10 TV Shows That Became Way More Complicated Than They Needed To Be

TV shows usually start out with a relatively simple premise and build from there, but in some extreme cases they can go completely off the rails. It’s not too uncommon for a TV show to abandon its premise. Sometimes the writers find a more interesting direction for the characters, and sometimes a premise simply becomes too stale and predictable. TV shows are often measured by what happens next. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and some shows resort to increasingly outlandish plot lines to keep things running.

Not all drastic plot changes are caused by unforeseen circumstances. Some TV shows have change baked into their premise, and increasing the complexity is all part of the plan. Just because a TV show becomes more complicated, that doesn’t mean it automatically becomes worse. Complications can be great for comedy shows or deepening mysteries, but taking a step back often reveals how far the show has veered off course. These TV shows started out with clear ideas in mind before taking a detour into complex and often confusing new territory.

10
Search Party (2016-2022)

Each season brought a completely new premise

Search Party starts off, as the title implies, with a group of friends searching for a missing person. At the end of the first season, the group kill a private investigator in an altercation, and the next couple of seasons are about the aftermath of this crime. This is strange enough, but the final season of Search Party takes things one step further, as the main character becomes a cult leader. By the series finale, there is no good reason for the show to be called Search Party anymore. Each season is wildly different, but the great chemistry of the cast keeps thing afloat.

9
The Good Place (2016-2020)

Eleanor and her friends became guardians of the cosmic order

The Good Place‘s season 1 finale features a brilliant plot twist, but the reveal that Eleanor and her friends are actually in the Bad Place means the show was forced into uncharted territory. After foiling Michael’s plan, the group eventually team up with him to deceive his demonic bosses. This spins into an adventure taking in the inner workings of the universe, as the group discover how each human soul is evaluated and assigned to their place in the afterlife. Although they start the show as doomed souls, they end it as the arbiters of all human morality for the rest of time.

8
Adventure Time (2010-2018)

Possibly the most complex children’s show ever

Adventure Time is a children’s show that blends sci-fi and fantasy as a boy and his dog journey across a strange land fighting bad guys. The show could easily have sustained multiple seasons off of the premise of Jake and Finn going on fun adventures in Ooo, but Adventure Time reveals more and more layers of mystery as the show progresses. Adventure Time‘s rich lore encompasses the nuclear apocalypse which ended human civilization and irradiated new forms of life, and it peeks into the liminal space between universes with characters like Prismo and the Cosmic Owl.

7
Riverdale (2017-2023)

Archie and friends had to contend with the supernatural

Riverdale is a darker take on the popular characters from the Archie comics, which date back to the Second World War. Those original characters and those that appear in Riverdale don’t have too much in common. The first season is a fairly straightforward murder mystery, but the later seasons of the show introduce more supernatural elements. Time travel, witchcraft and alternate realities. Some of these changes made more sense than others, but some seemed to directly contradict earlier events in the show, making Riverdale one of the most complicated shows on TV.

6
Stranger Things (2016-2025)

The Cold War started creeping in to Hawkins

Netflix’s flagship show was an instant hit, bringing audiences into a small town burgeoning with occult mysteries. There are strange occurrences throughout the entire show, but this isn’t what makes the show so complicated. Stranger Things is set in the 1980s, and the writers decided at some point that their metaphors for Cold War paranoia were too vague, so Hawkins became the site of a secret Soviet laboratory. It didn’t seem as though it was on the cards when the show began, but season 4 sees Hopper in a Siberian Gulag. Stranger Things season 5 could get even weirder.

5
South Park (1997-)

South Park made an ambitious gamble that complicated everything

In its infancy, South Park was a deliriously crude cartoon which took adult animation to more adult places than ever before. The first few seasons featured gross-out comedy and willfully offensive jokes, but the show soon pivoted to political satire as well. South Park‘s shift toward political satire started out well, with some of the show’s best episodes. However, the decision to try and lampoon the 2016 presidential election in real-time almost broke the show. South Park clearly set up its season-long storyline by banking on a win for Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump’s victory forced the show to create a whole new reality.

4
The Flintstones (1960-1966)

A magical green alien came to Bedrock

The Flintstones is one of the simplest shows imaginable. It’s just a family sitcom set in the Stone Age, with Fred facing the same situations that Phil Dunphy from Modern Family or Hal from Malcolm in the Middle might face. At some point, the writers clearly figured out that they had exhausted their supply of Stone Age puns and cute animals-as-home-appliances sight gags. Their solution was to introduce the Great Gazoo, a magical green alien scientist who only Fred and Barney could see. This created an entirely new dynamic and distracted from Fred and Barney’s home lives.

3
Doctor Who (1963-1989, 2005-)

The sci-fi series couldn’t outrun time travel paradoxes forever

Doctor Who is among the longest-running sci-fi TV shows of all time, but it managed to keep things relatively simple for a long time. There was always a lot of deep lore for committed fans who wanted to know about the Time War and the daleks, but this didn’t affect casual viewers very much. Doctor Who‘s introduction of River Song changed all that. River Song’s confusing timeline saw the show become more “timey-wimey,” as the Doctor puts it, than ever before. Suddenly, all fans of the show had to get to grips with timelines running concurrently in different directions across the vastness of space.

2
Hannibal (2013-2015)

Hannibal’s relationship with Will became hard to understand

Based on characters from Thomas Harris’ novels, Hannibal follows a young FBI special agent’s relationship with a forensic psychiatrist who happens to be a cannibalistic serial killer. Dr. Hannibal Lecter toys with Will Graham, trying to see if he can push him toward committing crimes as horrific as his own. This arresting premise gets extremely complex before too long. Will is arrested and sent to a mental hospital, but released when Lecter exonerates him from behind the scenes. From then on, their relationship becomes very unusual, and Will has to question every part of his reality.

1
Lost (2004-2010)

The island held even more mysteries than first appeared

Lost was packed with strange mysteries from its very first episode, as the survivors of a plane crash struggled to understand the peculiarities of their new island home. As well as gradually unfolding these mysteries, Lost also added in plenty of new ones with each new season. The show never explained why pregnant women would pass away after around 100 days on the island, how Walt got his psychic powers, or what was going on with Kate’s horse. Lost provided satisfying answers to some of its biggest riddles, but others were left frustratingly unsolved.