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

IvaBigWun

Im just finished my first (and last!) rewatch of Prison Break after not seeing it in many years. Fúcking hell. What a drop it takes in quality in season 4 (and some might say after season 1), truly some of the worst TV Ive ever seen.

The only thing I can compare it to as far as standards falling off a cliff is Dexter. As soon as showrunner Clyde Phillips left it went slowly downhill until it reached its conclusion and perhaps the most terrible TV finale ever.

But then take something like The Shield. It starts off ok to good and then builds towards truly amazing TV. Some of the best Ive seen of its ilk.

Another that comes to mind in terms of getting better is Parks & Recreation. A soso first season leads to some of the funniest moments and episodes in American sitcom history, its up there with the best American comedy ever in my humble opinion.

For you, what show dipped the most in quality? What show started bad/just ok and then got great?

Edit: please use spoilers and common sense for any major plot points, twists etc

IvaBigWun

Pre-empting obvious second reply.

What shows dipped the most in quality? The Simpsons!

racso1975

Season 5 The Wire /thread

Dymo

Heroes after season 1

IvaBigWun

racso1975 wrote: »

Season 5 The Wire /thread

In terms of getting better or worse? I could never get past the first season.

Baron Kurtz

True Blood. Season 3, perhaps. As mentioned already - Heroes took a serious dive.

IvaBigWun

Dymo wrote: »

Heroes after season 1

Big time!

racso1975

That was the thing with wire loved season 1, 2 was not great (lots of debate on that though), 3 and 4 superb but 5 was just bs of the higest quality.

IvaBigWun

All negativity so far lads. Dont forget the "what show started bad/just ok and got great?" bit

Mr E

The Mindy Project, Happy Endings and New Girl took a while to warm up, but all were/are cracking comedies now.

Person of Interest went from a decent case-of-the-week show to the best show on network TV.

IvaBigWun

Mr E wrote: »

Person of Interest went from a decent case-of-the-week show to the best show on network TV.

Ive tried it twice now, mostly based on the favourable reviews here, and I cant get past episode 6/7.

Mr E

Only started getting REALLY good about mid-way through season 2.

IvaBigWun

Mr E wrote: »

Only started getting REALLY good about mid-way through season 2.

breffni bogballer

LOST! started really good, then they just made it up as they went along when ratings went sky high. 8-10 episodes and it would have been way better

CastorTroy

Vampire Diaries started off good but really went downhill later on.

True Blood is another which was good up to a point then they just started juggling far too many storylines that went nowhere.

Improvement is Person of Interest which just became must see tv.

Agent Coulson

Dexter very good season 1,2 & 3 amazing season 4 then down hill to the worst ending ever.

FloatingVoter

Good - > Bad Weeds goes to pot after the second season. But its still worth it for bellylaughs.

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.


Glorious Mess - Twin Peaks doesn't begin, middle or end. Its consistently chaotic and messy and classic.

A Greedy Algorithm

Home Land

Dont be at yourself

Immediately thought Prison Break and The Shield when I read the thread title.

For Heroes, it's not that it dipped in quality, it's more that it never quite caught fire and realized its potential.

red dave

Agents of Shield I thought started really, really poor. I gave up on the show after I think 3 episodes. Then noticed a lot of activity on the thread and some people were saying it improved. Went back to it and absolutely glued to it especially after around halfway through the season. It's one of my favourite shows now and really looking forward to season 2. Lets see how that one goes.

derfderf

The first few episodes of the walking dead had me stuck to my chair. It hasn't really lived up to the start. Still a good show though.

Say Your Number

Scrubs was pretty good for the first four seasons, the fifth was passable and it just went to pieces after that.

Mardy Bum

racso1975 wrote: »

Season 5 The Wire /thread

The only critique anyone has of season five is that it seemed far fetched. The acting, writing and directing was brilliant throughout. Most people were not really interested in the critique of Print Journalism which is understandable as a lot will find it boring however it was excellently done and wonderfully developed. The other seasons were just as far fetched.

NufcNavan

I'd argue that Mad Men started out fairly flat, season 2 was especially boring and I barely stuck with it. On season 6 now and it's one of the best shows I've seen.

john the one

I only started to watch the shield yesterday so delighted its thought highly of. I believe finchers house of cards went from good to excellent!

FunLover18

A Greedy Algorithm wrote: »

Home Land

Yep, just got ridiculous after a superb first season

Good -> Great -> Poor -> Great again Community

The Big Bang Theory is slowly stagnating.

Suits has declined in quality.

HIMYM got really bad, I wouldn't mind but given the premise of the show the ending completely ruins all the early good stuff.

Friends declined after season 4. I remember once hearing someone say that the relationship that held that show together wasn't Ross and Rachel but Chandler and Joey.

Misfits too went downhill after the second season.

Trying to think of a show that has improved but they're rare enough, I'd agree with a previous poster that Mad Men has gotten better

pickarooney

Justified went from meh to downright brilliant about ten episodes in once they took the decision to change the format from case of the week to season long arcs.

Desperate Housewives was a genuinely intriguing noir thriller for a year and ended up as the worst soapy pastiche of its era.

Homeland was a terrific idea superbly executed until they **** the bed and decided to drag it out to several seasons.

Archer was the greatest animation series I'd ever watched but then season five... If they really had got so bored of making it they should have home the decent thing and killed it

enda1

Blackadder started slowly and awkwardly, but with clever writing and character reinvention, it developed into a masterpiece!

Green Giant

First 4-5 seasons of Family Guy were excellent. Many brilliant gags and each episode had some substance to it, while still being 'off the wall' funny

By the time season 8 came around it had been swallowed up by its own ridiculousness. It was as if the writers didn't care about plotting a proper episode and just mashed together 20 minutes of shock gags. Now it's just plain disgusting and outrageous

intellectual dosser

24 series 7 was awful. I powered my way through it but I havent been able to bring myself to watch any of the subsequent series.

Stone Deaf 4evr

john the one wrote: »

I only started to watch the shield yesterday so delighted its thought highly of. I believe finchers house of cards went from good to excellent!

The shield is one of the most underrated shows ever. Its brilliant.

john the one

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

The shield is one of the most underrated shows ever. Its brilliant.

Yeah I got all of season one done in a day and I'm very impressed. Last thing I watched was the killing which Is good.

I always seem to be the last person I know to watch all the programs. Its great

bogmanfan

Good to bad:

Alias
First 2 seasons were superb. Went seriously downhill after that.

Homeland
Should have ended after one season. Once they ran out of material to copy (the original Israeli show it's based on) they ran out of steam.

Modern Family
Used to be excellent. Last season was ok at best. The two young lads used to be great, but only Phil Dunphy keeping it watchable now.

Game of Thrones
Yep. First season was excellent, now it's just bogged down with way too many plotlines and characters. At this rate it'll be 2020 before there's any progress.


Bad to good:

Seinfeld
Was never bad, but first 2 seasons were only mildly amusing before it really took off and became the greatest show of all time (imo). I started watching when BBC2 picked it up, around season 4 I think. Mightn't have persevered if I'd seen it from the very start.

Skerries

Fringe went from an ok premise in the first season with X-files like monster of the week to being this fantastic arc

Babylon 5 was very episodic in the first couple of seasons to bloody fantastic for season 3 and 4 with 5 limping due to them having to wrap up a 5 season arc in 4 due to threatened cancellation

den87

Good to Bad- The Killing, Californication, Hell on Wheels. Prison Break? (gave up after s2)

Bad to Good- Justified

spiritcrusher

For me Justified is the best example of a show that started off "alright", it was a straightforward case-of-the-week show with an overall plot arc that you'd get snippets of every so often. But then around three quarters of the way through the first season it's as if they suddenly realised how generic that format was and decided to focus on the overall plot instead. Ever since then it's been pretty much unmissable. Hideously under-watched too despite all the praise that gets heaped on it.

Nody

Dr House Season 8 was not very well done compared to the rest (you could even argue Season 1 - Season 2 - 7, Season 8 had a steady decline)

Orange is the new black - Okish start to very strong by end of season 2 in my books

Futurama - First five seasons vs. the later once is a clear watershed in my books

Burn notice - Grew a heck of a lot over the seasons in my book

Top Gear - Clear case of decline over time

ScumLord

I found Sons of Anarchy got very dull after the first two seasons. I just couldn't care less what the biker group got up to.

RED L4 0TH

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Pre-empting obvious second reply.

What shows dipped the most in quality? The Simpsons!

Dipped? Total implosion more accurate.



Haven't watched it in ages, then watched Treehouse of Horror 23 a couple of weeks ago to see what state it was in. For a Treehouse episode (a flagship episode in each season i think) it was utterly appalling.

DazMarz

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Pre-empting obvious second reply.

What shows dipped the most in quality? The Simpsons!

Oh dear god, yes. As a committed fan, I despair at the state the show currently finds itself in. I posted a big long diatribe about how bad it had gotten, so I'm not going to do the same here. Up until about season 10/11, The Simpsons was easily up there amongst the greats.

Other series that have dipped in quality as time wore on:

-Frasier

For me, the greatest comedy ever. It was just sublime at its peak. It did, however, decline in quality in the final few seasons, but not abysmally so. It still had its absolutely golden moments, but the latter seasons were not a patch on some of the earlier episodes.

-Futurama

Has, like The Simpsons completely lost its way. Once a golden, witty slice of TV heaven. Now bloated, and unfunny.

-Family Guy

As above.

-The X-Files

One of my all time favourites, but it really lost some of its magic towards the end. For sure, the disappearance of

Agent Mulder

from the series was a big thing, but it still had very decent moments in its final seasons. But it did not reach the heady heights of some of the other earlier seasons. Still an all-time great and it remains a brilliant piece of conspiracy thriller.

krudler

The most obvious one is The Simpsons, I still remember seeing the very first episode broadcast on Sky and talking about it in school the next day.
For years it was 6pm on a Sunday, can't talk, new Simpsons episode. Up until season 8 at least it never, well rarely put a foot wrong and was quite frankly tv at it's best, I still think it's the best American tv show ever when it was in it's prime and had people like Conan O'Brien writing for it. Season 9 is when the decline started and after season 10 the poor episodes started outnumbering the bad ones.
It's such a shame to think there's probably more crap episodes than great ones now, I caught a new (well new to me since I havent watched it regularly in years) episode a few months ago and it didn't raise a single giggle out of me, the classic episodes are still hilarious.
If you look up the episode lists on imdb.com look at season 4, it's possible the mostly consistently brilliant season of a tv show, there's not one single bad episode in it and even the flashback/clip show episode is hilarious (Bart shaking the beer can up and putting Homer in a coma).

Personally speaking it taught me so much over the years, American culturalisms, movie, tv and musical references. It has some deeply poignant moments and is a perfect snapshot of working class life in America with quotes that will forever for used. There's a Simpsons quote for everything, no really there is.

bnt

Dymo wrote: »

Heroes after season 1

Beat me to it, first show that came to mind.

Conversely - Cougar Town started a bit haphazard but got better as it went on, even if it didn't get the eyeballs it needed. Ditto for New Girl which is becoming a fixture on the schedule.

bodhi085

Nip tuck started out really good. Controversial of its time but soon went downhill and just silly. Season 3 was awful then it picked back up for season 4/5 then the final season and finale was just rushed and just unbelievable that the two main characters of Christian and Sean wasn't the same characters anymore.

tim3000

Dexter was amazing at the start but rapidly went downhill after S04. Prison Break was another show with an amazing initial season then turned into sh1te of the highest calibre.

A show that is often overlooked is The 4400, in my opinion that was going from strength to strength before it was axed.

Heroes started quite well but got lost in itself. Lost was great but once it became popular they milked it dry.

pickarooney

bogmanfan wrote: »

Good to bad:

Alias
First 2 seasons were superb. Went seriously downhill after that.

This is actually the correct answer.

squonk

Glenroe! Slow first season but ramped up with the Fidelma thing half way through and then the epic Biddy tractor crash in the last season!

Have to point to the Simpsons myself as the most Good to bad really.

Covert Affairs has to get a mention as an OK show early on. It was cutesy and interesting but we'd all have gotten very bored by now if they hadn't decided to retool the show as a hard core spy saga. It's unmissable now.

gugleguy

Friends. From good (episode like Bruce Willis as the strict Father) to definitely past it's best ( contriving the bejaysus in comedy out of the moms minding their pre toddler stage babies and the other Friends main characters’ reaction to the baby’s presence as singletons).

NufcNavan

Have to agree with Friends. The decline started (although not necessarily because of) when Chandler and Monica got together.

The characters became parodies of themselves by the end.

Joey was a stupid/witty character to becoming borderline retarded. Not being able to replicate sound? A one year old can do that.

Pheobe should have been checked into a mental home by season 10. Collecting rats and keeping them in the same area where you keep food was a big give away that her bf should not have stayed with her and indeed should have called the authorities.

Monica became incredibly annoying by the end. Her "I know!" catchphrase wasn't ever funny.

The Simpsons has to be the best example

season 1-8 was the best then went downhill now just copies storylines from movies and uses celebrities to draw viewers.

Top Gear another good example, new seasons are very poor

gugleguy

For somebody who watched Top Gear in pre audience days, Top Gear with the live audience never has given that extra 'fuel injection'. Ok, so now the show has a studio audience to "contribute"......:rolleyes:

Revenge. First season showed great potential but in truth it should have been wrapped up in season 2 without going off on a complete tangent