Sherlock (BBC) - while I am not really as furious over this show as some other people, I feel like people just got kinda taken in by the exciting and intriguing "modern day Sherlock" premise. The mysteries got increasingly dumb and lazy. While the lead actors were always putting in a good performance, the material they had to work with was often subpar. Stories were often unnecessarily bloated to hit the 90 minute episode benchmark set by the first episodes. You never felt like you were getting a series of 3 Sherlock movies, but more like you were getting 3 45-60 minute episodes padded out to 90 minutes.
The Sopranos (Seasons 4-6) - a pretty classic example of a show resting on its laurels, and allowing the momentum of early seasons to carry it to a grinding conclusion. I'm not one of the people that whines about how later seasons were boring because they weren't full of mob hits and high body counts. But at the same time, the deeper dives into family drama were pretty tedious. I can only watch so many screaming matches between Tony and Carmella (or Tony and his numerous mistresses) before I'm just exhausted from watching the same thing over and over.
24 - one of the first truly serialized primetime network television shows, and I think the thrill of a having an expansive week-to-week story drew people in and made them ignore rather glaring problems and absurd scenarios. Part of the problem was that writers felt obligated to cover everyone in the ensemble cast and give them their own stories, even if those stories were stupid or inconsequential.
Dexter - while later seasons of the show are considered pretty universally bad, I'm not sure even the early seasons really hold up. A lot of Dexter's broody Linkin Park sociopath routine is corny, and not tounge-in-cheek enough. The show has roughly 1-2 characters that are actually compelling, but showrunners felt it necessary to focus B-plots on an expanding cast of characters that weren't really that likable or entertaining. This issue is kind of an echo of the problems that Sopranos and 24 faced......trying to juggle 8-10 characters when the audience really only wants to see a few of them. The books had the good sense to kill off LaGuerta in the first season, but the show decides to keep this wet blanket around for years and years.
True Blood - this show was fun trash. It was very fun, but still kinda trash. With its similar penchant for bloodshed and T&A, I can't help but wonder if Game of Thrones will occupy the same space in our memory 5-10 years down the line. It doesn't have the same soap opera tendencies as True Blood did, so perhaps it will fare better in retrospect.
The Sopranos (Seasons 4-6) - a pretty classic example of a show resting on its laurels, and allowing the momentum of early seasons to carry it to a grinding conclusion. I'm not one of the people that whines about how later seasons were boring because they weren't full of mob hits and high body counts. But at the same time, the deeper dives into family drama were pretty tedious. I can only watch so many screaming matches between Tony and Carmella (or Tony and his numerous mistresses) before I'm just exhausted from watching the same thing over and over.
24 - one of the first truly serialized primetime network television shows, and I think the thrill of a having an expansive week-to-week story drew people in and made them ignore rather glaring problems and absurd scenarios. Part of the problem was that writers felt obligated to cover everyone in the ensemble cast and give them their own stories, even if those stories were stupid or inconsequential.
Dexter - while later seasons of the show are considered pretty universally bad, I'm not sure even the early seasons really hold up. A lot of Dexter's broody Linkin Park sociopath routine is corny, and not tounge-in-cheek enough. The show has roughly 1-2 characters that are actually compelling, but showrunners felt it necessary to focus B-plots on an expanding cast of characters that weren't really that likable or entertaining. This issue is kind of an echo of the problems that Sopranos and 24 faced......trying to juggle 8-10 characters when the audience really only wants to see a few of them. The books had the good sense to kill off LaGuerta in the first season, but the show decides to keep this wet blanket around for years and years.
True Blood - this show was fun trash. It was very fun, but still kinda trash. With its similar penchant for bloodshed and T&A, I can't help but wonder if Game of Thrones will occupy the same space in our memory 5-10 years down the line. It doesn't have the same soap opera tendencies as True Blood did, so perhaps it will fare better in retrospect.
