Ever watched a TV series and thought it too long?

[November]

I would have watched Supernatural for another 15 years. I love soapies, and this did supernatural stuff way better than Passions.

Judging by what's failed since then, maybe the cast wish it would have gone on longer too. Jensen has the best soapy face. I just finished season 7 and I really think that was the cleverest season they did. From there it goes back into Bible fanfic, which is possibly why I love it for eternity.

 

[Cohen]

I think many of us would agree that Supernatural went on for way, way, wayyyyy too long. And this is coming from someone who is a HUGE fan of the series, watched it religiously on air and have all the seasons on DVD.

In my humble opinion, it should have ended with S5. All that said, the ending was perfect.

I need to go back and rewatch the first 5 again

Post automatically merged: Aug 13, 2024

I would have watched Supernatural for another 15 years. I love soapies, and this did supernatural stuff way better than Passions.

Hey passions was IT!! I miss that show and Teresa Lopez-Fitzgerald’s shenanigans SO MUCH.

 

[nightshade]

I see Supernatural and Buffy as similar, Buffy could've easily ended with season 3, season 4 was it's rocky season new characters, location etc, and it found its feet again in season 5. Supernatural had that but season 5 and season 6 and found its feet again in season 7. Both Buffy season 4 and Supernatural season 6 had great moments but were against huge previous seasons and their arcs were a lot weaker than before.

I agree with @November it's more soap-like, than drama, the more a show goes on the bigger and outlandish the storyline can be, but it's comfort tv.

 

[Kendar]

I agree with @November it's more soap-like, than drama, the more a show goes on the bigger and outlandish the storyline can be, but it's comfort tv.

You've actually hit on the biggest problem with CW shows in general. They tend to focus on soap opera style drama, but have a hard time coming up with new ideas. Therefore, characters will make mistakes but never learn from them, so they repeat them in future seasons.... over and over and over again.

 

[November]

You've actually hit on the biggest problem with CW shows in general. They tend to focus on soap opera style drama, but have a hard time coming up with new ideas. Therefore, characters will make mistakes but never learn from them, so they repeat them in future seasons.... over and over and over again.

This is the beauty of it 🤩 and then when it goes on long enough, like Bold, their kids repeat the same mistakes. Just like real life lol. It doesn't matter what fancy or futuristic or scary world we're in, we're all human with human mistakes.

 

[Cohen]

You've actually hit on the biggest problem with CW shows in general. They tend to focus on soap opera style drama, but have a hard time coming up with new ideas. Therefore, characters will make mistakes but never learn from them, so they repeat them in future seasons.... over and over and over again.

The CW execs literally told production of shows to focus on the sex appeal to bring in more viewers. Like they did not care about story. Look at the One Tree Hill WB seasons vs CW seasons. The CW seasons were so much more soap opera-y than the WB seasons. Same with Smallville. And as time went on, Supernatural did the same.

Now, there have been some good CW shows over the years. The 100, iZombie, Nancy Drew and Kung Fu were some later gems. I liked early seasons of Arrow, haven’t finished past 4. Haven’t watched much of the other arrow verse shows, though I did like Batwoman, despite Ruby Rose’s horrid acting.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Re: Borg; SF Debris did a recut of the Battle of 001 where Sisko was present. It's just the Borg looking on in terror as Sam Jackson reads Ezekiel 19:25.

The worst Borg were Picard S2. Apparently, the Confederates were able to sterilize the entire collective and managed to cripple and contain the Queen. Score one for Warhammer?

 

[Plasma]

I need to go back and rewatch the first 5 again

Post automatically merged: Aug 13, 2024

Hey passions was IT!! I miss that show and Teresa Lopez-Fitzgerald’s shenanigans SO MUCH.

I genuinely love how absolutely bonkers Passions is. My parents both watch Young and the Restless.

For comparison, Restless's usual episode is "old people talk about cosmetics company, young people talk about marrying and divorcing and everything, etc."

Passions usual episode was "evil witch with a talking doll torments the town with her various antics"

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks would've been better if they hadn't done whatever nonsense that second season was. People turning into doorknobs, being Revolutionary War heroes, faking deaths so they can come back as Fu Man Chu lookin' characters, sheesh. Season one was so so good and then two happened and solidified this idea that "well it HAS to be weird!" Then Season three came and I legitimately can't describe it to you. It is like Lynch and co. dropped a poster board worth of LSD before writing

Post automatically merged: Aug 17, 2024

The CW execs literally told production of shows to focus on the sex appeal to bring in more viewers. Like they did not care about story. Look at the One Tree Hill WB seasons vs CW seasons. The CW seasons were so much more soap opera-y than the WB seasons. Same with Smallville. And as time went on, Supernatural did the same.

Now, there have been some good CW shows over the years. The 100, iZombie, Nancy Drew and Kung Fu were some later gems. I liked early seasons of Arrow, haven’t finished past 4. Haven’t watched much of the other arrow verse shows, though I did like Batwoman, despite Ruby Rose’s horrid acting.

I feel bad for Batwoman. I feel like that show could've been something without the whole casting switch. The story is good, the character is neat, but both of the actresses just couldn't pull it off.

I've heard Legends of Tomorrow is great after....Season 2? It just leans into weirdness and gets good. Then they did their big Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover which was neat. But, after that it was all downhill for anything that wasn't Legends. Flash used lightsabers, that horrendous "Batman's biological son and co. steal the Batmobile" atrocity, etc.

 

[famicommander]

As far as live action DC Comics shows, let me save you some time.

Doom Patrol
Peacemaker
Stargirl
Black Lightning
Watchmen
Superman and Lois

These are the only ones that are great from beginning to end (Peacemaker and Superman and Lois are still ongoing).

There are many others with some individual great seasons but also some horrible ones (Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, iZombie, Lucifer, etc). Arrow had two decent seasons, then two unbelievably bad seasons, then another good season, then it went back downhill. Flash had one really good season, one okay season, then a long downward slide into some of the worst TV imaginable. Legends started out really bad, but after the midseason crossover of season 2 it finds its voice and gets really fun, but it ends on a cliffhanger and they really cheaped out as the seasons went along. Lucifer had a rough season 3, then a recovery, then a really awful final season on Netflix. iZombie I also thought had a bad final season.

There are more that are just okay (The Flash 1990, Swamp Thing 2019, Krypton, etc). You're not going to feel like you wasted your time watching them, but they're certainly nothing special.

Some are the product of their era (1950s Superman, 1960s Batman, 1970s Wonder Woman). I personally love Batman but if you don't appreciate camp you'll hate it.

The sad truth is the broad majority are just terrible all the way through (Smallville, Gotham, Naomi, Powerless, Lois and Clark, Supergirl, Gotham Knights, etc).

 

[NotASlayer]

Some of those must be at least broadly appealing to at least some of the audience, though; you don't get into 5+ seasons if no-one likes them at all. Heck, you don't get past season one these days; season two can be pushing it. By the looks of older shows, they were often given a couple of seasons to find their feet and quite often needed it; nowadays if something doesn't rake in the numbers from the start, then it is goodbye.

With the superhero shows, I am curious as to whether the ones that are most popular appeal to people who are not fans of the comic books? If you are a fan of something in its original medium, then often the adaptations can be rather lacking.

 

[nightshade]

I liked early seasons of Arrow, haven’t finished past 4. Haven’t watched much of the other arrow verse shows, though I did like Batwoman, despite Ruby Rose’s horrid acting.

I think I got up to season 5, but the bigger issue I had was that they had too many crossovers, so you felt you had to watch all those so the storyline made sense. I watched some of Legend's and Supergirl, but couldn't get into the others.

 

[Cohen]

As far as live action DC Comics shows, let me save you some time.

Doom Patrol
Peacemaker
Stargirl
Black Lightning
Watchmen
Superman and Lois

These are the only ones that are great from beginning to end (Peacemaker and Superman and Lois are still ongoing).

There are many others with some individual great seasons but also some horrible ones (Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, iZombie, Lucifer, etc). Arrow had two decent seasons, then two unbelievably bad seasons, then another good season, then it went back downhill. Flash had one really good season, one okay season, then a long downward slide into some of the worst TV imaginable. Legends started out really bad, but after the midseason crossover of season 2 it finds its voice and gets really fun, but it ends on a cliffhanger and they really cheaped out as the seasons went along. Lucifer had a rough season 3, then a recovery, then a really awful final season on Netflix. iZombie I also thought had a bad final season.

There are more that are just okay (The Flash 1990, Swamp Thing 2019, Krypton, etc). You're not going to feel like you wasted your time watching them, but they're certainly nothing special.

Some are the product of their era (1950s Superman, 1960s Batman, 1970s Wonder Woman). I personally love Batman but if you don't appreciate camp you'll hate it.

The sad truth is the broad majority are just terrible all the way through (Smallville, Gotham, Naomi, Powerless, Lois and Clark, Supergirl, Gotham Knights, etc).

Smallville seasons 1-3 and 7 were good in my book. Season 4 was bonkers, but season 5 has a good arc. Seasons 6 and 8-10 I couldn’t stay interested.

Post automatically merged: Aug 17, 2024

I think I got up to season 5, but the bigger issue I had was that they had too many crossovers, so you felt you had to watch all those so the storyline made sense. I watched some of Legend's and Supergirl, but couldn't get into the others.

I never made it to the crossover episodes. I do have all of Arrow on DVD and final season on bluray. I have 1-6 of Flash, but haven’t made it past 2 (I would buy them on $10 Black Friday deals!)

 

[famicommander]

Smallville seasons 1-3 and 7 were good in my book. Season 4 was bonkers, but season 5 has a good arc. Seasons 6 and 8-10 I couldn’t stay interested.

Post automatically merged: Aug 17, 2024

I never made it to the crossover episodes. I do have all of Arrow on DVD and final season on bluray. I have 1-6 of Flash, but haven’t made it past 2 (I would buy them on $10 Black Friday deals!)

Smallville is probably the worst show on the entire list. Tom Welling is possibly the worst actor to ever lead a multi-season show. Man makes a block of wood like Stephen Amell almost seem like a decent actor (he's not, though). He completely ruined season 3 of Lucifer too.

Smallville basically has all the negative qualities of all the worst Arrowverse seasons without any of the positives. Ludicrously poor writing, poor acting, bad special effects, and most of all it was completely ashamed of the source material.

 

[Plasma]

@Cohen I've been around, just haven't posted in awhile

Post automatically merged: Aug 17, 2024

As far as live action DC Comics shows, let me save you some time.

Doom Patrol
Peacemaker
Stargirl
Black Lightning
Watchmen
Superman and Lois

Watchmen was the biggest surprise to me, honestly. Everything they've tried after Moore's seminal book has been middling-terrible with the exception of that show.

I also love the wordplay they use in it at times. "A God Walks into Abar"

 

[famicommander]

@Cohen I've been around, just haven't posted in awhile

Post automatically merged: Aug 17, 2024

Watchmen was the biggest surprise to me, honestly. Everything they've tried after Moore's seminal book has been middling-terrible with the exception of that show.

I also love the wordplay they use in it at times. "A God Walks into Abar"

It's no coincidence that Watchmen, Doom Patrol, and Peacemaker are HBO shows and Stargirl and Superman and Lois were HBO/CW co-productions. That's the main reason they stand so far above the rest of them. Black Lightning was the only CW-only production that can stand up to the HBO shows.

Too bad Swamp Thing was screwed over by paperwork snafus and Titans ended up sucking. Can't win 'em all.