Series You Initially Loved, Then Abandoned and Never Finished

[ChitHappens]

 

I was done at the beginning of S2 when the bait and switch couldn't be any more clear!  

[All My Shadows]

 

I forgot about this show, but I'm with you! I loved the first season and binged it all on Netflix in about a week a few summers ago. Like you said, not the most exciting thing in the world, but it was pretty and the story made sense, so why not. I accepted a lot of the stuff they did because I at least understood what they were trying to do. The whole sleepy coastal town where mom-and-pop businesses are still in existence, where the entire community comes out to advocate for a local landmark, etc. I got it, thought it was kinda ridiculous, but I got it!

 

Season two rolled around, and suddenly the whole show centered on love triangles, bland love triangles, at that. I was especially sick of seeing the judge's bland, boring, vanilla ass daughter Justine have all of these dudes obsessing over her. I tuned out and never went back for the third season. Sad because I really enjoyed most of the cast. Teryl Rothery was my fave.

 

I wouldn't say that the show made that third season because Hallmark forgot it existed. They keep a small stable of original series at a time, and Cedar Cove was the first. It really looks like they were trying to see if their other originals were worth it, and they were, so they canned it. That Chesapeake Shores show that I have not watched yet seems like them saying "Okay, so let's try Cedar Cove again, but better." I'll just stick with When Comes the Heart for right now.

*** Interesting that some of yall have said that you tuned out of 90210 because Jennie Garth left because Jennie Garth/Kelly moving into the leading lady role in the original series is why I never watched the reruns past season five.

[Vee]

It's certainly true that Kelly as the overwhelming lead of the original 90210 got old fast - she wasn't suited for that. But Kelly as the elder figure in 90210 2.0 (along with Lori Loughlin and Rob Estes, Ryan Eggold, and occasionally Shannen/Brenda) worked very well. Until they got rid of all the adults. There was also a plot building in the background with Kelly and Dylan and their child which was never paid off.

[All My Shadows]

Interesting. That's the read I always got on the series, but I only watched very sporadically, and mostly towards the end of the show's run. By the time I became acquainted with it, all of the ties with the original were cut. I wonder what it would be like in today's TV climate, where the ties to the original would have no doubt been stronger with the central characters being the originals' children.

Melrose Place 2.0 on the other hand...does giving up before the end of the first episode count?

[Vee]

I actually liked MP 2.0 a lot more - the cast was pretty talented. But killing off Sydney again, and then sticking Amanda in a lame art theft plot was ridiculous. Katie Cassidy was a star as the new Amanda Jr. though. She was a match for her.

[Khan]

 

LOL!!

 

Another one: "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."  I stopped watching after awhile for no other reason than I got sick and tired of Michaela saying, "I need to operate," everytime someone in that town had so much as a paper cut.  I realize things were different in the eighteen-whatevers and that medicine has come along since then.  But EVERY. DAMN. TIME.  She had to operate.

[DRW50]

Sisters - turning the oldest son of Georgie and John's into a violent psycho plunged the show into depths Cowan and Lipman didn't have the ability to handle. The episode where Georgie contemplated suicide was the real end of the show - it was never the same after that. You couldn't go back to ice cream sodas. The truly disgusting and shameful false memories plot with Georgie, making a mockery of sexual abuse for the sake of some type of lurid Svengali therapist/stunt casting of Kalember's husband and to free up Georgie for what were I guess supposed to be "sexier" stories - the last straw for me. I only came back for the finale, where I noticed they hurriedly reunited Georgie with John, likely as a belated apology to fans. 

 

Sopranos - After season 1 the show became remarkably po-faced and the characters became much less interesting and much more pointlessly sour. I always get the feeling David Chase was unhappy that viewers genuinely enjoyed the ridiculousness of the first season and enjoyed Tony Soprano in spite of knowing he was a mobster and a bad man, so he desperately tried to course-correct. My parents were still big fans of the show, so I would tune in and out, but I always associate the later years with tryhard "edgy" crudity like that threesome Joey Pants and the other man had with the stripper. The Vito story was probably one of the stronger elements of later years. 

 

Angel - another show that needlessly tried and failed to become more "edgy," destroying any friendships or bonds built up in the first two seasons for tedious measuring contests in season 3. The clear contempt the show had for Cordelia (who was a much better character than hacks like Whedon and his cohorts ever knew what to do with). What really did it was the arrival of the woeful Fred, one of the biggest Mary Sues in the history of television. They ran Wesley and Gunn through the shredder to push her character, without even bothering to check if either actor had chemistry with Amy Acker (spoiler - they didn't), and so that Wesley could have a "dark" arc that Alexis Denisof's acting could not hide feeling like it was more at home in bad fan fiction. I'm glad I quit when I did because no amount of fan hype over how the show was now more "adult" could hide the stench of Connor, or what was done to Cordy, or having to give Amy Acker a brand new character when they belatedly realized just how worthless Fred was. 

 

Northern Exposure - The "quirky" nature became more and more forced, and I began to deeply tire of the Maggie/Joel relationship as well as all the plot-heavy quirks dumped onto Maggie's backstory to hide that Janine Turner was a flat actress. I also got so so sick of characters like Chris and Ed, especially Ed. I quit a few years before it ended, with no regrets. 

 

Picket Fences - Again too much "quirkiness" and try-hard writing. I think it was after they had the sons on the show using swans as hockey pucks (which I'm aware was based on real life, but still...) and put Leigh Taylor Young in the revolving door of the mayor's office only to have her leave via some sex scandal that I just lost interest. 

 

Game of Thrones - Season 5 was the worst written season of television I can remember, whether it be gleefully making a complete shambles of the Stannis Baratheon arc (doing such a terrible job with his final moments that Gwendoline Christie had to answer fan questions about his last scenes, as they were that vague and meandering most people had no idea what they were supposed to be), turning Jon's death arc into the cheapest TV cliche around by having 500000 glowery closeups of some boy that felt betrayed by him to let us know that he would kill Jon (which also meant that what should have been a story of a boy who lost his family and felt betrayed instead became some type of "Good Son" pantomime, and also led to the uncomfortable sight of countless fans calling for the violent murder of a child, which the show happily complied with), yet more of the overrated, non-note show ponies Tyrion and Arya alternatively snarking and glowering in lieu of actually having a purpose, and worst of all, ruining Theon's entire arc and destroying everything of Sansa (up to that point probably the best story arc on the show) because they needed us to know that when women are raped, they are empowered. Everything about this made me feel sick, whether it be the show choosing to pit abuse victims against each other, whether it be presenting the rapist as a sex god, complete with love scenes and lengthy, lingering closeups of his naked body, or whether it be the truly pathetic way that the writer of this episode was presented as a victim by various actors because people dared to be upset at being told that women become strong by being raped and essentially saying Sansa had been nothing but weak and worthless before her rape. The biggest joke of all is they didn't even do anything to show this "strength" after she was raped - she remained powerless, and future seasons undercut her at every turn, caring more about sibling rivalries and showcasing her as casually slaughtering countless people for no apparent reason. That's not even getting into the Hercules Legendary Journey-esque choreography and stylings of Dorne, the "bad pus&y" nonsense with the bastard daughters of Dorne, the anti-gay wretchedness with Loras that was so poorly written I actually saw reviewers believing that we should sympathize with religious fanatics who hated gays and women (given the attitude of the show, maybe we were!). On and on and on and on.  Awful, awful, awful, awful.

[SoapDope]

Bionic Woman & Six Million Dollar Man......The final season of those shows were awful. BW had been picked up by NBC because of Fred Silverman at ABC dislike for it had it cancelled. Lee Majors as Steve no longer was allowed to cross over even though Oscar and Rudy continued to co-star. Jaime had a new love interest Chris (played by Christopher Stone). The whole premise of Steve and Jaime getting together never happened. Jaime never got her memories of Steve back. Silverman had transferred to NBC at that time and when he saw BW on the schedule, he cancelled it again. Years later (1987) they tried to (fix things) by doing a reunion film where she got her memory back. I think it was 9 years too late. 

 

If you read or watch interviews with actors, producers, creators etc....from the classic TV days. 9 out of 10 times Fred Silverman's name is brought up and he is often not painted in the most favorable light. He would often cancel hit shows because of his dislike for them and would often put on crap that didn't last. His tenure at NBC was horrible. 

 

He is famous for the CBS rural/family show purge of 1970-72 where he got rid of shows like Petticoat Junction, Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons etc....in favor of urban based controversial shows like All In The Family, Maude etc...

 

 

[Khan]

About the ONLY good thing I could say about Fred Silverman is that, when he was in charge of the CBS daytime lineup, he seemed to prefer soaps over talk or game shows.  

[dragonflies]

Same here! Especially when the show runner basically came out and said FU to those who hated Ichabod's wife

[Faulkner]

For me, the cast was so good that I was able to see past a lot of David E. Kelley’s excesses, but I was a teenager during the original run, so I don’t know if the show would hold up to more mature scrutiny. His political speechifying would probably be annoying: I know I find Aaron Sorkin’s stuff cringeworthy now, even though I loved it years ago. DEK’s other shows were mostly unwatchable, save for early Chicago Hope (which also benefited from a wonderful cast). Big Little Lies was an adaptation and thus didn’t allow for his crazy diversions.

[Khan]

I must admit, though, that I would LOVE to see David E. Kelley or Aaron Sorkin tackle a revival of the old E.G. Marshall/Robert Reed legal drama, "The Defenders."  Preferably for a streaming service, where they'd be allowed to examine the toughest issues without the kinds of compromise that most networks would force upon them.

[amybrickwallace]

How many people bailed on Lost back in the day? It had a huge first season, and then things got so convoluted that viewers started bailing in droves.

[Khan]

 

I don't care what Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have said: they had no freaking idea where they were going with anything on the show, and it SHOWED.

[amybrickwallace]

I personally didn't watch Lost, but my brother did. The first couple of seasons were appointment TV for him. When even he gave it up, I knew it had to be bad. My brother said the show got so confusing he just couldn't take it anymore.