Television

Dead Like Me

Honestly, I liked the characters mostly and I personally liked the casting. The writing had some few good parts every now and then—and I like how they tried to cover a strange concept where the dead get by with living life meanwhile the living get by with death.

It sounds good on paper, and while I got a good laugh from the show, I can see why it suffered when it came to the plot. I think with what they tried to go with, there was very little they could keep going for seasons on end. I'm actually surprised it made it as far as it did.

The whole thing really could have just been a movie that people went to watch and would have left a better impression. Nonetheless, the main character person is like a role model to me. I wish I could be a badass like her.

The acolyte. Love the premise and the setup, but that went down there drain sog hard.

The Expanse.

Here's my main problem with it: Holden. The most boring white guy in the universe, and he's inexplicably the main character.

And I never read it, but apparently the book version was even worse for this.

Want the list sorted alphabetically or what..?

Leviathan on Netflix. Love the idea of tech culture vs monster culture, but the main chars were so grating, and had the philosophical reasoning of a 8 year old.

Such a waste of a premise.

Journeyman.

Guy randomly wakes up in the past, does things that change the future, has to go back and fix it again. So much potential but didn't last more than a season.

And don't forget about Drive. It launched Emma Stone's career but was canceled before the first season was even over.

Motherland: Fort Salem.

Fantastic premise and rich world that suffered due to lack of budget.

The creator even had featurettes where he just explained things that he wasn't able to show and it was so good.

Altered Carbon.

Oofie, what a mess that was.

"Heroes" is a strong example of this during the writers strike.

One of the worst shows I know is the German adaptation of The IT Crowd. I thought I'd get some new nerd content to watch but boy was that bad. They mostly translated the dialogue word by word, so some jokes don't make any sense. And they replaced the eccentric style with weird and bad acting. Watching it made me cringe.

And I didn't enjoy Prison Break. I liked the idea and the premise and getting to know the characters... But then I lost interest later during the first season. Felt more like a chore to watch and the only thing I wanted to see is how they finally escape... I believe they did several more seasons of the show. Idk if other people enjoyed it, but I think they could have delivered more with the premise of the story.

The Starlost needs a remake. Great premise, dollar store execution.

Foreseeing the destruction of Earth, humanity builds a multi-generational starship called Earthship Ark, 50 miles (80 km) wide and 200 miles (320 km) long. The ship contains dozens of biospheres, each kilometres across and housing people of different cultures. Their goal is to find and seed a new world of a distant star.

In 2385, more than 100 years into the voyage, an unexplained accident occurs, and the ship goes into emergency mode in which each biosphere is sealed off from the others.

Centuries after its original launch, most of the descendants of the original crew and colonists are unaware that they are even aboard a spaceship.

SGU, good premise, but it was poorly executed as a soap drama, shouldve been aliens/tech,,,,etc first.

A lot of anime, actually. Japan green lights anything, and some of it actually works. Most anime has stupid ideas that, if you give them a chance, actually works. Like “what if we take X-Men and the idea that 80% of people are normal and 20% have power and flip the script?” My Hero Academia. The fan base has turned toxic but the show is still great. Or “what if alchemy actually worked?” Neither Fullmetal Alchemist adaptation is very good because of how they adapted the books — the first one did the first half then went their own way because they caught up, the second one sped through the first half then dragged out the second half — but it’s still considered top tier anime. Not all of them hit though. Like “what if guns were smart and decided if they’d kill when you pull the trigger?” Or “what if a portal opened over the middle of the ocean to fairy land and cops had to pair up with faeries for reasons we’ll get around to explaining when we feel like it.” Psycho-Pass and Cop Craft, respectively.

I think a lot of these are going to be cases where the first season was great, but the second season didn't make sense or the first season should have wrapped up the story.

I think Designated Survivor is one example of this. The premise is great, what if the majority of government was killed, how do you rebuild? However the show turned into... I really don't know because I stopped watching.

I think another more recent example is Paradise. Although maybe season 2 will prove me wrong.