Series You Initially Loved, Then Abandoned and Never Finished

[Faulkner]

I’ll give up on a show in a minute if I lose interest. I’m realizing that the only series (that ran four seasons or longer) I’ve watched from beginning to end without fail are A Different World, The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, and Picket Fences. I grew up on shows like Full House, Growing Pains, Murphy Brown, Cheers, and reruns of shows like Mary Tyler Moore and The Jeffersons, but I can’t with any certainty say I saw *every* episode.

 

But the shows I started and simply bailed on is like a Who’s Who of “prestige TV.”

 

The West Wing (after Aaron Sorkin’s departure in Season 4)

Game of Thrones (early in Season 5)

Orphan Black (after Season 2)

Doctor Who (somewhere in Season 9 of the modern series)

NYPD Blue (after Season 8)

The L Word (before the supposedly dreadful final season, which means I sat through some DRECK to get to that point)

Homeland (during Season 5)

The Wire (before the final season, but I do intend to watch it at some point)

Law & Order (after Season 11)

ER (somewhere in Season 6)

Roseanne (during that wonky final season)

 

 

 

[Antoyne]

Revenge, not sure what season but the dad turned up alive and Daniel got killed off. For some reason I couldn’t get back into it.

[Cheap21]

ER for sure. I dont even recall when I dropped but it was several seasons before the end

 

Family Guy and American Dad

 

Beverly Hills 90210

 

The Game

[Faulkner]

Oh yeah. Same. I came back to see Emily/Amanda handle Victoria, but it was deuces after about a season and a half. Too bad. The show started out strong when it was Emily settling a new score each episode.

[NothinButAttitude]

Nip Tuck. The first couple of seasons were solid then Ryan Murphy got wacky and stupid and I started to tune out. 

 

I'd say the same for Glee too. The first season had promise, however, the second season was the start of the show focusing heavily on Finn and Rachel instead of all the sides characters (Mercedes, Tina, Artie, etc.) who I found to be more endearing. It became too much of the Rachel hour, and I refused to come back. 

 

UPN's One on One--one of my favorite shows as a preteen/teenager. Once the show had Brianna and Arnez move to LA with them dropping Flex, Dewayne, and my precious Spirit, I was done. And making the same mistake TWICE (first it was on Moesha), UPN cast show-killer Ray J on another one of their hit shows in an attempt to make him "fetch." I refused to watch the last season of the show, and still haven't gotten around to do so.

[vetsoapfan]

This is a great topic.

 

If a series continues to focus on characters whom I have known from the beginning and grown to care for, I will try to stick with it through an initial weak period, on the hopes that it will rebound. (Exhibit A: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was so good in seasons two and three, plummeted in season four but made an amazing recovery in season five.)

 

On the other hand, if a show is slipping in the quality department AND has butchered my favorite characters, then I'm more likely to dump it and move on to other series which may satisfy me more. (I immediately dropped Jane the Virgin after they stupidly killed off Michael, and ruined the romance which was my principle reason for tuning in.)

 

Some of the programs which I stuck with until the bitter end, even though I grew tired of them in later years when the quality deteriorated: Little House (season eight was tepid, but season nine was atrocious), All in the Family (it was all downhill after the kids left), The Carol Burnett Show (very weak in its final season), Buffy (after a great season five, its sixth year was the worst of all), Life Goes On, and even St Elsewhere (that finale: UGH!).

 

Shows I originally enjoyed but just could not tolerate watching beyond a certain point: Dynasty, ER, Rhoda, Phyllis, Roswell (it WITHERED in its final year), Twin Peaks, Game of Thrones, Glee, Revenge, Hell on Wheels.

[Faulkner]

Oh dear. Ryan Murphy is the king of blowing his proverbial wad after initial promise. Glee and Nip/Tuck wore out their welcome very early on with me, even though I enjoyed their camp sensibility. He just doesn’t know when to stop. Oddly, the latest American Crime Story about Gianni Versace is a total snoozefest, so I peaced out after a couple of episodes.

 

For me, that was The L Word. I loved Alice and Dana, and they stupidly decided to kill Dana off with cancer in Season 3, and the show was never the same. I stuck it out, but they absolutely did a number on Bette and Tina, the show’s central couple, and and the less said about Mira Kirshner’s character Jenny Schecter, the better. Just awful, and I finally reached my breaking point before the end.

[reallyhateskateonlost]

Law and Order SVU Olivia kept getting attacked. But I saw it last night OMG!

NCIS LA

Hawaii Five  0

Outlander

 

[Cat]

SOOO many, but the one that comes to mind is Popular, one of Ryan Murphy's early shows. It was fab but went south fast.

[Faulkner]

Oh no! That show goes off the rails too?

[SoapDope]

Dallas......The later years were a snooze fest. After Victoria Principal left, I was done.

 

One Day At A Time........I never knew till years later Ann remarried in the final years to Johnny Fever form WKRP.

 

The Facts Of Life........After Mrs. Garrett got remarried, I lost interest. I did see some episodes of the final seasons with Cloris years later. I also have the complete series on DVD, but never watch the last 2 seasons without Mrs. G. 

 

Lost.........I got lost after a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Soaplovers]

 

Agree about Jane the Virgin...i stopped watching a few episodes after Michael's death....my love of all things Petra couldn't keep me watching.

 

For me...i stopped watching the following shows...

 

Modern Family

 

Bates Motel

 

Walking Dead

 

Queer as Folk (the new opening credits should have been a signal it was time to stop watching lol)

 

Family matters (when Urkel became stefan)

 

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Gimme a break (I stop watching when they moved to New York and all the girls were gone.) I finally watch when I purchased the box set and didn’t know Matthew Lawrence came on the show as well. 

 

Scandal

All of Tyler Perry shows

Murder She Wrote

227 (around the time the new faces starting coming in)

Dallas

Dynasty

Melrose Place

Mama’s Family (off and on)

Cheers (It took me some time to adjust to Rebecca)

Designing Women (same as above but with Cousin Alison then there was BJ)

 

[KMan101]

 

Same. I also liked Glee initially too. Murphy just shoots his wad way too quickly and then the shows meander as he starts to focus on name guest stars and his latest pets and the show suffers.

[Shawn]

Ryan Murphy is the worst. He can't write anything decent past the first season of any of his shows, which is why AHS has a different plot every year.

 

Why Hollywood worships him I will never know.