TV Shows that started great and then went downhill

[Beat LA]

What does ASOIAF stand for?

A Song Of Ice And Fire (the name of the series GOT is based on)

Ahh.  Thanks.  TP

[fitzhickey]

Not sure if this has been said, but That 70's Show became quite unfunny.

[slamtheking]

Not sure if this has been said, but That 70's Show became quite unfunny.

started out great - second season was the best IMHO -- when it still had Midge and original Lori.  still pretty good until Topher and Ashton left the show.  that last year was not good-->no real link left to justify having the 'kids' hanging out in the Foreman's basement.

[pearljammer10]

Hopefully Gotham is okay. I downloaded episode 1 already. Will see it later.

Looking forward to Gotham and hope it holds up to the hype. Also looking forward to Fargo's second season and hope it doesnt follow the downhill slope that most shows unfortunately do...

I mean, we're the greatest military power in the world, but the only reason we can sustain a state of perpetual war is because we've got a peaceful prosperous nation just taking up all the best farm land of an entire continent.

And Big Bang theory is utterly terrible. It's always been terrible. Just like Two and a Half Men. The show is as insightful as peak two and a half men.

Without a laugh track people wouldn't have any idea when to laugh, because the jokes are terrible.

And god I could not agree more. The Big Bang Theory has always completely annoyed me. It actually angers me when I'm channel flipping and I see it on some channel. I just don't understand how it has been so popular for so long.

[ederson]

Prison break .... a m a z i n g    first season. but they kept ti alive for far too long.

The same goes for How i met your mother. Nice story line but after the 5-6th it got boring. So boring that i didn`t watch the last season!

[pearljammer10]

My wife told me One Tree Hill gets really bad when the kids grow up and one of them is a famous actress.. one becomes a famous singer, one becomes a professional basketball player.  Yeah.. add One Tree Hill to this list

Never watched.  Isn't it like gossip girl or some **** lol?  Anyway, I always confuse one tree hill with turkey hill ice cream haha

Haha I think I was either in middle school or just starting high school when One Tree Hill came out and I watched some of season one with my parents. I remember them saying it got really weird when they became older and they were all strangely super successful.

My guilt embarrassing pleasure was the OC. Which I'll admit I absolutely loved for seasons one, two and most of three. I think season four went way down hill and just didn't make sense but I don't really remember..... However, season three I was a freshman in college and I was too embarrassed to watch it in my dorm...So I would make my mom tape it on VHS tapes and I would binge watch on my school breaks.

Ahhh.. That felt good to get off my chest.

[RMO]

Married With Children definitely lost it's way.  The last few seasons I recall being really bad.  My question now is did it ever have it?  I used to love that show in it's "peak" but now when I watch reruns I just don't find it funny at all (and I think I'm watching episodes from the so called good years).

[slamtheking]

Married With Children definitely lost it's way.  The last few seasons I recall being really bad.  My question now is did it ever have it?  I used to love that show in it's "peak" but now when I watch reruns I just don't find it funny at all (and I think I'm watching episodes from the so called good years).

I think it had some really good years -- right up through the first few years with Jefferson.  my infatuation with Christina Applegate aside, this was a fairly groundbreaking series in terms of stretching the boundaries of comedic taste (or lack thereof).

It may have lost a little in translation in the past 20 years but there was some pretty solid comedy in this show.   The last 2-3 years were admittedly far less quality than the earlier years.

[fairweatherfan]

IP you're making me nerd out on this Ice+Fire stuff, so I blame you for what follows.

And he goes to absurd lengths to describe how hard it is to get to the keep in the Eyrie, the nigh unassailable stronghold, but how the hell do they get eggs and crap up there? The same way? One basket at a time? Come on. It's dumb.

There's a giant freight elevator that drops from the underside of the Eyrie.  Hasn't been shown on the show but they talk about it and show it in action several times in the books.  That's how they get their supplies. 

And 90% of Rome's energies were devoted to keeping a land peaceful after they conquered them, so that sweet, sweet swag could be channelled back to Rome. What happened when grain became scarce? Power shifted.

What was the limiting factor for the worlds greatest armies throughout history? Keeping them fed. Stretch a supply line far enough and it breaks.

ASOIAF is a great example of something that started out as brilliance but has become tedious and less believable at each subsequent turn.

It took Rome decades to collapse, centuries by some standards.  Westeros has been at war for like a year, year and a half, and starvation and massive power shifts are already happening - that's kinda one of the broader plotlines of the series.  And that's in a world where the seasons let you harvest several times in a row and build up a large surplus.   I'm as big a fan of nerding out over fantasy realism as the next guy, but it seems like all the stuff you're talking about is covered.

[indeedproceed]

IP you're making me nerd out on some of this stuff, so I blame you for what follows.

And he goes to absurd lengths to describe how hard it is to get to the keep in the Eyrie, the nigh unassailable stronghold, but how the hell do they get eggs and crap up there? The same way? One basket at a time? Come on. It's dumb.

There's a giant freight elevator that drops from the underside of the Eyrie.  Hasn't been shown on the show but they talk about it and show it in action several times in the books.  That's how they get their supplies. 

IIRC in the books its referred to as a wooden bucket, and people who use it as a means of ascent are mocked, but its noted Tyrion could fit in one. Again, IIRC.

And 90% of Rome's energies were devoted to keeping a land peaceful after they conquered them, so that sweet, sweet swag could be channelled back to Rome. What happened when grain became scarce? Power shifted.

What was the limiting factor for the worlds greatest armies throughout history? Keeping them fed. Stretch a supply line far enough and it breaks.

ASOIAF is a great example of something that started out as brilliance but has become tedious and less believable at each subsequent turn.

It took Rome decades to collapse, centuries by some standards.

I was more talking about like the rise of the Graccus brothers than the fall of Rome with the power shifting comment. The supply line comment holds though.

Westeros has been at war for like a year, year and a half, and starvation and massive power shifts are already happening - that's kinda one of the broader plotlines of the series.  And that's in a world where the seasons let you harvest several times in a row and build up a large surplus.   I'm as big a fan of nerding out over fantasy realism as the next guy, but it seems like all the stuff you're talking about is covered.

Actually, yeah I'd forogotten about the multiple years of summer meaning full grain stores entering the relatively short time of war in Westeros. I just think of Arya running all over the continent and ending up at assassin's school (seems like for GD ever), Jon on the War (seems like forever), just everything takes so LONG in the books to happen, I lost track a little bit that its really been 3 years or so for the longest running characters, and they're not necessarily concurrent.

But the books suck. Can;t wait to complain about the next one.

[Timdawgg]

Prison break .... a m a z i n g    first season. but they kept ti alive for far too long.

The same goes for How i met your mother. Nice story line but after the 5-6th it got boring. So boring that i didn`t watch the last season!

Totally agree on prison break...I mean how can you really continue the story once you break out of prison...

[RMO]

Married With Children definitely lost it's way.  The last few seasons I recall being really bad.  My question now is did it ever have it?  I used to love that show in it's "peak" but now when I watch reruns I just don't find it funny at all (and I think I'm watching episodes from the so called good years).

I think it had some really good years -- right up through the first few years with Jefferson.  my infatuation with Christina Applegate aside, this was a fairly groundbreaking series in terms of stretching the boundaries of comedic taste (or lack thereof).

It may have lost a little in translation in the past 20 years but there was some pretty solid comedy in this show.   The last 2-3 years were admittedly far less quality than the earlier years.

Oh I agree.  That and the fact this and The Simpsons were on my middle school's "Don't Let Your Kids Watch This" list probably made it more desirable. 

I looked back through an episode list and I think the season where Peg and Marcy were pregnant was the last good one (based on memory) or at least the beginning of the end.  That storyline took an abrupt turn due to Katy Sagal's real life miscarriage midway through the season.  The start of the next season is where they added the young kid.  The following season was the start of the NOMAAM group and by then I had stopped watching.

[slamtheking]

Married With Children definitely lost it's way.  The last few seasons I recall being really bad.  My question now is did it ever have it?  I used to love that show in it's "peak" but now when I watch reruns I just don't find it funny at all (and I think I'm watching episodes from the so called good years).

I think it had some really good years -- right up through the first few years with Jefferson.  my infatuation with Christina Applegate aside, this was a fairly groundbreaking series in terms of stretching the boundaries of comedic taste (or lack thereof).

It may have lost a little in translation in the past 20 years but there was some pretty solid comedy in this show.   The last 2-3 years were admittedly far less quality than the earlier years.

Oh I agree.  That and the fact this and The Simpsons were on my middle school's "Don't Let Your Kids Watch This" list probably made it more desirable. 

I looked back through an episode list and I think the season where Peg and Marcy were pregnant was the last good one (based on memory) or at least the beginning of the end.  That storyline took an abrupt turn due to Katy Sagal's real life miscarriage midway through the season.  The start of the next season is where they added the young kid.  The following season was the start of the NOMAAM group and by then I had stopped watching.

definitely on board with the introduction of  'Seven' as the beginning of the end.  pretty much stopped watching at that point.  didn't even bother with the NOMAAM episodes

[fairweatherfan]

But the books suck. Can;t wait to complain about the next one.

Haha, I'm with you there.  I think the Eyrie's just there to provide some interesting deaths and wind up as a dragon roost anyway.

On topic, I guess no one's mentioned Grey's Anatomy, which started off as a dramatic but touching look at a group of fascinating young women just trying to make their way in this crazy world, but slowly lost its way around the time that hahahahaha I can't do this.  I saw one episode and it was about a main character waking from a coma by giving her ghost mom a hug, so I'm assuming that's about as good as it got, at least comedy-wise.

[RMO]

I personally think Curb Your Enthusiasm went downhill after the season Larry was in The Producers.  The family living with them never did it for me.  I thought the Seinfeld (and I'm a huge Seinfeld fan) reunion season was terrible.