Too many “what got cancelled too soon” questions, what’s a show that went on too long?
Hard mode: no The Walking Dead
Game of thrones. They should have ended it when they caught up to the books. Just leave it unfinished. That’s not satisfying but better than what we got.
Spoilers ahoy. If you’ve not seen game of thrones, read on to get the disappointment out of the way now
I disagree wholeheartedly. As much as “who’s got a better story than bran” sucked, I think that was likely the ending that was intended in the books as well (and the extreme backlash against it is why we’ll never see the last books). GRRM stated on multiple occasions that he was working closely with HBO and that they knew the general shape of the story he was trying to tell.
I feel like the majority of the problem with GoT was Benioff and Weiss. GRRM wanted at least two more seasons in which to tell the story (and, knowing what we know now, to delay the revelation that he didn’t really have a way to untangle the story he tangled), HBO made it clear that they would keep riding the money train no matter how far the station, but D&D wanted to wrap the series up ASAP so they could work on producing some Star Wars films. That’s why Jon goes from Dragonstone to the wall in a single cut. That’s why the entire war with the nights king that was central to the whole series was over in an episode. That’s why Dani went psycho in her moment of victory. That’s why cersei’s death was so predictable that it’s a cliche in ttrpgs, that’s why cleganebowl was ultimately disappointing, that’s why the resolution to dragons being in westeros was “idk he just left lol”, that’s why the resolution to aryas story was “idk she just left lol” (even after several seasons developing her character as someone who believes that if Starks don’t stick together they’ll be destroyed), that’s why the resolution to the war in the north was “idk the north…won? but also surrendered? lol”, that’s why LRJ didn’t matter at all, that’s why the spider went from being the most politically adroit character on the show to doing a whole musical number entitled “Do You Wanna Do A Treason?”, that’s why littlefinger’s whole trial was “we know he’s a dick just kill him”, and the fact that House of the Dragon is being made by people who want to make it is why its almost as good as the first 5 seasons of GoT
It all comes down to the fact that they wanted the show to just be over, and now it is I suppose.
The issue isn’t the ending itself, it’s how they got there. They rushed the ending, and as a result it made no sense.
I would’ve been really pissed off if they just stopped and didn’t even take a stab at it. Now I’m disappointed with the seasons that came after that point but at least the series has come to some kind of conclusion.
What really pisses me off was not just that is was lazily written, but that D and DB knowingly ran it into the ground. They had a Q&A where they admitted it.
Rugrats after they added Dil. He was dead weight and the show went from the babies going on adventures to the babies taking care of a baby.
The Simpsons is still going.
It hasn’t been good for over a decade or more at this point.
Star Trek discovery, should have ended after the intro
The definitive answer is Supernatural. Shambled on for another 10 seasons as the reanimated husk of a really good that was written to end after season 5.
Weeds should have ended at the burning of Agrestic.
The Office. Last couple seasons were garbo
cue downvotes from the “still watches The Office on loop” crowd
Should have stopped the show when Michael left, and made a TV movie of Dwight’s wedding.
I still think the way Jim handled being (or technically not being) the best mensch is worthy of being canon.
But Nellie and Robert were just too bizarre. Will Ferrell was just awkward. It could’ve been good but he was just very strange. No one was a worthy replacement. Even Ray Romano would have been weird if he hadn’t gotten scared off.
I would watch the Michael session on loop if I wanted to pay for peacock.
I’m sure most people here would agree that cancelling Game of Thrones once they ran out of source material and waiting for the books to be done (lol) would have been preferable to what we got.
GoT would have exited the cultural zeitgeist a lot sooner than it did, probably to the detriment of future viewer engagement and thus a source of revenue for HBO, which is why they pushed it forward, but still…
Big bang theory. It was absolute garbage.
It’s weird with Big Bang Theory, when it first started me and my friend circle loved it, thought it was brilliant but yes it did lose something after a few seasons.
But online everyone just seemed to hate it - could it be because we’re British and it just landed better with us…?
British TV is, as a friend said to me once, dire. So it would make sense that it landed better there. I mean, clearly lots of Americans watched it, and I know a few that loved it. I just think less of them. 😁
I’m on the flip side with that one. I absolutely loved Big Bang Theory, but honestly I can’t stand Young Sheldon. I mean sure the show has its funny moments, but still, why oh why won’t they just let the show die?
Any show that needs a laugh track to tell you when it’s trying to be funny isn’t going to be funny. I actually heard a perfect description of why BBT wasn’t good (to me) a couple weeks ago from the Venture Bros creators. BBT was a show created by people outside nerd culture trying to tell nerds what nerd culture is. And IMO it entirely missed the mark.
The Simpsons
As a Futurama fan…Futurama. The reboot is very mediocre at best, the show was great when it was a bunch of characters with wildly different personalities messing around in the year 3000. The first reboot was kinda less interesting but ok for the most part, I personally think the movies were pretty bad and the new season just wants to be South Park with 3-year old dated references. It had a good run, should’ve ended after season 4
I was looking for someone else to mention Futurama. The new season is just so mediocre. You hit the nail on the head, they’re leaning so hard on social commentary but most of the references are already dated (Bitcoin mining, lol) and in general it’s just rather cringey. I’ve yet to hear one joke that actually had me bust out laughing, and the writers seem to have forgotten the subtlety that made Futurama stand out from other animated sitcoms.
Billy West sounds like he’s lost his voice and it feels like the rest of the cast are phoning in their performances a lot of the time. And what’s with the release schedule? A Christmas episode in August? I remember there being delays but I don’t understand why they would rush to get it out, they had so long to get it right and they still messed it up.
Dexter
Edit: Weeds
The last season of Scrubs. They basically switched out the main character. Should have been a different show.
The Blacklist. Started out great and then I couldn’t even finish the last series.
Family Guy
