Friday OT #1 - Jump the Shark

[Angie]

Thanks so much to @Farnsworth for this topic!

“At what point do you give up on a show you are interested in? Do you feel the need to hold out to see how it ends?”

I will let him give his example, but I tend to be sort of a completionist - with books, movie series, and TV shows. There was no reason to watch the last season of Scrubs, but I had committed to it.

How about you?

 

[pourcyne]

“At what point do you give up on a show you are interested in?

When I realize that I don't care at all what happens to the main character.

Most everything I've ever tried to watch with Ben Affleck in it, for example.

 

[ISU3PtLand]

When characters start to do things that are just unbelievable or just "out of character" on a regular basis, then I start to lose interest.

I love a good soapy drama, and my prime example is the show "Revenge" that ran on ABC from 2011 - 2015. The first season was insanely good and if they had just ended it after the first season I would have called it one of television's greatest shows. The problem is, great pilots or ideas need an endgame. If tv shows told a complete story and just let it end instead of dragging things out over years and years.

Look at "Lost". The first couple of seasons were great, but then they lost their way in all the mythology and twists and turns. Plot points were introduced and then forgotten about. If you're gonna build a show like that, you have to think it out completely.

"Star Trek: Picard" was pretty forgettable for the first two seasons, but then BAM!, the third season was AMAZING. If they had just done those 10 episodes as a limited series, it would have been the perfect conclusion to the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. The third season was truly a love letter to fans while having a great plot as well.

I wish we were more like British television, where series are very limited and tell complete stories as opposed to 22-episode seasons where shows drag out plots or recycle plots just to keep the show on the air.

 

[JM4CY]

The Office was terrible after Micheal left but I kept waiting for it not suck until the last season I finally gave up.

 

[JP4CY]

If it's an acclaimed series (Westworld) I'll give it until a few episodes of the second season.

If it just seems terrible (Under the Dome) I'm out after maybe 3 episodes.

 

[Gonzo]

I watched the first season of "Sex in the City" way back when with wife just because of all the buzz. That was all I could take. Started the second season and it cemented in me how absolutely godawful the writing was, how most of the dialogue was essentially an endless string of perfectly-timed and cheesily-delivered one liners, how it perpetuated this sense of NYC elitism and how the rest of the country was just lame, how unrealistic it was for this middling "writer" to afford the lifestyle she was living, and how each episode was basically 60 minutes of caressing the ego of SJP's character and conveying to the world how really truly special she was.

But I will say Kristin Davis was hot.

 

[Angie]

I watched the first season of "Sex in the City" way back when with wife just because of all the buzz. That was all I could take. Started the second season and it cemented in me how absolutely godawful the writing was, how most of the dialogue was essentially an endless string of perfectly-timed and cheesily-delivered one liners, how it perpetuated this sense of NYC elitism and how the rest of the country was just lame, how unrealistic it was for this middling "writer" to afford the lifestyle she was living, and how each episode was basically 60 minutes of caressing the ego of SJP's character and conveying to the world how really truly special she was.

But I will say Kristin Davis was hot.

There are already solid examples in this thread, but this one rings true - the writing in Sex and the City is just awful, the characters all awful and unlikable. The fashion is interesting, but not good enough to watch it.

But not only did I watch the s***ty series, I watched two s***ty movies AND the new abomination series. Oh, and there was a short-lived prequel. I don’t LIKE the show. But I have still seen all of this hot garbage, because I am a completionist. And maybe I think it will get better, deep in my back of my mind, I don’t know.

 

[carvers4math]

When I get to the point where I think the world would be a better place if all of the main characters were hit by a bus and they are no longer funny.

Seinfeld is an example of one I watched to the end because they were funny even though they were all awful the whole time.

How I Met Your Mother was just characters turning into awful people who were no longer funny. The only likable person was the one we met briefly and they killed.

 

[cowgirl836]

When characters start to do things that are just unbelievable or just "out of character" on a regular basis, then I start to lose interest.

I love a good soapy drama, and my prime example is the show "Revenge" that ran on ABC from 2011 - 2015. The first season was insanely good and if they had just ended it after the first season I would have called it one of television's greatest shows. The problem is, great pilots or ideas need an endgame. If tv shows told a complete story and just let it end instead of dragging things out over years and years.

Look at "Lost". The first couple of seasons were great, but then they lost their way in all the mythology and twists and turns. Plot points were introduced and then forgotten about. If you're gonna build a show like that, you have to think it out completely.

"Star Trek: Picard" was pretty forgettable for the first two seasons, but then BAM!, the third season was AMAZING. If they had just done those 10 episodes as a limited series, it would have been the perfect conclusion to the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. The third season was truly a love letter to fans while having a great plot as well.

I wish we were more like British television, where series are very limited and tell complete stories as opposed to 22-episode seasons where shows drag out plots or recycle plots just to keep the show on the air.

Oh man I so enjoyed Revenge as well and then it got weird.

 

[somecyguy]

When characters start to do things that are just unbelievable or just "out of character" on a regular basis, then I start to lose interest.

That's my breaking point. House of Cards and The Handmaiden are two that come to mind where one of the main characters did something so out of character and illogical it just ruined it for me.

Otherwise when a show becomes a cliche, like the Walking Dead.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Thanks so much to @Farnsworth for this topic!

“At what point do you give up on a show you are interested in? Do you feel the need to hold out to see how it ends?”

I will let him give his example, but I tend to be sort of a completionist - with books, movie series, and TV shows. There was no reason to watch the last season of Scrubs, but I had committed to it.

How about you?

I watched The Walking Dead until the bitter end. I had to see how they ended it. Sadly I couldn't tell you any details of what happened.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Thanks so much to @Farnsworth for this topic!

“At what point do you give up on a show you are interested in? Do you feel the need to hold out to see how it ends?”

I will let him give his example, but I tend to be sort of a completionist - with books, movie series, and TV shows. There was no reason to watch the last season of Scrubs, but I had committed to it.

How about you?

I am definitely a completionist unless the show is really bad. My wife is not, so we drop out of a lot of shows that I'd otherwise watch. My main problem is that I'm not really a big TV guy when left to my own devices, so I usually don't go back and finish them on my own.

 

[somecyguy]

I am definitely a completionist unless the show is really bad. My wife is not, so we drop out of a lot of shows that I'd otherwise watch. My main problem is that I'm not really a big TV guy when left to my own devices, so I usually don't go back and finish them on my own.

My wife and I used to watch ER and every season got more and more ridiculous, but she watched it so I did. Grey's Anatomy broke me. As you can tell my wife loves medical shows and so I watched the first few seasons with her, but omg....I found myself tense at the end of the show because the situations and characters were so bad. Now, especially with streaming shows so hit and miss, I can drop something pretty easy.

 

[ISU3PtLand]

My wife and I used to watch ER and every season got more and more ridiculous, but she watched it so I did. Grey's Anatomy broke me. As you can tell my wife loves medical shows and so I watched the first few seasons with her, but omg....I found myself tense at the end of the show because the situations and characters were so bad. Now, especially with streaming shows so hit and miss, I can drop something pretty easy.

OMG, the first 4-5 seasons of ER were as good as tv gets. It was the first medical show that treated its audience like adults and didn't take up time having to explain the medical jargon. They just threw it out there and trusted their audience to be smart enough to follow along.

One time I had to go to an actual ER and asked if they were going to order a "CBC chem 7 or 20". The doctor told me I was watching too much ER. We had a good laugh about it.

 

[BCClone]

If I don’t care about the main character and the high amounts of nudity ends.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

House of Cards.

The first couple seasons are great but man how awful did that show get? Yet I watched to the bitter, and I do mean bitter, end.

 

[engineer_doug]

As a kid, I gave up on Dukes of Hazzard when Bo and Luke were replaced with Coy and Vance.

 

[Al_4_State]

I was into Walking Dead, but once I realized it was just going to keep going I totally bailed. A serious show has maybe 5-6 seasons before you need to finish the story.

I stuck out How I Met Your Mother because I felt invested. I kinda hated the how the last season made the mother totally irrelevant and the entire thing was a set up to make Ted and Robin fully happen, which is what you assumed would happen for the bulk of the series. That could have easily been a 5 seasons show.

 

[KnappShack]

Friends after they got rid of the monkey and decided to stop being a comedy

Breaking Bad - 15 minutes into episode 1

 

[GMackey32]

Wife and I rewatched ER a couple of years ago. We saw it all the way through but the last 2/3rds were a slog.