What’s the deal with this?

Some recent examples of this are Stranger Things, The Boys, Euphoria, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead… there are many more.

I know it all basically comes down to money in the end, but it feels like this is a really common issue with TV series.

If you know any good shows that had a couple of strong seasons but then became really weak later on, feel free to list them. I just remembered another one myself: Supernatural.

usually 1 of 2 reasons imo

1 - bad storyboarding that could only become apparent over multiple seasons

2 - execs putting more money into the shows, meaning the writers have to answer to the marketing department as well, who take monetary fan feedback very seriously

plus i have to add: And you also have to take into account the fact that nowadays we often wait two or even three years between seasons — so when a new season finally drops and ends up being disappointing, people are genuinely frustrated.

Good thing party down finished early cuz that s*** classic comedy better than arrested development easily

idk bout better than AD but PD is a classic

Imo I think it’s because writers have to start coming up with ways to stretch out the story instead of letting flow naturally

How was the revival?

That's why I f*** with It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Most consistently good sitcom of all time.

Eh I’d have to watch again but not quite the same level as it was. But pretty damn good

Yeah I might be tripping saying easily but recency bias

In animation it’s South Park. Not as great as it’s peak but definitely the most consistent

well clearly they ain't got u op
get to work

I think it's because they know that we'll keep on consuming whatever they feed us. We live in the era of content addiction

The Boys just ran out of budget. Euphoria lost Angus and Sam Levinson didn't really know what to do I think. TWD just got milked into the ground cause it made money.

GoT is the only one that is f***ing baffling. How HBO let those two dumbasses drop the ball like that is crazy.

Fell off hard after season 6 or so

It’s slowly getting good again last couple seasons

I think it’s writers stretching stories out to make it last longer cuz the show is popular instead of just telling the story naturally

never seen a show get bad simply cus the showrunners were bored and wanted to move on

f*** benioff and weiss. im glad their careers tanked after

They ride popular shows until they suck

If they have content enough for 3 seasons of a 10/10 show, they won’t end it there. They’ll wait until season 8 where the show is a 2/10 and then end it. They’ll wait until don’t wanna go out on top

Your show gets greenlit. You make the first season. People like it enough for another. You had a plan at some point. Was your plan any good past that first season? Will you keep getting extensions to fulfill this vision? Should you alter the vision as you go based on what people like? You have to retain that audience and often show growth to keep getting renewed.

Television is open ended. You compress story structures into bite sized pieces, but the overall arc only ever gradually builds towards closure. It's a delicate balance not to mess that up. And some people just want to juice it for all its worth. A successful show gets more runway and more time to mess things up.

Which is why the sitcom and monster of the week stuff was brilliant. It never had to lead anywhere. Constantly riffing on the same formula over and over.

Film is better suited for telling a story with a start point and an end point. You've got 80-160 minutes to do it. The boundaries are clear.

Flash is a prime example

They were never meant to be many seasons so the writing turns to “So… how can we keep this going?” Instead of good storytelling.

Dexter is good example of this going wrong.
Baby Reindeer and Half Man are good examples of ending the show after 1 season and sticking to good storytelling instead of “how can we have another season?…”

Naturally harder to end something then begin it writing wise. Add in time/budget/episode/actor constraints and...yeah

Barry up there for me too. Show still had potential in the final season and then just took a nosedive towards the end

people dont expect shows to run for as long as they expected and at the same time there are shows that take forever to 'get good' so it all really depends

Moral of the story is to just rewatch Sopranos for the hundredth time