HEROES. It died an ugly death because of a writer’s strike. It’s unfortunate, but I support the writers.
I’m going to get downvoted to oblivion, but Stranger Things. Season 1 was perfect, and in my opinion the rest have sort of been all over the place.
Westworld comes to mind for me
Kiksuya.
The ending of season 1 was perfect. Anything after that is an excuse for nudity and gore.
Agreed. I like the following seasons okay but the first season is nearly perfect on its own.
Season 2 was rough, but I think season 3 was a good soft reboot. After that it’s all downhill again, but it almost righted itself.
altered carbon. Season 2 was so cheap in comparison
Joel Kinnaman. Accept no substitute.
I’m sure there could have been a replacement that worked.
But in no possible universe could it have been Anthony Mackie.
First season stayed close enough to the books, second season strayed too far after coping with first season changes and deviating from the actual plot
Heroes. The first season wrapped up its story beautifully. The second season was an aimless disaster.
I’ve read online that the original plan was for each season to tell a stand-alone story with a different set of heroes but the network was insistent on keeping the popular characters from season one on for season two. Peter Petrelli’s power is universe-breaking after he learns to control it, so the show ended up tying itself into a pretzel to explain why the answer to every problem isn’t “get Peter to snap his fingers and fix it”. There was also a writer’s strike in the middle of the season, which didn’t help.
The writer’s strike shielded the show from so much criticism, because people figured the shite pacing and jumble of characters were caused by the studio plowing ahead without proper scripts. Nope! Executives just demanded the dumbest shit imaginable, and the original creators did their level best, until they were told to stop work and join the picket line.
it got wierd after sylar went good, and then it just went in a different direction.
If you are counting anime, Sword Art Online.
Heroes was great at the start, but that didn’t even last a whole season. The “Save the cheerleader, save the world” arc might be the best superhero TV ever made (10 or 11 episodes, I think?) then it rapidly went downhill to mediocre then terrible.
The obvious examples for me are Altered Carbon, The Terror (although its anthological and a third is in production) and Westworld.
The Terror had a second season!? I really liked the first season and had no idea it was going to continue as an anthology. I take it the second season doesn’t measure up to the first?
It’s considered bad. I haven’t watched it. It’s set in a Japanese internment camp during WW2.
Dang. Hopefully third season redeems it, but I won’t hold my breath.
The US version of The Killing.
Jessica Jones
Firefly. After the first season everything that made the show great is just missing.
The movie was enjoyable
He said what he said.
This but unironically. I hated that movie.
Altered Carbon
A.P. Bio. They slowly tied to normalize it and it lost all its edge.
Welcome To Flatch. Season 1 was awesome! Season 2 they tried to make it a “normal” show and it was awful.
Thank you for mentioning AP Bio - I half-remembered some show with a trailer that had been color-graded within an inch of its life. No colors left besides peach and teal. But whenever I tried finding it again, it ended something like “Abbot Elementary doesn’t look like that.”
That crossover episode pisses me off because I wanted the crew in the AP bio universe. Imagine if Dennis was living a double live there?
Or had a secret evil twin.
Well. Had, was, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
glenn howertons show, no wonder he went back to ISAIP, couldnt hack it outside the show.
Prison Break
The Rig
I actually think season 2 of Prison Break was a perfectly natural and well done (for the intended tone) continuation of the story. I know people snarkily point out the title doesn’t strictly apply anymore, but I think convicts on the run from a manhunt fits. The show was from the beginning always a political conspiracy thriller baked inside of a prison story anyway.
The following seasons get increasingly absurd, but they are enjoyable in a silly way.
Strong agree. I think Prison Break slowly goes off the rails with more spies and conspiracy. It’s not out of nowhere given Lincoln’s original crime is murdering the Vice President (allegedly), but it does eventually just get ridiculous.
I still like the later seasons for the characters, but it is wildly different from where they started.
The Vice President’s brother!
It gets comical how the characters say that phrase so much instead of using his name, for audience benefit.
I appreciate each season changing things up with a different central conceit. As absurd as the Central American super prison and spy craft seasons were at least the show kept changing instead of spinning its wheels.
Ah right the brother! It’s been too long.
And yeah, it got worse but it didn’t get boring.
I couldn’t get past the first episode of The Rig because it seemed cheaply made.
You’re not wrong, it was watchable but barely.
Gonna go with Handmaid’s Tale, gets progressively worse with each season
There’s a really whackadoo cult member in there. I can’t watch it.
