Most of the shows listed above should have stopped after 2 seasons, I grant a permission to run 3 seasons in exceptional circumstances. There is an endless list of shows that started great only to drag forever and become painfully dumb and boring. In summary, watch maximum of 3 seasons of any show and then quit no matter how hooked you might be - if you follow this rule you’d rarely be disappointed and there is supply of good new stuff coming around all the time.
^I’m sympathetic, but I think the problem is more related to the # of episodes in a season than the # of seasons itself. Twenty-two - twenty-four 45 minute shows is a lot of material that needs to get written. Not all of it is going to be good. There is also pressure from networks to press the creators to extend 2 seasons worth of good ideas to 3 or 4.
However, I think it is possible for some shows to have great later seasons, such as last season (not this one as much) of Dexter. I expect Game of Thrones to be good in its later seasons, mainly because it has to be tied to an already established narrative.
^dropped Dexter after the season with the Trinity Killer. Nobody can top Arthur Mitchell’s character, period.
dropped Game of Thrones after the season 2 finale where a bunch of stupid looking undead appeared, resembling the cast of a low-budget haunted house around Halloween.
the strategy is bullet-proof, brah. It also lends itself to extensive backtesting if you so desire
^I had to double-check, but the Trinity was Season 4. Seasons 2 and 3 were pretty bad though in retrospect. If you had followed your strategy, you would have missed Lithgow.
Season 7 was the one I mentioned as being good, if you want to watch (if that’s what you meant by backtest). Season 5 has Julia Stiles hangin’ out and I liked her character but beyond that it is kind of forgettable, Season 6 the only thing you need to watch is the last 15 minutes or so of the last episode to prepare for Season 7.
This is super old school, but I just finished the first season of Friday Night Lights. Makes me nostalgic…everything’s so serious when you’re 15.
I disagree about seasons 2 and 3 of Dexter being bad - each was better than the previous one as the character developed and it culminated in season 4 with the Trinity Killer. Season 4 is not off-limits in general - I hyperbolized the hard stop at season 3 for emphasis, knowing that the majority of the newbies not exposed to this tough strategy would likely yield to their desire to watch another one and run it through seasons 4-5.
I’m thinking of applying the season 3 hard stop on Boardwalk Empire this September - I am excited that I won’t be following Season 4 coming up this fall and looking forward to not watching the show. This is for advanced users only, I recommend cutting a few shows at season 4 first until you get accustomed to the feeling of not following through the end.
breaking bad, yo! I’m on season 4 right now and the tension has been building gradually.
I’m going off game of thrones, i can see it going the way of lost where instead of every answering a question or completing an arc they just add more and then the wrap up is never going to be satisfying. I did think it was appropriate that the red wedding was shown the week of the exam.
the two idiots? blasphemy
The lost problem was because the story arc was being made up as they went along. GOT has a book series to run off of, and the readers of the books pretty much all say its good stuff coming up. I wouldn’t toss GOT into the crapper too readily.
That’s all I need to know. YOWZA!
Piggybacking off previous - House of Cards, and Orange is the New Black are both fantabulous.
The only downside is you get the whole season at once, so waiting until they release new episodes is so much longer. But I never remember to watch shows at their designated time each week, so maybe that’s a good thing.
On another note, I need to watch the last season of Boardwalk Empire as well. And hopefully Netflix or somewhere has the new seasons of Wilfred and It’s Always Sunny
fair point, i’ll probably continue to watch GOT but i can’t see myself getting as hyped for the next season as i was for season 3.
I really rated season 1 but I’m slightly put off by the fantasy stuff. Danny and the dragons have been building up and i’m hoping that something will happen on that front in season 4.
I’ve heard mixed reviews from people who have read the books, some say it gets better and better, others say the red wedding was the high point and it tapers off from there.
I wonder if the author knows how he’s going to wrap it all up in the last few books!
I agree on got. It was a pretty boring season up until the red wedding, there weren’t even that many hot naked women. I recently watched the entire series of breaking bad recently. It’s an awesome show. I can’t wait for the finale this summer.
She’s just off doing her own thing. I wouldn’t expect anything cooler than freeing the slaves at Astapor next season or the one after that, or the one after that.
Danny gets all the final scenes in season finales so there must be something on the horizon, maybe it will build and build for another 8 seasons until they fly in and burn the lannisters.
I’m midway through season 4 of breaking bad at the moment but i hear that 5 part 1 is outstanding
It’s not even on TV over here which is ridiculous considering virtually every single new US show gets picked up by someone or other. its more of a boxset/netflix show to be fair but it really should be on tv.
How did she get the Dragon eggs again? I mean who gives away dragon eggs? (If it’s a spoiler…don’t tell me)
It was a wedding present when she married Drogo in the first episode. The eggs were thought to be dead and turned to stone, but it turns out that they weren’t.
On GoT, a lot of people who are “done” with the series just think the story is over because half the Starks are dead, and that’s how they wrapped up the season in Westeros. There is a lot more to the story than the Starks, I think. I imagine much more of next season will take place in King’s Landing with the fun intrigue there, Arya’s journey and, of course, the wall as the war that actually matters continues to build.
Disclaimer: I havent read the books, so no spoilers here- just hypothesizing.
I predict that next season will focus on Arya and the Lannisters, now that Jaime’s back. Rob Snow will see some development along with Daenarys but neither of them will be the focus till the season after that, if not later, and in the end it’s going to be a faceoff between the two of them.
Arya is gonna go learn the magical assassin stuff from that face changing guy in season two (she was playing with the coin thing he gave her at the end of S3), so she’s going to become a serious badass for the following the season, and if the lannisters aren’t all dead in S4, S5 will have her whipping up a shitstorm.
Y’all need to read the books.