Many popular long-running TV shows with no planned ending meet the fate of a decline in quality as the show goes on. Procedurals are best designed to go on for as long as the creators want, as they can likely keep drawing from real-life cases of medicine, law, etc. to fuel the plot. On the other hand, fictional dramas that carry on indefinitely run the risk of becoming repetitive or stale over time as the audience loses interest in whatever initially made it popular.

On the other hand, some TV shows were only ever meant to have five to eight seasons, but they still got worse each year. They managed to stay on the air due to a dedicated fanbase, but critics and even some fans were forced to admit that by the end, the show was not what it once was. Some of these shows would perhaps have worked better with no more than three seasons, while others were simply ruined by a terrible ending.

10

Supernatural (2005-2020)

Different showrunners and an expanding universe undermined Supernatural’s story.

Supernatural got worse after season 5 in several ways, but the one with the biggest effect was probably the change in showrunners; Eric Kripke’s departure meant a lack of horror influence from there on out. Several more showrunners with different visions came and went in the next 10 seasons of Supernatural, resulting in an inconsistent tone and story. The show also demonstrates problems with a repetitive plot and an increasing number of plot holes. While ratings stayed high in later seasons, audience interest dropped.

Supernatural is a prime example of a show that went on for too long because of what this meant for the world-building. There are only so many different supernatural crime scenarios the Winchesters can happen upon, leading to repetition. This, of course, includes the running joke about how many times they have both died on the show. Additionally, as the world’s lore expanded, it started to contradict itself. The controversial Supernatural finale cemented the conception that the show had been going downhill for years.

9

Riverdale (2017-2023)

Riverdale became a supernatural mess after season 2.

The first two seasons of Riverdale are the best because they constitute a strange but enjoyable teen drama. The comics-derived characters are sleek and outlandish, driving a campy small-town murder mystery. However, around the time of season 3, the show started to contradict itself. The biggest and most disastrous way Riverdale did this was by introducing supernatural elements, completely changing the genre that the show’s audience had become accustomed to.

Magic does not depart from the plot anytime soon but becomes more intertwined with it. Meanwhile, the characters aging out of their teens is also a change from how the show was originally pitched. The characters are inconsistent in other ways: Veronica’s alternating dedication to and rejection of her parents is frustrating, while the couples that the audience rooted for in the beginning are shuffled around in the final seasons. Riverdale might have worked if it had stuck to semi-realistic teen drama, but it tried to incorporate too many things.

8

Heroes (2006-2010)

Heroes’ bad later seasons are notorious in pop culture.

Heroes’ fall from grace has become something of a running joke in pop culture; when discussing how creators have a responsibility to provide a satisfying ending, Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory says “Heroes gradually lowered the quality season by season until we were grateful it ended.” Heroes introduced a brilliant new premise to TV, but the poorly-written characters and unresolved subplots soon overwhelmed it. Season 2 was disrupted by the 2007 WGA strike, and the show never managed to recapture the magic of season 1.

The next Heroes reboot needs to fix the original’s terrible habit of introducing drastic character changes without explanation; the most infamous example of this is Sylar’s unpopular redemption arc. Additionally, a common complaint is that several of the Heroes characters become too powerful for any threat to hold meaning. Heroes: Reborn wasn’t any more successful than its predecessor, inciting skepticism about what Heroes: Eclipsed is hoping to achieve.

7

Game Of Thrones (2011-2019)

Game of Thrones maintained its quality until the last two seasons.

For nearly a decade, Game of Thrones was one of the defining shows of the Golden Age of TV. It introduced a level of world-building a spectacle never before seen on TV; most networks and streaming services would never have considered spending the amount of money on a fantasy show that they do today without Game of Thrones. The political schemes of Westeros’ nobles, the eventual promise of the Night King’s arrival, and Dany’s bid to reclaim the Iron Throne enthralled viewers for six near-flawless seasons.

Things started to trail off around the time of season 6 when the showrunners ran out of source material. Season 7 is decent, but it clearly sets up the plot points that will be the downfall of the series when they come to fruition in season 8. Sure enough, Game of Thrones’ widely hated final season earned its reputation with plot twists that didn’t make sense and character arcs left in ruin. The show’s downward trend started late, but it is still discernible.

6

Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017)

Pretty Little Liars only got more ludicrous with time.

There are a lot of harsh realities of rewatching Pretty Little Liars, illustrative of the fact that it was never an amazing TV show. The ratings possibly go up just after season 1, possibly because reviewers decided to critique the show on its own terms. The entire premise is based on an anonymous stalker threatening to reveal the misdeeds of a group of teenage girls, perpetuating a “reap what you sow” moral. Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna are sympathetic enough that the audience can buy into the idea of “A” being the villain. However, the number of “A’s” throughout the show represents its biggest storytelling problem.

Pretty Little Liars has to retcon one reveal after another to keep the show going, making the story more confusing and implausible. Spencer having a secret twin is a tough sell when there has already been a plot twist centering around someone’s secret parentage in her family. Meanwhile, as the plot gets too complicated, the fact that the show has romanticized problematic relationships from the beginning becomes harder to ignore, when the worst couples all end up together in the end.

5

Lost (2004-2010)

Lost got more confusing with time, and the finale provided no answers.

Lost is one of the TV shows that changed the way people watch TV, due to its run coinciding with the rise of the internet and online forums. Online fan communities corresponded and commented upon different theories like never before, driven by the show’s characteristic mystery. However, Lost proved to be a mystery that could never be solved, which is why it declined over time.

One of Lost’s flaws is that it includes too many different narrative elements by the final season; several different timelines stand in contrast to the understandable linear narrative of the early seasons. With more and more subplots and mysteries, the finale was expected to bear the responsibility of explaining everything all at once. It tries to do this and fails, demonstrating that there was simply too much going on with Lost for there to ever be a satisfactory explanation.

4

Once Upon A Time (2011-2018)

Once Upon a Time ran out of classic fairy tales early on.

Once Upon a Time season 1 relies on a kind of tacky charm. The characters are cringe-worthy in how hopeful and romantic they are, but they are fairy tale characters, so it can be forgiven. The CGI is terrible, but it was before Game of Thrones transformed the TV industry, and there wasn’t much they could do. Yet the initial premise is promising, and it is fun to see how each character translates into the modern world and figure out who everyone is.

However, after the Once Upon a Time season 1 finale ends the original curse storyline much sooner than anyone expected, the show goes off in many strange and unexpected directions. The cheesy writing becomes cloying over time and the writers start bringing in weird new characters. There were not an indefinite number of classic, recognizable fairy tales for the show to use, but they could have expanded older storylines before resorting to Frozen and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

3

Glee (2009-2015)

Glee lost sight of the down-to-earth high school story.

Glee became a much harder show to write when the characters went their separate ways after high school — or in some cases didn’t, marking an even more drastic departure from reality. Glee was always overly dramatic, with awful teenagers and adults who would have been fired from their jobs for one thing or another. However, audiences and critics seemed to buy into this high school musical soap opera for the first half or so of the show.

The over-the-top drama starts to become irritating, casting doubt on whether the past seasons were good to begin with. Glee then asks the viewer to believe that most of the characters all end up in New York City after high school graduation and that two of them would be cast in the same Broadway show before graduating from college — let alone it being one of the most famous Broadway shows ever. The controversial storyline of Rachel quitting Broadway also hurt Glee; when the conclusion finally came, it was a relief to many.

2

The Walking Dead (2010-2022)

The Walking Dead became an endless cycle of violence and survival.

When it first premiered, The Walking Dead took off as an unprecedented show in terms of its violent and gritty tone. It fell into place as one of the shows in the “anyone can be killed” era, alongside Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan. The adaptation of Robert Kirman’s comics was also able to figure out an emotional component about the characters’ complicated relationships and their struggle to hold onto their humanity amid a brutal zombie apocalypse.

The series arguably hit its high point around seasons 3 and 4 when it established that people who had been there from the beginning could die, while new friends and family would be made along the way. However, The Walking Dead eventually falls into a repetitive state of searching for safety, finding a temporary sanctuary, and discovering a new human enemy who proves that humans are the real monsters before the sanctuary is destroyed, and the main group must flee again. The show might have done alright with seasons 5 and 6, but by the time of season 7, this problem was evident.

1

Grey’s Anatomy (2005-Present)

The departure of the original characters meant the loss of Grey’s Anatomy’s charm.

The decline of Grey’s Anatomy did not happen all at once, but gradually as a result of more and more of the original characters leaving the show. Much of the magic of the earlier seasons is derived from Meredith and Derek’s romance and the friendships between the five original interns. While Izzie and George left, new characters came in, beginning new romances and friendships that lived up to the already established ones.

When Derek and Christina both left the show, Alex and Jo’s romance, Alex and Meredith’s friendship, and the relationship of the sisters did a decent job of taking their place. However, eventually, Alex, Maggie, and Meredith would all eventually leave, while almost all the new romances end in divorce. Therefore, like many other shows that have gone on for too long, Grey’s Anatomy fell into a cycle of empty drama that doesn’t capture the audience like it once did.