*Disclaimer: Spoilers and clearly I watch too much television
Eventually, all television shows hit a plateau that they cannot overcome. The story lines get too cliché and overused so the writers turn to ludicrous plot twists that make no sense to the show’s original meaning. This is usually the time when a character does something so incredibly stupid that you begin to hate them. There’s a term called “jump the shark” which was coined after the character Fonzie in Happy Days literally jumps over a shark on water skis, a stunt that completely contradicts all his previous character development. Following this scene, the show strays from its original premise to center on this character for SEVEN MORE SEASONS. When a show jumps the shark, you know after watching one episode. Things are usually downhill from there.
Everyone wants the show they love to stay on air forever, but too much of a good thing can easily become a bad one. It’s much better for a show to end on a good note rather than fighting for air as it slowly drowns. The only shows I can recall that were successful in terms of character development and longevity were Breaking Bad, Friends, and Gilmore Girls.
After a show “jumps the shark”, it usually isn’t the same as it once was. However, the producers don’t realize that and instead up and coming television shows get axed without a chance while the old ones stay on and lose quality AND viewership. Shows should end while they have high ratings so they are remembered in a positive light, like Bethenny on The Real Housewives of New York. That being said, here is my personal list of shows that should have ended earlier than they did or should end right now.
Lost
Lost is still one of my favorite TV shows and seasons 1 – 3 are golden. However, by the middle of Season 5 I had a headache. I thought this show was going to be about a mysterious island that makes interconnected plane crash survivors discover who they really are through the desperation of their situation and the mind games of the Others who already live on the Island. All that science, religious, and supernatural business was TOO MUCH. Flashbacks make sense. Flash-forwards were tolerable. By the flash sideways and parallel universes, my fifteen-year-old mind was going WTF. The Others, the polar bears and experiments of the Dharma Initiative make sense, however the Black Smoke v. Jacob business and time displacement theories that consumed Season 5 was simply too much to handle.
One Tree Hill
OTH should have stayed in high school where the characters were still likable (except Peyton) and everything still made sense. When shows shift forward four years, it’s usually a TERRIBLE sign, but the writers decided to run with it. Outside of the high school setting, there were a lot less plot lines to choose from. Therefore, the writers decided that while the gang was at college, a lot of stalkers and dangerous people would come to this small town in North Carolina that always appeared safe. Once Nanny Carrie came along, the show was doomed. There were also huge cast changes in the last few seasons and I never found myself caring about any of the new characters. However, I watched this show all the way through and endured a stalker named Katie, Clay’s long lost child that he FORGOT he had, Dan’s heart replacement getting EATEN by a dog, and Nathan’s abduction. Good grief.
And then there was this terrible episode that really made me question my life choices.
Grey’s Anatomy
Granted, I am only on season six of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix but it has already dwindled in quality before my eyes. I will probably keep watching until the awful plane accident that will kill off two of my favorite characters or at least while Christina Yang is still there. However, once Izzie started talking to Denny’s ghost I started to wonder if I was watching a cheesy 2 P.M soap opera. It was bad enough that I already hated Izzie for randomly deciding she was in love with George (Girl, you were in love with George’s attentiveness NOT George) and still managing to hate on Callie while she screwed her husband behind her back. However, instead of finally cutting Izzie out, the writers kill George and then realize there’s really no point in Izzie’s character so they cut her out a few episodes later with no real explanation. Then, since two more main characters were gone out of nowhere, the writers basically decided to change a lot of the original cast which means the show is moving in a different direction. #RIP
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries pulled off the mixture of Vampires, Werewolves, Witches and Hybrids much better than True Blood. However, once the Originals and Catherine left to turn into a spin-off the show got a lot less interesting. The whole doppelganger plot line is overused and how many times can we watch Elena bounce between Stefan and Damon? All the characters have died and come back to life so many times that it doesn’t even affect me anymore. Jeremy died again? Oh well, let’s see about that in the mid-season finale. When I realized I no longer even cared about Damon, I knew it was time to stop watching.
Desperate Housewives
Some may say this show always toed the line of ridiculousness and its unanimous that Susan was always annoying and too much a of damsel in distress that she seemed unable to function without Mike or her daughter, but this show really started out with a lot going for it. It was a creative concept, especially considering the first season centered on a mysterious suicide of the four main characters’ neighbor. However, once that was solved by the end of season one, the writers started to run out of things to talk about. The next two seasons were still creative, but once the show jumped ahead five years (a deathly move, I’m telling you), the characters became completely different than who they once were and the show was not the same.
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Two words: STABLER LEFT. After thirteen years, you think they would just end it there. Now Captain Cragen left and it was still renewed for a fifteenth season. Mariska Hargita (Olivia Benson) is a good actress, but she can’t hold the whole show together with the writers rapidly running out of any ideas and the new characters lacking half the chemistry the old ones had.
Pretty Little Liars
One could say this show jumped shark from the pilot. I think there was a definitive plot line for a while though, especially since the writers stuck a lot to the book series. Emily and Aria just had a LOT of bad lines, which made their characters seem even more like the weaker links compared to Spencer and Hanna. When the book series jumped the shark, I think the writers just didn’t know what to do. Keeping Mona alive was a good move, since Janel Parrish plays the character really well, but then all of the possible A’s in the “A Team” got so confusing. How could there be SEVEN seasons of “Big A” “Little A”, “The A Team” terrorizing these girls? Can’t they MOVE? Can’t they figure any clues out instead of suspecting random characters that turn up or each other’s family members? Isn’t Spencer supposed to be smart…? Also, how many big galas and balls could a small town in Pennsylvania have? This is not Gossip Girl. It was believable that Toby joined “the A Team” to help Spencer, but once Ezra had an actual lair to “work on his novel” and was indeed not A, that’s when the show started to make NO sense. Now Ashley is sleeping with Jason, and Spencer had an irrelevant plot line in England, and Hanna is in jail with Ali. Ooookay.
Two and a Half Men
Charlie was the best character on this show besides Berta and Evelyn. He made fun of Alan and Judith and Jake, who were all pretty unlikable characters. However, when Charlie was killed off due to Charlie Sheen’s very public mental breakdown, the show lost a lot of its spark. And then it was One and a Half Men. Adding Ashton Kutcher to the plot out of nowhere made no sense and he was much better on That 70’s Show anyway. After a few seasons, the producers called it quits. Even Agnes Jones (Jake) knew the show was doomed and left to attend college before Season 11.
How I Met Your Mother
Ugh, the season finale. People still don’t want to speak about the season finale. Although I really liked Barney and Robin together because they developed each other’s characters a lot more than Ted ever did, I think the show got a little ridiculous after the episode “The Rough Patch” in Season 5. Robin and Barney implode on their own relationship because they aren’t happy, but then spend the following seasons trying to get each other back or being jealous of each other. It would have been better to wait on bringing them together or end the series earlier instead of wasting all of that time for them to end up in divorce. All of the seasons in between make an audience forget their obvious relationship flaws in the first place and the demise of their relationship in the last five minutes of the series finale just outrages everyone for wasting countless hours watching it build up. Also, just because the mother couldn’t be Robin does not mean she has to be dead. Or that whiny Ted needed to end up with Robin in the end.
Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl was once a catty drama about a lot of privileged kids with family issues and scandals hidden in the closet. Then Chuck was shot by muggers, Blair got engaged to manipulative royalty, none of Nate’s plot lines were interesting, and Chuck’s dad went from neglectful to pure evil and a murderer. Uh, what?
All of these shows were great and I enjoyed watching many seasons of them. However, when a show ends badly – or completely different from what it once was – it’s like a bad aftertaste. Every time I remember one of these great shows on this list above I remember the good parts but also how stupid the latter seasons were. That’s why when I Netflix binge on them, I only watch earlier seasons and make up my own endings.