What shows could and really should have been brilliant but ended up been flops?

the purple tin

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

There was a great show on C4 a few years back called Utopia. Brilliant story, looked amazing, weird, violent, extremely stylish.

C4 went and cancelled it after 2 seasons. Shower of bastards.

Where is Jessica Hyde? (one eyed smilie) :pac:

JasonStatham

Westworld.

And game of thrones.

pickarooney

pickarooney wrote: »

Awake. Series with Jason Isaacs about a guy who has a car accident and ends up in a coma. He then switches between two alternative worlds whenever he falls asleep, one where his wife survived and the other where his fun survived. Nobody knew which was the real reality. After an excellent pilot it disappeared.

I think this is more suitable than naming the most successful shows in history that had a shoddy ending.

Oh that reminds me of this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residue_(TV_series)

Never heard anythign about it after the original release of 3 eps it was really good. had iwan rheon in it

nj27

Fargo was at its best in season one and the new one with Chris Rock looks awful.

Airyfairy12

The last few series of Game of Thrones, it really showed how terrible the writers were when unassisted by George RR Martin. Such a disappointing end to what was almost an iconic series.

Lockheed

nj27 wrote: »

Fargo was at its best in season one and the new one with Chris Rock looks awful.

Every season of fargo since 1 has been sufficiently enjoyable but the performance by Billy Bob Thornton in S1 is physically impossible to be topped. Reckless, cold and calculated, with no regard for anybody around him. Incredible.

breezy1985

micks_address wrote: »

Sense 8 on netflix is amazing... made by the Matrix brothers/sisters... amazing budget you could see the money on the screen... didnt get renewed after season 2 but they did manage to fund a concluding movie length episode which was at least something

Season 1 was excellent when they are just trying to figure out what's going on and how the powers work but got a little bored in season 2 once that was out of the way. Still surprised to see it axed and would have watched more.

The OP was spot on with Space Above and Beyond. Hardly gets a mention even on sci-fi forums and seems to be mostly forgotten but it was brilliant despite the poor CGI of the time and it's a disgrace that it got cut while shows like Andromeda and Farscape got multiple seasons

Hyperbollix

The first series of the walking dead was great and it just declined every season after that. I gave up on it years ago.

I was endlessly waiting for the part when just two characters would have a discussion about why the zombie apocalypse actually happened and for a plot line which might address some big picture idea, like if there was ever going to be a cure or and end to it.

Instead it was just episode after episode, season after season of contrived gang warfare nonsense with comedy Bond villains and lorry loads of all American touchy feely melodrama. It's no different to a soap now. Zero artistic merit, simply a steady wage for series lifers and a vehicle for advertising. The horse has been buried many years ago and still they flog it.

I'd sooner watch Winning Streak than the latest "cliffhanger" season finale.

marcbrophy

TheValeyard wrote: »

Flash Forward.
It deserved another season

Absolutely! I hate the fact that it wasn't finished!

TheValeyard wrote: »

Picard.
Could have been brilliant. Just ended up silly.

The fact that JLP is now

an android

is pretty silly.
But overall, it was great! Can't wait for season 2

Gervais08

This might be controversial but Scorpion.

I loved it and thought it had more to give.

theteal

McGinniesta wrote: »

Brotherhood. The three season were good and I think it was a victim of the writers strike.

Urgh, "hello sailor", still makes me wince with the uncomfortableness of that scene




*I may be remember the quote incorrectly but I will never watch it again to clarify - 2 old people getting jiggy

TheValeyard

TheValeyard wrote: »

Flash Forward.
It deserved another season

Jericho.
It deserved another two seasons

Picard.
Could have been brilliant. Just ended up silly.

How did I forget Picard.

Loved the premise although much of it was quite stupid. The ending could have been epic. I would have loved:

With a romulan fleet surrounding the planet, Hugh arrives in the Artefact and saves Picard et al, maybe with Riker and the fleet in tow. A Borg cube and the Federation Flagship fighting together? Instead we got a warp-enabled turd.

theteal

chrissb8 wrote: »

Game of thrones the last season. Had been dipping in quality in terms of quality, dialogues etc. all fell off after Charles Dance character (Tywin Lannister) was killed.

Then was just a mish mash of sub plots being hacked away and an overall arching main plot that was dumbed down with a dumb ending. Benioff and Weiss should forever be ashamed of how they wrapped the show up. Their laziness and "couldn't be a***d m8" attitude showed so clearly.

Kinda surprised it took so many posts to appear. It's gradual dip of quality was really rammed home with the last season. That last season was so bad it has tarnished the memory of all the good stuff of the early seasons for me. I see talk of spin offs now and I just have not the slightest want to see them.

Hyperbollix

theteal wrote: »

Kinda surprised it took so many posts to appear. It's gradual dip of quality was really rammed home with the last season. That last season was so bad it has tarnished the memory of all the good stuff of the early seasons for me. I see talk of spin offs now and I just have not the slightest want to see them.

GoT was a huge shame. Admittedly they had no more book material to go on, but I can't see how they couldn't have made a better fist of it had they at least their time instead of ramming through the final two seasons in record time. The pace change from the early seasons was very jarring.

To be fair to them though, the genius of GoT was wrapped up in Martin's dialogue and clever plotting. How could a couple of gobshítes like the show runners hope to replicate what takes a writer years of painstaking work.

MonkstownHoop

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Ah, no..

Homeland was quality..

Got much better after Brody was finished

Gervais08

MonkstownHoop wrote: »

Got much better after Brody was finished

It was less romancey and more spy craft

smilerf

the purple tin wrote: »

Reaper.
Great demonic comedy with a good story and some excellent characters (a stroke of genius casting Leland Palmer as Satan).
Alas it was binned after the second series.

loved it unfortunately it was tucked away on the graveyard shift on c4

WrenBoy

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Rome. The 2 seasons were up there with The Sopranos as amazing blockbuster TV, and it paved the way for big budget dramas like Game of Thrones. Was gutted that it wasn't renewed.

Fantastic show, I have it buried in a bin full of DVD's in the attic somewhere, must dig it out when I get home. Thats tonight sorted

Suckit

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Maybe not everyones cup of tea, but I loved Heroes when it originally aired. Years before the glut of superhero stuff after Iron Man came out, first season was pretty slick and had some great parts to it. But then it went all "ohhhh evil corporations and conspiracies" and the wheels fell off (US writers strike didnt help much either).

I think that was a victim of the writers strike for sure. Season 2 was cut short and then it suffered badly. Would love to see a reboot with a different direction taken and season two extended and filled in.

Hell on Wheels was good for the first couple of seasons but then badly went downhill, lost funding and I think at one stage Anson Mount even helped fund it. But at that stage I think the storyline was getting tiresome.

smilerf

Revolution