No more, we beg you! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most flawed shows that kept decreasing in quality the longer they lasted. Some spoilers to come!
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00:00How many times have I told you, unless you have photoshopped my head onto a dragon, do not interrupt me while I'm perfecting my pitch.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most flawed shows that kept decreasing in quality the longer they lasted.
00:11Some of these series may have started off good, but their fall from grace following their forced renewals was real.
00:17Some spoilers to come.
00:18My body is perfection, you crone!
00:24Just don't even know what we'd say. It's been so long.
00:28This teen drama had a mixed reception from its premiere in 2010, but it wasn't without its genuine thrills.
00:33Five friends, Hannah, Aria, Spencer, and Emily, reunite after the disappearance of their clique leader, Allison.
00:40Soon, they begin to receive threatening messages from a mysterious A, who seems to know their secrets.
00:46But after A's reveal, the series continued to come up with new antagonists working under the name, each more unhinged than the last.
00:53Are you seriously still asking how?
00:55Yeah, Aria's right. The question down here is why.
00:57Season 5 sees the Liars on their way to prison, don't ask, only to awaken in a dollhouse lair, having been kidnapped by A.
01:04Oh, and Allison is alive, somehow.
01:07This scarlet letter shouldn't have reached the seventh season.
01:09So many questions. I wouldn't mind a few answers.
01:15An audience and critic darling, this prison drama could have used a break.
01:19Prison Break follows Michael Schofield's plan to rescue his brother, Lincoln, from execution.
01:24To do this, he deliberately commits a crime, and uses tattoos of the penitentiary's blueprints to plot the escape.
01:30Past its bonkers premise, Prison Break was taut and riveting, initially.
01:34See you on the other side.
01:43But from the polarizing third and fourth seasons, things went downhill.
01:48I never stopped thinking.
01:50The show began to focus more on government conspiracy drama, specifically an organization lazily named The Company.
01:56From then on, the plot became convoluted and ludicrous, with cliches like a shadowy cabal, family working for the bad guys, and characters returning from the dead.
02:05Not so much jumping the shark as jumping the company.
02:08You don't think I expected this? We can do this all day. Play contingency after contingency.
02:15How can we ever forget about the highs and lows of high school football?
02:18That means you haven't known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of high school football.
02:23It's now hard to believe that this bonkers teen drama, based on the Archie comics, was ever normal.
02:28Self-aware, fun, and campy, Riverdale injected a murder mystery into the conventional drama of the Archie-Betty-Veronica love triangle.
02:36Soon, though, it delved into absurd storytelling that was less fun than just simply tiresome.
02:41For just a small taste of the show's storylines, there are evil nuns, a wizard, Betty's father being revealed as a serial killer.
02:48You have the serial killer genes?
02:53Yeah. You can use this. Harness this. To keep the darkness in check.
02:58Season 6 taking place in an alternative reality, and season 7 being set in 1955.
03:03In case you haven't noticed, this show's weird.
03:06In case you haven't noticed, I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in, and I don't want to fit in.
03:14Number 7, Homeland.
03:16Sergeant Brody stopped being a source of actionable intelligence fairly quickly, and yet he was kept alive for almost eight more years.
03:22I'd like to ask him if he knows why.
03:24From tense counter-terrorist espionage to government soap opera propaganda is a long fall.
03:30Homeland was once a critical darling, following US Marine-turned-Islamic-extremist Nicholas Brody and CIA officer Cary Matheson determined to bring him to justice.
03:39But his thrills and great performances could not withstand the increasing lack of reality in the plot.
03:44Oh, you're insane if you think that's gonna happen. You have to stop it.
03:47It's out of my hands, Cary.
03:48As controversial as the illogic and melodrama were in season 3, after Brody was killed off, the plot struggled to find direction for five more seasons.
03:56The show has also been accused of misrepresentation and stereotypes of its Muslim characters,
04:01with the Lebanese government nearly suing the show over its portrayal of Beirut.
04:05The show's contrived plot and politics prove to be its own undoing.
04:09I do feel used, and played, and liked.
04:16I also feel good.
04:20There is nothing like a suit, so why not several?
04:22You've never made a copy in your life before, have you?
04:24Of course not, I'm too busy being a badass and worrying about my hair.
04:28This show, set in a corporate law firm, follows successful attorney Harvey Spencer and his associate Mike Ross, a college dropout with a photographic memory.
04:36However, it is a husk of a show after the departure of Patrick J. Adams as Spencer,
04:41as well as Meghan Markle as Rachel Sane and Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson.
04:45You really should try one of those standing desks.
04:47It's better on the back for a woman of your age.
04:51This is a standing desk for a man of your height.
04:53The replacement leads just didn't have the same personality.
04:56Pearson's spinoff show was also short-lived.
04:59Hitting Netflix in 2023, suits experienced a resurgence in popularity, with more spinoffs and remakes in the works.
05:05Still, there are a few shows that can withstand the departure of its leads, and this wasn't one of them.
05:10I don't know what to say.
05:12Don't say anything.
05:14I've got a reputation to maintain.
05:15Number 5, Westworld.
05:17First, have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?
05:22Based on the 1973 film of the same name, Westworld is a dystopian sci-fi series set in a Wild West amusement park.
05:28When the park's abused android hosts gain sentience, it triggers an android revolution, as bloody as it sounds.
05:35The first season was a critical and audience darling, with praise towards its world-building and prescient themes.
05:40But Westworld's increasingly convoluted storylines, including introducing cloning and virtual reality, proved a struggle to keep up with.
05:47This?
05:48This is the story you wanted.
05:54Abandoning the park was also a bad decision.
05:56In the end, we get diminishing returns on this otherwise fascinating premise.
06:00Maybe this time, we'll set ourselves free.
06:04Number 4, Grey's Anatomy.
06:06Someone should have driven a stake through this show years ago.
06:09I want you to care.
06:11I sleep with your best friend, and you walk away.
06:14He comes out here from New York and rubs it in your face, and still, you get a good night's sleep.
06:18What do I have to do?
06:19This long-running medical drama is undoubtedly a pop culture juggernaut.
06:23But like too many juggernauts, it has outlived its welcome, still shuffling into the present.
06:28The problem lies in the show eschewing character development for increasingly raw melodrama.
06:33And with many beloved characters leaving the show, it is definitely a shadow of its former self.
06:37Most damnably, Ellen Pompeo as show protagonist Dr. Meredith Grey finally called it quits in the 19th season.
06:43So if you believe in this next big thing, fight for it.
06:46With the departure of the original cast, there is little point in rooting for the current characters, or the show.
06:52I am not optimistic. I am not hopeful. I am sure.
06:58Number 3, Glee.
07:00No one will accuse Glee of ever being good, exactly.
07:03I am going to create an environment that is so toxic, no one will want to be a part of that club.
07:10But the freshness of its premise of turning pop songs and musical theater standards into Glee Club performances was undermined by its excesses.
07:17Criticism on the show's stereotypical characters, melodramatic story arcs, and nonexistent character development has been rife.
07:24The show also plays fast and loose with its continuity, retconning the ages of its characters and even key aspects of their personalities.
07:31Rachel throws her long-standing dream of being on Broadway for shooting a pilot in LA.
07:36I think that you actually found a way to offend every special interest group in this country.
07:42And I don't want to point fingers, but I have to at you because you're the face of it, okay?
07:47The show's transition from musical comedy to after-school special type of messaging was also dull as dishwater.
07:53We stopped believing in this series a long time ago.
07:56When we were doing Grease, I took in all your costumes.
07:59Is it your thing?
08:00It's not.
08:03I'm so sorry.
08:07Things never blow over.
08:09Once Madeline gets involved, they blow up.
08:11Based on Leanne Moriarty's best-selling book, this critically acclaimed show follows the families of first-graders and the murder that occurred at the school's fundraiser.
08:19Big Little Lies' first season was indeed twisty and gripping, ending with the five women tacitly covering up the manslaughter of Celeste's abusive husband.
08:27But the network decided to expand this miniseries into its second season, which is where the cracks started to form.
08:32I just want you to know how sorry I am that it's come to this.
08:36Even with the addition of Meryl Streep, season two ultimately undoes the radical resolution of the first season, failing to justify its contrived continuation and new subplots.
08:46Despite the poor reviews, a third season raises mysteries about how far they can drag the story out.
08:51I just hope I can convince you that I am incapable of doing something that I already did.
09:00I just... I hope I can earn back your trust.
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09:25Here's another book-to-TV show adaptation that should never have gotten a second season.
09:29Get a snack. Settle in.
09:32Because I'm about to tell you the story of my life.
09:36More specifically, why my life ended.
09:39One of the most controversial teen shows in recent years, 13 Reasons Why follows high schooler Clay Jensen, who, along with 12 others, received a tape from dead student Hannah Baker.
09:49These tapes are about why Hannah took her own life and whom she holds responsible.
09:53The show has been criticized for its portrayal of teen depression and self-harm, and extending the series past its first season was a wrong decision by all accounts.
10:01The subsequent three seasons are unnecessary drama-wise, besieged by poor writing and handling of sensitive topics.
10:08People are already hurt. Nobody ever pays for these things that happen. No one ever pays, and someone should!
10:1313 Reasons Why may be the biggest reason why networks should second-guess renewing a show.
10:18This is where I first listened to my tape.
10:25And this is where we leave them to rest.
10:32Rest in peace.
10:33What other shows do you feel should have been put out of their misery a long time ago?
10:37Let us know in the comments down below.
11:07Thank you for watching!