# What series most wasted a promising premise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752 "2009-03-17T14:43:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/61 "2009-03-19T23:11:13Z")
A dead cop is let out of hell to catch escaped souls. The acting was actually good. But the writers never took any chances. The souls were routinely just evil people. When they had one soul be an ex Nazi who was actually trying to do good, they chickened out of having him be a real Nazi. His sin was getting a group of Jews passports out of the country, then chickening out and turning them all in. The show had one episode that hinted at its potential. Detective Stone meets an angel and is made to question just how much the devil is lying to him, whether he was always hellbound, whether he can still be saved etc. ---
**Author:** ![Garula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Garula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garula)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/62 "2009-03-20T00:06:18Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I’ve maintained for a while now that as **24** has become a parody of itself, and can only get worse, they should run with it and go batshit mental. Make it about an alien invasion or something. Hell, a Marvel-style Secret Invasion of shapeshifting Skrulls would tie into the feel of the show absolutely perfectly. > > Cripes, has someone got Joe Quesada and Kiefer Sutherland’s numbers? I have long contended that a 24 season about a zombie apocalypse would be great. Of course, that would just be a distraction as the terrorists try to acquire the Necronomicon. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/63 "2009-03-20T00:41:07Z")
Anyone remember the sitcom “Knights Of Prosperity” where a group of loser friends decide to kidnap Mick Jagger? I thought it was way above average for a network sit-com, but apparently, I was in the minority… The lead actor has been in several mainstream movies, but I cant place his name; anyway, I felt it should have gotten more of a chance. Seemed like there were more laughs than many successful comedies (Jim Belushi Show?) still around. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/64 "2009-03-20T01:22:19Z")
Hear me all: I LOVED VOYAGER. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/65 "2009-03-20T05:32:18Z")
> [@Estilicon](#): > > Hear me all: I LOVED VOYAGER. > Carry on. Hey, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. Unless you thought it was better than DS9, in which case there’s just no hope for you.😛 ---
**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:** [March 20, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/66 "2009-03-20T05:42:42Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Anyone remember the sitcom “Knights Of Prosperity” where a group of loser friends decide to kidnap Mick Jagger? I thought it was way above average for a network sit-com, but apparently, I was in the minority… > > The lead actor has been in several mainstream movies, but I cant place his name; anyway, I felt it should have gotten more of a chance. Seemed like there were more laughs than many successful comedies (Jim Belushi Show?) still around. IIRC, the lead actor was Donal Logue. I will add Smallville to the list. I think a young Clark Kent had potential that this show never met. They finally got rid of the dead weight(Lana Lang was not a very good actress),but then the only reason left to watch also left(Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/67 "2009-03-20T06:00:26Z")
**Homicide: Life of the Street**. I’ll say upfront that I liked the show from beginning to end so I don’t think the show was ruined. But they did abandon the premise. In the beginning it tried to be more like the book and real life (the book was a nonfiction account of the Baltimore homicide unit). Some cases solved themselves. Some cases took multiple episodes. Some cases were never solved. To make it more palatable for a broader audience it became more of a standard TV police drama. Cases get solved in 49 minutes. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/68 "2009-03-20T06:13:14Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I would have to disagree. Just having a survivor story would get boring very fast. The woo-woo magic stuff happened from the beginning. Otherwise no one would have survived the plane crash. Definitely agree with that. There’s only so many times you can go “We’re hungry.” “Oh no.” “We found food.” “Yay.” I feel like there’s a lot of good ideas that ultimately get wasted as a case-a-week cop show. \*\*John Doe \*\* comes to mind. Along with that one show recently cancelled about the immortal guy. **The 4400** flirted with this during their second season but eventually broke away from “new guy with powers-a-week.” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/69 "2009-03-20T06:45:20Z")
> [@Shark](#): > > There was once this show advertised, where these people would be dropped off in a remote location, and the last one standing would win the title of Survivor! I know there is a show of that name, and I quite enjoy it, but that’s not the show I thought they were making. I wanted to see people have to actually survive in the wilderness. I guess I thought Survivor was going to be more like the later SurvivorMan, only with more people. Oh well. While we’re including ‘reality’ shows, Mark Burnett also did **Pirate Master**. Basically, it was _Survivor_ on a sailing ship. Handling a ship like that is a real challenge, and they were in a spectacular part of the world to do it. So each episode gave us 45 seconds of that, 6 minutes of contrived intra-pirate drama, 30 minutes of running along a trail and turning over rocks, and the rest was whinging and conniving over who to vote off. It was cancelled before the last episode. Even I didn’t bother to watch it on the web. The CBC did a show called _Tall Ship Chronicles_. It was real people sailing the same real ship around the real world. I wish I could see it, I’ve heard it’s great. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/70 "2009-03-20T11:12:29Z")
> [@vertizontal](#): > > Before it aired, I thought this show had great potential. I was hoping to see the weekly adventures of Joey, a young actor, as he goes on auditons, playing characters who he knows nothing about, researching and training for various roles, getting caught up in the politics and sleezy nature of casting, dealing with the up and down of fame, etc. And I was expecting it to be funny, because of the clueless nature of the Joey character we already knew. Instead, it was just another show where people sit around talking about dating and relationships, occassionally throwing out one-liners. Not only that, but this stupid show is why Joey gets screwed out of a happy ending on Friends. All the others are happy, but Joey gets nothing! ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/71 "2009-03-20T12:53:48Z")
> [@Garula](#): > > I have long contended that a 24 season about a zombie apocalypse would be great. Of course, that would just be a distraction as the terrorists try to acquire the Necronomicon. Jack Bauer in a Lovecraftian story? That could be so fricken awsome if they do it right. Unfortunately, it could never work because Jack always win…and Lovecraftian heros, at best, can only hope for a quick death. That and hollywood is really bad at actually adapting Lovecraft to the screen. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/72 "2009-03-20T16:14:04Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Anyone remember the sitcom “Knights Of Prosperity” where a group of loser friends decide to kidnap Mick Jagger? I thought it was way above average for a network sit-com, but apparently, I was in the minority… Nitpick: The original plan was to rob his apartment, not kidnap him. When I first heard about the show, it was going to be called “Let’s Rob Mick Jagger” which sounded great. And it was good as long as it lasted. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/73 "2009-03-20T17:39:21Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > [In _Brimstone_, a] dead cop is let out of hell to catch escaped souls. The acting was actually good. But the writers never took any chances. The souls were routinely just evil people. They weren’t _that_ routine. I recall Richard Brooks as some Mesopotamian warrior-king (with the same sociopathic edge he brought to his _Firefly_ guest role) and the evil boyfriend/girlfriend, which climaxed with the girl, having learned that Zeke had already sent back her lover, destroying her own eyes so she could rejoin him. The show wasn’t around along enough to waste its premise, which is tragic, though I’m a bit skittish of the idea of Zeke’s cop girlfriend turning out to be an escapee, since it’s unclear how she managed to establish a life as a police detective. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/74 "2009-03-20T20:51:22Z")
There was a reality show about 2 years ago, forgot the name, but it was about amateur filmmakers trying to get a deal with Spielberg. Even though I watched the whole thing, I thought it should have been done a whole lot better: bigger production values, better judges, more interesting premises. For a show about film and television, it was produced very poorly. And Zach should have totally won damn it, his film about the little girl who took the sun and put it back was the best single film of the entire series I would also nominate Fox’s Drive. Fast cars, conspiracy, pretty actors…canceled after 4 episodes ☹ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/75 "2009-03-20T21:08:18Z")
**Masters of Science Fiction** Goddammit, there are plenty of good science fiction stories out there that can be done in a short piece with few or no special effects. Rod Serling ran The Twilight Zone for _years_, and even though a lot of his stuff was fantasy, a lot was good SF. Effects are cheaper these days, and audiences are arguably more familiar with SF concepts. So why choose mostly boring stories, and have two of them be ones where the US President starts a nuclear war? And then change the ending on your Heinlein story And don’t even show the last two shows in the series until _months_ later. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/76 "2009-03-20T21:29:38Z")
Here is one I just thought about: Boomtown. As advertised, it was to be a series based on a given plot, and we see multiple points of view. My assumption, was each episode OVER AN ENTIRE SEAON would be the SAME PLOT but through “different eyes”. (Think Vantage Point, With a dash of Memento thrown in, but a few years earlier – Broken up across an entire season) At least, thats what I thought the show was going to be. [I’m still waiting for a show like this.] It turned out to be a Law and Order / CSI knock off, with each episode being its own plot, and we get 5 or so minutes with each character. and well, we all know where boomtown is now. (It was an NBC show, I believe. Did it even go 4 episodes?) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/77 "2009-03-20T21:47:21Z")
> [@spoike](#): > > [Joan of Arcadia](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367345/) Yea, this show went from God using Joan to foil murderers or help poor people to having him use her to micromanage the social lives of a bunch teenagers. Ah well. Mine: **The Pretender**. The premise was fun, and at the beginning, fairly well executed. But they really didn’t have any way to develop it, and the endless “Jared tries to find his parents” plots became repetitive and increasingly hard to care about. They also wasted using “The Centre” as a more interesting villain. The idea of a shadowy corporation raising children from birth to be used as tools for various evil-deeds could’ve been a more interesting foil for Jared, but the whole organization seemed to basically exist only to try and capture Jared, instead of having more interesting schemes for him to get involved in and try and stop. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/78 "2009-03-21T03:12:11Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > Here is one I just thought about: > > Boomtown. > > As advertised, it was to be a series based on a given plot, and we see multiple points of view. My assumption, was each episode OVER AN ENTIRE SEAON would be the SAME PLOT but through “different eyes”. (Think Vantage Point, With a dash of Memento thrown in, but a few years earlier – Broken up across an entire season) > > At least, thats what I thought the show was going to be. [I’m still waiting for a show like this.] > > It turned out to be a Law and Order / CSI knock off, with each episode being its own plot, and we get 5 or so minutes with each character. > > and well, we all know where boomtown is now. (It was an NBC show, I believe. Did it even go 4 episodes?) I think they did a pretty good job doing the multiple viewpoints for the first few episodes (I never thought it was going to be the same story over the whole season). I remember them dropping the whole idea as time went on. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/79 "2009-03-21T05:32:31Z")
[QUOTE=Meeko] Boomtown. As advertised, it was to be a series based on a given plot, and we see multiple points of view. My assumption, was each episode OVER AN ENTIRE SEAON would be the SAME PLOT but through “different eyes”. (Think Vantage Point, With a dash of Memento thrown in, but a few years earlier – Broken up across an entire season) [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=enalzi] I think they did a pretty good job doing the multiple viewpoints for the first few episodes (I never thought it was going to be the same story over the whole season). I remember them dropping the whole idea as time went on. [/QUOTE] Yes, I didn’t expect one story the whole season. That concept came out later with 24, then all the 1 story idea for the whole season plots like Prison Break, and 3 or 4 others that tanked quickly. I watched Boomtown, and though the first episode took a bit of adjusting, I thought it was creative and interesting with the non-linear storytelling and the multiple vantage points, that still managed to craft a story that revealed itself as it went. They picked the right way to tell the different parts so the plot was conveyed well. But after a few episodes, they moved away from the non-linear aspect, and it lost the originality that made it interesting. It still had some interesting story ideas and characters, but the originality was lost. [QUOTE=Meeko] and well, we all know where boomtown is now. (It was an NBC show, I believe. Did it even go 4 episodes?) [/quote] I want to say they ran almost a whole season. And by a season, I mean an old-fashioned network season of 22 - 26 episodes, not one of these new fangled cable channel seasons that run 6 to 8 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752/80 "2009-03-21T21:39:57Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I want to say they ran almost a whole season. And by a season, I mean an old-fashioned network season of 22 - 26 episodes, not one of these new fangled cable channel seasons that run 6 to 8 episodes. 18 episodes the first season. Then two episodes the second season, plus four unaired episodes. I gotta say, I think that Boomtown guy is making season 5 of **Desperate Housewives** the best season since the first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-series-most-wasted-a-promising-premise/489752.md?page=5)