Worst long-running TV shows you watched from start to finish

[Aragorn]

24 never had enough plot to last a full 24 episodes. That's why there were always stupid subplots with family drama. Samwise had a crazy sister, one of the CTU directors had a crazy daughter, one of the CTU agents had a crazy ex who was very controlling and made her do illegal things (then suddenly she became a cold-blooded double agent, so why was she afraid of her ex?), every president had family drama -- took up a lot of screen time but wasn't interesting. Most seasons the show didn't even need a full-time president but they got one anyway. There were always moles and snipers, everything was a 10-minute drive away and they killed off characters one after another for shock value instead of storyline purpose.

If you look back now, the first 13 episodes of season 1 were tight because they didn't know if they'd get more. Then afterward they brought in the bad guys behind the bad guys and give Teri amnesia.

 

[Aragorn]

Oooh, speaking of Kiefer Sutherland, I'll add Designated Survivor to the list.

 

[John Clark]

I might be in the minority, but I liked the final season and a half or so of The West Wing when it focused on the presidential campaign between Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits.
I liked the "live" debate they held on the East and West Coast, where they changed up the questions so the actors had to modify their response.

No, still enjoyed it too and it's one I bought the entire series of.

 

[DonIago]

I watched West Wing a few years ago on DVD. While it changed over time, I wouldn't say it ever became bad.

 

[the G-man]

I watched West Wing a few years ago on DVD. While it changed over time, I wouldn't say it ever became bad.

Personally, I love Aaron Sorkin movies but for some reason dislike his shows. I think the shorter form plays more to his strengths and the longer form gets indulgent of his weaknesses.

 

[Poldon]

Supernatural. All 15 seasons, plus the spin-off. Even the anime and web shorts. Watched it together with my wife, who loves it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Are we allowed to include series that are still ongoing? Because if so, I'll say Murdoch Mysteries, known as the Artful Detective in some markets. It's a show that started out good, but has progressively gotten worse and has been going on for 19 seasons. Yet it refuses to die. It's been on for so long that some characters have left, come back, only to leave again, even recurring characters that have died. They've had a tendency to recycle plots as well. And while it originally started off as a solid mystery show, it could now be considered science-fiction or science fantasy, with all the inventions that are made before their time. It's now a show that seems to struggle for relevance, yet I still end up watching it, mostly out of pure morbid curiosity to see how low they can go.

 

[the G-man]

Supernatural. All 15 seasons, plus the spin-off. Even the anime and web shorts. Watched it together with my wife, who loves it.

I don't know how many times the G-woman has watched Supernatural. Before it left Netflix it was even money I'd walk in on her rewatching it. I'd catch an ep here and there. It was okay from what I saw.

 

[auntiehill]

I don't know how many times the G-woman has watched Supernatural. Before it left Netflix it was even money I'd walk in on her rewatching it. I'd catch an ep here and there. It was okay from what I saw.

G-woman and I could be friends

 

[Captain Marsh]

I loved the goofiness of season one and the world building of season three. Season two, with aliens and killer plants and poisoned greek helmets, killed it.

Yeah, that season was weird. The only stories in that that were good were the GELF episodes

 

[JirinPanthosa]

LOST

Lost is awesome. Season 6 was mid but it didn't ruin the rest of the series.

For me maybe Full House? I liked it when I was a kid but retrospectively it was horrible. Not just like "It's a kids show, of course you liked it as a kid". Its pat reductionist lesson learning actually negatively impacted my life, it trained me to be making little sarcastic quips everywhere and not expect anyone to get their feelings hurt.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Lost is awesome. Season 6 was mid but it didn't ruin the rest of the series.

For me maybe Full House? I liked it when I was a kid but retrospectively it was horrible. Not just like "It's a kids show, of course you liked it as a kid". Its pat reductionist lesson learning actually negatively impacted my life, it trained me to be making little sarcastic quips everywhere and not expect anyone to get their feelings hurt.

I think it's one of those things that you watch because it's on at the moment. Comparatively, today we have it quite easy with everything on demand, we can choose what we want to watch at the moments we want, and unless you had satellite, you likely didn't have all that much choice. And as kids, we were far less discerning.

 

[Aragorn]

As a kid, your requirements for entertainment are much lower. Knockoff Mad Max, Conan and Star Wars ripoffs that were unquestionably awful still took me to different worlds or different times, and the battle between good and evil is easy to understand.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think it's one of those things that you watch because it's on at the moment. Comparatively, today we have it quite easy with everything on demand, we can choose what we want to watch at the moments we want, and unless you had satellite, you likely didn't have all that much choice. And as kids, we were far less discerning.

But other kids shows that retrospectively weren't very good didn't actively harm my social skills. I never unintentionally hurt anyone's feelings because of Captain N.

A lot of kids shows are stupid easy entertainment, and that's kind of okay. Power Rangers tricked me into spending a lot of money on toys just to change the robots to try to make me buy more toys. Even that's kind of okay. 90s family sitcoms gave you pat moral lessons that were just plain *wrong*. They mislead impressionable kids into socially maladaptive behaviors.

 

[John Clark]

I think some of the long running shows I watched from start to finish, started off well, but then took a rocket propelled downwards turn in later seasons.
Dexter was probably one.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Servant.

 

[Owain Taggart]

As a kid, your requirements for entertainment are much lower. Knockoff Mad Max, Conan and Star Wars ripoffs that were unquestionably awful still took me to different worlds or different times, and the battle between good and evil is easy to understand.

Yeppers, exactly. Much easier to sell a concept to children as they are much easier to entertain.

A lot of kids shows are stupid easy entertainment, and that's kind of okay. Power Rangers tricked me into spending a lot of money on toys just to change the robots to try to make me buy more toys. Even that's kind of okay. 90s family sitcoms gave you pat moral lessons that were just plain *wrong*. They mislead impressionable kids into socially maladaptive behaviors.

That's less the show's fault and more the era that we were all living back then. And let's not forget there was even a time where because of rules, advertisements weren't allowed to advertise directly to children, instead they pleaded with parents to part with their money. And advertisements used to be so much louder than the shows themselves, which was especially true on those children channels. To be fair, I think that was due to specific providers, but I do know there were enough complaints that forced regulations to mandate that audio be normalized, at least in Canada. At least Full House didn't sell action figures Can you imagine action figures of Uncle Jesse with a pull-string voice box?

 

[bdub76]

Here's another one.

Lost in Space

It went off the rails at the end of its run.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Voyager.

I can't think of any.

 

[Danny99]

Lost is awesome. Season 6 was mid but it didn't ruin the rest of the series.

The longer Lost went on, the more confused and complicated it got. We spent seasons with Ben's DHARMA, time shifting with original DHARMA, the alternate timeline. I think if they chose one and streamlined it, it would've been a better ending.