It’s hard to say goodbye to a TV show you love. The characters seem like real people, and you’ll miss their adventures.
However, some shows make it easy to stop watching. Whether it’s improbable storylines, dumb dialogue, or questionable casting, some of us quit tuning in. The show may not be officially over, but we’re over it!
Sure, producers don’t want to say goodbye to their creations, or to those sweet paychecks. But they should know when to leave, according to a popular online forum that recently asked, “What’s a show that went on for too long?”
Plenty of answers popped up: some snide, some sad. Do you agree with their choices?
1. Glee
This started out as a great show. But its drama was a little too high-schooly, and its song-of-the-week novelty became boring, according to some fans.
“Turned a pretty good show into a mediocre money machine,” said one forum user. Another noted that although the cast was made up of Broadway and pop-music stars, their true voices were electronically modified: “To this day, I do not understand why they used AutoTune in the show.”
What a waste!
2. The Walking Dead
Like zombies, this is a show that seemingly refused to die. One former fan called out the writers for using the same plot line: “Group finds place to live; group fights with neighbors; large horde of zombies attacks; group moves; repeat. It just got tiresome.”
Another chastised the creators for numerous TWD spinoffs: “It completely kills the mood and makes the characters feel more like Marvel heroes than survivors.”
3. Weeds
A dark comedy-drama about a widow who deals marijuana to support her family, Weeds ran for seven years. According to one forum member, it “should have been over in like the first season.”
As the family got deeper and deeper into illegal activities, the show went, well, into the weeds. “I hate that they butchered it so much that it wasn’t even the same show by the end,” lamented one commenter.
4. The Flash
Several online forum members pointed out that “the fastest man alive” really wasn’t. “Every season, there’s an even faster protagonist,” one said. Another said that the primary narrative got murky due to subplots and crossovers with other TV shows.
A third viewer hated that The Flash gave other characters powers: “It just became tedious. Pretty much the embodiment of ‘When everyone’s super, no one is’.”
5. Arrow
The Green Arrow comic character isn’t a real superhero, just a guy with good archery skills and the ability to punch bad guys in the face. Even so, the first few seasons were “legitimately great,” one forum member said.
After that? “Terrible writing, new actors that just aren’t very good, characters you can’t help but hate.” Another viewer claimed that actor Stephen Amell seemed disconnected from the show by season eight: “His whole performance was ‘I’m here because I’m contracted to be.’”
6. Once Upon A Time
A fantasy-drama about a modern town filled with fairy-tale characters, OUAT just didn’t know when to write “The End.” A self-described “big fan” of the show said that after season 3, the show “went downhill and turned into an absolute dumpster fire that I love for some reason even I don’t understand.”
Another viewer said that the show should have “gone one season and proudly walked into the sunset.” No happily-ever-after here, though.
7. Bones
Yet another crime drama, but this one has a science-focused forensic anthropologist facing off against an FBI agent who believes in instinct and God. Unfortunately, the show’s creators introduced a romantic vibe.
“As soon as Booth and Bones got together and had a kid, all their chemistry went out the window and the characters changed personalities. Wasn’t fun anymore,” complained a forum member. Another former fan griped, “I’ll never understand why shows have to add sexual tension between the male and female leads all the time.”
8. Riverdale
This dark yet self-aware reimagining of the Archie comic book series has owned its weirdness since the beginning. The writers were having a great time, but some viewers weren’t.
“What’s gonna happen next: The Loch Ness monster? Clones? Time travel?” wrote one forum member. Another commenter admitted to watching “because of the sunk cost fallacy at this point, but I also can’t quit it – it’s so unhinged!”
9. The Blacklist
This offbeat crime drama is about Raymond “Red” Reddington, a brilliant criminal who shares info with the FBI in return for immunity. Fans say the first few seasons were outstanding, but the show turned into a farce.
“The Blacklist is so repetitive, it becomes hilarious. ‘Oh there’s a crime? Red knows all about it’,” said one. Another user agreed: “The whole setup of, ‘Everyone is an idiot except the main criminal guy’ was off-putting.”
10. Dexter
Forensic technician by day, vigilante killer by night: That’s our Dexter! Yet this offbeat premise worked for some fans, since Dexter hunts only for murderers who avoided punishment due to legal corruption or technicalities. The idea worked well, until it didn’t.
“Should have stopped after John Lithgow’s season. It lost its zing after that, and threw in a disappointing ending,” one forum member said.
Another called it a common problem with programs from the Showtime network: “Really interesting premise, with an awesome first two to four seasons. Then they just have the story go to complete (garbage), with the characters not acting like themselves whatsoever.”
11. Scrubs
At first, this quirky hospital comedy “really nails what it’s like to work in health care,” one forum user noted. But after three seasons, it became “just a generic sitcom that happened to be set in a hospital,” especially since the main characters started having children.
Another viewer said the fourth season was still good, “but there was a big drop-off after that, and it only got worse as the series progressed.”
Kids: They ruin everything!
12. Keeping Up With The Kardashians
An unscripted show about rich people and their rich-people problems became a national obsession. But forum users were savage about how much they hated KUWTK.
“Running it even one episode was too long,” snarled a commenter. “No one should know who these people are,” another forum member said.
A third referenced the family patriarch, a defense attorney who died in 2003: “At least Robert, the only (Kardashian) who actually accomplished something meaningful in life, died before the show hit the airwaves, and didn’t live to see his family name become a punchline.”
13. That ’70s Show
This surprise hit (pun intended) was fairly open about marijuana use, which was then illegal, and its portrayal of bored teens was spot-on. Kurtwood Smith was consistently hilarious as the main character’s caustic dad. But after five seasons, some fans had had enough.
“The episodes just didn’t seem nearly as funny as what came before,” said one viewer.
14. Pretty Little Liars
A teen drama about a missing girl and her four clique-y friends could actually have turned into some fine, twisted writing. However, fans got tired of the silly plot devices.
“Everyone talks about the evil twin. But let’s not forget the secret bunker – or was it a spaceship? – in the finale. With a Minority Report-style interface,” sniped one forum user.
Another viewer said they’re usually too loyal to quit a TV show before it ends, but “I quit Pretty Little Liars. No regrets.”
15. The X-Files
The show’s uneasy mix of supernatural topics and government conspiracy never quite gelled into a coherent series, despite some inspired writing on episodes like “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space.’”
Fans wanted to believe, but some of them couldn’t. “I’ve rewatched multiple times and the layers of conspiracy just becomes too much. This is my favorite show of all time and even I admit it went on too long,” wrote one forum member.
16. Westworld
The premise was genius: a Wild West theme park where wealthy visitors could live out their fantasies because the android park characters could not fight back. What could go wrong?
“The first season was near perfection. Then it went downhill quickly,” sighed one fan. Especially maddening was the fact that the main characters return to the real world with heightened abilities.
“My enjoyment ended when it stopped being about Westworld and started being a show about superheroes.”
17. Supernatural
One forum member said this dark fantasy drama about a pair of brothers who fight supernatural beings was all right for the first five years. “I loved Supernatural when they felt more like bounty hunters for monsters,” noted another forum user.
Then it veered into apocalyptic territory and lost its soul: “Angel/devil (nonsense).”
A third commenter seems to accept that the show’s creators knew what they had: “You watch the first five (seasons) because they’re good, and the last 10 because they aren’t – and they’re fully conscious of that.”
18. House
British actor Hugh Laurie portrayed a brilliant but nasty diagnostician with an opiate addiction that rarely got in the way of his work. The show was critically acclaimed, but some fans said the writing ultimately lost its magic.
“Hugh Laurie can carry a bad script a long way. But even his powers are limited,” one forum member said. Another former fan hated the show’s finale, which they called “an after-school special where House fakes his own death so he can go on a road trip with his dying best friend.”
19. Family Guy
Seth MacFarlane’s animated, not-for-the-kiddies comedy began with such promise (and such nasty lampoons of U.S. culture). But he ran out of steam around season nine, according to one forum user: “Everything just became overused gags to fill up time, like a five-minute cut to a Conway Twitty song.”
Another viewer noted a “conservatives are stupid” trend in the humor: “I don’t mind political humor, but (this) is not clever…I want actual jokes in this comedy show.”
20. SpongeBob SquarePants
An animated series about a talking sponge sounds juvenile, yet it amassed a huge adult following after its 1999 debut. According to one forum user, the show started unraveling in season three when SpongeBob was given nastier dialogue that seemed out of place with the “friendly airhead” persona that fans loved.
Another viewer hung on until 2011, “when the decline got quicker,” and says that these days the show is “more like a Looney Tunes rip-off.”
21. Suits
Legal dramas are a dime a dozen, but Suits had an interesting twist: One of its main characters is a college dropout with a photographic memory who becomes an “associate” for one of the slick lawyers.
Unfortunately, the show seemed to forget it was a legal thriller, one forum member said: “Made me sad when the focus gradually shifted away from doing ‘lawyer’ stuff,” focusing more on office politics. Another viewer gave up when a legal secretary was named the firm’s chief operating officer: “Insane. No idea what the writers were thinking.”
Your honor, they object!
22. American Horror Story
This anthology horror TV concept produces a yearly miniseries, with many of the same actors but different themes. Some horror is supernatural, while other arcs focus on human monsters. Although AHS has great production values, its storytelling just seems lazy.
“They do so little with it after season four,” complained one viewer. Another agreed: “It’s hit and miss. And there’s just no rhyme or reason as to why.”
23. How I Met Your Mother
It was fun for a while, especially the appalling antics from uber-alpha male Barney. The humor distracted viewers from seeing how shallow the characters were.
“If I catch a rerun, I’m shocked at how unlikable some of (them) are,” noted one forum user. Another was offended by the “cliché ending” of the friends pairing off: “It makes for a cheesy feel-good story, but is almost offensively unrealistic.”
Several were infuriated by the surprise ending, which one fan said: “rendered the entire show completely useless.”
24. Grey’s Anatomy
This hospital drama has been on for 19 years, and a 20th season was announced in May 2023. Some fans saw this show jumped the shark long ago.
“I swore I would watch until the end, because it was the most committed I had ever been to a TV show. I finally gave up a couple years ago, when I realized I dreaded turning the TV on to watch it.”
Another quipped that since this is a hospital show, “It’s time to pull the plug and let it die with dignity.”
25. The Simpsons
This prime-time cartoon about a bickering family was controversial when it premiered, yet millions grew to love its witty social satire. But all good things must end – or should end, according to some fans, because the show is no longer funny.
“Please let it go, already!” one forum viewer pleaded. Another agreed: “It’s like an old dog with arthritis that can barely walk, but nobody has the heart to put it down.”
Source: Reddit