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"'This Is Us' Was Like A Never-Ending Drama Sledge Hammer To My Head": 19 TV Shows People Started But Ended Up Hating So Much They Couldn't Finish Them
By Brian Galindo,
2023-02-08
I think we all have a TV show or two that we can think of that started off strong and managed to stay really good throughout its entire run. But I am sure there is probably a series or two or eight that you can think of that you really, really liked at the beginning, but somewhere along the way you thought, Wait, this show has gotten really awful and then either stuck with for the sake of finishing it or just decided that you were done with it and stopped watching altogether.
Well recently, Reddit user DadIsMadAtMe was interested in the latter when they asked : "What show did you start and wound up hating so much you didn’t finish it?"
The Office/ Peacock / Via giphy.comAnd the thread went viral, with over 23K people responding and commenting about the TV shows they thought started off great but then became an unwatchable hot mess. Here are some of the top and best comments:
🚨 Warning: minor spoilers ahead 🚨
1. "Riverdale"
— Ekata97
"The only part of the show that I know is the 'epic highs and lows of high school football' exchange.""Even based on just that exchange, I think you made the right call."— Cy41995
"I liked only Season 1. I couldn't bear watching even two episodes of Season 2."
Katie Yu / ©The CW Network / Courtesy Everett Collection2. "The Flash"
"I loved the first couple seasons but it went downhill fast."
"'I'm Barry Allen, the fastest man alive.' Then proceeds to get that line disproven almost every season."
The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection3. "The 100"
"I surprisingly made it five seasons in, I think. I almost quit watching part way though Season 1, because even though I really liked some aspects of the show, the characters and drama just pissed me off so much. I decided to keep going, and then I think episode five or six (?) got me hooked. It didn't change how much I disliked most of the characters, and that kind of remained a trend throughout the show for me. Was absolutely captivated by the story and concept, absolutely hated the characters and drama. Clarke, her mom, and Octavia sunk the show, IMO. After Season 5, I think I just thought to myself, You know, I enjoyed a lot of that, but I think I've seen all I need to see. "
"You stopped at a good time. They should have stopped at the end of Season 5. I got to about three episodes short of the series finale before I gave up."— bluebanrigh
Cw Network / ©CW Network/Courtesy Everett Collection4. " Handmaid’s Tale . The first season starts so strong but as the seasons go on the story refuses to move forward. It was just an endless cycle of failed escapes. Or when characters finally have the chance to escape they either change their mind or go back inside. It’s like the writers were too afraid to shake up the status quo. After a few seasons I just gave up."
"I very strongly feel that it should have ended when the book ended (which is Season 1)."
"Right there with you. Half of Season 3 was seemingly just close-ups of Elisabeth Moss seething."
Hulu / ©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection5. " Once Upon a Time . So effing glad I stopped at Season 2."
"If I remember correctly, I stopped just as Elsa started to show up — that Peter Pan arc was amazing though."
— lemoche
"I loved this show so much, the first three seasons were really good but then it just nosedived so quickly. Where they went with Emma didn’t even fucking make sense, they had her making choices the she would fucking never, because it was literally the opposite of all her character development up to that point!!! Ugh I’m getting mad just thinking about it!!!"
Abc / ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection6. " Orange Is the New Black . Piper annoyed the fucking shit out of me."
"Though I finished it, I felt the same way about her and Alex, totally annoying."
"I've watched the whole series three or four times, and although I enjoyed the show, the last couple of seasons are pretty rough."
Netflix / ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection7. " The Walking Dead "
"The end of the line for me was how they were painfully dragging out the whole Negan saga. I don't remember what season it was but I just quit in the middle of it."
"After the way overdone cliffhanger about who he kills I pretty much checked out. But looking into it, like Negan is now best buds with the lady of the guy that he murdered with a baseball bat (Glenn) or something... how does that shit work?"
AMC8. " Grey's Anatomy "
"I expect you don’t mind spoilers, so I’m going with it, LOL, but Season 19 (I think) had Meredith finally leaving Grey Sloan and she was about to leave for Boston and then her house suddenly burned down from a lightning strike and I couldn’t stop laughing, it was so absurdly over dramatic and unnecessary."
"I used to watch this show with my wife, I didn't love it, but I tolerated it cause I do love my wife. Then there was the musical episode where the entire episode's dialogue is sang by the actors. I told her I just couldn't anymore. She didn't even hold it against me."
— elting44
Frank Ockenfels / Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images9. " Under the Dome "
— egd96
"Yep. I really like the book and the show started off pretty solid as I remember, but then it slowly got to where it was like, 'OK, what's the dumbest thing we can think up?'"
"To this day, I still don't understand how badly they fumbled the bag on this one. The story is so simple, so straightforward, so embraceable. It's Stephen King playing to his most folkiest and the terror is so graspable. And yet somehow, the show decided to bring alien eggs into the picture?"
Cbs / ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection10. " Heroes "
— jdward01
"Well, the main villain of the show was the writer's strike. When they fired it up for Season 3 it's as if no one knew what had happened in the first two seasons. It had potential."
— Lork82
"This one still burns for me because S1 was a near-perfect setup for the show going forward."
Nbc / ©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection11. " Shameless . Just an over-the-top soap opera towards the later seasons. Still haven’t finished the last six episodes and probably never will."
"Sucks because it started out so strong. I think I got to Season 4 or 5 and bailed."
Showtime Networks Inc. / ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection12. " How to Get Away with Murder . It was very repetitive."
"Yeah, I think the issue was the first season got such rave reviews for the dual timeline approach, that they decided each season had to do the same thing. But it just led to increasingly diminishing returns."
— MGD109
"I finished it eventually. I originally stopped after S2 and watched half of Season 3, forgetting who got killed and why, but just kinda rolling with it. It went downhill and I didn't really like the ending, but the last season was great just to watch Viola Davis, TBH."
Abc / ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection13. "I watched a ton of Dexter , but a certain season made me hate it."
"Any time people ask if I’d recommended the show I tell them, 'Yes, but you can stop watching after the Trinity Killer.'"
— heffreee
Showtime Networks Inc. / ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection14. " Westworld . Loved the first season. Then it started going downhill. Haven’t seen the latest season and I don’t plan on it."
"Based on years of friend recommendations, I'm really looking forward to watching Season 1 then pretending it ends there."
— mcfly824
"I went through Season 2, but it totally lost me. Like it becomes a completely different show."
HBO15. "Netflix’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch . I really liked the first season, barely made it through the second season, and refuse to watch the third."
"It drove me crazy that for all of their talk of being this powerful witch family, they barely ever even used their powers and relied on side characters and Scooby-Doo tactics to fight the big bads. I kept thinking, Where the fuck is Salem? Her apparently uber-powerful demonic 'guardian' who doesn’t do a damn thing except fuck around the house and occasionally yell at people. The fact that he’s outshone by a sentient severed hand in Wednesday really drove that home."
Netflix/ Courtesy Everett Collection16. "The last two seasons of Killing Eve ."
"Season 1 is one of the most perfect seasons of any show I have ever seen. I am still convinced that there's no way the rest of it was the same show."
"Well, sadly the show-runner kept leaving after each season. So basically each season was its own show, only with the same cast."
— MGD109
Laura Radford / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection17. " This Is Us "
"This show was like a never-ending drama sledge hammer to my head. It never ended. I only made it though the first two seasons."— SausageKingOfKansas
"It’s like the writers watched Parenthood and were like, 'OK. Let’s make a show exactly like this…except let’s make it sad all the time.'"
"My husband walking into the room while I was watching Season 3 and was like, 'Jesus! Are these people ever happy?!'"— idkidc9876
Nbc / ©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection18. " 13 Reasons Why "
"I’m not gonna lie, when this show dropped I binged all of the first season in secrecy because I was so embarrassed that I was hooked, LMAO. But getting to the end of that season I was satisfied. Was not into whatever school shooter plot they were setting up for the rest so just called it quits after S1. Feel zero need to ever return."— keystonelocal
"Zero reasons why you would watch more."
Netflix / ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett CollectionAnd lastly...
19. " Glee "
"The funny thing about this show is it originally started as a satire of the very thing it became."
— Cafrilly
"At one time I could point to the exact episode where I began to despise every single character on the show, except Santana and Britney."
20thcentfox / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett CollectionYou can read the full thread of responses on Reddit .
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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