired of watching "Sick Fuck of the Week."

While I liked the first season of “True Detective,” I watched a few episodes of the second season, was bored beyond belief, and quit watching at all.

I’m still watching “Bones,” although I really don’t like their arc murderers who seem more supernatural than real: Gormengast and whoever it was last season that put bodies above people’s beds, etc. I much prefer the self-contained episodes. Yes, they’re predictable, and I can almost always tell who the killer is going to be, but it’s still pleasant enough for me.

On the other hand, there are plenty of shows that still keep my interest: “Fargo” was even better the second season; I still want to know what happens on “The Good Wife,” although almost everyone on the show is a truly nasty, conniving person; still enjoying “Manhattan,” and I really like “The Middle,” which has taken the place of “Modern Family” for me. Still enjoying “Shameless”—the hour flies by for me.

Anonymous said...

Jason, it's hard to stay in a city with no working industry to support it.

Anonymous said...

Frank, I liked The Wire season 5 and hated season 4, which is stupid and racist. I'm trying to think of the reaction to a President Trump who declares that the way to talk to drug dealers is by calling an assembly of all the seventh grade black boys in school.

Andy Rose said...

It's ironic you post this now, because last week's episode of "Modern Family" was the first one that I deliberately stopped watching before Act I was even over. I was bored by the end of the cold open, looked at the synopsis on my on-screen guide and discovered that the B-story wasn't going to be any better, and immediately erased it from my DVR. Never done that before.

The Simpsons... what can you say? I returned to it a few years ago when I first got a DVR, but then gave up again and haven't missed it.

I doubt I'll stop watching it, but The Middle is starting to drift for me. It's still hilarious when dealing with lower-middle-class family social awkwardness, but it seems like they're running out of those plotlines. Now they're just creating one "new friend of one of the kids" after another. It's like the producers no longer consider their own main characters interesting enough, and are hoping to create a new supporting cast that can carry them. Unnecessary.

And I mostly agree with the criticism above about the last season of The Wire. The idea of paralleling government malfeasance with journalism malfeasance was an interesting one, but it ultimately just seemed to be about David Simon punching a lot of straw men and settling personal vendettas. And then they choose to make the final shot of the series one of the most unconvincing and pointless green-screen effects I've ever seen.

benson said...

The comment about shorter attention spans really hits home.

I still like BBT a lot, but their scheduling due to TNF made it hard to watch, as I had stuff I was doing. I'll get to the latest episodes on TBS next year.

The fantasy goddess and I are getting back into Doc Martin again, after several years of not thinking about it. It's gotten a little too far away from being, tone-wise, similar to Northern Exposure and is suffering a little from "Murder She Wrote" syndrome, but it's still fun.

I love House of Cards, and we've gotten through about half of series 2, but as others have said, this show would've benefited from being shorter. The Brit original was only 12 hours total.

John Nixon said...

Judge Judy, South Park and Mariners games! I just got burned out on Judy, South Park and after being a dedicated Mariners fan for 20-some-odd years I just couldn't do it anymore as of early last season. Also Southland but only because they canceled it. I'd probably still be watching it otherwise. I don't quit many because I don't get hooked on very many TV shows but the ones I CAN watch anytime are Gotham, Fargo, Seahawks games, Nova, The Nature of Things, CBS Sunday Morning and Real Sports. I'll occasionally try a sitcom with phony laughter or an overly dramatic cop and/or forensic crime solver type show but I just can't do it. They pretty much just put me to sleep.

Earl Boebert said...

I think an equally interesting question is: "What shows do you watch over again even though you know how they turn out, and why?"

DBenson said...

-- Drifted away from "The Office" a little before Steve Carell's departure. Paradoxically it was getting too loopy and too realistically dark at the same time. Have yet to make it through "Scott's Tots".

-- Loved "Lois and Clark" the first season; there was a satiric edge and fresh twists on the Superman saga. Liked the second. After that it began to feel like they were using focus groups of Harlequin romance readers.

-- The original "Beauty and the Beast" was great fun in its first season, when you got the impression the show's makers were totally winging it. Then the Harlequin romance began to dominate (again).

-- Third season of the 1960s "Batman", when they decided they were doing a sitcom and not a tongue-in-cheek adventure.

-- "Sherlock Holmes" with Jeremy Brett stumbled when they tried to make movie-length episodes out of short stories. In the end it was a little painful, because they'd used up all but the weakest of the original stories and Brett's health was so visibly failing. There are still a few of those I haven't seen.

Kiki said...

“House” lost me after Season 4. Well, after Season 3, really, but I thought it would pick itself up again. No such luck.

“The West Wing“ was hard to stomach after Sorkin left. The drop in quality was just abysmal. Still, I stubbornly ploughed on until the bitter, saccharine end (and wished I hadn’t).

“M*A*S*H*” on the other hand, I’ve watched and re-watched all eleven seasons. My favourite ones are the later years, with Potter and Winchester. While I liked the early ones I found them rather silly.

The BBC’s “Sherlock” was okay up until Season 3. The Sherlock/Moriarty episodes were fantastic, everything after that just meh.

I have no patience for over-the-top violence and stupid US-patriotism, so I skipped “Breaking Bad”, “Dexter” or “Homefront” after only a few minutes and can’t be bothered with “Mr Robot” or “Daredevil”.

“Downton Abbey” I endured through Season 2 and then saw no incentive to return for Season 3.

“Mad Men” on the other hand, I loved every episode. Best thing since “The Wire” and the UK original series of “Cacker”, imho.

Jabroniville said...

DOWNTON ABBEY got really annoying with the stupid Ass-Pull storytelling, the convenient ways to get out of everything, the false drama (yeah, so Matthew gets bailed out by an almost-relative... and then the drama shifts to whether or not he'll ACCEPT IT because he feels guilty? Oh please), the pointless killing off of one-half of every set of new parents the show produces and more. I still watch for Mr. Carson & Mrs. Hughes.

GLEE was a show I loved at first- it was inventive and kind of knew how silly it was. But then it became clear that there were about three main writers, and all of them had a different idea about how every character behaved. Head Cheerleader (forget her name) changed personalities under each of them. Sue Sylvester had about ten moments where she learned to appreciate the kids & Will, but would revert to a supervillain by the next episode.

I was an obsessive wrestling nerd for years, but WWE just got WAY too shitty to watch any more. The plots were usually over-the-top and silly, but when it became clear that the people running the show despised their own audience, there was no point in watching.

Brian said...

Orange is the new Black. I think it has run its course. I stopped watching Mad Men for awhile, but then eventually caught up on Netflix. I don't see any socially redeeming value for Mad Men.

Klee said...

Okay, I'll be different and list shows I never abandoned when they originally aired till their bitter end (even when they sucked during some seasons)
1. MTM Show
2. Lost in Space (suffered through silliness of 2nd and had high hopes for 3rd, but I stuck it till the end)
3. Land of Giants
4. Seinfeld but I started watching later years I've only watched earlier shows on re-runs. The finale was terrible though.
5. Sex and the City, didn't watch season one but watched till last show. Skipped movie sequel 2 and movie sequel 1 was not needed.
6. Knots Landing started watching when a character named Laura died (6th Season I think) and was hooked till the last season, even though last two ones were tough to get through.
7. Star Treks: TNG, DS9 and Voyager. Even though I sometimes watch a Voyager episode which I totally had forgotten, it never happened with TNG, even though 1st and 2nd season were so-so, after the 3rd one I was hooked.
8. Bewitched (even when the Dicks changed) and I Dream of Jeannie.
9. AbFab original seasons 1-3. I've watched a few from newer season filmed way later, not as edgy. Still looking forward to movie, we'll see.
10. Fawlty Towers.
11. Finally, Everybody Loves Raymond, started from Season 3 and watched till last show, which was disappointing too. I have watched seasons 1 and 2 eventually on re-runs. Still one of the funniest family sitcoms imo.

powers said...

I was a devoted fan of The X-Files but tired of it by year seven.

Cast changes contributed to that but so did the basic formula of one lead is a skeptic & the other is not.

Jahn Ghalt said...

I'll never fault anyone for not going back to serialized TV - so long as the book pile remains tall and they have sports on TV.

I tend to stick with the (very) few TV series that I watch. Exception includes Dexter, after they killed his wife/girlfriend in the tub in a distant finale. That was utterly unncessary, gratutitous, and unforgivable.

The Americans is as unlike Boris and Natasha as it gets. Both of those deep-cover spies are nasty and cold when the job requires it. The "suburbia" part is strictly cover. Some nice side plot going on with the counter-intel spook (the guy who played Truman's best friend in teh Truman Show).

Downton Abbey was pretty soapy in season two and lost most of that later. Fellows could have used some help with writing (so we Mad Men fans think, anyway).

Weiner and his actors set the hook so deeply that I'll be watching episodes for a long time.

I look forward to Better Call Saul and Masters of Sex and (this Sunday?) the new Showtime series - Billions.

Jahn Ghalt said...

When my nearly-adult children found out I was watching ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK they "warned" me that once they took Piper away from dead-center (in season 2) it got better - and so it did - especially with the new villain. They nicely developed the other inmates and guards - so there are plenty of wells to tap. Bring on Season Four.

The Wire's first season was top notch - I look forward to the rest. The Sopranos - I saw enough of these to know that serially-consuming that will be worth it.

I tried Girls for about 6-7 episodes. All the things that twenty-something brats think are important didn't get it for me.

Ahhh, The Simpsons. I had a short-lived like for the first season. Then, when Homer and Bart ALWAYS took the low road in season two I let it slide away.

Even more "ancient history": I closely followed The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All In The Family, and M*A*S*H but stopped along the way. I don't remember why, but I'll guess it had something to do with pubery, cars, girls, and going Outside to college.

Aaron Sheckley said...

The Walking Dead leads the list for me. Enjoyed the first season, but Good Lord, what an unrelenting parade of misery that show is, from start to finish. You know, even the guys encircled at Bastogne still managed to laugh once in a while at something, in spite of artillery barrages and machine gun fire. On the freaking Walking Dead, NOBODY ever cracks a smile, about anything, let alone crack a joke. That show decided early on to trade good storytelling and real drama with "gee, which main character will we gratuitously kill this week just to keep the audience guessing?" I know that show is popular with a lot of people, but then again, so is cockfighting, and I don't get that either.

Gary said...

My wife and I were devoted fans of the original Dallas, as a fun guilty pleasure. Even made it through the "it was only a dream" season. But after that, the sheer repetition of the plots made us lose interest. Was there anyone anywhere NOT trying to take over Ewing Oil?

Gary said...

My wife and I were devoted fans of the original Dallas, as a fun guilty pleasure. Even made it through the "it was only a dream" season. But after that, the sheer repetition of the plots made us lose interest. Was there anyone anywhere NOT trying to take over Ewing Oil?

Mark Fearing said...

The Walking Dead is a back-and-forth thing for me. I often go two years without watching, then catch-up, get sick of it and stop. A few years back they got very predictable with the 'talk, talk, talk, action, talk, kill' routine.
And right now I am not watching another show regularly. It's odd...well, I watch Bob's Burgers (very, very funny) but nothing else has kept my attention. I sort of feel like I'm 13 again when I stopped buying comic books regularly. I don't really miss them, pick one up a few times a year and that's enough. Last shows I was watching regularly was Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Dexter. Oh, and GOT, I will watch that when it's back in April. And Ken, have you watched Extras?

Gary said...

My wife and I were devoted fans of the original Dallas, as a fun guilty pleasure. Even made it through the "it was only a dream" season. But after that, the sheer repetition of the plots made us lose interest. Was there anyone anywhere NOT trying to take over Ewing Oil?

Buttermilk Sky said...

Since it's nearly done and I'm a tad anal, I'll finish watching DOWNTON. The plots have always been weak and I was angry when they killed Isis -- I suppose the dog wanted to accept new roles, like the actor who played Matthew. But maybe they'll bring back Paul Giamatti as Cora's shady brother, and reveal that he killed Green and forced Baxter to steal the jewels.

Anonymous said...

Homeland, American Horror Story, Modern Family, all of the late shows (the Jimmy's, Colbert,etc.) Looking forward to Angie Tribeca with Rashida Jones. I like her. Janice B.

Charles H. Bryan said...

GOTHAM. Should be titled WAITING FOR BATMAN.

VP81955 said...

No one here has brought up "Mom," but some on its Facebook site say they no longer watch the show because it became to downbeat last year -- Alvin's dearh, Bonnie's relapse, etc. But since the lead characters are mother and daughter alcoholics, why should anyone be surprised? Their loss -- it's lighter and funnier this season. Happy it's still carrying the banner for multi-camera sitcoms.

Anonymous said...

Battlestar Galactica was a show you could safely drop after a season or so.

Lost pretty much anytime after the first half season.

D. McEwan said...

I'll limit myelf to shows still airing new episodes.

I'm still watching Downton Abby, but I'm glad this is its final season as it has become a snoozefest.

I stopped watching Castle. I gave up on Grey's Anatomy after season 3.

Abandoned Person of Interest two-thirds of the way through season 1.

Have abandoned Supergirl and Arrow.

Mike said...

Everything since 2011, when analogue terrestrial transmission in the UK ended. And I miss nothing. Do I win?
Before then, imported programmes would disappear because our terrestrial channels were outbid by cable. But no television programme ever ended too early, not even the good ones. As a rule of thumb, every programme should only run for half the number of episodes it does.
The BBC continues to make decent programmes, which I can watch on the iPlayer, but I'm not prepared to commit the time.

Pat Reeder said...

Looking over these posts, I was struck by how many hot, "must-see" series I have never seen (Walking Dead, The Americans, The Affair, Downton Abbey, Orange Is The New Black, The Wire, etc.) I know I'm not alone because Family Guy (I think) did a gag about people who swear they're going to binge-watch The Wire some day, but never do it. I've also never seen American Horror Story, although seeing some of Lady Gaga's fashion choices comes pretty close.

There are a lot of shows I watched a few times, didn't care for them and never went back, no matter how much the media pushed them (Modern Family, Transparent, The Mindy Project, Glee, Arrested Development). I find that if I like a show, I stick with it to the bitter end, even if it loses its freshness a bit. Mostly they're shows that are no longer making new episodes, but I still watch Big Bang Theory and Mom. I'm such a die-hard, I even still put The Simpsons and Family Guy on in the background while I'm working. The only example I can recall of a show that I watched regularly for years, then gave up on, was The Office after Steve Carell left. It was as if Hugh Laurie had left House, but the cameras just kept following Wilson and Taub around for no apparent reason. Also, I watched the first season of 24, then was done. And of course, I tuned out the final season of Roseanne, but that gave new meaning to the term "unwatchable." Even I couldn't stomach that.

Suggestion for another post, since I specialize in writing one-line jokes: What single line of dialogue from a sitcom really made you laugh like a hyena? Three great one-liners I can think of:

From Hot In Cleveland, Jane Leeves says of Betty White, "She's so old, she walked into Caesar's Palace and said, 'They got it all wrong.'"

From Fawlty Towers, Basil is listening to music while working, and his wife tells him to turn down that racket. He mutters, "It's Brahms, dear...Brahms' THIRD Racket."

From Frasier, when Niles fills in on Frasier's radio show: "I must remind you that while my brother is a strict Freudian, I am a Jungian, so there'll be no blaming mother today!"

RCP said...

I enjoyed and then quickly grew tired of shows like the new DALLAS and REVENGE.

There are beloved shows that I never grew tired of but will rarely watch after reading about (or witnessing for myself) how unlikeable the stars are in real life.

It's been rocky but I still watch:

DOWNTOWN ABBEY is a shadow of its former self, but it's almost over and there are still some good moments (words every television writer yearns to hear).

MODERN FAMILY - It was feeling a bit tired and I switched it on last night without much interest - then was surprised with a funny and touching episode.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY - Didn't like last season's Freak Show and 'fans' love to bitch about how lousy it's become - but this season grew on me and has become one of my favorites. I also liked Lady Gaga. The fact that characters and locales change with each season leaves it open to improvement over the past.

Anonymous said...

Downton
Kimmy Schmidt
Mr Robot
Nashville
Masters of Sex
The Netflix comic book with the actress from Breaking Bad

Cabernet said...

I gave up on Game of Thrones after a couple of episodes this season. Just couldn't make myself care anymore. I almost gave up on The Americans after season two, but thought that season three was the best show of 2015.

Johnny Walker said...

I'm almost at the end of my rope with THE VENTURE BROS. At one point it was one of my favourite shows of all time, but the last few series have seen it devolve into jokes over story and characters. Sigh. The creators seems think it's great to build something up and then kill it off. It doesn't work for the audience, it's just boring. Fingers crossed the new season will be a return.

Everything else is just a show I haven't finished... yet!

Ed W said...

I stopped watching M*A*S*H after Larry Gelbart left.

Jason said...

"Battlestar Galactica was a show you could safely drop after a season or so."

ooh, yeah, I watched like.. two and a half seasons and then just couldn't sustain my interest even to find out who the baddies were.

Though I did go onto Wikipedia to see how it ended.

Anonymous said...

I wanted to like Sleepy Hollow and Legends with Sean Bean, but lost interest and took them off of the recording schedule. Ditto with Minority Report.

Unknown said...

Shows that I used to obsess over making sure I watched that now I might watch or might not because they're not very good any more:

The Simpsons
Doctor Who

Shows that I used to watch that I don't watch anymore because my cable company was forced to drop Comedy Central, and I don't feel like using Hulu to catch up:

South Park
The Daily Show
(Also The Colbert Report near the end of its life.)

I don't tend to watch much in the way of serialized fiction because often these shows have a "make it up as we go" philosophy while telling the viewer "hey, this will all make sense in the end" when obviously that's not going to happen if you haven't figured everything out to start with. "Heroes" suffered from this, though they at least had a plan at the beginning, but changed it halfway through the first season, causing some messes. I knew better than to start with "Lost" because I knew it would be a show of this type (comic books have prepared me well to expect nothing good from stories that drag on forever). The one show I *did* like where they *had* planned things out and things *did* seem to make sense was "Flashforward", but it only got one season.

Johnny Hy said...

House of Cards is for me. A long lost relative leaves the Downton Abbey clan money and you find that unbelievable but Frank Underwood, a Congressman from a small SC town that somehow outwits everyone becomes VP then President after murdering a woman by throwing her in front of a subway and then having a threesome with his wife and Secret Service agent somehow is more believable? The plot points on House of Cards have gotten ridiculous. When it was a story of a bitter amoral congressman pulling levers behind the scenes to get revenge on everyone who had wronged him, it was a great show. A short of inside baseball on politics. It jumped the shark in my opinion when he threw his girlfriend off the subway platform and somehow he gets away with it despite Washington being one of the most videoed cities in the world by survelliance cameras? I still love the Americans. I don't want to give away a major plot point from this past season, but what occured around episode 8 added a real level of emotion and tension between Philip and Elizabeth that kicked the show into overdrive.

Breadbaker said...

I bailed on The Good Wife after Will's murder. I just wasn't finding the storylines were worth my time anymore and the heightened drama seemed forced.

I quit Downton Abbey about when you did.

I think the last seasons of both The Sopranos and Mad Men would have benefited from doing half the shows; they seemed to be filling in stuff that wasn't necessary. I have never once watched a Kevin Finnerty episode again.

Gerry said...

As a side note I'm surprised at how many shows people are mentioning here that I've never heard of!

But to answer your question, my wife and I really enjoyed the first season of BREAKING BAD. Then we read some articles about how the show creators were going to get "darker and grittier" with season two. We watched a couple of eps and were so disappointed that this meant the characters would start making the stupidest most non-intuitive decisions simply to increase the misery level. We stopped watching shortly thereafter.

THE WALKING DEAD I watched the first two seasons in reruns, but the storytelling just started getting stupider. There never seemed to be any learning curve for any of the characters. Jeez, can they not make ONE supply run without someone getting killed?

I have one more observation about TWD. Please understand, I am completely on board with then Zombie Apocalypse. I buy it. I dig it. BUT...I do not for a second buy that all these housewives, kids, teens and oldsters can handle all that heavy weaponry without at least two or three gun accidents per episode. This is the ONE SHOW on TV that could make an occasional point about gun safety, training and etiquette and weave it into the storyline, but no, the guns are just there and everyone uses them, no problem. I don't believe that for a second.

RareWaves said...

Admittedly, I did read all the comments before commenting, but Modern Family lost me after a while (always been a big fan of Dan O’Shannon, though). I just stopped caring about the characters. Same thing happened with How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, The Office, and Parenthood. Maybe it all just becomes too formulaic for me to maintain interest.

Glee has been mentioned in the comments. It had charm (in the beginning), and while I get the idea of having a "mean girl" bully character like Sue (and I like Jane Lynch as an actress), having a character drug someone or trip them on the stairs seemed really out of line for the type of show Glee was. An action by a character in a “fun” show like this that could have easily caused death to another character seems to cross a line. I think I stopped watching after that.

D. McEwan said...

"Pat Reeder said...

Suggestion for another post, since I specialize in writing one-line jokes: What single line of dialogue from a sitcom really made you laugh like a hyena? Three great one-liners I can think of: ...

From Fawlty Towers, Basil is listening to music while working, and his wife tells him to turn down that racket. He mutters, "It's Brahms, dear...Brahms' THIRD Racket."


Since that is a punchline in response to a set-up line, it is not, by definition, a one-line joke.

Annie C. said...

I quit Modern Family after one season, left Community after two seasons, done with Homeland after two seasons, and Downton Abbey after Mary's husband got killed. A long time ago, I watched Grey's Anatomy, but I was done with that after one season. Only made it through two seasons of Desperate Housewives. I quit on Friends after 4 or 5 years, I think. I caught it every once in a while. Oh, and Frasier--which I loved for the first 5-7 years or so--just deteriorated after that to the point that it just made me sad to watch it, so I didn't. Psych--another one that I thoroughly enjoyed for its unapologetic silliness--became just awful in the 6th year. I stuck around for the 7th. I have never seen the final season. The Big Bang Theory has lost its freshness? That's putting it rather kindly. It's getting sad--they repeat storylines like crazy and each time, it's less funny. I liked Two and a Half Men until they made the boy stupid and Alan married the young girl, and then I began to actively hate it, so I quit watching it. I do remember once walking through a room when it was on and there was Alan talking to a puppet...What happened there?

I think comedies start losing it in the fifth year due to characters evolving (which must happen) and they need to wrap it up by season 6 or 7. I love Mary Tyler Moore and The Bob Newhart Show, but both shows were more consistently enjoyable in the early (4) years, though you still get later gems here and there. If I look at Frasier and Big Bang, I can say both were solid in the first 4 years, and then dropped into mediocrity and repetition.

Chuck was always fun. And Justified wavered a little with some storylines, but it held my attention and I loved the dialogue. "Life" with Damian Lewis was kind of riveting to me even though it's obvious I prefer comedy. Kitchen Confidential was really funny and smart and clever.

I have hope for Telenovela and Grandfathered. I like those. Grinder can be fun. Brooklyn 99 is okay, but if it disappeared, I wouldn't miss it. Muppets--I'm catching up one episode at a time--once a week or so. I can't watch them any closer together than that. Manhattan was interesting.

Steve Bailey said...

For the first few seasons, I watched "The Walking Dead" religiously with my son. Eventually, it became too much of a soap opera for me -- drawn-out drama with cardboard characters, interspersed with occasional zombie-mob killings. Even before I stopped watching, I told my son, eventually the show will just be Rick delivering an ongoing monologue.

Doug said...

Not a fan of True Detective.Woody and Matthew are just plain annoying in Season 1.They are very overrated actors.Season 2 was a complicated and convoluted story. I watched but is was a struggle.

Orphan Black has lost it's way.

I have watched Season 1 of Orange Is The New Black but have only watched 1 episode of Season 2.Can't seem to continue.

House of Cards has gone downhill each season.

I liked Season 1 of Jessica Jones.

I still like Ray Donovan and The Affair.

Justified and Breaking Bad were brilliant from start to end.

I am totally hooked on Bates Motel.Three good seasons so far.Two more seasons and that's it.Hopefully the writers are working hard to make 20 quality episodes.

Oh ... is Dexter still working in the forest industry?

Richard Rothrock said...

My wife and I rarely watch any fiction TV series anymore. If we watch anything, it is contest shows like "Project Runway" and "Master Chef". I miss the shows where you could drop in and watch. Now they are so serialized that there seems little point of dropping in. Plus, I reached my fill of lawyer shows, medical shows, and/or cop shows about 20 years ago and see no reason to watch them again. Having said that:

Still think Season 1 of "Twin Peaks" is one of the greatest seasons ever. Season 2 seemed to get worse and worse as it went but hung on till the end. I have gone back and watched the show on DVD and Season 2 is not nearly as bad as I remember.

"Northern Exposure" jumped the shark once Joel left. We stopped watched regularly but came back for the series finale.

"Cheers" ended when Diane left, IMHO. Tried to watch the first season with Rebecca but just found myself not enjoying myself so I left. Returned for series finale.

Watched "M*A*S*H" up to Radar leaving. Watched a few episodes after that but it seemed like they started repeating themselves. Came back for the final season.

And is there a worse season than Season 3 of the original "Star Trek"? It is almost like the fabulous first two seasons never existed.

chuckcd said...

American Crime.
If I wanted to get that depressed, I can watch the news.

Bryan Thomas said...

ARROW, SUPERGIRL, THE GOOD PLACE, NCIS LA, NCIS