What show dipped the most in quality? What show started bad/just ok and got great?

Tarzana · 08-08-2014 7:21pm

Well, the obvious, the Simpsons.

Seasons 2-8 were so good, it hurt. Like, I actually couldn't believe what I was hearing, how could anyone write something so funny and clever and layered. Shaped my humour and just made a bigger impression on me than anything before or since.

And then what it became.

Worst is people say "It's still one of the best things on TV" - um, no, no it isn't.

Tarzana · 08-08-2014 7:24pm

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Slow -> Great Breaking Bad starts extremely slow ...like a very long novel in no particular rush to display its good bits. Then we all know what happens.

I really don't get this. I hear it often but don't get it. BB was utterly compelling to me right from the start. I don't understand why it starting slow and building up equates to it being worse in the early seasons. A lot of the "good bits" are in the early seasons. And Season 5 is easily its weakest season, especially the back half. Not bad, but just not reaching the heights of the preceding seasons.

Tarzana · 08-08-2014 7:29pm

RED L4 0TH wrote: »

For a Treehouse episode (a flagship episode in each season i think) it was utterly appalling.

I know, the Treehouse episodes used to be amazing.

Tarzana · 08-08-2014 7:31pm

DazMarz wrote: »

Up until about season 10/11, The Simpsons was easily up there amongst the greats. the greatest

FYP :P

08-08-2014 7:33pm

Nah.

itsduffy · 08-08-2014 8:35pm

Misfits season three, when nathan and the original cast starting leaving

FunLover18 · 09-08-2014 12:55am

itsduffy wrote: »

Misfits season three, when nathan and the original cast starting leaving

Yep, said it earlier. The switching up the powers didn't work at all. I always just pretend it ended at season 2 which had a perfect finale if you exclude the christmas special

Whatsisname · 09-08-2014 1:54am

FunLover18 wrote: »

Yep, said it earlier. The switching up the powers didn't work at all. I always just pretend it ended at season 2 which had a perfect finale if you exclude the christmas special

Nathans reaction to the afterbirth will never not make me laugh

FunLover18 · 09-08-2014 2:33am

Whatsisname wrote: »

Nathans reaction to the afterbirth will never not make me laugh

I think he's my favourite TV character. Rudy was hilarious but he wasn't Nathan and the general plotting of the show after season 2 let him down. I think Overman only ever had plans for 2 seasons and after that he seemed to be just winging it.

ivytwine · 09-08-2014 1:42pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Agree with the above, though Ross is the one I'd have checked into a mental home. If they'd handled
his breakdown (post-Emily)
* with a bit more subtlety it could have been moving. Instead they just had Schwimmer over-act whenever possible and become as shrill and irritating as his on-screen sister had become.

My big problem with Phoebe is that she just became noticeably more bitchy and unpleasant as the seasons went on. She went from loveably kooky to just really self-involved and obnoxious. At least that's how I felt about her anyway.

Biggest problem with Chandler was that he played off the other characters for laughs. So when Monica, Ross, Joey and Phoebe all went downhill, his character suffered as a result. His transformation from socially awkward but intelligent to
token incompetent husband
* was overdone as well.

I think Rachel was the only character who actually progressed somewhat throughout the series and didn't just turn into a total parody of herself. Not sure how much of that is down to the writing and how much is down to Jennifer Aniston (a genuinely talented comic actress who sadly continues to appear in mostly shíte films).

*yeah I know spoilers are probably unnecessary - who the hell hasn't seen Friends? - but just in case... :pac:

I completely agree with you about Phoebe. She could always be a bit cutting (hey, it's a sitcom) but I suppose as it moved from the 1990s to the 00s and the sort of hippy trend fell out of favour, they just dropped that aspect of her and turned her into a bitch. It's a pity because, although the rest of them didn't have the easiest childhoods, she had the worst, and the mixture of naivety and toughness could have been very interesting.

For me what killed Friends completely was the 'relationship' between Rachel and Joey. I hate that they did that. It felt so unnatural and forced.

Agree with True Blood, it was fantastic at first. I even quoted it in a couple of gender studies essays in college

Season 5 was a total mess and I haven't even watched the last 2 seasons.

I do think with comedies especially, that they have a shelf-life. If you look at shows like Fawlty Towers, Father Ted and The Inbetweeners, two or three series max and not a dud episode among them. It definitely appears to be more common in America to wring every last drop out of a comedy premise with quality suffering as a result.

thebostoncrab · 09-08-2014 1:56pm

Yogosan wrote: »

South Park- I am a massive South Park fan, still am. Up until around season ten the show was still consisitently turning out brilliant episodes with such ludicorus plots that only Trey Parker and Matt Stone could wrap up in 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, as with the Simpsons, they started running out of ideas and so they changed their formula to allow them to complete episodes within a week so they could do stories based on up to the minute popular culture (It took literally months of hand crafted animation in the early days).

They still can produce great episodes and the recent recruitment of Bill Hader has freshened up the show, but with such short deadlines they have no time to start over if an episode isn't working out as planned. Every now and then they ditch the popular culture angle and create oldschool off the wall episodes which can still produce truly golden material.

In fairness to Trey and Matt, they created a great show, they have made some hilarious films (After the success of Team America it's a mystery why thay haven't made one since) and have recently made a South Park game which scored a very respectable 85 on Metacritic. Not too shabby for two guys who started out making cartoons out of paper cutouts!

I'd be on the other side. I think South Park has been on the same level of greatness since season 4. The first two season, while funny, don't hold up against anything that followed. When the show became more about social commentary and allowed its supporting cast to shine it became a masterpiece. Each season has hit it out of the ball park, and the fact that Matt and Trey can do it with such a short turn around and still work on massive projects like BOM and the game just validates their genius for myself.

wp_rathead · 09-08-2014 3:05pm

Parks and Rec Season 1 - and even season 2 - Started off as one of the most unfunny show I've seen.

Season 3 onwards it turned into on of my favourite shows..

HurtLocker · 09-08-2014 3:10pm

Glad to see people mentioning Misfits. After Nathan left it dipped then season 3..........

Watching the last episode now

The humour is just gone since Nathan (Sheehan) left..

gugleguy · 09-08-2014 3:23pm

CHiPs The TV series in the early eighties. One of the copay was called Poncharello. First few seasons were good, satisfying chases and investigations.
Later seasons were generally plain dross, and like a sitcom in nature.

Dozen Wicked Words · 09-08-2014 5:26pm

I think The League definitely had a bad drop last season, seemed to totally lose its way, too fixated with nfl cameos than anything else. More Sacko than Shiva.

smilerf · 09-08-2014 5:35pm

Coupling was great but when Geoff left it went to the dogs

SimonTemplar · 09-08-2014 5:50pm

Spin City massively dipped in quality after Michael J Fox left and Charlie Sheen took over. It felt like a completely different show.

is mise spartacus · 09-08-2014 5:59pm

Grey's Anatomy imo got worse after season 6

quickbeam · 09-08-2014 10:47pm

Red Dwarf. The first couple of seasons pre-Kryten seem to come in for critisim at times, but I think they're brilliant. Very minimalist scripts and situations. As time went on it did become more ambitious but equally good. However it really jumped the shark when Kochansky came back. And I've not even bothered with the Sky made recent episodes.

kryogen · 09-08-2014 11:17pm

Dexter as has been mentioned numerous times started incredibly, fantastic for a number of seasons then absolutely fell off a cliff, to the point where I honestly have not seen the final season after sticking with it up to that point.

House is another show I loved, up to a point. Can't remember exactly what season but it definitely dropped off

The Wire got better as it went on for me, with season 4 being the best of the bunch, then it dropped in quality for season 5 but I don't have an issue with the season itself, just as a comparison it doesn't hold up so well to the others

The Shield someone mentioned, started of alright, then became something special, incredible television in that genre. Really took me by surprise as it went on

Lost....

24 had a few peaks and valleys

irish son · 09-08-2014 11:36pm

Homeland Season 1 is arguably the best season of tv I've ever seen, it really should have just ended there. Went to bits after that.

The other way around with Seinfeld which was decent in Seasons 1 and 2 but became the best sitcom of all time.

IvaBigWun · 09-09-2014 9:49pm

Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

For me its had more ups and downs than Jordan's knickers

Thankfully Im on Season 5 now and it seems to be strong again.

dublinman1990 · 09-09-2014 11:47pm

I would say the older editions of Knight Rider with David Hasselhoff were really good and fantastic quality. The current interpretation of the show I heard nowadays has gone to absolute s**te.

The 60's Batman would have gone down at season three with Batgirl being introduced into the show.

Current shows like The Mentalist for me is unpredictable at the moment as it reached it's peak when Red John was killed from last season. But that show for me has started good but has gotten much better when the pace of the show increased from it's beginning.

conorhal · 10-09-2014 10:41am

smilerf wrote: »

Hannibal started off real slow. half way on season one was better
Season 2 was just incredible from start to finish

Gotta agree there! I actively slagged it off calling it CSI: Baltimore with a stupid autistic detective hook, but midway through the first season it began to improve and season 2 counts as some of the best television on air at the moment.

I think that what absolutely kills a lot of shows like Lost, Prison Break, Revenge or Homeland is a 'high concept formula' that can only be sustained for at most one or two seasons before attempting to keep it going becomes increesingly preposterous as they attempt to find ever more new and elaborate reasons why the hero needs to escape another prison or fail to actually take revenge on her nemesis because the conspiracy has just become even more elaborate.

IvaBigWun · 10-09-2014 5:53pm

Re: Hannibal

I thought season 1 was a blast and season 2 turned into a convoluted mess.

I wont be watching season 3.

conorhal · 10-09-2014 7:52pm

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Re: Hannibal

I thought season 1 was a blast and season 2 turned into a convoluted mess.

I wont be watching season 3.

I'm totally the opposite. The only thing that kept me going in season one was Mads Mikelson's reptillian charm that supplanted Anthony Hopkins as Lector in my mind. Otherwise it as just an episodic procedural with a really lazy mcguffin where by no detective work was required because Graham 'just knew' who did it regardless of how thin the clues or evidence.
Season to was a delicious cat and mouse game between Graham and Lector for the upper hand that just got more and more bonkers and wierd. The cinematography was also stunning.

Whatsisname · 11-09-2014 1:33am

Season 2 of Hannibal was immense. Season 1 struck me as it tried too hard to be gruesome and I eventually gave up around the episode 10 mark. Got convinced to give season 2 a go and finished it within 2 days, loved it!

Butterface · 12-09-2014 8:29pm

The Office (US) started off badly and then steadily became quite a brilliant comedy. After Carell left it dipped sharply.

I think 30 Rock got better as it went on. But in saying that, it was never the most consistent of comedies so there were dips throughout every season. I'll probably revisit again in the future though.

nxbyveromdwjpg · 14-09-2014 3:47pm

The Newsroom, great pilot then got immediately sh*t.

TiGeR KiNgS · 29-09-2014 10:33pm

xpose., started off $hite and still $hite

What show dipped the most in quality? What show started bad/just ok and got great?

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