When watching a show a while after it’s released you can sometimes tell when a show was canceled because a season will end on a big (occasionally spiteful) event.
The following season after it’s picked back up occasionally stumbles a bit but I’m wondering what examples can you think of that were especially bad?
For me, it was definitely Arrested Development. The original run was super tight and hilarious, and worked as a self-contained story. Then season four happened and… yeah.
A clear example of a show jumping the shark between seasons.
I believe the main issue there was scheduling conflicts. They couldn’t get all the cast in one place at the same time. So they worked around that in the script. They did a great job given the constraints, but not a great job by the standards of the series.
I actually really liked season four in its original format - where you saw the story from one person’s perspective and then later saw it from another’s. The way the story lines intertwined was really good IMO. If you watch it now then you get the recut version where it’s all in chronological order and it’s just weak.
It was different and it could have been good with different characters, but I didn’t like it because the characters are bad to stick around with by themselves for extended periods of time.
I enjoyed season 4 as well, particularly in the original format. Season 5 on the other hand, I have no idea what that was.
I haven’t watched it since the original version. Frankly, it was barely okay as it was, but the structure was one of the things that made the obvious scheduling issues bearable. If you don’t structure around it and sort of hang a lampshade for those who were following the production, then yeah, you just get a remarkably weak season of Arrested Development. Never bothered with 5.
Sometimes a staff has moved on and a moment has passed. Looking at YOU, various Covid reunion shows.
What the hell was up with the hand? They made an amputated hand the cornerstone of half their jokes. That’s when we lost interest and stopped watching.
The X-Files return. 2 brief seasons that felt like they were designed to make sure no one asks for any more of the show ever again.
Yeah, that one was just so so bad. For some reason, Chris Carter has completely lost the ability to write even a half-decent script. Also, the new seasons never account for the fact that conspiracy theorists have changed from leftist counter-culture nerds to right-wing nutjobs since the 90s.
What a disgusting failure on Christ Carter’s part for this art to reflect current things and attitudes. Doesn’t he know that the point of art is for me to feel smug about being on the right side of history? We must cancel him.
I was watching it even though it was testing my patience a bit, and then they made an offhand remark about the moon landing being a conspiracy and that was the final straw that made me quit lol.
There are a couple of fantastic episodes sprinkled in there though. One is like a Black Mirror episode with Mulder and Scully being chased by a malevolent AI. There are a few that seem like they came straight out of the 90s monster of the week episodes too.
And they completely forgot about their kid and the end of the world story didn’t they?
i’ll say it: futurama
I regularly watch Futurama and the other revival episodes were pretty good, but this time around it’s just not funny. The jokes don’t land.
I don’t say this as someone who wants the nostalgia, again, I regularly laugh at the other episodes, and this season is just meh through and through
Besides mentions of Hulu appearing in the show (which combined with Solar Opposite’s Hulu episode which makes me wonder if it’s a requirement by Hulu) why do you say that?
new season ep 1… did you watch it? matt is stuck in the past. just like the simpsons it has lost touch on all levels.
in simpsons matt failed to adress changes like mobile phones , tablets or just the fact that he owns a house, two cars, two kids and has one job pays the bills. insane. matt felt that and tried make them use a cellphone once in a while but geez this feels outdated and so does futurama this year. not one of the jokes was pointing the viewer to anything new. south park has a hard time these days aswell but did not fail like futurama 2023.
solar opposites is nice I agree. Final Space was better. And again shit wins: lower decks.
I’m with you on all of that. Except for South Park. It doesn’t really fit the topic, and also, I am constantly shocked by how after all these years, it can still seem so relevant, and such quick turnaround time on mocking some large social issues that should be made fun of. To me it’s stayed more relevant that SNL. Sure it has times where it tries too hard, or gets formulaic
SP is still relevant but when this other co writer joined and the whole trump shit went down it kinda lost much of its appeal. i am not even sure if it is a regular show or not anymore…do they plan put out weekly episodes again some time soon?
IIRC the Trump stuff was even more of a scramble than South Park usually is, because they were just assuming Hilary would win and had planned out a bunch of stuff around that, so when Trump won they had to dump everything and quickly do something with that.
Probably the closest we’ll ever see to a cartoon being produced live I think!
Not really they just release specials every once in a while.
On August 5, 2021, Comedy Central announced that Parker and Stone signed a $900 million deal for extending the series to 30 seasons through 2027.[14] The deal also included a series of 14 films for Paramount+, which are released twice per year.[15] Parker and Stone later denied that the projects were films, and clarified that it was ViacomCBS (currently Paramount Global) which decided to advertise them as such.[16] Paramount+ advertises the projects as “exclusive events”, and they are generally accepted to be television specials.[17] - Wiki
South park lost it’s relevance when it moved to Paramount. By doing so it vanished from the mainstream. It’s not even available where I live so the only way for me to watch it is by pirating
In regards to Simpsons, I’d say that expecting that but not any other sign of passing time is a bit ridiculous. They’re literally stuck in time. They do not age. Why expect anything else?
But then they also do things like flashback episodes that show Homer & Marge as teenagers in the 90s when they previously had them meet in the 70s because the show’s so damn old now.
But also, it’s a cartoon so it’s not like it’s obligated to make sense anyway. Just do whatever I guess lol.
I liked the new season so far. But like anything, searching for nostalgia is never going to work. It’ll never hit like it did when you were 20 years younger and watching the show for the first time
did you watch solar opposites or final space? it is the feeling. it can be done. but maybe not by matt anymore.
Absolutely watched both. Enjoyed both of them a lot. Wasn’t quite the same, still, great shows
lemmy know if you find shows of a similar magnitude…always interested.
Here’s hoping!
matt felt that and tried make them use a cellphone once in a while but geez this feels outdated and so does futurama this year. not one of the jokes was pointing the viewer to anything new. south park has a hard time these days aswell but did not fail like futurama 2023.
I just watched episodes three and four (with the Bitcoin and being unable to watch a movie without using your phone jokes) and think I get what you mean now.
South park made a massive mistake moving to Paramount. The show is essentially dead now to me because it’s unavailable to stream in Canada unless you pirate it. They literally cut off their life long fans, so as far as I’m concerned south park is finished
dude if you stumble upon any good and worthy substitute for SP let me know.
I was thinking the same thing. It’s had two awkward revivals now.
They show got a clean, decisive, clear cut, happy ending. Why the fuck would they keep going after that? Just make a new show, even a spin-off in the same universe, but there’s no point to bringing back the same characters
Prison Break Season 5 after the story was more than done after season 4
No-one’s mentioned Dexter yet, so I’m gonna go ahead and do that. What a shit show. I really don’t get why they brought it back from the dead. Sure the original ending was kind of shitty, but it wasn’t that bad they had to revive it and kill it for good.
I thought up until the last episode it was really solid. That last episode was real bad though.
It was so close! All the way through the revival I was like “they’re gonna pull it off” and then they biffed it again right at the end lol.
Although the second ending was a bit less shit than the original ending I thought, so… kind of a (very mild) success?
I’m glad someone enjoyed it! I don’t think I could cringe as much watching a show as when I was watching that. I’d rather watch Dawson’s Creek or something. There were a lot of elements that could’ve made it great, but it just really felt horrible watching it the whole time. In comparison the weird X-Files reboot was at least kind of fun, Dexter was like watching a trainwreck to me.
Galactica 1980 (shudder)
Family Guy got worse every time it was cancelled and brought back, until eventually it was just a parody of itself while being as offensive as possible.
Not really cancelation per se, but some of my favorite shows came back from the writer’s strike in 2007-08 pretty poorly.
Sarah Connor Chronicles was axed shortly after they went back on air. Chuck’s post-strike material was S3 and beyond, and that’s when it started to jump the shark for me. Prison Break S4 was exceptionally bad, even by PB standards.
Dexter did have the Trinity Killer, which was the best season and antagonist by far.
Oh, speaking of writers strikes, Heroes was a great show before the strike and then it just got worse and worse.
I’m still annoyed they never did a movie or at least a couple of specials to wrap up Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Also as a side note, Game of Thrones has a fairly disproportionate amount of Sarah Connors in it.
Warehouse 13, season 5 only happened because of the fans and boy was it disappointing
V (2009). Evil aliens just suddenly won.
The 2009 series was a reboot, though. Not a sequel to the original.
Happy Days literally jumping the shark
What? You don’t water ski in shark infested waters while wearing a leather jacket?
Veronica Mars. Incredible first season followed by 2 lesser but still good seasons. They made an incredible kickstarter video for a revival movie that I believe was the biggest kickstarter ever at the time. But the movie was really bad. There was another Hulu season after that I can barely remember watching except for the awful ending.
Some things should just stay dead.
How dare you remind me of that movie.
I also read one of the spin-off books and thought it was pretty good. No idea why the movie was so bad.
Futurama. It’s just like… not amusing anymore?
I didn’t watch it until after the most recent cancelation and enjoyed it all the way through, but I watched the first few episodes of the new season week to week and thought they were really bland
Yeh really disappointing.
Hero. Season 1 was great, however many seasons after unraveled for me.
then the comeback? I don’t even think we made it through the entirety of episode 1. wtf were they doing.
I’m not sure what you’re describing is a common thing.
Writers are known for spiting their viewers like that. They would rather close their story lines.
