Spongebob Squarepants dropped quite sharply after the movie (and the departures of Drymon and Hillenburg).
We hung up for a long time at the end of Season 2. So much so that we thought we’d started Season 3, and in reality the end of Season 2 was sort of all over the place. First episode of Season 3 might just be like that too.
However, it picks up again, and goes all over the place, but entertainingly so. Of course the twist can’t be reproduced once you have had one like that, but the lines really just keep coming…
Caveat, we’re three episodes from the end of Season 4 at the moment.
Season 4 ended on a hell of a cliffhanger. President’s daughter was kidnapped.
And while the beginning of the next season solved this, everything had changed.
I do wonder what it should have been though, because Sorkin, the showrunner, was fired in the gap between seasons. That isn’t in itself a reason to think it got worse.
Previously it was The President and the staff against the world. Pulling together against resistance to try and make a better world. They were friends.
From the start of season 5, everybody hated everybody else. The (new) writers were clearly not capable of doing the show as it previously was, and the show they wanted to write was about the staff arguing with each other, blackstabbing and criticising everybodys moves. President seemed to still be ok with them though…
It was exhausting, rather than entertaining, and if it had started that way, I’d have dumped it after three episodes into the first season.
Some people say it improved in the 6th or 7th season. I’ve made it to the middle of the 6th with a meh, and it’s took me about six years to do a season and a half.
Walking Dead was one good season. Five episodes. Then the producer was told to do fifteen episodes for the same budget. The producer left.
From then on, it went downhill fast. Occasionally it became vaguely watchable. Weirdly the best episode of the show is in the middle of season 4, but you had to sit through the horrible season 2, half of the boring season 4, and then is when a lot of people actually thought it started to decline…
Came in here specifically to mention this! This show is my mom’s favorite; since I’m working from home now, and my office spot is practically in the living room, I’ve been treated to the entire run thanks to Amazon. The show should have ended when Don Knotts left – Andy became surly and downright mean at times, Warren was just plain awful as a deputy and a character, and the show just looked wrong in color.
This is more like. A drop off in quality after 6 or 7 seasons is expected, for the few shows that last that long, 1 year is something to comment on, and in the case of Heroes it was remarkable how far it fell in such a rapid manner.
There are shows that take sudden change of direction early on. Depending on what you think of the shows as they started you might find qualifiers. I know at least one person thought Happy Days was a good show until it became the Fonzie show after just a few episodes. The Urkel show and the Alex P. Keaton shows similarly. Frankly though, I think those shows imperceptibly improved from those changes.
Heroes season 2 was supposed to be longer and have a much different ending that would set up an epic story arc for the future.
Unfortunately the writers strike happened and instead of having a hiatus and then continuing with the plan they decided to shorten the season and end it stupidly.
Dexter had a huge drop in quality in later seasons. The showrunner changed for the last three seasons, and he didn’t seem to understand what made the show great. In the earlier seasons there was always a balance with Dexter between his villainous and heroic qualities, and it played well with the audience wanting to alternatively root for him and against him. The last few seasons decided that he was just a hero period.
The same showrunner Scott Buck went on to become the showrunner for such huge successes as Iron Fist and the Inhumans.