TV Show Whose Decline Saddens You the Most

[Gray Bunny]

Guiding Light's decline was definitely the most heartbreaking. Those last 5 years were tragic. Even DAYS of current-day isn't as bad, budget-wise as GL was during those final years. 

[MichaelGL]

ABC's Brothers and Sisters and Revenge. Such a good premise for both shows, don't think the seasons that followed the first for both shows tapped into the show's potential. 

 

Daytime wise, Guiding Light and Days of our Lives. With DAYS in particular, we practically went from lush sets, moody lighting, great scoring, to the same blue room in each episode over night it seems. So sad.

[ChitHappens]

I have to go with Empire.  The decline of that goldmine was too rapid for my taste.  Also, the L Word, both marred by that hack Ilene Chaiken!!!!!

[Faulkner]

Oh Revenge started so promisingly that first season but couldn’t sustain it. It really should have been a one-and-done deal or perhaps an anthology series with a new story each season like AHS. Too bad it preceded the recent anthology craze by a few years. I also agree about B&S. Another example a show hobbled by too much padding. It’s the Emily VanCamp curse.

 

I think even the great shows with 22-30 eps a season fell victim to overkill and burnout. You can probably count the ones who sustained quality across an entire run on one or two hands. The tighter, shorter seasons tend to be better, and even those can outlive their welcome rather quickly (Homeland).

 

 

[ChitHappens]

Lord!  I totally forgot about the quick mess made of Revenge!  In the first season,  this chick had a new person on which to exact revenge for about 8 straight weeks! It became so convoluted. They appeared to have run out of time to tell the actually story. Ridiculous! 

[xtr]

 

I still like the show, but I think that Lucious new alleged  son is a bad fit for the Lyon family. He's really unlikeable and unappealing. And No way do I buy he's even a half brother of the good-looking Lyon brothers Andre and Jamal. I don' t buy him as being related to Hakeem either.  Even if they didn't grow up together, often times you can still see some similar traits in siblings. I'm not necessarily against Lucious having another child out there. But this weasley acting and Gregory Abbott-ish (more recent pics of him) looking dude is not it.

 

I would have rather they had Lucious have a daughter. If they wanted to give Lucious a biracial child, they could have had written a storyline where someone like Maya was Lucious's long lost daughter, (Instead of doing that storyline with Poundcake) Cookie still could have met her somehow and been instinctively protective over her.

 

I think that sometimes shows can go downhill, when they have success early on and then try and do too much in subsequent seasons. I feel like sometimes it's better to just keep pace, instead of trying to outdo the first season, and then struggle because they are trying to do much. I still love "This Is Us" on NBC, but sometimes, I think they try and do too much regarding the characters as well, especially in the second season and this current 3rd season.

[Faulkner]

I don’t mind the actor playing Lucious’s other son. He seems completely credible as a socially awkward, Zuckerberg-esque tech magnate. It would make sense that he’d seem out of place with the Lyons, but the writing is just so uninspired on every level on that show. Clunky, clichéd dialogue (the HIV story with Jamal’s fiancé is didactic on an almost Sesame Street level), a lot of treading water storywise. Even Cookie’s quips are lame no matter how much oomph Taraji puts into them. The first season was so much fun.

 

This Is Us has become a parody of itself, as so many popular shows do.

 

It’s hard to stay the course when you have so many people in your ear saying, “We gotta the raise the stakes exponentially. Otherwise, people will get bored.”

[xtr]

double post

 

 

 I think he's an awful character and I really disliked when it was revealed he was his son. I don't like the way he acts/looks. I can't ever see him fitting in with that family ( and I think for him to possibly stick around long term, he'd have to, to some degree), even if he ever does make peace with Lucious. 

 

Also, I think that another problem that Empire has is that at times it's way too dark. Last week's episode was pretty disturbing/violent with the storyline with Cookie's sister.  And they often kill off people violently. Every season they kill off people in very violent, gruesome ways including important supporting characters/family members.  I think they could be better off if they lightened up and cut down on the violence. 

 

[Faulkner]

I agree on the darkness. They’ve overdone the (masculine) gritty crime drama element and scrimped on the (feminine) soapy fun scandalous melodrama. Not every show on TV needs a heavy body count, folks! It’s boring. The music has always been subpar (IMO), but they aren’t even trying right now. 

 

I don’t get the sense they’re trying to integrate Kingsley into the family, but I could be wrong. He seems like one of Empire’s regular one-season wonders.

[Antoyne]

Dexter. Talk about just falling apart...

[Gray Bunny]

Ooh yes, I forgot about Revenge. An amazing first season that turned into a convoluted mess the second year. They managed to turn things around the 3rd season somewhat, and then that final season.... Lord, best to pretend the last year didn't happen. 

 

I was actually afraid How To Get Away With Murder was going to suffer the same fate, as the 2nd half of the second season got too complicated, but they managed to turn things around and crank out amazing seasons and half-seasons ever since. 

 

Brothers & Sisters I enjoyed consistently; I thought the final season was weaker but still good. I was just sad they got the Wonder Years treatment for the series finale (they shot it, not knowing if it'd be the season or series finale, as they didn't know if they'd be renewed) 

 

Speaking of shows that bounced back after crashing in their sophomore season, I'm so glad Desperate Housewives was able to bounce back from their disappointing second year. 

 

Thinking back on some sitcoms in my childhood... after being hits for so long, it was kinda sad how TGIF shows like Family Matters and Step by Step, and even Perfect Strangers and Hangin' With Mr. Cooper fizzled out with barely anyone noticing. Family Matters and Step by Step were "rescued" by CBS for one final laskluster year... Perfect Strangers' final episodes aired nearly a year after it was pulled off the schedule on some random nights during the summer, and I think Hangin' also ran its final episodes at some random time. 

[vetsoapfan]

So many of my favorite series ended up crashing and burning towards the end, and it broke my heart, but I try not to let their bad years take away from my enjoyment of the earlier seasons.

 

 --ST. ELSEWHERE: So great (particularly seasons two, three, and even four but by the end...not so much. That series finale: vomit.

--LITTLE HOUSE: Kept up the quality for an astonishing 7 seasons, but the eighth year without Mary and Nellie was weak, and season nine was painfully awful.

--BEAUTY & THE BEAST: Wonderful for the first two seasons, but the third year without Linda Hamilton deteriorated rapidly.

--ROSWELL: Excellent first year, pretty good second year, and then an inexplicably awful third/final season.

--BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Seasons one and four: pretty good. Seasons two, three, and five: Excellent. Season six: AAAAAACK! Season seven: ehhh.

--ALL IN THE FAMILY turning into ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE: Grim depressing, lethargic, not funny at all.

--THE GUIDING LIGHT: Fatally wounded in 1984, but those Peapack years were like watching an invalid grandmother being slowly tortured to death.

--DAYS OF OUR LIVES: From William J. Bell and Pat Falken Smith to...James Reilly. Sigh.

--THE EDGE OF NIGHT: From Henry Slesar to Lee Sheldon. Gag me.

--ONE LIFE TO LIFE: Paul Roach.

--GENERAL HOSPITAL: From mesmerizing character  drama to mad scientists, space aliens, and endless mob glorification.

--AS THE WORLD TURNS: Goutman. Sheffer. Jean P. 'Nuff said.

--THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS: Need I explain?

 

 

 

[ChitHappens]

I can't find the post from the person who thinks Teraji/Cookie still holds this show together.  Um...NO!  They turned what could have been an iconic character into a one line running hoodrat.  I would gladly take an overhaul with Nicole Parker as the lead.  

 

Unfortunately, some folks don't get enjoyment from black actors unless they play ghetto ass clowns, so no Cookie would be a problem for this once promising show!  

[Faulkner]

That probably would have been me you’re referring to. I don’t care for Cookie in her current iteration, but I do love Taraji. She’s magnetic to watch (and she still eclipses the other main cast, including and maybe especially Terrence). But they haven’t known what to do with her in a looooong time. 

 

The first season of the show was probably just a happy accident, but with folks like Lee Daniels and Ilene Chaiken behind it, it’s not surprising it went off the rails with a quickness.

[mango]

Coincidentally, most of my picks are after main character departures:

 

BH 90210 - Brandon was a key cog. The show seemed rudderless without Jason Priestley.

 

Cheers - It was tough to recreate the spark of Shelley Long.

 

8 Simple Rules - There was endless potential, the cast had wonderful chemistry, and Amy Davidson was an overshadowed gem. What else can be said about the loss of John Ritter? He's so missed.