The interest that’s been shown to the thread on shows you have quit watching prompts me to follow up with the notion that perhaps some of those shows were removed from your “must see” list because of a particular character, plot point, the music, the sets, or some other trivial point that you just couldn’t hack anymore.
I’ll mention a few specifics that killed otherwise watchable shows for me and maybe the idea(s) you have for similar buzz kills will spark other criteria beyond those in the thread title.
The Tommy Jefferson character in Harry’s Law was a last straw. I have enjoyed Christopher McDonald in other roles, so it’s not just him. The character was just too much.
The ridiculous choices and placement of “background” music in Grey’s Anatomy, not to mention some of the mousey female doctors.
The Curtis Brumfield character in Body of Proof. Maybe it’s that actor was more convincing in beer commercials, but having him as an authority figure in that show was beyond acceptable for me.
I don’t know why, because I don’t remember too much about it, but I haven’t watched a single episode of The Office since the one when Jim & Pam got married.
I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan before that, but it was one of the small handful of shows I regularly watched each week, but after the wedding I have never felt like turning it on again.
After typing the above out, I realize that there are currently only two TV shows that I faithfully watch each week, Modern Family and The Amazing Race, and the Race is getting less and less engaging all the time; I am NOT one of those cultural elites (pompous assholes?) who go around grandly proclaiming how superior they are 'cause they don’t watch TV, and I often watch late-night talk shows (Craig Ferguson) or re-runs of The Simpsons or Fraiser at night, or the occasional travel & cooking shows on PBS (Rick Steves, Globe Trekker), but speaking as someone with no cable, television doesn’t seem to hold a great attraction these days…
Bringing previous contestants back on Survivor! more than once. I’d been applying to the show since season 1 (yes, before it had ever been on the air) and mid way through last season I had just had enough. Don’t bother getting new people who really want to be on the show, just keep recycling douchebags 2-3 times until they win.
It took much longer than my wife expected, but 21 1/2 seasons was enough.
Ugh. I loathe this show but my wife watches it so I can hear it playing while I’m on my laptop.
On cue for the parts that are supposed to be quirky humorous they play the plucked strings background notes. “Oh. Ha ha, I’m supposed to laugh now at the clever wit.”
Then for the typical death/relationship drama they cue the emo artist of the week.
I loved the original premise of True Blood, vampires come out in the open because synthetic blood that is good enough for them to drink is invented. When they started bringing in all different kinds of fantastic creatures i quickly lost interest.
Taub from House. He’s such a despicable character, constantly trying to justify cheating on his wife (more than once, IIRC) while being judgmental of everyone around him. He currently has children from two different women, though how he even got one woman to sleep with him, I have no idea. And they make him a major character in the show, and expect me to care about and be invested in him? Hell no.
Same here. And also Michael left so that didn’t help.
My contributions are Scrappy Doo, Seven from Married with Children, and Coy and Vance on Dukes of Hazzard.
Back in the 90s, Bob Newhart had an excellent TV show called Bob, where he was a comic book artist. When it was renewed, they jettisoned most of the supporting cast and added Betty White and Jere Burns. It was unwatchable from that point on.
My desire for Awake took a hit a couple of weeks ago when the introduced a serial killer who may have the same powers of the hero. I gave up on No Ordinary Family for similar reasons – suddenly the introduced supervillains to the mix.
You said trivial … and I bet this one of the most trivial reasons anyone has ever stopped watching a show …
I had to stop watching Six Feet Under because the main guy had the same cell phone ring as mine. EVERY TIME he got a call on the show, I would turn to my husband and say “Could you please pause it? My phone is ringing.” and he would patiently explain it was the TV, not my phone. OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
I don’t think I’m exceptionally dumb, but that phone ring tone was like Pavlov’s dogs. I would hear it and start answering my phone, even if only a minute had gone by since the last time the character’s phone rang.
This made me so crazy I had to stop watching the show.
I stopped watching Dark Angel about 2 episodes into the second season when they introduced the overarching plot. It’s not so much the existence of it. Nor even the fact that it was a far sweeping conspiracy theory. It was the fact that it had been in existence since Babylonian times and Gilgamesh was one of the examples of proto-genetic engineering that made me do a big :rolleyes: and stop watching, despite the hotness of Jessica Alba.
Scrappy Do is probably the poster puppy for this sort of thing. It’s not JUST that he’s an annoying kid version of Scooby, there’s something else I can’t quite pin down. After all, I’m not nearly as annoyed by the kitten character in the cartoon where Sylvester fights the kangaroo that they both think is a big mouse.
I used to watch The Drew Carey Show, but I started losing interest once they introduced his cross-dressing brother as Mimi’s boyfriend/husband. It’s a chicken/egg thing, though: Did I lose interest because they added the new character, or did they add the new character because people were losing interest?
They retooled it a couple more times after that, I think, but I’d stopped watching at that point.
I didn’t stop watching it, but around the time Cuddy got baby rabies in *House *and they introduced the new kid into the mix, I rolled my eyes. Then Cuddy left and Taub got himself a couple of babies. I hate shows where they linger on the babies as if giving the audience time to go “Awww, how kyoooot!” I’m firmly in the “quickest way to ruin a TV show that isn’t explicitly from the beginning supposed to be about babies/small children is to introduce one later” camp.
Oh, and I stopped watching *Roseanne *shortly after they won the lottery and the episodes all took left turns in to LaLa Land. I thought rich Roseanne was boring and annoying. Though I did come back for the final episode, and loved it. (Not enough to make me go back and watch all those post-lottery episodes, though)
Reality shows about trades (like Cake Boss or various tattoo shows) that devolve into drama, with the actual trade hanging out on the sidelines. I don’t give a fuck about your relationship, if I wanted to watch a soap opera I’d watch a goddamned soap opera. Move the fuck on, already.
It used to be that the actual trade was at the forefront of the show, and then in later seasons the family drama would happen. Now for a lot of newer shows it seems that the drama is there from the get-go. (For instance, I’d actually be fairly interested in that Tanked show if the premise weren’t “look at this CRAAAAAAZY family! Oh, and they make aquariums.”) No thanks.
For annoying characters, I stopped watching The X-Files after Doggett and that Monica lady were introduced. Also, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that the conspiracy episodes were dull. I watched it for the Monster of the Week episodes.