# Season 2 sucks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [August 12, 2022, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525 "2022-08-12T01:41:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/41 "2022-08-13T19:16:11Z")
As far as long runners go I think Law & Order qualifies. The show really did NOT come together until Jerry Orbach joined the show during Season 3. I would say Seasons 1 & 2 are probably the worst of the show. I don’t think they were BAD though–it’s just that they were weaker than the rest of the show. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/42 "2022-08-13T20:54:53Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > Twin Peaks didn’t solve the murder in Season 1. The intention was to never solve the murder and just have it as the underlying premise and the show would be the soap opera about the townsfolk. The network insisted on the murder being solved so it was, about a third way through the second season. I will agree that it went off the rails and the second season was mostly terrible. Lynch and Frost were no longer really involved and it showed. It did come back near the end. The second season did indeed lose focus once the mystery was solved. The next couple of episodes weren’t very good, but it found its stride and was just fine but it had lost audience and was cancelled. People hate the final one, but the see it as a series finale, but it was intended to be a season finale. _Bob_ was an excellent Bob Newhart series with him as a comic book writer. CBS sabotaged it by switching the time slot and insisting it be revamped, adding Betty White and Jere Burns. It was awful and was cancelled in a few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/43 "2022-08-13T21:14:08Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Bob_ was an excellent Bob Newhart series with him as a comic book writer. CBS sabotaged it by switching the time slot and insisting it be revamped, adding Betty White and Jere Burns. It was awful and was cancelled in a few weeks. The same happened to the Fred Savage show “Working”, which legit had a chance to be The Office before Office even came on the air. First season was sharp and funny. Second season, tons of cast members had been swapped around and the whole show was kind of reworked. Lame. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/44 "2022-08-14T03:57:02Z")
**Heroes** was definitely my first thought. But there have been a fair number of shows recently where my wife and I had watched and enjoyed the first season, and then gave up relatively quickly after starting season 2. Already mentioned: **Killing Eve** and **Westworld**. But also, **Russian Doll**. In all three case, I wouldn’t necessarily say there was a decline in quality, as much as it just felt exhausting to try to remember everything that had happened the previous season, who was who, what we did and did not know, etc. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/45 "2022-08-15T14:15:01Z")
Heroes is the series I first thought of. The first season was so good. It was like they just didn’t know what to do with the second season. And that make sense if it was never written to have a second season. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/46 "2022-08-15T14:45:47Z")
The second season of Heroes was basically fanfic because all the writers were on strike. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/47 "2022-08-15T15:21:41Z")
The writer’s strike didn’t start until half the season already aired. They just had to cut it short. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/48 "2022-08-15T15:48:31Z")
_The Walking Dead_ started out with a _very_ strong first season, and while season 2 had its moments, it was very, very boring. From what I’ve read, the producers were balking at the expense of the series and wanted them to cut down on the special effects heavy episodes freating lots of zombies, stunts, and location changes. So we got a rather slow season taking place mostly on a farm though when things actually did happen it was at least interesting. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/49 "2022-08-15T19:45:45Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > Heroes is the series I first thought of. The first season was so good. It was like they just didn’t know what to do with the second season. I agree that the second season of Heroes was vastly worse than the first. That said, I think the problems really started at the end of season 1 with the extremely underwhelming final confrontation between the goodies and the baddie. Frankly, I felt like season 1 of Heroes was good almost by accident. Like, the creator thought that this whole business with the eclipse and the mumbo jumbo was really interesting, but no one cared, we just liked seeing appealing and fun superheroes. (That said, it was a long time ago.) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/50 "2022-08-15T20:13:23Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > The focus was a good idea, but it was an abrupt near 180 from the direction of season one, and just jarring. That’s often the problem with shows. The first season is mysterious in some fashion, the bad guys are BAD, and the good guys are on the ropes. Makes for great drama. Then in the second, or sometimes third season, the good guys either get the upper hand or draw parallel to the bad guys, the mysteries are revealed, and the show seems to invariably devolve into infighting and political nonsense. Battlestar Galactica did it, The Walking Dead did it and Jericho did it. I’m sure there are more, but all three of those did that about-face from the implacable, mysterious outside enemy to being shows about interpersonal/political drama within the survivors in the second (or third, in Walking Dead’s case). > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Well I was glad not to have Princess Ardala camping it up, lusting breathily after BDBDBuck every week. Says you… Princess Ardala’s scenes were some of those early moments when I realized that I was most definitely straight at about 7-8 years old. I was most disappointed when we got Hawk, Crichton and Dr. Theopolus instead. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/51 "2022-08-15T21:19:21Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Princess Ardala’s scenes were some of those early moments when I realized that I was most definitely straight at about 7-8 years old. Eh, she’s just another hollywood blonde. Now Erin Grey in spandex…yea, I guess I like women, Strong women who are in charge. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/52 "2022-08-15T22:55:38Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > The second season of Heroes was basically fanfic because all the writers were on strike. > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > The writer’s strike didn’t start until half the season already aired. They just had to cut it short. I think it was the conventional wisdom to blame the hot mess Heroes became on the writers’ strike, but then what’s the excuse for the later Heroes Reborn sucking so much? They had all the time in the world to prepare for that one. So I don’t think the writers’ strike is to blame, I think we basically just got lucky with a great first season and it wasn’t ever going to approach that level again no matter what. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/53 "2022-08-16T01:51:03Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Eh, she’s just another hollywood blonde. Huh? She was very definitely NOT blonde. She was the villain for most of the first season- a very vampy, slinky brunette. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/54 "2022-08-16T01:55:42Z")
Yes, Princess Ardala was brunette. It was Wilma Deering who was blonde. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/55 "2022-08-16T14:10:23Z")
I think season one of Heroes was great due to the whole Syler storyline and Zachary Quinto, mostly. The dread and menace inspired by Quito’s performance and the storyline were really what made season one great for me. Maybe they had no hope of recreating that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/56 "2022-08-16T14:42:04Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > I think season one of Heroes was great due to the whole Syler storyline and Zachary Quinto, mostly. The dread and menace inspired by Quito’s performance and the storyline were really what made season one great for me. Maybe they had no hope of recreating that I’d go so far as to argue that, even if you’re wrong, you’re right. I mean, yeah, if continuing _that_ would’ve been the key to making Season 2 great, they zeroed that out — but if continuing one of the _other_ stories would’ve done it, they zeroed those out likewise. To offer up a spoilery quote from, well, me from back when, > [@](#): > > We spent season one watching Nathan Petrelli (a) work like crazy to become a Congressman and (b) gradually realize he’s the only man who can risk his life to save NYC from an atomic blast in the cliffhanger, just after winning the election. So which way do they go as season two opens? Did he die in a blaze of self-sacrifice, or survive and take office? > > Neither. Just drop both, and start from zero. > > Of course, that’s just one plotline; it’s not too big a deal so long as you were more invested in the story of DL Hawkins, the superpowered ex-con trying to go straight – except DL died off-screen at some point between season one and season two. But maybe you were more a fan of how Peter was learning and growing during season one? Well, season two opens with him amnesiac, which also happened off-screen. Or maybe you were a fan of Sylar, the serial killer who’s been collecting powers from a string of victims and – just now woke up minus his powers and on another continent. > > Speaking of which: you were maybe a fan of watching Hiro Nakamura interact with the other characters in general while struggling to earn his father’s respect in particular? The second season opens with Hiro on _ **another** _ other continent than everyone else; none of 'em in general can communicate with him, sure as his superpowered father in particular is promptly killed off in the premiere. (How promptly? We never even get to see what his power was!) The girl who crafts illusions likewise dies the first time she shows back up; the guy who can negate powers got sick off-screen and left for yet another country; one by one, every bit of momentum came to a halt; drop it all, start from zero. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525/57 "2022-08-18T01:28:11Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > Twin Peaks didn’t solve the murder in Season 1. The intention was to never solve the murder and just have it as the underlying premise and the show would be the soap opera about the townsfolk. The network insisted on the murder being solved so it was, about a third way through the second season. I will agree that it went off the rails and the second season was mostly terrible. Lynch and Frost were no longer really involved and it showed. It did come back near the end. My memory was faulty. It’s been several years since I watched the series. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-2-sucks/969525.md?page=2)