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This is probably a common answer, but game of thrones was it for me. It was such a good show until they sped through the last two seasons and picked quite possibly the stupidest ending they could have. It is like they simply forgot who the characters were.
Didn't watch a single episode of house of dragon despite my one time obsession with early GoT, and I won't out of spite.
GoT is the answer to this question, you kind of need to exclude it to get more interesting answers. The ending flopped so hard it basically redefined disappointment for TV.
It seems weird to think about now but from 2011 to ~2018 it overshadowed everything. The characters and setting and lore were being built into a franchise juggernaut. I can't remember any other show with constant water cooler conversations or watch parties. Then the last season flopped so hard that the media zeitgeist totally evaporated overnight.
Friends sometimes ask if they should watch it and I'll always say no. It's the only show I can think of that peaks multiple episodes at 9.9 on IMDb and craters to 4.0 for the finale.
[Just checked again: an absurd 29/74 episodes are rated 9.0+]
I hope whoever wrote/steered those last two seasons isn’t getting major roles.
I mean, jeez. There’s innocent failure, there’s dropping the ball spectacularly, and then there’s that.
they are doing "the 3 body problem" now iirc
Lost shat the bed season three, but I kept watching anyway hoping we'd return to season 1 and 2 goodness. It just got worse and worse and then petered out into a they-were-dead-all-along-esque cop out ending. Fuck JJ Abrams and his "mystery box" shit.
I remember when everyone assumed they were dead they said no they weren’t and that people would be surprised like they had a real plan. Then they wrote the most convoluted ridiculous nonsense to end it just so they could say, “See! They weren’t dead! We literally say it!”
Yep, that was right around season 3 when it all started to go off the rails. And then the ending might not have literally been that they were dead all along, but amounted to the same thing anyway!
I'm surprised nobody said Supernatural yet. It's still one of my favs series, but I keep to the first few seasons and rarely go up to 10 when I'm really bored. Never watched the last 2-3 seasons or I forgot about them if I did. I read about the ending and I am just sad about it.
Stranger Things is also one that I wish they ended after S1. Though I did kinda like S2, I have yet to watch S3 and up... Can't we get good short series anymore? It's not a long series, but still feel it is going to end one...
the vibe of stranger things S1 just never came back
That’s funny I still rewatch all of supernatural while I’m working. I enjoy how cheesy it is.
I’ll pop in to actually defend Stranger Things, and actually recommend watching S3 & S4 ahead of the final season launching at the end of this year!
Comparatively, S2 is an echo of the first season and largely ends up treading water. I believe the term ”Sophomore Slump” to be an apt description.
Conversely, S3 does significantly better in not only upping the stakes, building out the world, and fleshing out the characters.
S4 continues to build upon this, and also successfully binds together a number of plot-points and answering lingering questions, all the while setting the stage for the final series.
100% agree with you on Supernatural though, I struggle to make it much past Season 10 also.
I came here to post Supernatural.
I honestly don’t even remember how many seasons I got through. Whatever the Leviathan one was, maybe?
The only thing I remember of the leviathans is that one of them is named Dick and Charlie existed. Had to look it up, was season 7.
I don't remember that at all, heh.
I don't regret dropping it or starting I guess, and I liked some of the characters. Crowley's great. Moose, Squirrel
Both seasons of Arrow were fantastic. Both. Seasons.
Just like there’s only three Indiana Jones movies.
I actually quite enjoyed Crystal Skull, but realize I'm in an extreme minority there
So I am very picky with series and I rarely start stuff that I feel I am on the fence on and I drop stuff pretty fast it I am not feeling it.
That being said, there were a few huge disappointments that I regret wasting time on.
Man in the High Castle - I didn't know this was a fanfic-level script that just used the setting. Up until the end of the second episode, I was still hoping that it would at least loosely adapt the story of the book. I was really disappointed when I realized it would be purely a fanfic story when I watched episode 3. An adaption of the book could have made for such an intense ending.
Alien: Earth - Forced myself through the first three episodes. Did not like it all, Peter Pan stuff, uninspired characters, trying too hard to be edgy (while still being fundamentally PG in its themes). Then I heard that Episode 05 was a cool self-contained episode that offered a nice throwback. Watched 15 minutes of it and turned it off. Absolute trash.
Ring of Power - I am a big fan of The Silmarillion even though IMO it's rather dense and difficult to follow. Watched a single episode of Ring of Power and I immediately dropped it (not getting fooled again).
Merlin, the whole show teases the idea that he will reveal his powers to Arthur eventually. Spoiler alert: He never does.
Heroes. I should have just stopped at the end of season 1. I mean that was the original intention right? it was just a one off "tv event" thing. Season 1 was good, it was great, it wrapped up nicely....and then NBC wanted more.
I heard how bad season 2 was before watching season 1 so just did the one and done and can absolutely confirm it wrapped up nicely and there is no need for more seasons.
My understanding was that it was supposed to be an anthology with different characters each season which is why the first season finale completed all of the character arcs.
If I remember correctly there was a writers strike that disrupted series 2.
I also seem to remember that they got it back a bit in series 3 but then went rubbish again in 4
Weeds. The show is ultimately so unsatisfying. I hated the main character by the end. Seemingly immune to any real consequences.
Great answer. Weeds went on for so long and was only interesting for like one season. And it went nowhere
Weeds was a tough one for me too. She was not likeable, not one bit. No real self awareness, super shallow.
I got really into Lost. Like really into it. I was on message boards, sharing theories, doing alternate reality puzzles, hacking websites, going to live events, eating apollo bars, reading bad novels, full tilt. It felt like an actual mystery we were actually solving.
Then the quality of the show started to dip. Plot threads were dropped due to external factors, like Eko dying because the actor hated living in Hawaii. Walt aging too fast. The writers strike shortening Libby's backstory. Nikki and Paulo. The Dharma Initiative being poorly received. And it became clear that there wasn't actually a satisfying conclusion written. The "mystery" was that the writers weren't sure what happens next. They weren't making the show for me. They weren't counting on somebody studying Egytian mythology to decipher the significance of a four toed foot, or learning finite math to establish a relationship between the Numbers. I was imagining answers that were never there, and posting them on the internet created backlash. The writers admitted to changing some plot threads because they didn't want to spawn more internet scavenger hunts.
And looking back, the show was fine. It was clever and twisty and well acted. Characters developed and grew. Some of the show still sucked, but it wasn't the massive disappointment like OG Dexter or Game of Thrones. The end is satisfying, if you're not really thinking too hard about the unanswered questions.
But yeah, I got too into Lost.
Game of Thrones. Also, I agree on The Walking Dead but I gave up pretty early, season 4 or 5 maybe? They had just met Negan. The plot was just so repetitive.
The umbrella academy.
What a stupid
Fucking.
Ending
While I didn't enjoy the ending, I did appreciate that they stuck with an unconventional choice.
Most stories would have introduced some Deus ex Machina that would have saved the main characters. They really went for it with "No, we're the problem. We've always been the problem. There's really just one solution."
I can only really think of one, because it was so bad that I've been very cautious ever since and will bail early or avoid watching altogether until a series is fully complete. The Man In The High Castle was four seasons with Amazon pulling the plug after the third season, giving the writers a single season to wrap everything up. It felt extremely rushed in that fourth season and they really only concluded the basic "good guys vs Nazis, who will win?" storyline. The more interesting stuff involving Tagomi and his multiverse travel that was setup earlier in the series was mostly abandoned without an adequate resolution and many of the characters didn't have completed arcs and ended up feeling like plot devices.
House of Cards US version.
Seasons 1 and 2 were excellent and still rank as some of the greatest TV of all time.
Season 3 was a mess.
Season 4 the show returned to form and was pretty good.
Season 5 was a steaming pile of dogshit. I am disgusted that I made myself watch it. It was so staggeringly stupid.
Season 6, I didn’t even bother to watch it.
I should have dumped it during Season 3.
As someone who watched the last season, it was probably the worst season of TV I've ever seen, like final season on Game of Thrones bad... But worse.
You get to break the fourth wall, and you get to break the fourth wall and you get to break the fourth wall! Fucking shambles
Battle Star Galatica. I guess both the original when it was on TV waaaaayyy back when but more so the reboot. They story creators had to plan the ending the way it went, but I was deeply annoyed by the whole final arc.
Why? You don't like youe hard sci fi show turning into a religious allegory?
I really enjoyed it when it was first on, I recall it suffered through a writers strike but it was one of the first shows I'd really gotten in to as it was being put out. Every time I think of rewatching it I only get through a couple episodes tho. It just doesn't really do it for me. Hard to explain because I generally love a good rewatch.
Game of Thrones without even watching the last two seasons (started late and 7 dropped while watching 5). Was really enjoying the slower pacing and character development that fell by the wayside as the seasons went on.
Walking Dead, although I bailed at the end of the season before Glen exited when I realized that Maggie and Glen as a couple was the only reason I even had it playing in the background.
Some of the others I would've said have already been mentioned so I'll go with How I Met Your Mother.
I didn't really have any interest in it to begin with. An ex talked me into watching it while we were dating. It certainly has it's moments but at the end I was pretty annoyed for the overall waste of time.
Days of Our Lives fifteen thousand episodes in and the quality just isn’t there anymore.
Dexter/Walking Dead
I might catch hell for this but I gave up on Breaking Bad. When Walt and Skylar were split up and just fighting, I looked at my wife and said, "this isn't fun anymore. This is just watching a couple fight. I get this all day as it is."
A show getting too dark/real is very valid. I felt similar.
Dexter for sure, but also Sons of Anarchy
They both jump the shark and never recover
What we do in the shadows -- I loved that show, but they fucked it up so bad with the last two series. The writing was all over the place and it was relying too much on random celebrity cameos. It really shows in the last series that they ran out of plot and just kept going anyway.
Sex education had a great first series, fine second series, terrible third series and a final series I could only watch one episode of before giving up.