Author Topic: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill  (Read 66744 times)

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Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #285 on: September 23, 2014, 07:58:26 PM »

Offline Beat LA

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The Big Bang Theory after seasons the first two seasons.  Initially, it was great, but like all geek-nerd (and for most of my life I've been put in one of those two groups.  Well, kind of.) shows, it just runs out of material, because there's only so many jokes that can be made, quite honestly.  I haven't watched it in a while because it's not funny anymore, and it's become more of a relationship based show, which was never its premise.  The character development is pathetic, as well.  Take Sheldon, for example.  In the first couple of seasons, his quirks and strange idiosyncrasies were hilarious, but now they're just forced and not funny, especially with his laugh.  It's like they're trying to hard, and, getting back to Sheldon again, everything he does seems terribly contrived.  It worked for the first few seasons, but it's just terrible now, imo.

For the most part I agree with this, although I've continued to be a somewhat regular viewer.  I did think Season 3 was largely good (you may have not liked the relationships, but they set up the Leonard-Penny story in the pilot, so they were being good with that).  Seasons 4-6 were generally disappointing, 4 and 6 being worse than 5.  The second half of last season, however, actually had some real, not contrived character development for the first time in years.  It will be interesting to see if they keep that going this season or not, but there's a chance that this is a show that finds its way again after stumbling about looking for odd gags and shark-jumping story lines for multiple seasons.

I do think you're right that the de-emphasis on science/math jokes has been disappointing, however, as the show's popularity has grown and more mainstream humor has taken its place.

No, I understood that, it's just that that was never the premise of the show, or maybe I just wrongly interpreted it from the beginning.  I don't know, I just find it boring now, and they just got another three seasons  :o - for what?  How much more can they possibly stretch out of what's left of the original program, haha?

I take it back.  After the two new episodes tonight, I'm done.  They set up a very poignant scene at the end of last season and resolved it by someone running around with no pants.  They also literally recycled a joke from Season 3, and not in a "How I Met Your Mother" way of referencing it.  Just as if it were a brand new joke they'd never thought of before.  They have nothing left.

I told you ;D  Meh, I didn't bother watching it, which, from your description of the two episodes, seems to have been the right course of action.  I'm telling you, they're running on fumes.  Another 3 years of this crap? :o  Man, oh man.
must be me but I thought the first show had a few laugh out moments.  didn't have those at all last season.  have the second episode from last night on DVR so please no spoilers. 

will agree that I wasn't too keen on how they ended last season and couldn't see a way for them to get the storyline back on track this season and I wasn't satisfied with how they brought Sheldon back into the fold.  seemed rather pointless to go down that path in the first place.

have to say this: HATE HER HAIRCUT!!!   god that's an awful look.  she used to think she was too hot for Leonard to dump-->not the case anymore.

I didn't tune in to watch either episode, so you don't have to worry about any spoilers from me, haha, and what I've emboldened perfectly sums up my disdain for Penny.  Her ego has always been out of control.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #286 on: September 23, 2014, 08:04:04 PM »

Offline pearljammer10

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Jackass reminded me of another MTV show, started great then quickly dropped off:  The Tom Green Show 
another MTV show that had nowhere to go but up.  to this day I have no idea how that idiot managed to get any network to give him air time.  about as unfunny as someone can get.

speaking of MTV, one show I like that started out well and went downhill was Win Ben Stein's Money.  Jimmy Kimmel was a terrific foil to Ben.  Lost something when Jimmy left.

I lovveeedd Win Ben Stein's money when Kimmel was on it. Completely agree that it lost something once Jimmy left.

Man I forgot about that show, I used to love it.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #287 on: September 23, 2014, 08:23:21 PM »

Offline Nerf DPOY

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Here's a going downhill submission: I got a kick out of Drunk History the first season, but some of the various gags like having the actors mouth the offhanded drunken comments, burps, et cetera got a little stale for me this year. This second season didn't improve or introduce anything new creatively that I saw.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #288 on: September 23, 2014, 08:49:36 PM »

Offline pearljammer10

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Here's a going downhill submission: I got a kick out of Drunk History the first season, but some of the various gags like having the actors mouth the offhanded drunken comments, burps, et cetera got a little stale for me this year. This second season didn't improve or introduce anything new creatively that I saw.

Nice. Another good one. Agree completely.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #289 on: September 23, 2014, 10:06:02 PM »

Offline 2short

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I'm sure its been mentioned but just saw an ad for final episodes of newsroom
jeff daniels did a great job, starting off good then it was every standard story line we've seen forever
unwatchable after 3/4 of season

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #290 on: September 24, 2014, 01:04:52 AM »

Offline freshinthehouse

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Surprised no one mentioned Jackass yet.

I don't think Jackass really dropped off at all.  I think they only went 2-3 seasons.  They didn't like how much influence MTV execs were putting on them, so they ended the show.  I think you could show most people a episode from season 1 and an episode from season 3 and they wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #291 on: September 24, 2014, 04:02:09 AM »

Offline lon3lytoaster

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Fringe. Pilot episodes had me hooked. Couple subtle nods to Lost here or there. Pretty good overall though and I finished the first season in a couple days on Netflix. Not too much after that it started to drag and by the third season I'd find myself zoning out more often that not. Hated most of the final season.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #292 on: September 24, 2014, 06:38:05 AM »

Offline LatterDayCelticsfan

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The Simpsons. Drowned in a miasma of ever more absurd gags. They stopped telling stories.
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Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #293 on: September 24, 2014, 09:06:33 AM »

Offline Endless Paradise

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The Simpsons are kind of an oddity as the show didn't really "start" great: the first two seasons were mediocre to slightly above-mediocre.  Most people tend to agree that the Golden Age is from Seasons 3 to 7 with some expanding that all the way out to Season 9 and Season 10 getting a few honorable mentions.

I haven't watched the show recently nearly as often as I did when I was younger (never missed a new episode), but it appears it's on the rebound phase.  If you were to graph the show's progression in quality, it'd resemble a sine wave.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #294 on: September 24, 2014, 09:09:34 AM »

Offline Eja117

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The Simpsons. Drowned in a miasma of ever more absurd gags. They stopped telling stories.
At one point that absolutely happened. When Homer started becoming a caricature of a caricature the show really dipped.

Also Marge and Lisa are just not that good of straight men.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #295 on: September 24, 2014, 09:25:22 AM »

Offline pearljammer10

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The Simpsons are kind of an oddity as the show didn't really "start" great: the first two seasons were mediocre to slightly above-mediocre.  Most people tend to agree that the Golden Age is from Seasons 3 to 7 with some expanding that all the way out to Season 9 and Season 10 getting a few honorable mentions.

I haven't watched the show recently nearly as often as I did when I was younger (never missed a new episode), but it appears it's on the rebound phase.  If you were to graph the show's progression in quality, it'd resemble a sine wave.

It's funny how the adult cartoons usually follow this arc. I mean watching the first season of South Park to me is atrocious. The drawings are god awful, the voices are terrible, and all they did was swear at each other and make fun of each other. As the seasons progressed so did the storylines.

Same for Family Guy in a way. It evolved into something more complete after the first couple seasons, and especially changed for the better after they got cancelled.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #296 on: September 24, 2014, 10:32:41 AM »

Online Moranis

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The Big Bang Theory after seasons the first two seasons.  Initially, it was great, but like all geek-nerd (and for most of my life I've been put in one of those two groups.  Well, kind of.) shows, it just runs out of material, because there's only so many jokes that can be made, quite honestly.  I haven't watched it in a while because it's not funny anymore, and it's become more of a relationship based show, which was never its premise.  The character development is pathetic, as well.  Take Sheldon, for example.  In the first couple of seasons, his quirks and strange idiosyncrasies were hilarious, but now they're just forced and not funny, especially with his laugh.  It's like they're trying to hard, and, getting back to Sheldon again, everything he does seems terribly contrived.  It worked for the first few seasons, but it's just terrible now, imo.

For the most part I agree with this, although I've continued to be a somewhat regular viewer.  I did think Season 3 was largely good (you may have not liked the relationships, but they set up the Leonard-Penny story in the pilot, so they were being good with that).  Seasons 4-6 were generally disappointing, 4 and 6 being worse than 5.  The second half of last season, however, actually had some real, not contrived character development for the first time in years.  It will be interesting to see if they keep that going this season or not, but there's a chance that this is a show that finds its way again after stumbling about looking for odd gags and shark-jumping story lines for multiple seasons.

I do think you're right that the de-emphasis on science/math jokes has been disappointing, however, as the show's popularity has grown and more mainstream humor has taken its place.

No, I understood that, it's just that that was never the premise of the show, or maybe I just wrongly interpreted it from the beginning.  I don't know, I just find it boring now, and they just got another three seasons  :o - for what?  How much more can they possibly stretch out of what's left of the original program, haha?

I take it back.  After the two new episodes tonight, I'm done.  They set up a very poignant scene at the end of last season and resolved it by someone running around with no pants.  They also literally recycled a joke from Season 3, and not in a "How I Met Your Mother" way of referencing it.  Just as if it were a brand new joke they'd never thought of before.  They have nothing left.

I told you ;D  Meh, I didn't bother watching it, which, from your description of the two episodes, seems to have been the right course of action.  I'm telling you, they're running on fumes.  Another 3 years of this crap? :o  Man, oh man.
I actually enjoyed both episodes.  Is the show as good as it was early on, nope, but I still think it is a pretty solid show and I did laugh out loud a couple of different times in each episode. 
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Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #297 on: September 24, 2014, 10:39:56 AM »

Online Moranis

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The Simpsons are kind of an oddity as the show didn't really "start" great: the first two seasons were mediocre to slightly above-mediocre.  Most people tend to agree that the Golden Age is from Seasons 3 to 7 with some expanding that all the way out to Season 9 and Season 10 getting a few honorable mentions.

I haven't watched the show recently nearly as often as I did when I was younger (never missed a new episode), but it appears it's on the rebound phase.  If you were to graph the show's progression in quality, it'd resemble a sine wave.

It's funny how the adult cartoons usually follow this arc. I mean watching the first season of South Park to me is atrocious. The drawings are god awful, the voices are terrible, and all they did was swear at each other and make fun of each other. As the seasons progressed so did the storylines.

Same for Family Guy in a way. It evolved into something more complete after the first couple seasons, and especially changed for the better after they got cancelled.
I found the first season of Southpark to be the best overall. I've seen every single episode of the show and Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride is still my all time favorite episode.  I mean the very first episode was Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, which is a classic.  They certainly picked up the graphics as technology got better and they now do the one week an episode pretty much every time so they stay relevant, but some of that relevancy is lost when you watch it years later.  That first season is funny every single time you see it.
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Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #298 on: September 24, 2014, 12:43:43 PM »

Offline Endless Paradise

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I actually liked the first few seasons of Family Guy and I know there are many purists who lament the edgier, random, more irreverent flavor the show has taken on since its return.  I personally like Family Guy as a whole -- pre and post-cancellation.  But I can certainly see why those who like the show from 2005 on wouldn't appreciate the first three seasons and vice versa.

Re: TV Shows that started great and then went downhill
« Reply #299 on: September 24, 2014, 12:55:51 PM »

Offline slamtheking

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I actually liked the first few seasons of Family Guy and I know there are many purists who lament the edgier, random, more irreverent flavor the show has taken on since its return.  I personally like Family Guy as a whole -- pre and post-cancellation.  But I can certainly see why those who like the show from 2005 on wouldn't appreciate the first three seasons and vice versa.
definitely a different flavor of show from psycho Stewie to less-psycho Stewie.