now, this is strictly my opinion, but i was binging Orange is the New Black (S3) the past week and just thought overall it was terrible. no good running story line, no real antagonist this year, it just seemed goofy and soulless for me. S1 & 2 i was watching with gleeful anticipation. now, nothing and i can wait for S4.

then, to wash the palette clean i decided to jump back into House of Cards (S3), now, i am only on the 2nd ep. but man this is not turning out to well for me. again, a once riveting and enthralling show for me has turned bad. could it turn around? possibly, but for now 2 great shows turned bad for me.

so what short time or long time running show that you watch was once great, but then turned sour and which season did it turn bad?

The Sopranos Season 4

Entourage Season 7

Family Ties Season Season 4

Weed Season 3

Weeds - Season 3
Californication - Season 3
Rescue Me - Season 5ish
The Office - Season 7
Entourage - Season 7
Dexter - Season 5

Galactica 1980.

It was like WTF ?!?!?!?!

Happy Days, season 5

The entire last season of Roseanne. I don't think any season of any show has pissed me off as much as that season did.

Rescue Me Season 4
The Vampire Diaries Season 3
Royal Pains Season 3
Rectify Season 2
Ice Road Truckers Season 2
One Tree Hill Season 7
The League Season 6
Wilfred Season 3
Buffy Season 6

I don't think anyone will ever be able to argue with that.

I liked this season of Orange is the New Black.

But I think most shows tend to turn bad because they over stay their welcome.

After Season 5 X-Files started its slow journey to being bad..and capped it with 2 pretty bad seasons to end the series.

ER, after Hathaway left. I forget the season. Once she left, the show went off the rails.

Nice to see Julianne has found a great second gig. There's no ER residuals to be had when the show isn't on syndication anywhere.

Heroes, season finale of Season 1
Orphan Black - season 2
True Blood - was it Season 3? I forget when it started to suck

This is a pretty good guide, though I would probably shave a couple of years off for a couple of them.

Once a hit show lasts that long, most of the original people behind the scenes that made the show successful have moved on to better paying jobs. It's the economic reality of television and why long-running shows quickly decline in quality after a certain point.

Parks and Recreation went from being may favourite network show season 2-3 to something I didn't even watch the last season of.
Twin Peaks started getting embarrassing halfway through season 2.
In season three of Father Ted, they started making Ted as stupid as Dougal. Had the show gone on beyond that season, I'm pretty sure it would have continued going downhill.

Parks and Rec stayed consistently great from seasons 2-7.

I think a better question would be, what series for the most part was mostly good through the entire run? (Say a show that lasted more than 3 seasons)

Another thing, especially with comedies, is the tendency for the characters to get stupider and stupider as the years go by. For example, it was a wonder Ross could even tie his own shoes by the end of Friends, and he was a Ph.D.

Suits has really lost its mojo. We might give up on it.

Speaking of Linehan's shows, the fourth season of The IT Crowd was a bit of a disappointment. The series-ending special was pretty good, however.

I thought the start of the season, up to the halfway mark of S2 of Twin Peaks was crappy. Things started getting better to the end.

I agree with the above.

The Shield
Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy had a few weak seasons (specifically the seasons with Adam and The Trio) but none of them were actually bad. Buffy at its worst was still very good.

Sons of Anarchy Season 3
The Office (season 6?) - When Michael Scott Left

Alias had this big finale one year with a big red ball, then the next season dropped off a cliff.

LA Law, when she fell down the elevator shaft. It also retroactively made the entire show unwatchable.

Big love, i'm not sure exactly when, but it went from being a great show to being just awful. Same thing kind of happened with Six Feet Under when the wife disappeared, but then they totally redeemed it at the end.

True blood about the third season or so, but it was still mostly good as long as it stuck to eric-related storylines. Anything else was pretty much garbage.