It happens, even with the best-loved of shows. There reaches a moment in the its run when something happens, something so wrong and downright egregious that it shakes your very faith in the once faultless series and leaves you considering the unthinkable: abandoning ship. Be it the a questionable decision on the part of the protagonist, a poorly written episode, or the death of a favorite Scottish doctor, there comes a time, a moment, when you have to take stock and ask yourself: “Do I really want to continue watching?”. In some cases, the answer is “Yes” and all is (mostly) forgiven. In other instances, the answer is “I’m out!”.
I was thinking about this the other day after watching the last – my last – episode of Hello Ladies, the HBO comedy starring Stephen Merchant as an opportunistic Englishman living in L.A. He is a cad, desperate and incorrigible, who goes to ridiculous lengths to hook up with the ladies, even if it means abandoning his friends or throwing them under the bus. So imagine my surprise in last week’s episode when he finally scores a date with the gorgeous model he has been pursuing, has her invite him out for a midnight skinny-dip, and he…passes on this golden opportunity in order to cheer up a depressed friend. Wait! What?! Never mind the fact that his friend would be as equally depressed the next morning as she would be in the half hour it would take him to reach her. No, he chooses to go – right then and there. And, yes, it demonstrates what a great friend he is, that he’s a softie at heart…but the only problem is it makes absolutely no sense and I don’t buy it for a second. His choice, while admirable, is completely out of character and feels false. It’s manufactured sentimentality. I felt betrayed by a show I thought I knew and trusted and was faced with a decision we must all, at some point, make: Am I in or am I out? In this particular case, I decided, I was out.
I’ve broken up with shows for lesser offenses and stuck with shows whose transgressions have been far more grievous. I suppose it depends on you and the show in question, and the length and depth of your relationship.
So, today, I’d like to hear about your t.v. break-ups. Specifically, I want to hear about those questionable calls, those intolerable episodes, those bewildering moments that made you reconsider your commitment to a show and eventually decide: “I’m out!”
Mine was really 3 tv shows.
Stargate SG1 – When the series was cancelled I was like – I’m out!
Stargate Atlantis – I thought the TV channel was nuts to run a spin off … Then I watched. It turned out to be an awesome show. It was the final episode that I said “I’m OUT!”.
Stargate Universe – Really I was out after the first 4 episodes. It wasn’t quite what I had expected so I gave up on the show. ‘t wasn’t until I rematch them that I was back in. Then the series got cancelled shortly after it got really good.. I was so pissed.
To be honest, I’m usually so invested that at a certain point, I often simply start “meh” watching. Some people will hate watch – I’m not like that. Usually, even when one thing upsets me, I still enjoy most of the other aspects still that I’ll keep watching (like the Beckett situation 🙂 ). This has actually happened several times for me with Supernatural, where things have angered me but I kept watching because I loved the characters. It happened for awhile with Criminal Minds when they basically got rid of 2 of 3 female characters and replaced one in an almost soap opera manner (she looked so similar to the original character), but they fixed that and I started watching again. I admit, I’ve given up on NCIS. I’ve watched all these years, but they’ve written off the second female character in the same role and brought in a third (not quite as egregious as CM but it’s always that one role on the team) and I’ve just had it. I don’t like shows treating women as if they’re all replaceable.
Heroes: When they had the carnie guy collecting people with powers and that somehow made him CarnieMagneto.
Once Upon A Time: Some time in Season 2 when I realized that, as cute as Hook is, basically every episode is ‘who gets to keep the little boy’ with either the Queen or Emma getting him until the next episode.
The Killing Season 1 Finale. Infuriating. I’m not the only one that felt like throwing their television either; AMC apologized 3 times for that mistake.
Hmm I can’t remember any as clear as your example. Usually it’s something that annoys me like SoA refusing to kill Clay when it was needed for the story and then slowly over a few episodes everything starts to annoy me until I say enough is enough.
The only thing I have zero patience for is animal cruelty, but it’s mostly movies that I turned off in the middle.
Speaking of TV, I recently started watching Black Mirror. There are only a few episodes but it is brilliant. It’s a british satire about life and technology and where we’re headed. It’s thought provoking and kind of unsettling, because it’s nowhere near as far off as we like to think. Have you watched any of it?
I’ve mentally checked out of Parenthood, but I’m still watching for the same reason that I started watching…it’s my source of what experience other people might have with Asperger’s, the things they get right and the things they get wrong due to over-generalization.
What checked me out was when Crosby got arrested after a man came onto his houseboat uninvited, refused to leave, then punched Crosby out when Crosby pushed him. It felt like the writers had him arrested for being a loser, that he’d been so undignified by being drunk and then getting his butt whooped so he had to be punished. There was nothing there where Crosby would be the one to be arrested. There were other things where it seemed like the writers have been living in an ivory tower and aren’t qualified to depict how the rest of the world works, but some of that could be chalked up to the characters not being aware of how deeply their privilege affects them. The arrest just felt like the writers playing God with how the world works to dole out a penalty that was only necessary from their perspective. Anything that makes the writers’ backgrounds too obvious makes a show too annoying to enjoy.
“Pan Am”
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_(TV_series)
I shook my head over many things in that series, but the following was the worst example.
I found the 30ish bachelor pilot unbelievable. He was too young, IMHO, to have achieved captain rank in very early 1960’s. (In the real world, I vaguely remember my dad getting his airline captain’s stripes, so that was probably 1962 or so. Dad turned 42 that year; I was 5 years old.)
Other than that, I’m of the “TV generation” and learned to flip channels back when there were only about five channels to flip. I’m more likely to give up on a show due to schedule changes & conflicts than to plot & character failures.
I had written up a nice comment that got dumped when I hit the wrong key on my tablet…arrgh! So this is a shorter more concise comment as a result.
As for current shows, there is only one major network show that I watch (through DVR); the rest I watch via Netflix and Amazon, so I generally now where a show is going before I start watching.
There have been past shows I have dumped for various reasons (some of them after I already had them on DVD):
Space (simply too slow and plodding)
The Bionic Woman (too introspective, not enough action)
BSG Reboot (the characters’ behaviors became too bizarre for me to relate to)
The Outer Limits reboot (no where as good as the original)
As for a moment that almost made me give up on a series, it would have to be the “skittles” scene in the last episode of Farscape. My thoughts were “Really?!? That’s it?” I simply found it a ridiculous scene and honestly, if it had occurred earlier in the series, I might have given up on it then and there. The only thing that made me buy (and try) the Peacekeeper Wars was the fan buzz that indicated that it tied up (and resolved) the series nicely.
@Das:
I bet your leg isn’t half shaved (with stubble) and half hairy! Or maybe it is and I don’t want to know about it? 😯
@Alexis:
Black socks with black running shoes and white socks with white running shoes. (I was wearing my black running shoes today.) My daughter tries to get me to wear ankle socks, but that just feels a little too effeminate for me.
@sylvia:
Beefcake? Hah! Think more white-meat. 😀 Porkcake maybe?
(Don’t ya hate it when you carefully craft a comment, post, email, etc. but are interrupted, and your pithy, well-considered opinion DISAPPEARS?!)
“Pan Am” is one series I willfully abandoned. I may have ranted about it before (and tonight’s rant may reappear from Internet limbo). Long story short, as an “airline kid”, I found the plot devices and character bios too unrealistic.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_(TV_series)
In my 50+ years of viewing (yep, I’m early “TV Generation”), I don’t recall any successful fiction shows based on the air travel business. Can anyone cite an example? Anyone? “Bueller?”
Joe, if you or someone you know would like to pursue an airline-based story, give me a shout. I have some ideas.
Stargate examples:
SG1 – When Vala was made so prominent (love Claudia Black and Aeryn Sun is my all time favorite female character, but really didn’t like Vala) and I realized Jonas wasn’t going to be back (I’d really grown to like him) I gradually tuned out and just watched the last episode for closure.
As much as SGA is my favorite show of all time, I almost quit watching when McKeller became such a focus, I made my peace by forwarding through all their scenes together and not watching certain Keller-centric eps ever again. Again, I love Jewel (Kaylee is one of my fav’s) but Keller severely annoyed me. The laser focus on McKay at the expense of Sheppard in particular but also Ronon and Teyla was trying my patience too. There was so much brilliance in SGA, I didn’t quit the show but boy you folks were testing the limits!
I was so pissed about SGA’s cancellation I didn’t even watch SGU.
I’ve stopped watching other shows because of the way they treated the characters (killing or diminishing them). CSI, Eureka, Heroes are a few I got fed up with.
@DP re Crosby’s arrest in early season of “Parenthood”:
I saw that as Crosby representing the people who repeatedly make poor decisions, are considered “black sheep”, or just seem to constantly have bad luck. If there’s not one in every family, there’s at least one in a family’s circle of acquaintances.
Good news (JeffW, don’t be jealous):
Shoulder pain suffered since August is due to a minor tear in a tendon (AKA rotator cuff tear). No need for surgery, just a few physical therapy visits to learn strengthening /stabilizing exercises for home use.
I have to admit that my biggest ‘break up’ was with SGU, right in the first episode in fact. The moment all of a sudden there’s hot and heavy sex with a guy that later ends up proving to be a complete douche really does make you root for any one to come home to Earth. You totally understand why the ended up on some exile-ish planet out in the middle of nowhere and kind of root for the attacking Lucian just to take the whole cast out so you don’t have to suffer through your beloved series thinking gratuitous sex is ‘edgy’ and ‘hip’ and ‘fresh’. All it did was make me lose faith in the writing staff (sorry, Joe and others). I didn’t stop watching, however, because I didn’t want the studio or the ratings to think that the Stargate franchise was a lost cause, certainly not in my house.
I very, VERY rarely dump a show. Usually I’ll continue to watch, hoping they’ll cancel it soon. Except for one.
Hart of Dixie. It was more my wife’s show. We watched the first season as it became more and more stupid, but the season premiere was the last straw. The next day after the season finale, surprise! An old female acquaintance shows up that everybody seems to know but the viewers. Shoehorned in just to add to the already complex love triangles. And we were done.
@baterista9:
Congratulations! No jealousy here; just being thankful for your good news.
Keep on top of the physical therapy and exercises. That’ll be key.
Good luck!
And I concur about Pan Am. I have a number of active and retired airline pilots as personal friends, and the whole Pan Am series was just too far from reality to ignore the glaring differences. I gave it a pass.
Talk about being “blind.”
@Saryn Kitamo – yeah, that’s it about Once upon a time. I wanted to really like it, but have gotten somewhat bored and you are spot on.
@JeffW – now your turn to get the TYFS, TMI…lol. Thanks guys for the laughs it has been a loooong and trying day. Plus, the snow and COLD. Enuff already!
And, to all a good night.
I wonder if Once Upon A Time’s problem nowadays is that it’s trying to incorporate too many fairy tales and in the process are losing their grips on the ones they’ve already established. It might be a case of stretching themselves too thin and not necessarily realizing it.
The Walking Dead: Like the Walkers, a lot of episodes slow down to a major crawl. Mid way season 2, I was out. I only watch the mid-season and season finales now.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Lost track midway season 7. I think the show’s been on too long for me and I naturally just lost interest. I have nothing against it, but now that it’s on a network I don’t have – it’ll be even more easy for me to not watch it unless I find DVD sets that are dirt cheap.
The ones that leap to my memory are :-
When they cast Peter Davison as Dr Who, I just couldn’t get my head around the young vet Tristan as a Time Lord
When a polar bear appeared on a tropical island in Lost , that blew it for me (in hindsight seems that was a good thing)
Killing Carson with an exploding tumor (!!) and his replacement nearly did it….
The episode Time in SGU, was waiting for the “To Be Continued” and it didnt. No proper ending or anything, was very odd. That coupled with the mid season hiatus finished it for me, didn’t bother watching again after that.
I have thrown in the towel with The Mentalist and the whole ‘who is Red John’ story line. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised or bothered if it was the janitor. It has been running for three seasons before I had to call it quits. I now thinks it’s on the fifth with the big reveal. I’m fed up, bored and frustrated with the whole Red John and Jane’s drive to kill the man/women/thing. Plus in the process he has managed to bend the moral compass of the whole CBI team, putting vengeance above justice.
I have so many shows I get bored with, don’t like the story line, too violent,etc, etc. CSI LasVegas, The minature killer storyline, drug on forevvvvvver, and when Grissom left the show, The Mentalist, the Red John line, I know, I know, it was the main line, but it got realllll old for me, although I loved looking at the Patrick Jane character. Once Upon A Time, slow just to come back and be slow moving again,, Arrow, Grimm, I know there are more I will think of later. and I know others like the shows because they are still on, so Joe get to writing and selling them so I have more to see, thanks…smooth stuff and all.
@ JeffW – *looks at legs* Yeah…some things are best kept secret. 😛
@ Joe – I don’t watch a lot of shows, and so my dump-a-show rate is probably proportionately higher than most people. I am not very loyal. Of course, sometimes I just forget a new season has started or I’ve just fallen out of the habit of watching a show for no other reason than I’ve become involved in something else. So I can’t count those shows, only the ones I have purposely walked away from. So here goes:
Voyager It started out okay, but self-righteous ‘I alone know what’s best for the universe and everyone in it’ Janeway just grated on my nerves until I could bear it no longer. I was only half-heartedly watching with Mr. Das when there was some episode when she destroyed a planet’s god or something – I really can’t remember except that Seven was against it. I liked Seven of Nine a lot and really wanted her to mutiny and take over the ship. I HATED Janeway (in the strongest sense of the word), so much so I can’t even watch anything else the actress has been in, before or since, which is odd for me since I am usually very good at separating the actor from the role. It’s just that everytime I see Kate now I see only Janeway, and that old hatred comes right back. Silly, silly, silly, but I can’t help it!! It’s not just that I didn’t like the character, it’s that the character almost destroyed my love for the entire Star Trek franchise, just like Episode 1 nearly destroyed my love for everything Star Wars.
Which brings me to…
Episode 1 – Yes, I know it’s a movie and not a tv show, but it’s where I jumped off the Star Wars ship in order to preserve my love for what came before it.
Castle – It was fun until they ended up in bed together. Then it just got boring. Perfect instance where sexual tension (in a book, movie, or show) is better than sexual fulfillment. In this case they should have saved the sex for the series finale. It probably didn’t help that the more I watched the show, the less I liked the two main characters, even before the sex.
CSI Miami – It was already an unhappy show, with sourpussed characters and lacking any sort of levity at all. Then it just got worse. Not sure where my cut-off was, but someone got shot. I think it was a season cliffhanger and I just decided not to tune in again.
All in the Family – Great show, but then Edith died and it became too depressing and I had to stop watching. It just wasn’t fun anymore.
Sleepy Hollow – I hardly gave this one a chance. I wanted to like it so much because the lead actor is so. damn. gorgeous! AND charming! But all the supernatural shite was just too much for me, especially the whole book of Revelation connection…which is such an adulteration of the book of Revelation I really just couldn’t bear it.
Those are the ones off the top of my head. There have been more but I’d have to think too hard to remember stuff I don’t feel like wasting time on remembering.
das
And yes…I screwed up my coding. It happens, even to the best of us, including Jeff, and Sparrow. 😉 Hmmmm…Jeff Sparrow – could be Jack’s brother! I just invented a new character! Woo! 😀 Of course, in my mind’s eye I now see Jeffrey Sparrow portrayed only by Richard Coyle AS his character Jeffrey from Coupling…only now he’s a pirate. Here’s a clip…now, imagine Jeffrey as a pirate in a tavern, and – to impress a pretty wench – he’s just told her he has a wooden leg. She steps away, his brother Jack comes up to find out how it’s going…and well…just use your imagination!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjzNT7cceHs
My train of thought is sometimes weird in the mornings… 😛
das
@ baterista9, ArchersAngel & Kathode – RE: Dreams. Specifically, toilet dreams. I am…astounded. I had no idea that my dreams were so similar to so many!! It’s like a shared brain experience, or something. Very strange – uncanny, even!
Now I’m wondering how many people have had that dream where you’re in a public place (for me it’s usually the boardwalk) and you don’t have any pants on – either it s a skirt that’s too short or just no pants (trousers and underpants), and your shirt isn’t long enough to cover your butt. I’ve had that one a lot, too. 😛
@ baterista9 – Nope – I’m from Cape May Co., but spent a bit of time up in Camden and Gloucester Counties because my grandparents lived up there. Some of my dreams will remind me of those places.
@ sylvia – 😳
😛
das
Someone stole my apostrophe. 🙁
(I bet it was Joey… 😀 )
das
Sunset Beach. I’m serious. I’d love if it’d get a 3rd season.
SG-1: It definitely deserved 2 more seasons.
SGA: It could run for another season.
SGU: It could run for 3 more seasons.
I’d do anything for 6 more SG seasons if I’d be able to. 😀
Alias: after the 3rd or 4th twisted change on who the bad guys really are or not.
Lost: after the second episode !!
I *almost* stopped watching Stargate: Atlantis on a couple of occasions:
1. Killing Dr. Beckett – I didn’t have a problem with them killing off a main character, but the way he was killed, by an exploding tumor, was amazingly stupid; and the scene was set up almost exactly like something the did on Grey’s Anatomy.
2. When they brought Beckett back – This is entirely because of the promo that claims “You won’t believe the last 30 seconds!” and then they proceeded to show it. Although this is an issue with Sci-Fi (or Syfy) not the the show iteself.
I quit watching M*A*S*H when Klinger stopped trying to get out of the Army, and actually got a promotion. So much of the show was changed by that point it didn’t really matter anymore.
I stopped watching the New Battlestar Galactica and The Sporanos because they would take so much time between seasons, I think Sopranos was off for 18 months at one point, and it just killed any anticipation I had for the show.
Ya know…some songs from my childhood are just too good not to share…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCV6paTXyCU
Enjoy your day, Joey! 😀
das
My latest breakup was “The Following”. I believe it was the episode when Hardy’s sister was lured into the mix at the restaurant.
They lost me when they continued to demonstrate that absolutely anyone could be a follower of cult leader Joe Carroll. And that just felt contrived and convenient. A little too contrived and convenient.
Like “Wow! Thank goodness Joe Smith is safe now! Oh wait, he’s not! The taxi driver is a “follower”!” Yeah, I had to call bullshit. It’s a shame, because the premise had promise. But knowing that they can pull that switcharoo at any moment lost me.
Walker: Texas Ranger. Anyone who spends more than five minutes with me knows how much I adore Chuck Norris. But I had to bail out on W:TR when the show turned into being all about Walker getting married and his wife having babies. All the cool stuff suddenly vanished in lieu of it being ‘family centered’.
Stargate:SG1. I still watched to the end, but lost my investment in it when, by season 4, RDA and the writers had pretty much turned Col. O’Neill into a buffoon (I kept mentally begging Kurt Russell to take over the role again). I actually started really liking the show again when O’Nell left and Col. Mitchell came on the team.
Supernatural: I’m still watching because occasionally they will tell a good story again. But Too many bad writing decisions have left me less than enthused.
@baterista9
Having suffered through two bouts (one in each shoulder) of the excruciating pain of Adhesive Capsilitis a/aka/ Diabetic Frozen shoulder, I’m cheering you on to recovery. Just keep those exercises up because they are the key to getting better..
@baterista9 – When you’re middle class and up, you mostly only get arrested for reasons, even if you are the black sheep. Crosby was technically in his own house. He tried to remove a trespasser and failed. Then the writers showed him as being in jail, but never showed why, leaving us to assume general loserdom after losing the privileges of his class due to being so undignified. If the trespasser dragged him out of his house before the police showed up and made it into his word vs. Crosby’s, they should have showed it. This felt to me like the writers had over-played the risk of falling into a lower class and being treated with more suspicion by police because of their lack of experience dealing with police from anything but an upper-middle class perspective and knowing some people aren’t treated with so much deference. You don’t just go from being treated like an upper-middle class black sheep on a house boat to being treated like a spazzy hobo at the train bridge because you got drunk and lost a fight. He was still a black sheep on a house boat at that point.
When Zeke got arrested, he was actually being treated as an upper-middle class white man that the policeman was writing his ticket right away instead of making him wait 20 minutes before the policeman even approached his car. Zeke didn’t recognize this as the policeman being nice to him and berated him for not giving him a chance to talk first and got himself arrested. Seeing that alone, I can see it as the writers writing Zeke as not knowing the policeman was doing him a favor because he’s so privileged already that he doesn’t even know about being made to wait. But I end up not being able to give these kinds of incidents the benefit of the doubt on the whole when they happen often enough because they make me see the writers as naive about how the world works for the rest of us, even thought they are trying to write Zeke as one of “us”.
—
An early bobble that got to me was when Max’s school expelled him and suggested an evaluation in the same breath. No, most schools will just pretend there’s nothing wrong or expel the kid. The rare one will suggest an evaluation when pretending nothing’s wrong still results in resources being spent on the issues. Max’s school put themselves at risk of a huge lawsuit for expelling a kid for behaviors that they admitted they considered were due to a disability. That’s huge lawsuit fodder. Who deals with disabilities and doesn’t know this? The writers, apparently. I almost can’t say that’s an upper-middle class thing not to have to deal with this because I’ve seen a rich district try to wiggle out of making accommodations, too, and the thing you learn quickly is that these districts know that admitting they believe there’s a problem immediately obligates them to pay to mitigate it and they aren’t taking on obligations willingly.
Then, when the next school didn’t have room for Max, his dad just asked again, and suddenly there was room? That’s just creating drama out of thin air to treat it like they just had to wish there was room a little harder and the obstacle would be overcome.
—
Here I am just pointing out plot holes, but sometimes I also think the show’s too realistic and if I wanted that, I’d just engage in my own life more.
The key was and will be the suspension of disbelief.
More and more TV series cease to be credible to the viewer (to us) by a lack of attention to the realism of the characters. Realism does not mean that the characters are flat and uniformly portrayed poorly all the season. Real people are the ones that change with the vicissitudes of life and also do so in a manner consistent with the spectators as they do, they are characters besides people.
Not to mention the inability of more than you think producers to tell a simple story plot or at least an intelligibly one.
The matter of how you follow a series with serious errors and other series no. Is it because once crossed your threshold of disbelief there is no turning back is the end. Sometimes errors in the science or other phisical issue not affect its dramatic enhancement. but if a loved character does something improper for us true believers is terminall.
House, after he drove his car into Cuddy’s living room. Even for House, that was so far out of left field. I physically saw the show out to the bitter end, and the series finale wasn’t too bad, but between that and how he somehow came back to work in the first episode of the next season (that would never, ever happen), I’d mentally and emotionally checked out.
Everyone seems to have covered the main ones, but one of my major reasons for giving up on a series is trying to find it in a regular time slot and on a weekly basis. I hate it when things get bumped, postponed and/or moved. A PVR makes it a bit easier, but now I usually wait for a DVD version (plus then you don’t get invested just to have a series cancelled).
I call that Time Slot Bingo and it’s usually the penultimate way of knowing that the show is definitely getting canceled. For the studio to all of a sudden start jumping from day to day and time to time is always the guillotine dropping for a show, it’s just a matter of time for the blade to finally hit the neck.
I broke up with House of Cards because I read that the best character on the show would be killed off, a character who could have been a fascinating lynchpin for future seasons.
I just want the deaths to be earned and important instead of a plot device to boost ratings. I hated the mawkish way that Sybil and Matthew were dispatched on Downton. Regina King could have been killed off in the first season of Southland but instead they had her grab a shotgun and battle a marauding gang. I love films with “didn’t see it coming” twists and turns like Tell No One, Headhunters and The Secret in Their Eyes.
Wow, great topic, Joe! Right up my alley, too. Sadly, I’ve probably done this with more shows than I can remember.
I just about gave up on Continuum in the first season simply because the protagonist cried in every episode. EVERY EPISODE. She’s supposed to be a strong female lead, make her strong! She’s no Sam Carter….
That sucks about Hello Ladies. I kind of saw it in the first episode that their relationship would be what the show was really all about. Just another Ross/Rachel extended will they/won’t they storyline that can be dragged out for years. No thanks. The show could actually last longer if she wasn’t in the picture and the girl he “finally ends up with” wasn’t introduced until the final season.
I’m guessing that season one will end with them actually going on a date that will end up going horribly wrong. Thus the chase can begin afresh in season two. Either that or they’ll share an unexpected intimate moment where she’ll realize that he might be the one for her, but he’ll continue to go out on dates, which will make her the frustrated one thereby reversing the roles.
Seen it.
-Mike A.
weeds was great in season 1 and 2 was ok, but then it went so totally nuts I couldn’t keep watching it.
I feel like working lasergun in an episode of Castle was jumping the shark but i’m still watching for some reason.
That Castle episode was, no wonder, directed by Jonathan Frakes, Star Trek TNG’s very own Commander Will Riker. I wonder how much of the spoofy stuff were real life memories and experiences from filming and doing conventions.
Oh, almost forgot. The most recent TV show(s) I gave up on? The NFL!!!
I’m out of the playoffs in both my leagues. 🙁
I really could care less who wins what at this point since I don’t have a favorite team, just a few favorite players.
-Mike A.
When I commit to a show, I commit hard. And once I commit, it takes a lot to throw me off. If a show doesn’t grab me, I’ll usually just taper off and give up on it. I can’t think of many shows that have done something so egregious as to cause me to ragequit. Heroes was one. But who didn’t ragequit Heroes by the 4th season?
In fact, can we go back and divest Heroes of all its seasons and give them to SGU?
Falling Skies? You’re next. I don’t care how many BSG folks you have on board, you are a total mess.
Roseanne, the final season. I spent that final year watching golden episodes from five years before.
Frasier when Niles got with Daphne. Never the same after.
The Simpsons, a LONG time ago. I don’t know anyone who still watches it.
rubic-cube: I was getting tired of Red John in the Mentalist too. They have only aired two or three shows with the Post Red John storyline and I’m really loving it. No Red John but Jane is dealing with the FBI. Watching Jane play with fire is pretty entertaining. Kudos to the writers. I wasn’t sure how they would handle a post Red John world but I’m impressed.
JeffW: Yes, I agree with you about Farscape. The ending left me with a WTF and I rarely curse. They tied up loose ends in the Peacekeeper Wars but I had to laugh at her birthing scenes.
I have a high tolerance for crap. If I’m invested in a show, I’ll usually go the distance. That being said Haven is really stretching it and I’ve completely given up on Rizzoli and Isles.
So, you’re giving up on a show because of the anticipated sex scene that wasn’t? Pervert. 😉 Maybe this is the difference between men and women. The scene you describe would make me want to watch the show – he would be far more complex and intriguing and layered – sometimes a person isn’t always as they seem on the surface. It also shows that the thing one wants sometimes isn’t as important as one thinks it is when other realities come into play (in this case, the depressed friend). I suppose complexity of character is the more important thing to me (and I’ve always found the relationships between friends FAR more interesting in film and literature than romantic relationships, so that’s a factor, too).
das
@Saryn Kitamo – This season, Once Upon a Time has more than doubled the number of characters who are vying for the boy. How’s that for fresh.
*fresh?, punctuation trouble
sg1 –
season 7- i would have stopped watching when pete came around, but i still wanted to see sam and jack get together.
season 8 – i would have stopped watching when sam was *still* with pete (after the ‘i-love-you-without-saying-it-scenes-in-Lost City’ ), but i wanted to see sam and jack get together.
season 9 – i would have stopped watching when literally everything i loved about the series was missing, but then sam came back and i wearily continued.
so i continued to watch, b/c of my love for sam and sam/jack. i have a feeling the word sucker describes me…
I don’t know that I’ve ever abandoned a show suddenly because of one episode. I figure that every series has the odd “off” episode and I’m usually pretty forgiving. If it consistently loses my interest though, I just gradually drift away where it just doesn’t become “must watch TV” anymore. For example, I used to LOVE “The Simpsons”, but I hardly watch it anymore. It’s still funny, but after so many seasons, it just was never able to recapture the brilliance of the earlier ones.
To be honest, I just don’t watch that much TV anymore because there’s really not that much good on. (That I like, anyway.)
Just a quick one I guess, neither NCIS or the LA edition do anything for me. I know they’re both highly successful shows, I just have no interest and never did. I didn’t think much of either show.
About the only ones I could think of was….
Lost in Space. That Dr. Smith was the most obnoxious, stupidest, person in the world! I was probably 6 years old when I decided I couldn’t take that show and all the trouble he caused any more. None of the other cast members (even that one real cute guy) could keep me watching. So frustrating!
Also, of course when Roseanne struck it rich that was the end. Boring, boring, boring!
And Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Cybil Sheppard. Such tension on that show, it was great. But when they finally “did it”, the magic was gone. It wasn’t fun anymore.
I can only think of two examples recently.
Castle: I lost interest the episode they started getting serious.
Saving Hope: I wasn’t really invested in the show, but I thought what the heck, I’ll check out Shanks new show. I should have known since NBC was airing it. One of the most idiotic moments in television history. I know it is television and you have to suspend reality, but when you are in a coma and your doctor/wife climbs on your bed in the ICU, doesn’t draw the curtain and strips to give you a sensory test had me reaching for the remote. I’ve worked in the medical field, never gonna happen, and most likely your wife would never be your doctor either for ethical reasons. Only smart thing NBC did was not to show all the episodes and not pick up season 2.
I almost stopped watching SGA after Weir’s death and Carsons, but I kept sort of watching until the end.
I like to be fair to a show and try to give it a full season before I stop watching.
Hm… In a lot of cases, I kept watching, but in hindsight pretend the series ended at a certain point. Like how I make believe that the episode before “Sunday” was the last of the series. Not that there weren’t high points now and then, but I’m sorry, killing Beckett killed it for me, and the nail just kept getting driven in deeper and deeper with subsequent creative decisions.
I also pretend In Plain Sight ended after season 2. I watched season 3, but it wasn’t as good, and I didn’t bother with the rest of the show. Reading up later, I found out that the original creators apparently left after season 2, which is why it changed, and decided that calling it quits there worked for me.
I gave up on House when he drove his car through Cuddy’s house. It had been more and more depressing for a while, but that was just too much. I couldn’t watch House train wreck himself anymore.
8 Simple Rules after John Ritter died. Very tragic, but the fact was it totally changed the tone of what was previously a light and funny show. Some sitcoms can get away with taking a more serious turn, but it’s tricky. It’s probably not fair, but I completely lost interest after he was gone.
This happens for book series, too. I’ve given up on the Temeraire series, which I really enjoyed in the beginning. I slogged through a boring book, but when she sprung a huge surprise about my favorite character, a surprise which I hated, what little interest I had left in the series abandoned me.
That’s the thing with book series that are ongoing. If I love it, with each new book, I’m filled with excitement, joy, and trepidation, fearing that the author will do something I don’t like, kill off or ruin a character I love, or otherwise kill the series for me.
i quit watching bones back in 2009, i think. it wasn’t any one moment that did it, just a bunch of small thing.
I’m bailing out on NCIS after watching this past Tuesday’s episode. I know they can’t get Ziva back, but Ellie Bishop is the worst type of ‘Marysue’ character. The kind that everyone around her suddenly has to be dumbed down to make her look brilliant. When she suddenly knew more about autopsy than Dr. Mallard and then turned around and told Gibbs she had a better plan and don’t even get me started on the incredibly stupid way they show how she could ‘brilliantly deduce’ that a van had been painted, I just lost all respect for the writers of the show.
Ellie Bishop is like Jonas Quinn and Bela Talbot rolled into one. And like the actors who played Jonas and Bela, Emily Wickersham is most likely really good in other roles like Lauren Cohan is in The Walking Dead and Corin Nemec was in his recurring role on Supernatural.
question for you. I added a post for why I broke up with certain shows yesterday but I don’t see it posted. Did you not get it or did I write something that you couldn’t approve? If yes please let me know. I am just wondering if it made it to your spacm bin for some reason.
Hi Joe,
I may be to late to the comment party but thought I would add my bit coin. I guess you are not talking about jump the shark moments.
Many of the shows you mentioned I haven’t seen as I do not have cable. But have an expanding DVD collection. Also I may have mentioned I was Peace Corps volunteer years back. During that time I had not watched any tv for several years. When I did return I started to watch tv and quite frankly I was shocked at what I saw. I had to make a choice of either changing my moral perceptions and accept this new visual moires or abandon shows I wished not to support. Many comedy show I “boycotted” because of the debasing low brow yet award winning humor. That is why I have not watched “2 and 1/2 men”, “How I met your mother” or limited my viewing of “Family Guy” etc. I remember recently watching a SG1 ep. and found it just darn funny I think missed the humor in previous viewings. The best comedians like John Winters, or Dom Deluise need not use vulgar to be truly funny. I remember discontinuing watching Jerry Seifeld. show after the control your destiny ep. I never thought the show was that funny. It was a show of snickering laughs not like the gut wrenching humor oh Please turn it off so I can breath say Fraser.
Another plus of DVD are the commentaries. Such as in SGA I learned Amanda left the show and with a little research learned of her show with Damian and Martin Wood. I tried watching it but but the abrupt twists and odd turns finally ruined it. Other things like poor accents didn’t help. So if invested in a show it is not just one curveball the does it, but an accumulation until the viewer says enough. Farscape had many eps. that made me cringe but the strength of the relationship kept me wanting to come back. One of the things that almost broke me away from the SG franchise was the way the military was used and portrayed especially in Atlantis. In Universe it seemed the Marines could not even shoot straight. Just perceptions.
Falling Skies: I was half onboard in Season 1 – I liked Noah Wyle enough to stick it out. Mid-season they then meet a cruel, heartless villain-like character who without conscience kills team members. Noah and his crew capture him and this guy is in their make-shift jail. Then, a scene happens where this cruel character is given soup and gives a pithy, cutesie monologue about using the right type of broth in the soup. It rang so untrue to the character that I instantly deleted the episode and the show from my DVR. Characters CAN have multiple facets, of course (and should), but it seem either forced or so ridiculous that I felt this show wasn’t going to take care of its own narrative and world.
Sleepy Hollow: I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t get the praise for this show. There is little care to any sense or reality. Mind you, I can accept the ridiculous premise! But in response to that, I need, as a viewer, to see how real people react to such an extreme situation. My breaking point was episode 2. A female villain resurrected by the Devil and corkscrew-neck John Cho. Cho pulls over some dude and the villain lady kills the innocent driver. It made no sense. Why? What was the point? Nothing on the show makes sense, but not because the circumstances or premises are ridiculous – I’ve watched many other much more ridiculous shows and bought it – but because everyone in that show feels moved by the plot, not moved because they want to. There’s very little reaction to this situation. While the 2 leads are fantastic actors and almost save it for me, I have no idea why anyone is doing anything in that show. Is there no scene where Ichabod just screams into a pillow? Maybe it’s improved since, but I had to give it up.
There are a lot of shows I check out of mentally but continue to watch. Heroes, Alias would be among those. I stopped watching The Bachelor after the Jake season. I checked out of Hell’s Kitchen awhile back. Got sick of the yelling. I checked out of Kitchen Nightmares when I started getting turned off to food in general. We had 7 episodes of Flash Forward to watch on DVR and when it got cancelled we said “Why bother?”