TV shows that started of great and then went crap?

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WildTurkey said:
Friends
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The typical SMB response to this is “it was always shite”. I would argue that it went downhill around season 4 but turned itself around again by the end of season 6. One of my favourite Friends episodes/scenes (Owen doesn’t know he’s adopted) is in the final series.

Tin hat on (another where the SMB says “it was always shite”) but I’m going to say Benidorm. A combination of changing from 20min episodes to 45min episodes and the departure of most of its characters ruined it. The replacement characters were awful.

It went from being a very funny parody of the stereotypical all inclusive holiday to poor man’s Hi-de Hi in about 4 series.
 
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I'm Spartacus said:
only fools and red dwarf have been mentioned and they were the first two that popped into my head, the last few series of both were awful. Blackadder should have continued If only to stop Rowan Atkinson doing mr bean, that went to rat shit after the first 30 seconds...
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Mr Bean is one of our most exported comedies and many countries abroad judge British comedy by it, which is strange as I have not heard of anyone above the age of 12 in this country watching it.

I do an online pub quiz and a German bloke on that recently said "Funnier than your Mr Bean", in an attempt to bait us. It was followed by a general shrug from the Brits and someone said "erm that is a pretty low bar". He was led to believe that everyone here loves Mr Bean and watches it all the time, splitting their sides with laughter at his funny facial expressions and comedy grunts as he tries to do something simple.
 
TopCat said:
Stopped watching after they brought Kochanski back. I heard they also brought the entire crew of RD back to life too?

Wish they'd stayed closer to the books and how those stories ended
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Aye, they did. Red Dwarf and its crew brought back by the Nano bots. Only saw they two series after that, when they were all in prison for thieving the Starbug, or something along those lines, it's been a while. I believe the remaining series since were just specials or two or three episode mini series.

Confession - I never read any of the books. I take it they're worth investing some time in?
 
As for great and went to shit, Doctor Who. Ok, not everyones thing, but there were some great stories in the originals, if you could see past the low budget effects. Ecclestone was great, was followed by two pretty good Doctors, but then the Matt Smith stories started to get a bit stupid. Eventually they replaced him with a great actor who could have pulled off the grumpy but brilliant and caring Doctor but made him slapstick stupid with crap story lines. It has improved a bit with Jodie Whittaker but she has had crap plots and lazy writing where every episode the sonic screwdriver fixes everything.
 
I'm slightly surprised at the number of mentions of Homeland as I thought that was one of the few US shows that stayed relatively consistent over its 8 seasons. It also had a good ending.

I'd agree with regard to Heroes, Shameless and most of the sitcoms mentioned. With regard to sitcoms (Big Bang Theory and OFAH are prime examples), they tend to go a bit wrong once the characters settle down and get into lasting relationships. At that point, the sit moves above the com. Red Dwarf is on odd one. It was very poot toward the end of its BBC run but it's been pretty good on Dave.

With regard to Game of Thrones, I thought the last two series were a bit rushed, particularly the final one, so the quality dropped.
 
JonJon said:
Confession - I never read any of the books. I take it they're worth investing some time in?
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Yeah. They are a bit darker in their humour than the tv show, but the 1st 2 books largely follow the path of the tv series. The last 2 books are alternate endings, where Rob Grant and Doug Naylor had a go at writing alone

1. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
2. Better Than Life
3a. Backwards
3b. Last Human
 
TopCat said:
Yeah. They are a bit darker in their humour than the tv show, but the 1st 2 books largely follow the path of the tv series. The last 2 books are alternate endings, where Rob Grant and Doug Naylor had a go at writing alone

1. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
2. Better Than Life
3a. Backwards
3b. The Last Human
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Nice one, mate, I'll give them a go.
 
Flash Gordon said:
Prison Break is the perfect example of this. Brilliant first season, the second was half good, half average. Then it was completely shite.

West Wing is probably a shout, though I'm loathe to say it was crap. The last couple of seasons weren't close to the Sorkin days though.

People saying Homeland are wrong. The last 2 seasons are up there with the best.

On the flip side, Person of Interest is one of the few shows that you could say the reverse of. There's an argument that season 1 is the worst and it improves with season 5 being one of the best.
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West wing definitely dipped in series 5. Picked up again in series 6 then series 7 was very good imo
Line of duty getting worse as the series roll on
 
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Mickdundee said:
The typical SMB response to this is “it was always shite”. I would argue that it went downhill around season 4 but turned itself around again by the end of season 6. One of my favourite Friends episodes/scenes (Owen doesn’t know he’s adopted) is in the final series.
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Agree it went downhill after Chandler and Monica got together, the whole plot with Rachel and Joey didn't work but still some quality scenes in the later series. The one with the videotape is one of my favourites.

Another one I've remember, Outlander started brilliantly and so true to the books, but the books are so massive you can't really fit them into a standard series without cutting loads and changing stories. Pulled it back a bit for series 5
 
redandwhiterob said:
West wing definitely dipped in series 5. Picked up again in series 6 then series 7 was very good imo
Line of duty getting worse as the series roll on
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The Toby story arc during those last 2 seasons was dreadful in my opinion. It was something so completely at odds with his character and unbelievable.
 
natinnam said:
What happened to the BBC War of The Worlds mini series, fancied it, but the thread went dead on here.
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It was poor to okay from the start really and declined after that. The Fox/Canal+ alternative was a lot better, although it threatens to become another series like The Walking Dead, which goes on forever with a group of rebels fighting against, in this case, the alien threat.
 
Mickdundee said:
The typical SMB response to this is “it was always shite”. I would argue that it went downhill around season 4 but turned itself around again by the end of season 6. One of my favourite Friends episodes/scenes (Owen doesn’t know he’s adopted) is in the final series.

Tin hat on (another where the SMB says “it was always shite”) but I’m going to say Benidorm. A combination of changing from 20min episodes to 45min episodes and the departure of most of its characters ruined it. The replacement characters were awful.

It went from being a very funny parody of the stereotypical all inclusive holiday to poor man’s Hi-de Hi in about 4 series.
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Spot on, always said that. As you say it dipped in quality a canny bit around then but the last few series were class.
 
Any BBC big hyped series like the previously mentioned Dracula absolute guff.

What a waste of our cash. Same goes for Sherlock can't beat Brett or Rathbone don't tamper with a classic.
 
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