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Farmer Crack-Ass
Jan 2, 2001

this is me posting irl
Man, House. What a wasted opportunity. I remember hoping that we were seeing the beginning of a downward spiral that would end with him basically killing himself in the finale.

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precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
While the last few seasons of House were generally letdowns, I don't really think it ever became "bad" and I quite liked the way the finale wrapped it up.

Though I really wish we had gotten that season of House being a doctor in Jamaica or Mexico under a false name.

computer parts
Nov 18, 2010

PLEASE CLAP

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

Man, House. What a wasted opportunity. I remember hoping that we were seeing the beginning of a downward spiral that would end with him basically killing himself in the finale.

That would've been the worst ending until Dexter.

Actually ending it a season early like a lot of people wanted to would've been the worst ending until Dexter (reminder: this is where he crashes his car into his boss's house and the last scene is him on a tropical island somewhere).

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
"Mythologies" on procedruals are dumb and every procedural should end like St. Elsewhere.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

computer parts posted:

That would've been the worst ending until Dexter.

Actually ending it a season early like a lot of people wanted to would've been the worst ending until Dexter (reminder: this is where he crashes his car into his boss's house and the last scene is him on a tropical island somewhere).

when you think about it, House and Archer are basically the same show

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



One thing that hurt the show was the actress who played Cuddy not coming back for the final season due to contract issues. She was a big part of the show and they just had to write her off in a poor way due to the abruptness of her departure.

Vanderdeath
Oct 1, 2005

I will confess,
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.



FlamingLiberal posted:

One thing that hurt the show was the actress who played Cuddy not coming back for the final season due to contract issues. She was a big part of the show and they just had to write her off in a poor way due to the abruptness of her departure.

I don't blame Edelstein for leaving the show because Cuddy was essentially a rug that House could sleep with whenever it was convenient for his character arc. She got Frank Burns'd real hard.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.

precision posted:

when you think about it, House and Archer are basically the same show

Yeah, the point is that the main character being an rear end in a top hat is not only entertaining, but the main draw of the show, and the last thing the show should start doing is to moralize about it.

(I'm haven't watched in a while but I'm assuming Archer hasn't done this because the idea of Archer being a moralistic show is hilarious)

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



Vanderdeath posted:

I don't blame Edelstein for leaving the show because Cuddy was essentially a rug that House could sleep with whenever it was convenient for his character arc. She got Frank Burns'd real hard.
She left because they wanted her, Omar Epps, and Robert Sean Leonard to take pay cuts. The other two worked out deals while she could not come to an agreement.

The End
Apr 16, 2007

You're welcome.

Alain Post posted:

Yeah, the point is that the main character being an rear end in a top hat is not only entertaining, but the main draw of the show, and the last thing the show should start doing is to moralize about it.

(I'm haven't watched in a while but I'm assuming Archer hasn't done this because the idea of Archer being a moralistic show is hilarious)

I don't know if I'm in a minority on this one, but I thought the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest series 6 opener was really interesting... although it was a real left turn and the show didn't really know what to do with itself afterwards. Absolutely hated how they ended the final season with a cutesy happy ending.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

The End posted:

I don't know if I'm in a minority on this one, but I thought the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest series 6 opener was really interesting...

No I'm pretty sure everyone sane agrees that was one of the series' high points, maybe even THE high point.

Shima Honnou
Dec 1, 2010

The Once And Future King Of Dicetroit

College Slice
I tapped out of House when the one character died and became a ghost or whatever the gently caress was going on then. Did it seriously get even worse than that?

Also lol I just realized, House is also a show with a character named Eric Foreman.

Shima Honnou fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Sep 30, 2015

EricFate
Aug 31, 2001

Crumpets. Glorious Crumpets.

Shima Honnou posted:

I tapped out of House when the one character died and became a ghost or whatever the gently caress was going on then. Did it seriously get even worse than that?

Much much worse.

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat

Shima Honnou posted:

I tapped out of House when the one character died and became a ghost or whatever the gently caress was going on then. Did it seriously get even worse than that?

When was that? My wife and I binged through it a couple months ago and I don't remember any ghosts, other than Kumar showing up in a hallucination of House's at the end of season 5(?).

Irish Joe
Jul 23, 2007

by Lowtax

C-Euro posted:

When was that? My wife and I binged through it a couple months ago and I don't remember any ghosts, other than Kumar showing up in a hallucination of House's at the end of season 5(?).

The blonde chick, Cutthroat Bitch. She haunted House for a couple of episodes.

The End
Apr 16, 2007

You're welcome.

Irish Joe posted:

The blonde chick, Cutthroat Bitch. She haunted House for a couple of episodes.

Obviously noone was expected to believe that it was a ghost. Pretty standard way to express a guilty conscience or mental illness

Tomahawk
Aug 13, 2003

HE KNOWS
If you watch a show that has more than 5 seasons you deserve whatever horrible poo poo you get because there have been like 3 shows with more than 5 good seasons ever.

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit

darthbob88 posted:

Similarly, The Pretender. The episodic bits were cool, Jarod pretends to be a <profession> in order to expose <injustice>, and also discovers <pop culture>, all while being hunted by the institute he escaped from. The overarching conspiracy was also acceptable, with everybody coming to terms with the fact that everybody else has been lying to them, and some flashbacks suggesting that Jarod was the mind behind certain pivotal events. Unfortunately, at some point the conspiracy climbed up its own rear end and became a Goddamn soap-opera of nothing anybody knew being at all true and everybody being related to everybody else.

I think the bigger problem with The Pretender is that it came about before the long-arc format came about in TV. It tried to tell a long-arc story but in the mid-90's everything had to be wrapped up in an hour, or the rare sweeps week 2 part episode.

A modern "reboot" of The Pretender would work a lot better of Jarod was able to spend a few episodes working as a profession to expose the injustice, and explore things going on at the institute without having to have the whole thing wrapped up in a neat little package after 40 minutes.

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Tomahawk posted:

If you watch a show that has more than 5 seasons you deserve whatever horrible poo poo you get because there have been like 3 shows with more than 5 good seasons ever.

It's certainly rare for scripted shows, but not totally unheard-of. I can think of a few, and a big reason there aren't more is probably because of how rare it is for a show to go on that long even if it's still good. One thing you do see with shows that go on longer than that sometimes is that they lose their way and get poo poo, but then pick up again after a bad season.

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


House became kind of pointless as a show when they wanted to have their cake and eat it too by constantly shaking up the status quo but then quickly returning to it.

ComposerGuy
Jul 28, 2007

Conspicuous Absinthe
The first 3 seasons of House were great. Season 4 was at least fun with the "reality show" angle, but from there it just started downward movement.

Should have ended at 4. MAYBE 5...but it could have done a solid 5-6 seasons with the original premise if they had stuck to it.

LorneReams
Jun 27, 2003
I'm bizarre
I was DEEP into the Pretender when it aired (watched all the movies, the crossover with The Profiler, or whatever that stupid show was called), and the last movie ended at a cliff-hanger that was loving stupid.

Leverage should have ended a season early IMHO.

CombatBonta-kun
Sep 22, 2003
Ehhhh?
I'm going to go with Chuck.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, but after the 3rd season, the fate of the show was really up in the air. At first they didn't know if they would get renewed for a 4th and then 5th season and even then, the number of episodes per season was in question. I think it would have ended after the 3rd season if NBC wasn't putting out pure poo poo that was being cancelled after 5 weeks at that point.

The continuing uncertainty of the fate of the show really caused the plot to feel rushed. I kind of wish NBC had just said "you get 13 episodes in season 4 and then you are done".

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
I'd say that the third season of Chuck was, on balance, total garbage. And I liked the first two seasons fine.

Season 4, or whenever Jeffster become spies, was dumpster fire tier

raditts
Feb 21, 2001

The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.


Great, you had to remind me of that poo poo-tastic final season of Chuck. Boy was that final season loving garbage.

Doctor Spaceman
Jul 6, 2010

"Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

Iron Crowned posted:

I think the bigger problem with The Pretender is that it came about before the long-arc format came about in TV. It tried to tell a long-arc story but in the mid-90's everything had to be wrapped up in an hour, or the rare sweeps week 2 part episode.

A modern "reboot" of The Pretender would work a lot better of Jarod was able to spend a few episodes working as a profession to expose the injustice, and explore things going on at the institute without having to have the whole thing wrapped up in a neat little package after 40 minutes.

The early seasons of Person of Interest are fairly reminiscent of The Pretender really.

Sleeveless
Dec 25, 2014

by Pragmatica
Small Town Security Guard ran for three seasons because AMC had no idea how to handle the attention Breaking Bad was getting them so they decided that a lovely reality show would make for the perfect chaser.

At the very least they got the hint and axed their entire reality TV division shortly before their Celebrity Bowling show got made, because god forbid Chris Hardwick get another softball promotional gig on AMC.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
I thought Small Town Security was mockumentary, honestly

Also nothing beats "bottom of the barrel" like Mustache Wars

Decius
Oct 14, 2005

Ramrod XTreme

Doctor Spaceman posted:

The early seasons of Person of Interest are fairly reminiscent of The Pretender really.

Yes, that's why I liked it so much (still really like it, but it has become a very different show). Man, a Pretender reboot with a really charismatic actor would be great.

LorneReams
Jun 27, 2003
I'm bizarre

Decius posted:

Yes, that's why I liked it so much (still really like it, but it has become a very different show). Man, a Pretender reboot with a really charismatic actor would be great.

Limitless has potential to be similar.

thrakkorzog
Nov 16, 2007

CombatBonta-kun posted:

I'm going to go with Chuck.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, but after the 3rd season, the fate of the show was really up in the air. At first they didn't know if they would get renewed for a 4th and then 5th season and even then, the number of episodes per season was in question. I think it would have ended after the 3rd season if NBC wasn't putting out pure poo poo that was being cancelled after 5 weeks at that point.

The continuing uncertainty of the fate of the show really caused the plot to feel rushed. I kind of wish NBC had just said "you get 13 episodes in season 4 and then you are done".

I agree that the second season finale was pretty much peak Chuck. That said, Chuck still had some pretty good bits.

Having a bunch of bad martial artists actually became a plot point in the later seasons.

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord
Does anyone remember some bad sitcom where the hook was the main guy had a curse on him then the show kept going and eventually like half way through the first season the curse was cured and it was just a regular old show about a guy living in new york with no additional supernatural elements? What even was the gameplan on that one?

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

precision posted:

I'd say that the third season of Chuck was, on balance, total garbage. And I liked the first two seasons fine.

Season 4, or whenever Jeffster become spies, was dumpster fire tier

Chuck really went to poo poo once he was able to control whatever the matrix thing in his head was called. And then lost it, and then got it back again, and then someone else had it I don't remember.

ComposerGuy
Jul 28, 2007

Conspicuous Absinthe
Once Chuck turned the Intersect from "database of all the intelligence the CIA and NSA have" to "teaches skills like martial arts as if this is the Matrix" it lost the point of the initial premise, turning instead into a nerd-power-fantasy.

The whole point was that Chuck had potential without superpowers and just happened to have a completely unreliable computer in his head. A normal, but very smart dude finding solutions that are unorthodox because he has to is fun and interesting.

Giving him magic Kung Fu powers because gently caress it, why not? Isn't.

Gaunab
Feb 13, 2012
LUFTHANSA YOU FUCKING DICKWEASEL

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

Does anyone remember some bad sitcom where the hook was the main guy had a curse on him then the show kept going and eventually like half way through the first season the curse was cured and it was just a regular old show about a guy living in new york with no additional supernatural elements? What even was the gameplan on that one?

Apparently, it's just called Cursed. Bunk was in it. Also Chris Elliot.

Gaunab fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Oct 2, 2015

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

Gaunab posted:

Apparently, it's just called Cursed. Bunk was in it. Also Chris Elliot.

quote:

The show's theme song was written and performed by Liz Phair.

How did I never hear of this before :stare:

JazzFlight
Apr 29, 2006

Oooooooooooh!

Gaunab posted:

Apparently, it's just called Cursed. Bunk was in it. Also Chris Elliot.
Hahaha, this is just so completely ridiculous that they would start a show with a premise like that and try to turn it into a regular sitcom in the first season. That's insane.

Shima Honnou
Dec 1, 2010

The Once And Future King Of Dicetroit

College Slice

JazzFlight posted:

Hahaha, this is just so completely ridiculous that they would start a show with a premise like that and try to turn it into a regular sitcom in the first season. That's insane.

I think my favorite part is they even renamed the loving show.

raditts
Feb 21, 2001

The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.


LorneReams posted:

Limitless has potential to be similar.

Limitless feels to me kind of like Psych in terms of characterization, except there's no Gus and no Blueberry.

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Small Strange Bird
Sep 22, 2006

Merci, chaton!
The final (8th) season of Charmed. The cast thought the show had been cancelled. The crew thought the show had been cancelled. The writers and producers thought the show had been cancelled. The 7th season finale was even written as a series finale. But the network execs decided, nope, we want it to come back for another year. Except there'll have to be a few changes...

Namely massive budget cuts, so that a show that relies heavily on visual effects can no longer afford to do them without them looking like poo poo, and can't even stretch to location shooting at the real-world LA house around which the entire series is based. Meanwhile fire the black guy to save money, and get rid of the white guy too. What, he's the screen husband and father of the children of one of the three leads? Huh, okay, he can be in half the episodes. But no more.

Oh, and about that "three leads" thing? They're now in their thirties - way too old! We want you to bring in a new lead. Much younger. And blonde. Show how great she is by having her totally outclass the other leads at that thing they've been doing for the past seven years. She can do karate or some poo poo as well as magic.

Plus you need more hot young guys. Have the three old leads chase after hot young guys every episode. So what if one of them is married? Wait, the actress who plays her is a producer now and says hell no? Dammit. Okay, but the other two still need to chase hot young guys, though. Even harder.

(It should probably really have been cancelled after the 6th season, as it was already in decline, but the drop in quality - of every single aspect - in season 8 was so astronomical it's almost a textbook example of why shows should be put down after seven years.)

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