Shows that weren't cancelled soon enough

Inspired by the thread about shows that were axed before their time. What TV shows could and should have come to a great end at least a season before they were finally allowed to die?

The biggest example of this for me is the X-Files, which IIRC pretty much lost the entire original cast and spun out its big mytharc well beyond the point where it should have been explained or at least brought to some kind of decisive conclusion. Lost seems to have gone the same way of getting more and more mindscrewy without explaining or resolving anything, which is why I'm glad I stopped watching it in season 2.

ER Unless they did this to it.

IMO, JAG went 1 season too long. Should've ended in Season 9 with Admiral Chegwidden's retirement, Bud's promotion, and Harm and Mac working things through. Season 10 felt like it was tacked on.

Buffy. Oh God, that show became a shadow of its former self. I choose to believe it ended eight episodes into season six (yeah, I have a higher threshold than most other people), which would have given it a marvellous downer ending.

Why isn't CSI dead yet? It got repetitive pretty early on.

It's been said many times before, but . . . The Simpsons. Stopped being funny about ten years ago.

ZoZo wrote:

Buffy. Oh God, that show became a shadow of its former self.

YES. I can't even watch the early episodes any more.

Keith Fraser wrote:

The biggest example of this for me is the X-Files, which IIRC pretty much lost the entire original cast

Ehhhh, not so much... I watched it pretty much to the end, and while a lot of older characters got pushed to the back-burner as new characters came to the fore, they weren't done away with entirely (not even Mulder, really), but that's just going on my memory. I haven't seen the show in several years.

Quote :

and spun out its big mytharc well beyond the point where it should have been explained or at least brought to some kind of decisive conclusion.

THIS. So much, this. Man, that was fucking painful to witness, and I was a die-hard fan of that shit. It just became painfully, obviously clear that Carter had no idea how to end the show so he just sort of spun his wheels pitifully and ended it with a fucking CLIP SHOW episode. Yes, like that worked so well for Seinfeld.

Agreeing with the umpteen spin-offs of CSI and so forth. Just repetitive and formulaic, with cardboard characters. Besides, The Wire and The Shield blow any other cop show out of the water as far as quality goes.

Throwing one out there that I haven't watched, but have heard that it had a steady decline in quality after it was brought back from cancellation: Family Guy. I can't even watch it because I find the characters' voices annoying.

Probably going to make myself really unpopular with this one, but I think Dr Who has gone way beyond it's sell-by date, and Torchwood wasn't cancelled quickly enough. I note with dread plans to resurrect Torchwood.

Grey's Anatomy DEFINITELY wasn't cancelled quick enough. It was crap from day one and has gone steadily downhill ever since. For some inexplicable reason my dad seems to like it-- which doesn't say much for his viewing tastes. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Chris91 wrote:

Grey's Anatomy DEFINITELY wasn't cancelled quick enough. It was crap from day one...

Listing a show you never liked goes against the idea of the thread doesn't it? It's like having "Day One" as an option for when a show "jumped the shark." "It's just not as good as it used to be, uh, before it aired." Right.

Anyway, I don't mind there being shows I don't want to watch. It's a good thing. There are thousands of hours of television every week, and I can only watch so many. Why should I be so arrogant as to expect the rest to be aimed at me as well?

So, yeah, being saddened that a show you once loved became a shadow of its former self is legit. General "I don't like that, they should can it," less so.

Stargate: Atlantis. After they killed off Carson and brought in Keller, that show went downhill so fast nothing could save it. Replacing a loved character with a Sue, making the main team a former shadow of themselves, forcing an actor into a hideous wig, because TPTB seemed to think that Ronon was all about the dreads. Just ugh. I skipped many episodes in Season 4 and pretty much stopped watching a few episodes into season 5.

Stargate: SG-1 should have ended with Season 8 (yes, I realize this has been covered.)

X-Files should've ended after "Two Fathers"/"One Son"

gaijinguy wrote:

X-Files should've ended after "Two Fathers"/"One Son"

But even that wouldn't have been a good ending because Carter never intended for it to be... the simple fact is, the powers that be on The X-Files had literally no clue how to end the show properly.

...Yeah, still bitter over that.

Malganis wrote:

gaijinguy wrote:

X-Files should've ended after "Two Fathers"/"One Son"

But even that wouldn't have been a good ending because Carter never intended for it to be... the simple fact is, the powers that be on The X-Files had literally no clue how to end the show properly.

...Yeah, still bitter over that.

Obviously, the PTB was making it up as they went along. It's just that from a narrative standpoint, it was a good place to end the story: the colonization project has been destroyed by the rebels, along with the Syndicate (OK, and their families, omlettes, eggs) and their prototype. Cancer Man survived, but the vaccine proved effective, meaning that there's hope. In short, it was about as close to a definitive conclusion as you could reasonably expect from a show as mind-screwy as that.

Oh, I've got another one: Twin Peaks. I loved the first season and part of the second season, but after they solved Laura Palmer's murder the whole thing just went off the rails and got goofy. The second season kind of redeemed itself with the really, really creepy Black Lodge arc and the series finale's cliffhanger was good, but it didn't quite make up for the time-wasting crap before.

Thankfully Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was dark and disturbing and helped erase my memory of the saccharine crap in the last season.

Lexin wrote:

Probably going to make myself really unpopular with this one, but I think Dr Who has gone way beyond it's sell-by date, and Torchwood wasn't cancelled quickly enough. I note with dread plans to resurrect Torchwood.

I thought Torchwood only improved from its first season.

What are your problems with Doctor Who, and what do you think the sell-by date was?

Agreed on Buffy, very very much. I choose to ignore anything past Season 3. Although 4 and 5 weren't too bad, 4 was disjointed and 5 had Dawn. I also thought that Glory was too 'big' an opponent for the show. The previous villains of the series were a lot more domestic in their scope, which I thought was a better fit with the tone of the show.

Lexin wrote:

Probably going to make myself really unpopular with this one, but I think Dr Who has gone way beyond it's sell-by date, and Torchwood wasn't cancelled quickly enough. I note with dread plans to resurrect Torchwood.

Not flaming, but are you talking Old Who, or new Who? With new Who, RTD did write to a point where I can see why it seems like itt should have ended. But I think Moffet can pull it out of the dregs.

Torchwood, i can't speak for. I only remember Children of Earth.

Chris91 wrote:

Grey's Anatomy DEFINITELY wasn't cancelled quick enough. It was crap from day one and has gone steadily downhill ever since. For some inexplicable reason my dad seems to like it-- which doesn't say much for his viewing tastes. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Grey's Anatomy was cancelled? About frakkin' time. It jumped the shark when it introduced that sex with a ghost thing. Uh, no. That only worked on Ghostbusters. And it was actually funny. Plus it seemed the whole lot of characters just would rather feel each other up in the storage closet than do actual work.

Bad Luck Charm wrote:

Chris91 wrote:

Grey's Anatomy DEFINITELY wasn't cancelled quick enough. It was crap from day one and has gone steadily downhill ever since. For some inexplicable reason my dad seems to like it-- which doesn't say much for his viewing tastes. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Grey's Anatomy was cancelled? About frakkin' time. It jumped the shark when it introduced that sex with a ghost thing. Uh, no. That only worked on Ghostbusters. And it was actually funny. Plus it seemed the whole lot of characters just would rather feel each other up in the storage closet than do actual work.

I wish - Season 7 will start airing in September.

Law & Order. Well, ok, I still like the original... but the spin offs? No, man. Just no. If you had that many stories to tell, wouldn't the original one be just fine for them?

Also, I liked season 4 of Buffy. And season 6. 5 & 7 just didn't... yeah. It really should have ended after season 5, but at least 6 gave us the musical episode, which was awesome.

X-Files definitely didn't end quick enough. It really went to frack after they started concentrating on the gubment conspiracies. I rather preferred it when that was a subplot and the main episodes dealt with various weird encounters.

*looks around* What? No one has said Heroes yet? Definitely should have been cancelled after the first season, or rebooted with a whole new cast (which the creator of the show Kring wanted, I guess). The second one... well, eh, it was eh. I got a lot of amusement at wondering where Peter's Irish girlfriend was though. After that? Definitely should have been shitcanned, because it's nothing but hype and BS.

Maximilia wrote:

*looks around* What? No one has said Heroes yet? Definitely should have been cancelled after the first season, or rebooted with a whole new cast (which the creator of the show Kring wanted, I guess). The second one... well, eh, it was eh. I got a lot of amusement at wondering where Peter's Irish girlfriend was though. After that? Definitely should have been shitcanned, because it's nothing but hype and BS.

Oh hell yeah, Heroes. I didn't even watch the third season because the second one was so horribly bad.

Dexter. Adored the first season, liked the second, was doubtful about the third, and abandoned ship about three eps into the fourth. God, the serial killer with a baby, who rushes his murder of the day because his baby has colic, and...gaaah. No.

I fear for Supernatural. Kripke brought it to a pretty neat, nasty ending, after three marvelous seasons and two darkish but still pleasant ones. To continue the story seems unnecessary.

ReGenesis is the only series I know I worshiped from beginning to one episode before the end. The last episode just grates, because it uses a totally different way of telling the story than the rest of the series.

Umm, what more did I watch that should have pittered out...Ah! 21 Jumpstreet! And that should be enough to make those who've seen it go

Smallville, anyone? It was pretty bad to begin with, although addictive enough (for me) to get thoroughly hooked for 4 seasons. By the the plotholes--or complete lack of plot-- and continuity issues had become so glaring it was impossible to watch and still respect oneself.

Like Buffy, Angel went on for too long, too. And let's not forget Highlander. 'Hey fellow director guys, I know we just introduced an immortal of 5000 years old who has, by playing in 9 episodes, managed to completely dwarf the popularity of our main character Duncan McCloud, who is a pretentious s.o.b, but I still think it's a really good idea to SCRATCH that character, you know, and have our Dunc go through some more repetitive story lines and chop off some heads without Methos to balance his s.o.b.ish pretentiousness. Agreed?' Sigh.

Maximilia wrote:

*looks around* What? No one has said Heroes yet? Definitely should have been cancelled after the first season, or rebooted with a whole new cast (which the creator of the show Kring wanted, I guess). The second one... well, eh, it was eh. I got a lot of amusement at wondering where Peter's Irish girlfriend was though. After that? Definitely should have been shitcanned, because it's nothing but hype and BS.

I'm SO glad someone mentioned Heroes before I did, I couldn't watch after the first season. I disagree on the Law and Order to a point. I adore SVU, but I can't stand it lately. It's become just rubbish.

My number one on the list of shows that weren't canceled soon enough would have to be 24. I don't even have a reason other than Kiefer kind of looks like his face is made of leather and I really don't know how it's feasible to stretch eight days over eight (almost 9) years.

kleine_kat wrote:

Like Buffy, Angel went on for too long, too.

I don't know, season five was probably the best. There was a whole lot of shit in the middle that could have been neatly excised though.

Agreeing on 24. It just got so bloody repetitive. And Kiefer just can't pronounce "nuclear", which was grating in a show in which nuclear bombs are constantly going missing.

Sutremaine wrote:

Lexin wrote:

Probably going to make myself really unpopular with this one, but I think Dr Who has gone way beyond it's sell-by date, and Torchwood wasn't cancelled quickly enough. I note with dread plans to resurrect Torchwood.

I thought Torchwood only improved from its first season.

What are your problems with Doctor Who, and what do you think the sell-by date was?

Torchwood's first season looked hopeful, but it only went downhill from there - and the first season wasn't that good, what with the police officer who couldn't police - basically, I had real problems with the way they wrote Gwen. She never seemed real to me; I can't fault the actress who did the best she could with what she was handed, but she was written as incompetent. I liked Jack, but liking Jack didn't take me far enough - it needed to be a group effort and it wasn't.

With Dr Who, old Who jumped the shark with Colin Baker's doctor. It should have stopped then, because after that it was not even funny any more. It was just sad what it had become. New Who started off on a high note with Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor, but I never took to Tenant. I was never really that convinced that he could save the universe and the new one has had some good episodes (the Van Gogh one was good, IMO) but hasn't really convinced me either that he could stand up to evil.

I did like Rory, though. I preferred Rory to Amy.

slinkythecynic wrote:

My number one on the list of shows that weren't canceled soon enough would have to be 24. I don't even have a reason other than Kiefer kind of looks like his face is made of leather and I really don't know how it's feasible to stretch eight days over eight (almost 9) years.

What? The show itself makes it pretty clear that the days don't happen consecutively. I haven't seriously watched 24 in years and even I know that.