Walking dead. Only season one was good
Big Bang Theory
Game of Thrones. Just couldn’t get into it.
Squid Game.
Bring on the down votes, I don’t care, that show was garbage and I was baffled at the HYPE around it.
Breaking Bad
Lost. I got about halfway through the first season back then until I couldn’t shake the impression that it was a bunch of convoluted horse shit produced by hacks who thought they were bleeding edge. History proved my impression correct.
Friends
How I met your mother
Big Bang Theory
Always Sunny and Arrested Development. Both shows are just people being really fucking stupid and it’s somehow hilarious.
The Walking Dead. Felt more like the Talking Dead, the pacing was far too slow for me and it didn’t seem like much was happening.
Rick and Morty. My taste in humor just changed and it and other similar shows don’t do it for me anymore
Star Trek Discovery
Surprised to see so few mentions of For All Mankind, I really wanted to like it I did, but I only got about 2 episodes in. I realized the setting was the only thing that remotely interested me, the characters were bland at best, and absolutely incompetent at worst.
It was a series with the ripe call to the “competency porn” as I’ve seen described as, but the characters couldn’t contrast the setting any further. I did spoil myself before I tried getting into it, a few moments stuck out to me. Firing on two unarmed cosmonauts, getting crushed between two interplanetary vessels while trying to covertly siphon fuel, and having a child on mars. Just did not feel very NASA by the end of it, tell me if you think I’m wrong and should give another chance however.
Oddly enough I think I found that aesthetic I was looking for in Stargate SG-1, I never really gave that franchise a chance until now, I’m almost surprised how well it seemed to age, especially how little I see it mentioned in comparison to Trek, or even Doc Who (which i know next to nothing of)
My biggest problem with most of the shows listed is they have to outdo themselves and go on for too long.
Season one: Great premise!
Season Two: Same premise, but TWICE the danger!
Season three: I don’t know, robot ninjas or something?
I miss when shows could just grow in the first season or two, and then you’d only get raising stakes two or three times a year (season finale/premier and sweeps). Otherwise they’re just stories.
These days shows have to justify themselves right out of the gate.
The most infamous example of this is Supernatural where the first few seasons were very episodic and exactly what you described. Then, after season 5 it keep escalating until dudes are fighting off the end of the world for the 6th time lmao
These days shows have to justify themselves right out of the gate.
I miss mid-budget live action scifi shows with strong enough episodic elements that I can actually remember individual episodes. These days seemingly every show feels like an 8-12 movie that blurs together.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds is the closest current thing to an exception. Before that The Orville.
Most other scifi that comes out has to be an “event”.
I miss mid-budget live action scifi shows with strong enough episodic elements that I can actually remember individual episodes
Kamen Rider.
The Orville had that in the first season or so, after that it went heavy into serialization. I dont think I even finished whatever the last season was because of it.
Hah, yes!
Just finished season 3 of Yellowjackets and White Lotus and I just felt, meh. I’m hopeful for season 4 of both shows but I’ll be living off the honeymoon phase from seasons 1 and 2.
Oh, this is about Riverdale, isn’t it?
Riverdale actually did what I’ve always wished for a boring failure of a show to do, and just completely go nuts.
Oh our boring high school drama show is slumping? How about an organ stealing cult, a superhero, and a guy escaping from the cops in a rocketship!
Its more that they have to keep the money train going, than they have to outdo themselves.
Most recently, Yellowjackets and White Lotus. I watched the first 2 seasons of Yellowjackets because the premise was interesting, and I wanted to see what happened (how the rescue happened) but it turned into a hate watch for me by the end of the second season. It all felt pointless and super depressing with no moments of hope or levity at all. The introduction of random supernatural elements and magic felt like they were drifting into Lost territory, and I couldn’t force myself to watch the third season after that.
White Lotus I tried rewatching because everyone seems to love it but I could never get past the first episode in the first season, everyone was so unlikeable and awful or totally ridiculous that I couldn’t stomach spending more time with them.
Dark.
First season was decent, but after a certain point the cognitive load required to keep track of the timeline(s) and character relationships just made it feel exhausting and not fun to watch.
