What shows could and really should have been brilliant but ended up been flops?

Fuascailteoir

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'll never get over that one.

I think I remember reading that they wanted the budget for other shows like boardwalk empire. Am not sure how true that was

Revenge - good idea and season 1 was very good but it went downhill rapidly after that.

Church on Tuesday

A lot of decent shows simply jump the shark.

Mad_maxx

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Prison Break.

Was kinda silly to begin with but then after the 2nd season it just went full retard.

was actually amazing it stayed good for as long as it did , bar the sopranos , i never loved a show more than prison break for the first two series , then complete crap almost immedietely

coffee_cake

Deleted User wrote: »

Revenge - good idea and season 1 was very good but it went downhill rapidly after that.

"here is now your perfect chance to get revenge and everything you wanted"
"but like, what if, I don't instead" x however many seasons

KungPao

A few good shouts for Dexter.

Although it was always clearly a rather cheap TV show rather than a big budget 'series', and certainy no Breaking Bad, it started so well. Very likeable bad guy/anti hero, some interesting characters and developments, but mon Dieu, it went into the ****ter. Barely watchable after the 4th season, which then tarnished what went before.

Cracking theme tune though.

thebestwords

The walking dead like others have mentioned for me. I really enjoyed the first few seasons, the farm scenario felt believable and it had some great characters like Dale/Shane/Hershel etc. After that it just seemed to loop itself season after season with increasingly worse dialogue and acting, the theme being some survival gang with a baddy leader trying to take the group down with half the episodes devoted to some moral pandering speeches.

It was really good but I haven't watched in years.

Homelander

Game of Thrones is the most obvious one - could've easily gone down as one of the absolute greats if they hadn't made such a total shambles of the last season in particular.

Dexter is another that I loved, but the last season was so bad it beggars belief, and the finale even more so. Even at it's worst, Dexter was always entertaining, but the last season wasn't even that, it was just atrocious.

The Walking Dead had a few decent seasons but got insultingly bad relatively early on and never recovered. The season where Neagan first appears - s7 maybe? - was shockingly bad, it was like the pitch was "Imagine Eastenders set in TWD universe".

And my real issue with the above 3 is that they were incredibly popular, so it wasn't a question of resources - they had access to the highest quality teams and script writers, so there is zero excuse.

It's good that there are shows that know when to quit, or rarer, see the quality through to the end. Breaking Bad and Sopranos are probably two excellent examples of shows that stuck the landing and know when enough was enough.

I see Homeland mentioned here, honestly I thought Homeland wavered between good and excellent over it's run, but to their credit, the later seasons were almost scarily on-point with current world events and therefore incredible, and relevant, viewing.

The last season was really, really good and loosely mirrored what was happening in real life.

Deadwood was another work of art that was cancelled prematurely but it got closure via an excellent movie relatively recently.

Another one of my all time favorites that saw it through with quality intact was Banshee, anyone who's watching the boys will recognise the main star as Homelander, Anthony Starr. 5 seasons of absolute carnage.

Gervais08

Hannibal_Smith wrote: »

Firefly. I loved it. Thought it was a fantastic idea and Sci fi wouldn't normally be my bag. But it was so witty.

But then again if it hadn't been cancelled would we have had Rick Castle and Jessica Pearson.

I loved Firefly!!!! But I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I love Castle so it’s worth the sacrifice !!!

Top shout on Dexter - when Debra started fancying her brother it was time to call it a day.

I assume Lost has been mentioned ?? So much promise and then utter shyte!

JohnnyFlash

There was a great show on C4 a few years back called Utopia. Brilliant story, looked amazing, weird, violent, extremely stylish.

C4 went and cancelled it after 2 seasons. Shower of bastards.

KungPao

The thing looking back too on Dexter is the characters became so irritating. The best one

Doakes died too soon

, and Debra was torture, Latino hat dude became unbearable, Latina police chief, god. And all the ****ty hook ups.

The legendary Jonathan Banks (Mike from BB/Victor Maitland's man servant) made a brief appearance but proabaly 180'd when he saw how shoddy the show was by then. Vince Gilligan had a better job for him anyway.

Gunmonkey

Maybe not everyones cup of tea, but I loved Heroes when it originally aired. Years before the glut of superhero stuff after Iron Man came out, first season was pretty slick and had some great parts to it. But then it went all "ohhhh evil corporations and conspiracies" and the wheels fell off (US writers strike didnt help much either).

pickarooney

Awake. Series with Jason Isaacs about a guy who has a car accident and ends up in a coma. He then switches between two alternative worlds whenever he falls asleep, one where his wife survived and the other where his fun survived. Nobody knew which was the real reality. After an excellent pilot it disappeared.

I think this is more suitable than naming the most successful shows in history that had a shoddy ending.

TheValeyard

Flash Forward.
It deserved another season

Jericho.
It deserved another two seasons

Picard.
Could have been brilliant. Just ended up silly.

Moghead

I thought the last season of Battlestar Galactica wasn't great, up to then it was brilliant.

Sawduck

Freaks and Geeks
American Vandal
Invasion

Suckit

The Good Guys.
It was a good few years ago, and was another show that Fox didn't give a proper chance to. I remember hoping it was going to be picked up by another network but it didn't happen.
It flopped because, well... Fox. They seem to give shows very little leeway in terms of growing an audience, and IIRC it had a big gap in the middle of the season and often had 2 week gaps. It was cheesy and corny, but I think it was supposed to be.
Bradley Whitford was excellent in it. The soundtrack was great too.

Church on Tuesday

Mad_maxx wrote: »

was actually amazing it stayed good for as long as it did , bar the sopranos , i never loved a show more than prison break for the first two series , then complete crap almost immedietely

Yeah it really only needed the two seasons but then it went totally daft.

Mr Meanor

Any show starting with the word 'Star'

bodhrandude

Carnivale made by HBO in 2003 and lasted two seasons. Based around the Great Depression in the thirties in dust bowl country, a travelling carnival making its way across the country, all its mad characters that was picked up on the way with their individual histories of good and evil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carniv%C3%A0le

the purple tin

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

There was a great show on C4 a few years back called Utopia. Brilliant story, looked amazing, weird, violent, extremely stylish.

C4 went and cancelled it after 2 seasons. Shower of bastards.

Where is Jessica Hyde? (one eyed smilie) :pac:

JasonStatham

Westworld.

And game of thrones.

coffee_cake

pickarooney wrote: »

Awake. Series with Jason Isaacs about a guy who has a car accident and ends up in a coma. He then switches between two alternative worlds whenever he falls asleep, one where his wife survived and the other where his fun survived. Nobody knew which was the real reality. After an excellent pilot it disappeared.

I think this is more suitable than naming the most successful shows in history that had a shoddy ending.

Oh that reminds me of this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residue_(TV_series)

Never heard anythign about it after the original release of 3 eps it was really good. had iwan rheon in it

nj27

Fargo was at its best in season one and the new one with Chris Rock looks awful.

Airyfairy12

The last few series of Game of Thrones, it really showed how terrible the writers were when unassisted by George RR Martin. Such a disappointing end to what was almost an iconic series.

Lockheed

nj27 wrote: »

Fargo was at its best in season one and the new one with Chris Rock looks awful.

Every season of fargo since 1 has been sufficiently enjoyable but the performance by Billy Bob Thornton in S1 is physically impossible to be topped. Reckless, cold and calculated, with no regard for anybody around him. Incredible.

breezy1985

micks_address wrote: »

Sense 8 on netflix is amazing... made by the Matrix brothers/sisters... amazing budget you could see the money on the screen... didnt get renewed after season 2 but they did manage to fund a concluding movie length episode which was at least something

Season 1 was excellent when they are just trying to figure out what's going on and how the powers work but got a little bored in season 2 once that was out of the way. Still surprised to see it axed and would have watched more.

The OP was spot on with Space Above and Beyond. Hardly gets a mention even on sci-fi forums and seems to be mostly forgotten but it was brilliant despite the poor CGI of the time and it's a disgrace that it got cut while shows like Andromeda and Farscape got multiple seasons

Hyperbollix

The first series of the walking dead was great and it just declined every season after that. I gave up on it years ago.

I was endlessly waiting for the part when just two characters would have a discussion about why the zombie apocalypse actually happened and for a plot line which might address some big picture idea, like if there was ever going to be a cure or and end to it.

Instead it was just episode after episode, season after season of contrived gang warfare nonsense with comedy Bond villains and lorry loads of all American touchy feely melodrama. It's no different to a soap now. Zero artistic merit, simply a steady wage for series lifers and a vehicle for advertising. The horse has been buried many years ago and still they flog it.

I'd sooner watch Winning Streak than the latest "cliffhanger" season finale.

marcbrophy

TheValeyard wrote: »

Flash Forward.
It deserved another season

Absolutely! I hate the fact that it wasn't finished!

TheValeyard wrote: »

Picard.
Could have been brilliant. Just ended up silly.

The fact that JLP is now

an android

is pretty silly.
But overall, it was great! Can't wait for season 2

Gervais08

This might be controversial but Scorpion.

I loved it and thought it had more to give.