40
Westworld comes to mind for me
Agreed. I like the following seasons okay but the first season is nearly perfect on its own.
The ending of season 1 was perfect. Anything after that is an excuse for nudity and gore.
Season 2 was rough, but I think season 3 was a good soft reboot. After that it's all downhill again, but it almost righted itself.
load more comments
(1 replies)
The obvious examples for me are Altered Carbon, The Terror (although its anthological and a third is in production) and Westworld.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Heroes. The first season wrapped up its story beautifully. The second season was an aimless disaster.
I've read online that the original plan was for each season to tell a stand-alone story with a different set of heroes but the network was insistent on keeping the popular characters from season one on for season two. Peter Petrelli's power is universe-breaking after he learns to control it, so the show ended up tying itself into a pretzel to explain why the answer to every problem isn't "get Peter to snap his fingers and fix it". There was also a writer's strike in the middle of the season, which didn't help.
The writer's strike shielded the show from so much criticism, because people figured the shite pacing and jumble of characters were caused by the studio plowing ahead without proper scripts. Nope! Executives just demanded the dumbest shit imaginable, and the original creators did their level best, until they were told to stop work and join the picket line.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Prison Break
The Rig
I actually think season 2 of Prison Break was a perfectly natural and well done (for the intended tone) continuation of the story. I know people snarkily point out the title doesn't strictly apply anymore, but I think convicts on the run from a manhunt fits. The show was from the beginning always a political conspiracy thriller baked inside of a prison story anyway.
The following seasons get increasingly absurd, but they are enjoyable in a silly way.
Strong agree. I think Prison Break slowly goes off the rails with more spies and conspiracy. It's not out of nowhere given Lincoln's original crime is murdering the Vice President (allegedly), but it does eventually just get ridiculous.
I still like the later seasons for the characters, but it is wildly different from where they started.
The Vice President's brother!
It gets comical how the characters say that phrase so much instead of using his name, for audience benefit.
I appreciate each season changing things up with a different central conceit. As absurd as the Central American super prison and spy craft seasons were at least the show kept changing instead of spinning its wheels.
Ah right the brother! It's been too long.
And yeah, it got worse but it didn't get boring.
I couldn’t get past the first episode of The Rig because it seemed cheaply made.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Jessica Jones
Altered Carbon
I only watched a bit of True Detective season 2 but I could tell it was not going to be nearly as good as the phenomenal first season
I enjoyed seasons 2 to 4 of True Detective, but they're not even close to the level of season 1.
TD Season 2 has to be one of the biggest falls from grace I've ever seen in a TV show.
load more comments
(3 replies)
To be fair, it was the highest possible bar to clear. True Detective season 1 is arguably the best TV has ever gotten, it was just perfect from story to pacing to acting and cinematography
Gonna go with Handmaid's Tale, gets progressively worse with each season
load more comments
(1 replies)
Firefly. After the first season everything that made the show great is just missing.
This but unironically. I hated that movie.
Heroes was great at the start, but that didn't even last a whole season. The "Save the cheerleader, save the world" arc might be the best superhero TV ever made (10 or 11 episodes, I think?) then it rapidly went downhill to mediocre then terrible.
Weeds
Weeds was okay up to season 3
Kevin Nealon was the glue that held that together.
HEROES. It died an ugly death because of a writer's strike. It's unfortunate, but I support the writers.
If you are counting anime, Sword Art Online.
Lost
You can hate on the end all you want but don't pretend like it stopped being good after the first season
It was a dogshit show with no plot.
And he spoke to the truth, so they voted him down
Truth. Right here.
A.P. Bio. They slowly tied to normalize it and it lost all its edge.
Welcome To Flatch. Season 1 was awesome! Season 2 they tried to make it a "normal" show and it was awful.
Thank you for mentioning AP Bio - I half-remembered some show with a trailer that had been color-graded within an inch of its life. No colors left besides peach and teal. But whenever I tried finding it again, it ended something like "Abbot Elementary doesn't look like that."
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Before you all kill me, this is just like my unpopular opinion man, but Futurama.. The first season, well maybe the first two, were amazing, clever scifi parody but the premise wore thin and it became schmaltzy and unfunny. It became more about the characters and less about the world and it suffered for it.
I mean "should have been dropped" might be a bit strong.
Found the Fox executive /j
That is an unpopular opinion, but valid. I still haven't finished the Hulu run yet. It doesn't hit the same.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Cobra Kai
Every successive season forgets harder and harder that grown men having karate feuds is embarrassingly juvenile.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion, but Stranger Things. Season 1 was perfect, and in my opinion the rest have sort of been all over the place.
Goliath...the show with Billy Bob Thornton. Season 1 had dynamics and interesting characters plus the ending resolved all the loose ends.
Next attempts at seasons were beyond lame.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Friday Night Lights
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
40 points (100.0% liked)
[Moved to Piefed] Television
1235 readers
1 users here now
Welcome to Television
This community is for discussion of anything related to television or streaming.
Other Communities
Other Television Communities
A community for discussion of anything related to Television via broadcast or streaming.
Rules:
-
Be respectful and courteous to all members.
-
Avoid offensive or discriminatory remarks.
-
Avoid spamming or promoting unrelated products/services.
-
Avoid personal attacks or engaging in heated arguments.
-
Do not engage in any form of illegal activity or promote illegal content.
-
Please mask any and all spoilers with spoiler tags. ****
founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS