I am a chronic TV binge-watcher and re-watcher. I hate starting something new, but if it grabs my attention, I watch it at an honestly alarming pace. I always rejoice when a show I’m watching has many seasons out. However, I realized that some of my favorites needed to stop while they were ahead. Of course I almost always finish them, but it does suck to see my favorites start to fall off in those last couple seasons. So, here are the shows I think should have stopped sooner.
Criminal Minds
Half of the charm about Criminal Minds is that almost every episode follows the same plot line: get the case, investigate, and find the killer just in time to save a victim. However, it loses so much of its charm when the lineup of characters that viewers fall in love with from the beginning is almost completely gone by later seasons. On top of that, the crimes seemed to become less creative or new to the show.
Shameless
I absolutely loved the early seasons of Shameless. They should have never kept going with the show after Fiona left; they had the perfect spot to end the show, and just continued to make a couple more extremely mediocre seasons.
The Walking Dead
Similar to Criminal Minds, it was hard to continue to get invested in new characters. It just lost a lot of its captivation for me. I loved the plot line with the Saviors and Negan, but they should have wrapped the show up a lot quicker after that than they did. I honestly pretty much only watched the last couple of seasons out of feeling obligated to.
Sex and The City
While six seasons is a pretty reasonable running time, Sex and the City, even though a classic, could have been one or two seasons shorter. In the beginning, the show had a very distinct style. Carrie’s attitude, style, and friends are all unique, just as the format of the first season was. I thought that the show lost some of its spark when they stopped including Carrie’s fun street interviews and her moments of breaking the fourth wall.
Gossip Girl
Another six-season show that I adore. I loved Gossip Girl when the main characters were in high school. After that, I still enjoyed it when they first went into college, but after season four, the show was not remotely the same for me. I hated the Ivy/Charlie scam drama. I couldn’t care less about who Nate and Serena were dating or their careers. The savior of those final seasons was the Dan, Chuck, and Blair love triangle plot.
I become so attached to the shows I love that I will always power through those terrible later seasons. Unfortunately, many of the series I like have upheld the notion that, in many cases, “less is more.”