Twin Peaks
Any M. Night Shyamalan movie after The Sixth Sense
I want to build a poll, but I’d like some input before doing so.
If you actually like(d) The Killing then, obviously, this is not for you. 
I liked both the book and the movie of Friday Night Lights a lot, but the TV show just turned it all into a lame-ass, high school drama for teenaged girls.
LOST
The Matthew Broderick Godzilla.
If you want to talk about all time movie letdowns, I think here’s Episode One and there’s everything else.
I’m going ahead and mentioning American Idol in spite of the fact that I was never a really big fan. But once it became obvious that the voting was such that a dedicated group of “call 1,000 times and vote for the worst one in the batch” factions were booting the good ones and keeping the losers, my camel’s back broke.
FWIW, I’m hoping this thread will focus on reasonably good shows (at the beginning) going sour, and not the good-to-great shows getting cancelled too early. Another whole thread (and poll?) could be spent on that travesty.
But I started out thinking The Killing could have been a decent show. And every week it kept getting more predictable and more silly and finally a real kick in the nuts to people who had stayed with all 13 episodes. At least they shit in the audience’s face after 13 instead of waiting for 30 like Twin Peaks did.
Shyamalan? What can you say to redeem that waste?
To paraphrase Luke Skywalker: “You want the impossible!”
You have to have something developed around a premise of being different from the typical representation of the genre that both completely fails as regards the genre and at the same time as regards the novel aspect, and then also pull the rug out completely at the end.
The thing about the Killing was that it was supposed to take a season to address the investigation of one homicide in order to take more time developing characters and drama. It never successfully developed drama or characters. It spent its time with red herrings and pointless meandering. It offended one’s sensibilities regarding any sort of investigational strategies or logic. Then the ultimate finger - abandon at the last minute the pretense that the homicide investigation would conclude at the end of the season.
Good luck finding similar shows or movies!
Twin Peaks dissapointing? That’s a bold statement.
And then, somehow, have “Twin Peaks” in the same category as “Lost”.
Dunno… :o
That’s the premise of the thread: I can’t think of a worse case, just some that are bad – but not as bad.
I just trust The Dope to know more than I about such horrors.
Didn’t Spielberg dabble in some TV shows that started out okay and then plummeted into nonsense?
Well, Amazing Stories had its moments during its brief run. I guess it was intended as a modern Twilight Zone with glitzy special effects, which overlooks the point that Twilight Zone was about ideas, not effects.
Just recently – since The Killing started – I used Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” to watch all 30 episodes of Twin Peaks again, after however long it’s been, in hopes that I could find some justification for the way the show ended. I didn’t. I stand by my evaluation.
Yep. That’s one of them for sure. But wasn’t there also some “rapture” theme thing that just sort of oozed away?
Just from this year. V and The Event. I found both waaay more disappointing than the Killing.
Fortunately, I saw that coming and bailed straightaway!
On the flip side, I stayed with some others, and liked them, and they got cancelled! (See Post #6)
Since I didn’t watch it, I couldn’t remember many details of the one I was thinking about: Taken (TV mini-series 2002) and it would appear that Spielberg had minimal credit/blame for it.
Sorry! Bad memory.
Once again: the “ending” of Twin Peaks was a season finale, with the idea of it being the basis for more plots in the next season. On that basis, it was a perfectly good way to end the season. It was akin to the season finale of the first season of Weeds, if the show hadn’t been renewed. Twin Peaks did flag a bit after “Bob” was revealed, but soon hit its stride; the final half dozen episodes were excellent.
The most disappointing by far was The Limping Man. You cannot get to the end of it without groaning. Watch it if you dare!
The Twin Peaks explanation does make some sense, but if one’s not aware of the behind-the-scenes issues, and only watches the show (which I did pre-internet and without VHS – say nothing of DVR) the collapse of the characters and story arcs in the last few episodes, was very deflating. The standard in my own situation for “disappointing.”
Fortunately, I now have the Killing as a better comparator!
And with your build-up, I think I’ll punt on The Limping Man, but will add it to the list in the poll, if you want.
Although I loved every minute while watching them, the endings to Rome, Deadwood, and Carnivale all disappointed me.
Okay, to review, here’s what I have so far:
Twin Peaks
Friday Night Lights (TV)
LOST
The Matthew Broderick Godzilla
American Idol
Amazing Stories
V
The Event
The Limping Man (movie)
Rome
Deadwood
Carnivale
Did I miss any?
What can we add before heading to a poll?
Seinfeld’s finale episode was lame, but the entire show throughout its run, esp. after the first year or so, was terrific.