TV stopping point

[Reader]

I recently watched the tv show The 100. It was 7 seasons. I thought it was AMAZING, but I wish I’d watched the first five seasons and skipped the rest or at least been warned it would severely drop off after season 5. Now when I think about the show, there’s that caveat of “oh great show, but they ruined it.”

So this thread is for anyone that wants to put down a tv show they watched and when they recommend to stop watching it.  
 

No spoilers though! 

[Chiguy]

No brainer.

Game of Thrones.

First six seasons were some of the best TV ever made. Great dialogue, fully motivated characters, and a plot as believable as a show with dragons could be. Turned every trope on its head. Fantastic special effects and innovative camera work.

Last two seasons were some of the worst tripe ever made. Silly dialogue. Characters suddenly doing things totally out-of-character with no motivation. Awful CG -- an anti-climactic, climactic scene so dark you could barely see it with the lights off. Asinine, predictable plot. Ludicrous ending.

I'll stop while I still can. 😂

Edited July 2, 2023 by Chiguy

[webmeistro]

I thought Star Trek: Enterprise dropped off halfway. For the first two seasons they were zipping around the galaxy discovering new stuff and it was (at best) just like the original Trek. Then the whole Xindi War thing started and it felt like a third-rate Sci-Fi miniseries. Also the ending sucked.

Edited July 2, 2023 by webmeistro

[SleepingPhlox]

1 hour ago, webmeistro said:

I thought Star Trek: Enterprise dropped off halfway. For the first two seasons they were zipping around the galaxy discovering new stuff and it was (at best) just like the original Trek. Then the whole Xindi War thing started and it felt like a third-rate Sci-Fi miniseries. Also the ending sucked.

Co-signing this. 

I don't even know how to explain that ending without spoilers to someone who hasn't watched the series. It's not a case of "Oh, it wasn't happily ever after" or "I don't like what they did with my favourite characters"...it's on a whole different level.  I can't think of anything to compare it to.  It was a concept so bad, that nobody anywhere else has ever tried it.

It's like, if "It was all a dream" is the worst possible gimmick you can imagine, this is actually worse than that.

[webmeistro]

57 minutes ago, SleepingPhlox said:

It's like, if "It was all a dream" is the worst possible gimmick you can imagine, this is actually worse than that.

I could forgive the ending if... no, wait, I can't, it was awful. But still, if you take all the badness of seasons 3 and 4 and mashed it all together, there would be three or four times more awful than the finale.

[Wig_Powder]

@webmeistro @SleepingPhlox While I don't know if I'd go as far as you two, I'm honestly pleased to see people who are on the same wavelength as me regarding Enterprise. It seems like the two most typical opinions about the show are either that it always sucked or that Seasons 1 and 2 sucked, while 3 and 4 were steady improvements and signs that the show was finding its footing, only to be cancelled before everything could truly click. I, meanwhile, think Seasons 1 and 2 were good, while 3-4 were...messy, to say the least. Glad to see others who feel similarly, even if I'm probably slightly more charitable to the later seasons.

No excuses for the final episode, though. That one was genuinely an inexplicable move, and with the possible exception of some information we find out about one of Enterprise's recurring characters, I don't consider it canon.

To try to contribute something new to the topic...While I love the hell out of the Horatio Hornblower miniseries, I've only ever watched the last two episodes once. I don't think they're bad, but the quality of the stories did decline, and it ends in a place that's, while not a cliffhanger, certainly not an ideal note to end on (I think they were planning/hoping to make another set of episodes, but something fell through). I'd personally stop after the episode Retribution; the ending is bittersweet, but I think it works as a solid enough stopping point.

 

[KungFuKok]

Wow this is an easy one for me. Dexter. It’s peak is some of my favorite television I’ve ever watched but that show jumps off a cliff after season 4. That’s not to say that there isn’t some quality, but even its highs come nowhere close to anything in the first 4 seasons, and its lows contain some truly awful writing. So if you decide to watch, pretend like the season 4 finale is the series finale, which you can do just that with season 4’s ending, it’s not really a cliffhanger.