Heh.
I discovered ST:TNG during its 3rd season. When I finally had the opportunity to watch the 1st and 2nd seasons, I was able to make it through the really, really bad episodes because I knew that the show pushed through and was better than that. If I had watched the 2nd season in first-run, I might have bailed. Too many of those episodes were real stinkers.
Forgot one: We were watching Deadwood for a while recently. Mrs. FtG gave up first and then I did. The whole Hearst storyline was absurd in the context of the show previously.
I bailed on Shameless when the dad head-butted his 10 year old son. I just can’t see beating children as comical in any context.
Glee - rubbish after the first season
Downton Abbey - rubbish after the second season
My husband actually gave up on Breaking Bad right before the final eight episodes. He liked the show well enough, but then he got busy and never got around to watching them. I found that astounding, as I was staying up all hours of the night to find out what happened.
I initially bailed on TNG after the first few episodes of season 1. I got back into it when I went to college and a floormate told me it had gotten really good.
“The Comedians” made me laugh once (The Lewis is the New Black sketch) and made me cringe often. “Orphan Black”, is spite of Tatiana Maslany’s bravura performances, the gore and Dyad conspiracy story line is tiresome.
The real answer for me, I suppose, is “almost all of them”…like probably most everyone here I’ve watched MANY TV shows for at least a season - the number for which I’d be willing to say for certain I’ve seen every episode of, though, might be 10 or so?
ER - bailed about the 5th season. All the good characters were gone.
Breaking Bad - bailed after second season.
I bailed on Saturday Night Live after the original cast left. What was that, 1979? 1980? Somewhere around there.
Last man on Earth
Bones
Big bang theory
Grimm
Many more that I can’t even remember the names
Lost. You never found out anything from show to show. People never acted the way they would in reality. If I was on that island and I’d heard, “MY BABY”, one more time, I’d have ate the damned thing. Oh, and fat guy never losing any weight…or being eaten.
Orphan Black. Another Lost in the making. Layers of conspiracy that never ends and incompetent bad guys.
Battle Star Galactica. And I’m about the biggest scifi fan there is. Trying to maintain a democracy during an extinction level event. What morons. They all deserved to die (those who weren’t Cylons, that is, which I don’t think was anyone).
Star Trek Enterprise. Just never saw the point.
That’s what was the biggest failure of the show - not living up to the potential. I did see the point - looking at how the federation came to be, the promise of seeing the disastrous consequences of no prime directive,seeing the fumbling formations of the Federation, seeing how events in the past led to the ST universe we knew so well. The limits of old tech, and how they got around it. And actually having characters be wrong.
Of course, we got not one bit of that. Instead we got Romulans, boney headed Klingons, and the Borg fer crissakes. Enterprise had about as much in common with TOS and TNG as those Abrams abominations do.
HA! I thought I was the only one who did that!
I stopped watching Gotham just before the end credits of the pilot. I thought, what is the point of this show? Introducing Batman villains in a world where Batman won’t show up for what, 18, 19 years?!
I stopped watching 24 in, I think it was the 3rd season. An atomic bomb explodes in LA and three episodes later (or three hours in their time) NO ONE is talking about it. Really?
I stopped watching S.H.I.E.L.Dat the end of the first season. Not only did the stories not grab me, I found the supporting cast annoying and forgettable.
I stopped watching the new run of Dr. Who when they changed the series from Dr. Who into the The Dr. and Amy Pond Show. It changed the complete dynamic of a character and series that had been around for 50 years. Changed it, and not in a good way.
In general, I’ve stopped watchingany new dramatic series on network TV. They create these shows, want them to have complicated and connecting story lines, like the cable series they’re competing with, and then Vooom! they cancel them after a few episodes.
Thanks, but no thanks networks. If you don’t have faith in your shows, why should I devote a minute to watching them?
Guess I have to add “Episodes” to the list. We got through the first five eps of season one, then my wife said “it’s all about tits and dicks”. She’s right, but perhaps it got better in following seasons?
Bones – though I never watched the series, I enjoyed seeing the reruns on USA. After a while, I got tired of not knowing when in the series any give episode was supposed to be, so I binge-watched on Netflix. By the time I got all the way through what was on Netflix, I realized that another whole season was finished and a new one was about to start. By that point, I didn’t really care enough to try to catch up.
Lost – I stayed with it the whole first season for some reason. When the second season started, I realized that for every question answered, ten more were presented. At that rate, no one could ever catch up. I figured out that when the show finally got cancelled, that the writers would make a half-hearted attempt to tie up (some of) the loose ends in a manner very dissatisfying to its loyal viewers. (Was I right?)
Black List – I loves me some James Spader, but the whole premise of the show – I’ll tell you who to arrest and why and where you can find 'em, but I’ll twist you every which way I can, as that is the only entertainment I can get – wore out with Silence of the Lambs.
The Mentalist – another show that I only watched in syndicated reruns. Here’s every episode that I ever saw:
Jayne – I have a hunch!
Whats-her-name – I’m getting pretty sick and tired of your hunches.
Jayne – But, I’m right!
WHN – Yeah, I know…
It seems to me that binge-watching any series shows you things you don’t notice when you watch one episode per week, like how each episode is essentially the same as last week’s, just with different victims and villians and locations.
Had a thread about this a few months back about House, which has got to be the worst show for binge watching.
The ep where Merc’s father dies remains the series highlight for me (SE2EP3), though I still watch. Season two’s greatest strength is the budding friendship of Carol and Beverly (“I did it!” “Good for you! Who is this?” “Shut up! You’ve only got one friend.”) The second season is worth watching. More so than three. To me, the writers threw away a huge opportunity for laughs this past season.
I did the same thing. The new run was the first time I had seen Dr. Who and enjoyed it until all that Amy Pond, her husband and etc. got so convuluted and confusing that I just quit watching. I watched the Dr. Who with the multiple Dr’s and enjoyed that because Clara was in it, the episode where the changeover to Calpaldi occurs and the Christmas episode last year. I wanted to pick it back up with the season where Clara is introduced but haven’t yet.
I gave up on Law & Order: SVU after William Lewis made his first few appearances. Have been trying to watch it again to see Raul Esparza but ugh that whole Lewis saga and now baby drama of the week really drags the show down in addition to the piss poor writing that only seems to get worse.
I binge watched the first 12 episodes of the first season of The Blacklist and haven’t felt inclined to pick it back up again even though the commercials make me think about it for a bit.
Glee after the Britney Spears episode whichever season that was. I remember struggling to get through episodes after that off and on then and just quitting after watching again when the Kitty/Marley/eating disorder stuff started. I did watch the last 3 episodes though.
Heroes after the 2nd season. I always thought it should have been a one season mini-series because nothing seemed to top that first season. I haven’t heard anything about that Heroes Reborn concept lately either.
Not intentionally but The Good Wife about halfway into the 5th season. I kept meaning to catch up especially after the big event of that season and just have never gotten around to it. I really do intend to at some point though.
That’s all of them that are coming to mind right now. I might post again with more that I think of later on. I get pulled back into some shows for awhile because I remember how good they once were and watch in hopes the people in charge will try and turn things around. :o
You forgot one thing, but I’m not sure where it fits: a) Someone suggests Lupus, b) Someone else says, It’s not Lupus.
Just to save you some words, I call #5 “Lightbulb Moment.”
It’s never Lupus.