writer106

I remember the TNT reruns. In 2009 or 2010, ION aired reruns for awhile.

Goat3001

Showtime especially.... you can add Homeland to that list.

writer106

I agree on both. Some sitcoms manage to avoid characters being caricatures.

Characters who get dumber or suddenly on sitcoms also irks me a bit. Ross from Friends is a good example. Another example is Eric on Boy Meets World. Yeah, that show wasn't extremely great, but it was one of the better TGIF sitcoms. The stuff wtih Eric becoming dumber in the later seasons was irritating.

writer106

I liked the first two seasons of Homeland. But it got bad. I enjoyed the first four seasons of Dexter and I agree with previous posters, about the narration. It only worked in certain episodes. A previous poster mentioned Weeds getting bad in season 3 and I agree on that. The United States of Tara got bad in my opinion, when she kidnapped the baby.

I do worry about Penny Dreadful. I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2, I kind of wouldn't be surprised if things get bad in season 3.

Shannon Nutt

Homeland was really good this past season, EXCEPT for the final episode, which was horrendous.

I'm going through this problem now with ORPHAN BLACK. First season: Great. Second Season: So-so. Third Season: Bleah.

EctoCooler

No.

Xiroteus

That is likely one of the things that annoys me about sitcoms and why I have not really watched any since I was a teenager. Some characters get too stupid and I do not find that funny, just annoying.

zekeburger1979

I gave up on Heroes in season 4, but I should have given up in season 2 when I realized that it wasn't ever going to get back to where it was before the disappointing season 1 finale. I kept telling myself that it would get better and when I had a backlog of episodes and realized I didn't care to catch up, I deleted them and never looked back.

I watched the entirety of Entourage, but I have no desire to revisit it. By the end, I was getting annoyed at how the guys would be living it up, get into trouble in some way, and have something come out of left field to save their asses.

boredsilly

I didn't even realize Heroes had 4 seasons. That show had such a great first season, and went off the rails right after that. Such a shame.

Yeah, it isn't scientific, but I tend to find that shows that last longer than 5 seasons tend to lose some of that special sauce that made them so enjoyable in the first place. Especially dramatic shows.

DWilson

Here's the thing, -I never watched much of "Boy Meets World", but I have been watching Season Two of "Girl Meets World" and have been generally enjoying it. However, I've been wanting to ask if "Eric" was portrayed as mentally ill (or whatever the PC term is these days on the original show. The most recent episode where Eric runs for Mayor was the first one I just about bailed on, not just because of Eric, but for the idiocy of its approach and some out-of-character behavior.

EctoCooler

Modern Family - Season 4

Nausicaa

I agree with most in this thread.

I would add American Horror Story. Season 2 was brilliant, and season 3 was pretty much terrible.

Weeds and Californication would have to be the biggest offenders though. Even some of the bad turns in this thread I powered through and the show was at least moderately enjoyable, if only due the previous seasons' foundation. But these two went off the rails quickly and became so bad it's amazing to me they kept ordering more seasons. The shows had almost no redeeming qualities for multiple seasons.

PhantomStranger

Weeds went so completely off the rails after a couple of solid seasons that it was mind-boggling it hit so many seasons.

Traxan

Only one-dimensional characters become caricatures. A well-developed character can hold up. 'Frasier' is a good example. Yes, it lost its funny for a while but the final season was amazing. Frasier, Niles, Martin and Daphne were all well-rounded characters. They only made one big mistake with that show, hooking up Niles and Daphne.

Michael Corvin

I recently finished Californication. That has to be the worst offender in the entire thread. Heroes is world class entertainment compared to the final couple seasons of Californication. The first three seasons were great. Four was pretty solid, then it was all downhill until season 7 just hit rock bottom. Imagine if every character on the show was Joey Tribiani and you have the final season.

mndtrp

Weeds - After Season 3. I couldn't make it through Season 4.
Heroes - I gave up after Season 2. There were some moments I recall liking, but overall it just didn't hold up at all to the first season.

Thanks for the heads up on Californication. I've debated watching after the third season, now I probably won't.

Mike86

I'm sure its partly because stoner types or wannabe stoners were into a dumb comedy about weed. Plus it had a couple of popular leads in Mary Louise Parker and Kevin Nealon. I think if either of those two had left the show wouldn't have lasted as long.

I do worry that The Big Bang Theory may be beyond recovery at this point. The last season was mostly crap (I still haven't watched the last few episodes or so and have no desire to) and the season before that wasn't a lot better. I like the general premise of the show when it sticks to basics and most of the cast is decent but its definitely gone down hill quite a bit.

OldBoy

er...after Mark Green died (Anthony Edwards).

zekeburger1979

How I Met Your Mother was declining the last few seasons, but in season 9, it jumped off the cliff Wily E. Coyote style. The only part of the last season that I liked was when the mother was onscreen. The show had life when she was on, and a slog to get through when she wasn't. I know what the creators were going for in the last season, but the execution was not good at all.

Michael Corvin

Good call on HIMYM. That last season was atrocious. Interesting gimmick that fell on its face. The mother was the lone bright spot and they even managed to fuck that up in the finale with the 'we're too clever for the viewers' bullshit ending.

bluetoast

On the subject of long running shows, I'd say Always Sunny is one of the rare comedies that has remained fresh, even after ten years. Though I haven't seen last year's season yet.

JesseCuster

IMO, the first two seasons of Star Trek: TOS were as good as science fiction could get at the time. For the third season, which only happened because of a massive write in campaign by fans, Gene Roddenberry stepped away as day to day showrunner, the budget got cut massively and it had already been trimmed a bit season 1 to 2, William Shatner went insane and wildly overdid every other scene and script quality dropped significantly. It didn't help that the late 60's were approaching and haircuts started getting very shaggy and goofy. The best way I could describe the 3rd season would be really, really flaky.

rw2516

I discovered The Drew Carey Show about a month ago. Had never seen it. Since I've been watching almost every day and seen episodes ranging from season one through seven. All have been good and funny as hell.

dex14

No. He was a normal teenager/young adult...popular with the chicks, who's character became an imbecile around season 3/4.

There was a comment once that since the series is through Cory's eyes, that when he was young, his older brother was cool and he looked up to him. But as Cory grew up, he started to see him as a fool.

Luds

I loved this show. It was so smart. And I realized sometime in S5 that with Bernadette and Amy, the show had become dull. People had watched the show to see the guys geek-out and drool over Penny, not to see couples fighting. But at least S5 was decent. I believe I watched S6 and didn't laugh once, and gave up 3-4 shows in the season where Penny cut her hair, not only had I not laughed, I was fruistrated every second at how bad it had gotten. Pulled the plug on it. I don't know many who still watch it, but the ratings are through the roofs, it's become a typical bad comedy and the average viewer loves it.