A long-running TV show is a rather precarious thing – it’s built hype over several years, it’s weaved together a million different storylines, and for the curtain call, it has to bring everything together for a final and brilliant climax. Obviously, that’s hard to pull off, and while some shows like Breaking Bad did it with elan, other shows – such as the ones below – dropped the ball spectacularly.
1. Game of Thrones
We all remember what a massive shitshow season 8 was. From being a gripping fantasy tale brimming with creativity in season 1, this show fell into a world of terrible writing and inconsistent character progression that destroyed it entirely.
2. Prison Break
Season 1 of this escape show was extremely gripping, not to mention the idea of the plan being tattooed on the guy’s back was pretty damn novel. Once they were out however, the show fell into a conundrum, as that was its basis, and season 2 onwards things just went down.
3. Lost
This started off as one of the most intriguing shows of all time. The premise about a group of people stuck on a seemingly-haunted island after their plane crashed kept us glued to the TV every week. But too many storylines and vague explanations made them lose the plot, which led to the audience also being ‘lost’. Sorry.
4. 13 Reasons Why
The source material for the show was a short novel. Once that was done, they kept dragging the seasons along by adding increasingly more improbable storylines and pointless drama. Pass.
5. Grey’s Anatomy
This medical drama rang the death knell when it introduced a musical episode in season 7, along with an increasing number of major character deaths. Despite everyone agreeing it’s done, they are still on their 17th season.
6. Community
It hurts me to even write this, considering just how much I love the show. But when the network fired creator Dan Harmon (who also made Rick and Morty), the quality dipped drastically and the show never really recovered.
7. Money Heist
The hype-train around the first season was fun to climb aboard, but as time went on and the premise became increasingly more bizarre, there was little left to love. The characters also lost any sense of relatable merit, and the show is now an empty husk of what it once was.
8. The Office
You can’t do the show without Michael Scott. When he left, the show was over and they didn’t need to keep on going. But they did, and all we were left saying was, ‘Look how they massacred my boy!’.
9. Heroes
When Heroes came out, it was all the rage. Al the different layers, the different superpowers, everything felt new and exciting and well made. But the show struggled under the weight of everything it built up, and finally crashed into a confusing mix of senselessness.
10. Dexter
The vicarious feeling of glee we’d get from Dexter giving it back to vicious criminals lingered for quite a few seasons. By the end however, absolutely bizarre storylines involving everything from new identities to incest ruined the show.
It’s sad to see what they turned these great products into.