While I love my job, it does get unbelievably boring sometimes and today was one of those days. So as my mind wandered as my work computer reached speeds previously seen only by sloths and the ice age, I came up with a list of three shows that started out great, but then sort of … fell.
Heroes: I admit, I didn’t get what the hype was all about at first. But on a lark, I watched the first episode and it was love at first sight. I quickly caught up on the eight episodes I was lagging behind and waited religiously for Monday to roll around. I loved the characters, the writing, the situational set up. I loved everything. I even went and watched the last two episodes in Spanish just to see them on time instead of waiting until I was back in an English speaking country.
The show had everything going for it, and then it flopped. Season 2 was dull, Season 3 a headache, and I simply gave up before Season 4 even came around. Originally, Heroes had planned to have an all new cast every season with the old cast making cameo appearances. That? Would have been awesome. Some new blood, some new plot lines, it would have given the show a new start every season. But the characters were too popular. So popular in fact, that some have been brought back from the dead more times than the Summers family.
I suppose Heroes has achieved its goal of being comic book like. Between the characters who won’t stay dead, the plot lines that go nowhere, the plot holes you could loose a dump truck in, drops in continuity from one story to the next, retcons, and the general repetitiveness Heroes has indeed become a comic book with a tv show budget. However, the problem is the that those same things are what bother a lot of people about comic books.
Perhaps some new blood would help rejuvenate this show, but for now the only new blood we get is whichever new Petrelli pops out of the wood work.
Without a Trace: I am a TNT addict. For six years, lunch time was in front of the television with whatever was on TNT at the moment. The only times the channel was changed was when ER was on and the Food Network had Good Eats running. When I stopped having regular access to a television, the only things I really missed where TNT and Food Network. And now that Food Network is no longer watchable – TNT is the only thing.
Among the shows I discovered on TNT was Without a Trace. As usual with me and most shows, I was horribly behind and was watching in syndication and out of order. It didn’t matter. I was in love. I loved the characters, the writing, the cases, the cinematography, everything. When I got a Netflix account, the first thing I ordered was Season 1 of Without a Trace and watched it in one afternoon. (The second thing was all six Star Wars movies. Also watched in one afternoon. That was also the year I watched all of Doctor Who Season 1 in one night.)
Needless to say, it was one of my top shows for a while. I managed to watch all of the first three seasons in a rather unhealthy amount of time and got some friends and family addicted as well. And then…Season 4. And 5. And 6 and 7. I tried. I really did. But about halfway through, I would want to either kill or kick or just scream at the characters. And the new girl in Season 4 just bothered me. I think it says something that I can’t even remember her name. Rosalie or something? Or was that the actress?
Let’s just say that if even adding James Masters to your show doesn’t help, you have a problem. When you can tell that the actors are not even phoning in their lines and wish they were ten miles away, you have a problem. When your writing is horrible and your plots simply make no sense, you have a problem. When half your fans are begging for the show to be canceled, you most certainly have a problem. Thankfully, it was finally put out of its misery last season. As far as I know, the campaign to keep it afloat was superficial at best.
At least we’ll always have reruns and three excellent seasons.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Yes, Buffy made my list. I only got into Buffy between season six and seven and for some reason didn’t realize that that there were more than three seasons. I don’t know how I managed that. But that summer, I watched all three seasons and my best friend and I ran all over town to read every single Buffy book there was and then getting our families addicted to Buffy.
There is a reason Buffy is a cult show and is still popular to this day. Say what you want about Joss, but the man knows how to write an excellent show. The characters were real and diverse (in personality at least), the writing was outstanding, the acting worked, and you wanted to know what would happen next. For three years, Buffy rocked.
But then came college. Few shows survive the move from one setting to another. And Buffy did try. Season Four did have the ever excellent Hush and the season finale that was both unusual and full of excellent foreshadowing. But it also had Beer Bad, Riley, and chip!Spike. Season Five had a very good overarching plot, some excellent episodes, and a stellar, well written and well executed ending. I would have been perfectly happy had the show just ended there.
But then we got Seasons 6 and 7. I don’t know which one is worse. While 7 was unbelievably dull and pointless, it at least didn’t make me want to throw things at the television or made me walk out of the room rolling my eyes. But Season 6 had Once More With Feeling. Either way, both seasons were barely watchable for their own unique reasons. Between emo!Buffy, pod!Spike, and addicted!Willow, I barely recognized the characters I had fallen in love. By the time Season 7 ended, I was ready to say good-bye. Of course, now there’s Season 8, it’s not a TV show so I’m not going to go into that here.
Honorable Mentions That Didn’t Quite Make the List:
Charmed: Yes, it got really bad there at the end. But it was never that good to begin with. Sure, the first three Seasons were entertaining, but they were never Buffy, Heroes, or Without a Trace good.
Battlestar Galactica: While it started out incredibly strong, Season 4 was probably one of the weaker seasons. But the drop in quality was really not that large when compared with every other show and they did at least tie up all loose ends.
Torchwood and Doctor Who: They’re both two uneven for me to fit them in this pattern. Doctor Who Season One is strong, but so was Season 4 and bits of 2 and 3. Torchwood had a much stronger Season 2 than 1, and the problem with 3 was not the quality but the content. Plus, they’re both in progress – at least I think both, I’m not sure about Torchwood – so who knows what will happen.
Coupling: Again, while the last Season was weaker than the first three, it wasn’t enough to really warrant that much of a complaint. Same goes for Veronica Mars.
