# Characters or gimmicks that killed your desire to keep watching a TV show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260 "2012-04-09T15:10:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/61 "2012-04-10T22:03:55Z")
I don’t like the 2 new guys (Vampire Hunter and Gen-X Bartender) on\* Mary Shelly’s Frankenhole.\* Jeez! What is wrong with me? ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/62 "2012-04-11T00:34:45Z")
_Lost_ has been mentioned several times already. In the second season, they introduced the Tailies. I bailed when they subsequently killed off all the Tailies by the middle of the third season. Suddenly, season two felt pointless. I stopped watching _BSG_ after they introduced Scar the sentient spaceship. I stopped watching _Reaper_ when Sock started sleeping with his stepsister. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/63 "2012-04-11T01:08:35Z")
X Files after they stopped the monster of the week format and went to story arc. I hate having to watch every show or get lost. I really prefer X of the week shows rather than long involved story arcs. It is ok if the X of the week fits into a slight bit of arc, the way Bones used to be, or CSI Vegas was. I think that is why I like to watch documentaries and stuff like movies, documentaries, cooking or HGTV type channels. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/64 "2012-04-11T01:53:08Z")
I gave up on _Gilmore Girls_ when they brought in Luke’s previously unknown daughter. Couldn’t stand the actress or the plot line. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/65 "2012-04-11T13:54:24Z")
I stopped watching the BBC series Survivors after they discovered the community run by the government lady. What use is a show about the downfall of society when you still have computers and hot water. It just took me out of show ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/66 "2012-04-11T14:06:41Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > 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. At the time I was most interested in the conspiracy episodes. Looking back over the years, including a good bit of couch surfing, I’d have to agree that the MotW episodes were by far the best. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/67 "2012-04-11T20:51:18Z")
I didn’t stop watching, but _Andromeda_ took a nosedive after they made “the Spirit of the Abyss” the main bad guy. The show was at its best when it tried to be hard science fiction. (It never succeeded, of course, but I appreciated the attempts.) In the fourth season, they veered off into mysticism, and the show went downhill. Comic book writers are always complaining that you cannot write good Superman stories, because he is too powerful, and you have a hard time coming up with villains that can be a credible threat to him. In _Andromeda_, it was the other way around: the villains got so powerful that there was no believable way for the good guys to win. The Abyss was, for all practical purposes, Satan. So they started dropping hints that Dylan Hunt would become a messianic figure. Except that they never seemed comfortable with such an overtly Christian motif, so they kept throwing around a bunch of pseudo-Buddhist psychobabble. I guess they wanted to preserve their multicultural cred. Then came the fifth season, and they quit trying. They moved to the SciFi Channel, which was never going to give them enough money to do anything worthwhile. So the writers, and directors, and actors, all just started marking time, collecting their paychecks, and praying that they would still have careers after the contract was completed. It was a sad end for what was once a great show. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/68 "2012-04-11T20:57:37Z")
_Lost_: as soon as the smoke monster showed up. _Six Feet Under_: all of the characters, all they did was bitch and willfully “misunderstand” each other. I can get that at home. _Rescue Me_: I watched 10 minutes of the first episode of the final season and said “Oh no, not these assholes again…” _M_A_S_H\*: I thought Klinger was an unbelievably bad character to invent (wasn’t in the book), but I watched it anyway, I was just a kid, I watched everything. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/69 "2012-04-11T21:42:19Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > X Files after they stopped the monster of the week format and went to story arc. This intrigues me, since the story arc starts in the pilot episode. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/70 "2012-04-11T22:17:35Z")
It is more like a change in tone but… Roswell Yes the sci fi teen soap haha, but the first season is actually well good for what it is. The writing is fair to good and even has Ron Moore on staff, it definitely has the tone of a sci fi mystery show and the cinematography and direction and filming locations are top notch. The season ends with ANSWERS and a new direction it seemed. Well that new direction was going off the rails shortly into the second season, the third season not only had no sci fi in it it appears to have been filmed in Canada :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![lizlizliz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/db5fbb/32.png) [@lizlizliz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizlizliz)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/71 "2012-04-12T00:18:26Z")
I had high hopes for _Glee_ in the first season, but it became unwatchable for me when they started doing musical numbers that weren’t actual rehearsals or performances. I stopped watching _Desperate Housewives_ this season (the final season) because the main plot revolves around the housewives covering up a “murder” that looked too much life self-defense for me to take seriously. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/72 "2012-04-12T00:20:19Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > This intrigues me, since the story arc starts in the pilot episode. No, there is a difference between character motivation [sister is missing, was she or wasn’t she abducted by aliens] and story arc [once you have to literally follow episode after episode to understand who the guy with the oozy black eyes is and why he keeps turning up and messing with them, and then where did Moulder go, and and and … pretty much everything after IIRC the third season.] ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/73 "2012-04-12T00:39:33Z")
Not me, but an elderly acquaintance in the UK told me that she stopped watching _Doctor Who_ when they reinvented the title character as a clown (ie when William Hartnell left and Patrick Troughton took over). ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/74 "2012-04-12T00:42:35Z")
> [@Ms\_Boods](#): > > Not me, but an elderly acquaintance in the UK told me that she stopped watching _Doctor Who_ when they reinvented the title character as a clown (ie when William Hartnell left and Patrick Troughton took over). I’m not even 30 and I am sick of hearing this reason, it is clear to me he is not a clown but a beatnik/hippie/free spirit and was used to play off the personality of the companion Brigadier. Free spirit/uptight spirit if you will. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/75 "2012-04-12T01:13:26Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > No, there is a difference between character motivation [sister is missing, was she or wasn’t she abducted by aliens] and story arc [once you have to literally follow episode after episode to understand who the guy with the oozy black eyes is and why he keeps turning up and messing with them, and then where did Moulder go, and and and … pretty much everything after IIRC the third season.] The story arc I’m referring to is the government conspiracy to conceal the existence of alien life and its intention to colonize earth, which runs from the pilot episode until we find out “the truth,” the date of the colonization, in the final episode. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/76 "2012-04-12T02:56:47Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Morgan getting the intersect made me never watch Chuck again. He only had it for about three episodes. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/77 "2012-04-12T03:31:17Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > The story arc I’m referring to is the government conspiracy to conceal the existence of alien life and its intention to colonize earth, which runs from the pilot episode until we find out “the truth,” the date of the colonization, in the final episode. That isn’t really story arc it is setup, sort of like Lost the people crashed and are ostensibly trying to survive and hopefully get off the island. Something that sort of is background for why the show is actually on TV 😃 Without some background skullduggery XFiles would be a pretty boring procedural. Think of it as why a bunch of people are living in tents in a war zone [MASH] or a guy is running frantically around Miami while people try to kill him [Burn Notice] ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/78 "2012-04-12T08:58:37Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m not even 30 and I am sick of hearing this reason, it is clear to me he is not a clown but a beatnik/hippie/free spirit and was used to play off the personality of the companion Brigadier. Free spirit/uptight spirit if you will. Fair enough, but I’m simply quoting my pal; I thought it was amusing as she made the comment supposedly back in 1966 when the actual changeover occurred and didn’t like the new direction of the character, or, come to that, the ‘regeneration’ gimmick – she felt that William Hartnell was the title character, and if he were leaving the show, then what was the point of the program anymore. The Brigadier wasn’t introduced until 1968, as a colonel, in _The Invasion_, so Troughton’s characterisation was not developed with this character in mind – if anything PT wanted to be even more outrageous than he was; if I’m not mistaken, he wanted to play the role in blackface among other things! Although with his sense of humor, who knows! While his character was meant to be a contrast to Hartnell’s kindly grandfather role (except when bashing people’s skulls in with rocks), it was also meant to be a change from Troughton’s previous heroic sorts of roles. (I was a kiddie when Jon Pertwee turned into Tom Baker, and the grownups I knew said he wouldn’t last 🙂 – seems as if every time a new guy took the role there were plenty who grumbled, ‘I see you’ve changed things up a bit – I don’t like it.’ or words to that effect.) ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260/79 "2012-04-12T16:04:17Z")
I’m considering abandoning UK Being Human and just watching the US version. They replaced the two most interesting characters and I hate when that happens because the show always tanks after that. Stopped watching Stargate (whatever the last one was) when they were trying too hard to be Battlestar Galactica. Ditto for DS9 when they tried too hard to be Babylon 5. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-or-gimmicks-that-killed-your-desire-to-keep-watching-a-tv-show/618260.md?page=3)